Off-day Sacrilegious Poll: Who would you trade Tatum for?

Which NBA star(s) would you trade Jayson Tatum for?


  • Total voters
    242

lovegtm

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Apr 30, 2013
11,996
Jokic and Doncic are it for me. Jokic has been covered. Doncic gives your offense a high floor in the playoffs, something I suspect will become increasingly important -- especially when you get it from a single max player -- moving forward.

My guess is the de facto hard cap is going to increase the viability of heliocentric offenses. Building around a single max player who can drive efficient offense will become a more effective roster construction strategy.
Interesting...my guess is that it will become more viable to build around 1-dimensional/defensively limited scorers as your secondary guy, in the way Dallas could/should have with Brunson (not that limited, but he's a small guard).

Eschewing a secondary creator entirely is just too tough when defenses can load to the primary guy.
 

Auger34

used to be tbb
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Apr 23, 2010
9,271
It's funny that there hasn't been a peep about the reigning MVP in this discussion.

I wonder if we ran this exercise back the other way, how many teams would refuse to trade their star player for Tatum right now? I think the list would be surprisingly high. Of the names above (not including the "Other" box), I could see all teams outside of OKC and LAL refusing to swap, for various reasons.

Booker belongs on the main ballot and not in the "Other" category. He has more trade value than most of the guys there.

I'd go:
1. Jokic
2. Tatum and Giannis in some order, depending on how much you're in GFIN mode
3. Booker (similar age and offensive output to Tatum; not as well-rounded but just came off a pretty awesome postseason run).
4. Wemby (too many unknowns, too much downside risk to be higher than 4 now)
5. Doncic (could still theoretically be the best player on this list in a few years if he commits to playing league-average defense)
6. SGA
7. Embiid (fragile, conditioning, etc)
8. The awesome-but-old-or-super-fragile-guys: Steph, AD, Butler and Lebron, probably in that order.
I think this is right.

IMO, I have him a little above Giannis but it’s insanely close.

Not looking to get into a debate but I think it’s slightly crazy to say you wouldn’t trade Tatum for Jokic.
 

Euclis20

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Aug 3, 2004
8,014
Imaginationland
Listen, I know I would be winded doing that workout but…..he seems like he’s struggling late there. Not exactly what I would expect from a pro athlete
It's neither here nor there because offseason workout videos are worth exactly jack shit (I hope we get some clips of Simmons hitting 3s playing against random YMCA guys, it's been a year or two), but as far as we know that's the end of a long workout, and he's winded from far more than running up a few dozen steps.

I think this board is going to be fairly unique in preferring Tatum over Doncic, but I'm ok with that.
 

Jimbodandy

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Jan 31, 2006
11,403
around the way
I think this board is going to be fairly unique in preferring Tatum over Doncic, but I'm ok with that.
Yeah ignoring either poor defense or poor offensive inefficiency has been a thing for a million years. Like there's a cave drawing somewhere of a guy who went for 40 rocks and 5 sticks but didn't cover his man, who carried his team to victory with only 28 rocks but stellar defense.
 

NomarsFool

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Dec 21, 2001
8,157
I said yes for Doncic, just because if he ever would decide to play defense, his upside is higher. He's still only 24 years old.
 

the moops

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Jan 19, 2016
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Listen, I know I would be winded doing that workout but…..he seems like he’s struggling late there. Not exactly what I would expect from a pro athlete
Oh GTFO with this.We have no idea whether he is winded or not or what the workout was. Doncic may not be top 50% or worse NBA athlete but he is in better shape and more an athlete than 99% of the population.
 

lars10

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Jul 31, 2007
11,612
I said yes for Doncic, just because if he ever would decide to play defense, his upside is higher. He's still only 24 years old.
If Doncic ever decides to put in the effort into playing defense.. it would seem like he'd have less energy for his offensive production.
 

BigSoxFan

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May 31, 2007
47,084
I was surprised to see that Luka is only a career 74% FT shooter. Not even 34% from 3.
 

Just a bit outside

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Apr 6, 2011
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Monument, CO
I wonder what the cross section of people that chose Luka and people that want the Celtics to play with more pace. I didn’t vote for Luka because I don’t like watching him play. I’m amazed 2-3 times a game and bored watching him control the ball for the rest.
 

TomRicardo

rusty cohlebone
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Feb 6, 2006
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Row 14

BigSoxFan

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May 31, 2007
47,084
If Luka played League Average Defense which he is capable of, he would definitely have a chance at the MVP.

I mean he is in the group of about ten players that have a chance:

Jokic
Embiid
Giannis

Tatum
Luka
SGA

Curry
Durant
Davis

LeBron (if he announces it is last year).

Booker would need to play his way into this group before he got it.
Ja Morant as well, if he weren’t so determined to throw his career away
 

Auger34

used to be tbb
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Apr 23, 2010
9,271
Oh GTFO with this.We have no idea whether he is winded or not or what the workout was. Doncic may not be top 50% or worse NBA athlete but he is in better shape and more an athlete than 99% of the population.
Fair point on the workout. It could have been at the end of a long workout or what the workout was.

As far as the next sentence, you can get the fuck out because I never once implied he was less of an athlete than the population. In fact, I actually recognized in the exact post you quoted that he was a pro athlete which is why I was surprised he looked winded doing stairs (IMO)