Brogdon is playing okay but is Portland extremely happy that Rob Williams only played in 6 games before being shut down for the season? It does make sense from the perspective that the Blazers are happy to tank this season.
Thus far, it looks like PDX has sent Lillard, Nurkic, Johnson, and Little and received:
Agree with many of the examples, but Smart has been awful -- maybe it doesn't matter due to other injuries, but definitely not a win-win. In re the Suns, hard to breakdown given a 3 way deal and Grayson A has been pretty decent for them. And I know Ayton is unreliable, but Nurkic seems to me a big part of the reason the Suns are underperforming. 48% shooting for a big man is poor, just 27% from 3 after being 36% the previous year (granted that might have been an outlier year given his career stats). The Suns have plenty of offense, but Nurkic is a slug defensively who doesn't offer enough rim protection -- that's been a bane for the Suns.
OT games are relatively rare (around 6%) to where a teams starters have to play 40+ minutes the night prior. Not every B2B is like last night game. I suspect the result may not have been good for the Celtics regardless the way the Bucks were dialed in last night. They came out treating this like a G7 on both ends.
Admittedly most of my general news comes from the Lowe Post but I haven't heard anything that PHO is regretting trading Ayton. Also, getting Grayson Allen in that trade has been a real plus for PHO has Allen has been the biggest non-Big 3 bright spot on the team. https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2024/1/11/24032514/grayson-allen-has-been-a-saving-grace-for-the-suns
Thanks for the summary. That is an impressive haul. Portland fans may be unhappy that they do not have a competitive team now but there is certainly hope for the future.
The OT didn't help, but I'm hesitant to let the NBA off the hook without noting that last night was Boston's 5th game in 7 days. It was a recipe for a bad national TV game even without the OT the night before.
They also played Indiana twice, the timberwolves and OKC.. besides the Bucks.. it’s a ridiculous gauntlet for any team.
For Russell and a pick or what? Reaves too? The Lakers don’t really have that much to offer.
I'm surprised it's only Murray rumors.
Murray is signed at 3.5 years for reasonable money, i expect Atlanta to wait unless someone really blows them away. I don't know if the Lakers have enough for that (the Hawks gave up 3 1st round picks for him just 18 months ago).
The way they rebuilt their team on the fly last year didn't help their expectations, but none of the players they added midseason last year (Hachimura, Bamba, Russell, Beasley, Vanderbilt) are anywhere near as valuable as Murray (or Lavine). We'll see.
That’s not really an NBA scheduling thing though. The Bucks were expected to be good but the other 3 teams were low end playoff teams - perhaps not even a playoff team in Indy’s case
Lavine may have the worst contract in the league. Chicago should be stoked if they could turn him into Rui, Russell, and Vincent.
That may be true, but the Bulls don't know it (or aren't willing to admit it). He's signed for 2 years after this, Chicago doesn't have to jump to get rid of him (and if it's that negative of a contract, it will increase in value as we get closer to the end). If he could be had for some combination of Lakers role players not including Reaves, it would have already happened.
I mean there is a very real chance that the Lakers wouldn’t even offer that. Paying that much to Lavine for the next 3 years is no good.
What's the rush to deal from their end though? Nice little run aside, they're still 3 games under .500 and years away from contention. Of course they don't want to pay for Lavine, but his contract isn't what's keeping them from being relevant. His market is quiet now, but if Siakam and Murray are moved I would expect someone to take a shot on Lavine, still in his prime. If it's just a salary dump, they can wait until the summer rather than just exchanging one terrible contract for several mediocre ones now.
No Embiid and Maxey shot 6-17. Sixers were just 2-7 entering today in games without Embiid, that's a rough loss for a solid playoff team.
But still drops 15 in the last 6 minutes with Caruso hounding him. Warriors manage to not gack up a big lead, for once.
There's only one person who can make good...but he doesn't roll that way
From my seat I see not having Draymond out there has aged Steph 5 years. At least when he was out at first they had Paul initiating.....now Steph is out there by himself without anyone getting him the ball in his spots.
Yea, he's having to do all the heavy lifting, plus he's played 36/38 games.
That's great to hear.
They really battled to win the 3rd by 7, had it down to 14 points, and then gacked the 4th completely. 8-38 from three. Woof.
In related news, 3 Italian restaurants in the Greater DC area closed their doors today.
Yeah, the Wizards become the team on record that traded them and will not be allowed to resign them.
Joe didn't seem to be a big Muscala fan first time around, if minutes played are any indication.
Soft, slow and shooting poorly. Aside from that he's looked good.
Exactly. He was a great teammate while he was here. That would be the only reason to bring him back. There are other contenders who could use him.
I feel bad for the people in the league office who have to do work to process this transaction.
