LeBron and Philly?

[mauf]

You think they'd trade wall for ball kuzma and a horrible contract?
I don't know man, maybe, but ball upside is sub wall at least in any sensible horizon, kuzma can't play defense and Deng well yeah.

I mean maybe, but it seems low.

Doing that for Kawhi is pretty nuts to me.

I'm not sure as I said previously how people view ball and kuzma but the later I think is not as highly thought of as NBA Twitter and Reddit etc imo. Esp to a team like the Spurs.

The Lakers owe Deng about $37mm over the next 2 years. The Wizards owe John Wall about $188mm over the next 5 years, including $131mm after he turns 30.

I think the Zards would jump at the chance to swap those two contracts, roll the dice on Lonzo Ball, and add a rotation guy (Kuzma) who will be cheap for the next 3 years. Maybe I’m wrong.

Edit: And if you don’t like Kuzma, you could staple him to a couple expiring contracts (Markieff, Gortat) and get a veteran who fits well with Ball, Beal, and Porter — but I think you let those expiring guys walk, muddle through the next year or two, and make a big play in free agency in 2020.

 

[LondonSox]

You think that the fans would deal with that move?

It's an interesting idea, most of the true supermax contracts are brutal without a raising cap. I know I wouldn't want wall on one. So I see the appeal, tough sell though

 

[mauf]

You think that the fans would deal with that move?

It's an interesting idea, most of the true supermax contracts are brutal without a raising cap. I know I wouldn't want wall on one. So I see the appeal, tough sell though

The fans who don’t understand the supermax also don’t know that Ball is overrated — they’re getting the #2 pick in last year’s draft who is probably one of the 5 most talked-about players on ESPN.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

I'm not sure they would be a worse team with Ball and Kuzma.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

The fans who don’t understand the supermax also don’t know that Ball is overrated — they’re getting the #2 pick in last year’s draft who is probably one of the 5 most talked-about players on ESPN.

It's an easy sell to casuals because Kuzma is pretty high profile too.

 

[mauf]

I'm not sure they would be a worse team with Ball and Kuzma.

I think they’d roughly match the 43 wins they got this year, compared to the 48-50 wins they’ll get if they stand pat and Wall is healthy.

 

[the moops]

I can't see WAS taking Deng. They already have 50 million over 3 years tied up Mahinmi's awful deal. Can't see them taking on more dead money. If anything I see them looking to move on from Otto Porter. Maybe call up BRK and see if they still want him

 

[PedroKsBambino]

I can't imagine the Wizards doing that deal, nor should they. While i'm not all that optimistic about their chances, Wall is a much more valuable asset.

The proposed deal is not unlike the Cavs end of the Kyrie trade (except the team losing the better player also has to eat the worst contract). Think there's many Cavs fans feeling good about that one?

 

[Cesar Crespo]

I can't imagine the Wizards doing that deal, nor should they. While i'm not all that optimistic about their chances, Wall is a much more valuable asset.

The proposed deal is not unlike the Cavs end of the Kyrie trade (except the team losing the better player also has to eat the worst contract). Think there's many Cavs fans feeling good about that one?

People said the same thing about the George and Butler trades, which it is closer to resembling. The Kyrie deal is nothing like it, as they got 2 vets, a mid to late first round talent in Ante, and a lottery pick. The Wiz would be getting back 2 young players in Kuzma and Ball, not Crowder and IT4. Whether they would do it or not is a question, but it's not like the Cavs return.

 

[PedroKsBambino]

People said the same thing about the George and Butler trades, which it is closer to resembling. The Kyrie deal is nothing like it, as they got 2 vets, a mid to late first round talent in Ante, and a lottery pick. The Wiz would be getting back 2 young players in Kuzma and Ball, not Crowder and IT4. Whether they would do it or not is a question, but it's not like the Cavs return.

I don't think whether they would do it is much of a question, but perhaps some of the Wiz fans will chime in.

To me, the Kyrie trade was a transcendent PG for a high lottery pick at core (just like this proposal), with the supporting parts being fit to the timeframe of the acquiring team--Kuzma is young for what would be a developing team, IT a theoretical impact guy and Crowder a rotation guy short-term for a contending team's plan. Zizic was not a significant piece of it. Obviously, the Deng contract is a huge differentiator as I noted originally

I agree there is also similarlity to the Butler deal, though all the pieces are less interesting there, imo.

I was somewhat a defender of the George trade, fwiw, in that I saw upside and a cost-controlled (though not clearly good) contract with Oladipo. The difference there is Indy was much more focused on cost-control than any of these other deals

 

[mauf]

The proposed deal is not unlike the Cavs end of the Kyrie trade (except the team losing the better player also has to eat the worst contract). Think there's many Cavs fans feeling good about that one?

Except the Zards wouldn’t be acquiring an injured player; to the contrary, they’d be sending out the player with the biggest injury concern.

Of course you don’t do this if you think Ball’s a bust. I don’t think many NBA folks think he’s likely to be a bust, but his shooting problems are definitely a concern. I think there’s reason to believe those problems are fixable (meaning he’ll rediscover the stroke he had at UCLA and hit enough 3s to keep defenses honest, not that he’ll ever be an elite shooter). Besides the shooting problems, he had a good rookie year — his court vision was as good as advertised, and his defense was surprisingly good. I can understand getting scared off by the shooting, though, because his ceiling is quite low if he’s actually a sub-60% FT shooter whom defenses can disregard at the 3-point line.

 

[PedroKsBambino]

Except the Zards wouldn’t be acquiring an injured player; to the contrary, they’d be sending out the player with the biggest injury concern.

Of course you don’t do this if you think Ball’s a bust. I don’t think many NBA folks think he’s likely to be a bust, but his shooting problems are definitely a concern. I think there’s reason to believe those problems are fixable (meaning he’ll rediscover the stroke he had at UCLA and hit enough 3s to keep defenses honest, not that he’ll ever be an elite shooter). Besides the shooting problems, he had a good rookie year — his court vision was as good as advertised, and his defense was surprisingly good. I can understand getting scared off by the shooting, though, because his ceiling is quite low if he’s actually a sub-60% FT shooter whom defenses can disregard at the 3-point line.

But they'd be eating Deng's deal too. From the Wiz perspective here, you lose your best player, eat one of the worst contracts in the league, and do so to a fair degree in order to hope that Ball is one day as good as Wall. They also have less use for Kuzma than many teams, with Porter and Beal there (though too many good wings is not really a problem---just means the incremental value there is less than for some teams and of course you can have Porter play the 4, etc).

The bottom line is you don't do the deal unless you think Wall is done---or you're nearly certain Ball is going to be a top-15 player in the league. Unless you think one of those things it's just a crazy deal.

 

[lovegtm]

But they'd be eating Deng's deal too. From the Wiz perspective here, you lose your best player, eat one of the worst contracts in the league, and do so to a fair degree in order to hope that Ball is one day as good as Wall. They also have less use for Kuzma than many teams, with Porter and Beal there (though too many good wings is not really a problem---just means the incremental value there is less than for some teams and of course you can have Porter play the 4, etc).

The bottom line is you don't do the deal unless you think Wall is done---or you're nearly certain Ball is going to be a top-15 player in the league. Unless you think one of those things it's just a crazy deal.

Deng's contract is only one of the worst in the league in the sense that it's 2 years of nothing for $37M. That's bad, but not franchise-killing by any means.

If John Wall starts to decline or continues to have injury issues, that contract would set a franchise back for years.