I follow Trae closely, of course - or as closely as I can from the UK - but don't see much if any of Doncic. Bill Simmons remains pretty convinced that Atlanta made the wrong choice, and that Doncic has the ceiling of winning multiple MVPs, whereas Trae doesn't. I don't think Simmons is alone, but what do you guys think? Is Trae plus Cam Reddish worth giving up Luka?
This is a fun little "what would you do as Pritchard?" scenario. Obviously either Sabonis or Turner on their current contracts are significant positive assets, but you have to move one to have any chance of maximizing this window. The problem is that the thing you need most is the thing everyone else wants and no one wants to give up (talented wings). I honestly don't have great ideas. Someone like Atlanta seems like a natural trading partner, but not sure Indy really wants anything that the Hawks have.
It's like rooting for the Nets pick all over again. Except we don't get the Nets pick. I pulled for them the last few years and loved what Marks and Atkinson did in building up that team. No more,no more...
Agreed, it's just a fun exercise. Not making any predictions here
[throws garbage all over the ground]
Yea, we pretty much-kicked garbage cans over each other's lawns.
We do have their 2nd round pick, assuming they're not worse than the Knicks. So there's that little sweetener.
It's a lot easier to feel good rooting for Sacramento this season. Who, btw, just owned Western Conference Finalists, the fightin' Dames, last night. Yet another supermax deal may be turning tragic for roster depth.
I don't see Dame's deal as the culprit here (unlike the Wall super-maximum pain deal)
It kicks in next year, and is probably the reason that they let Aminu walk. Whiteside is a simple "we need a C with Nurkic out" move, and since he is expiring he won't be on the books when Dame's deal kicks in. Leonard and Harkless for Whiteside isn't the major problem.
Toronto is scary. They definitely deserve to be mentioned in the top of the East: I'm not sure that, with this version of Siakam, Brogdon-less MIL is better than them. The Celtics are lucky that they have a lot of good defensive wings to throw at Siakam, but those are going to be really tough games.
You've got to give Toronto's coaching and player development guys some credit for all of this. I'm impressed by how they've moved on from Kawhi.
I'm 99.5% certain that's not a regular stroopwaffle, but an energy waffle.
Sure he could, he did 36.1 last year... but the record's 50.3. Wilt happened.
Agreed, very impressive. Masai has been the best GM over the last couple of seasons
good work
I just don't know if NO would bite on that because Turner isn't enough of an offensive player and NO doesn't really have much offense outside of Ingram. They trade him for Turner and their number 1 is Jrue Holiday.
Would New Orleans give up on Jaxon Hayes so quickly after drafting him though? Pairing him with Sabonis/Turner just recreates the problem Indiana has now with two traditional centers on the court at the same time, and throw in Zion and you’ve got real spacing problems. I think Ingram, especially if his growth is real (or if it’s an effect from moving away from Luke Walton), is a better fit with Zion than either Indy big men.
it's worth debating for fun, fake trades have a less than 1% chance of happening
Porzingis, and his brother, spent the better part of his NY career trying to get traded away which is another black eye for this franchise.
Its strange to boo the kid for wanting to get away from Dolan and Phil Jackson.
Their offense isn't all that fine to be honest, it's middle of the pack overall and TURRIBLE when Lillard isn't on the floor. Think this is as simple as there not being any one player available (for vet min, they have no money) that was going to fix the defense, so get a more dependable scorer at the swing forward position. IF Melo is putting in effort he's probably not much if any worse on D than the guys they play now, and he's probably still a decent offensive upgrade. I don't think he fixes that team at all, but for the vet minimum he probably improves them some while they try to hold on
Yes and yes. And the former comparison isn't valid because both Bird and Doncic are caucasian. Its because each of them could both run the offense while being the main scorer and each of them possess a high level of basketball IQ while also getting the most out of their abilities.
