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NBA 2023-24 Off Season


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3 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

I think Milwaukee, like many teams that have been to the mountaintop, decided to shake things up to try to get back there. I personally would not be enamored to get a guy on the downslope of his career that is being paid as much as he is, but perhaps it will convince Giannis to stay. Lillard can score, but to this point in his career it has mostly been in meaningless games. Milwaukee had to try something. If it doesn’t work out they just go back to being the Milwaukee that Richard Jefferson was once pissed to be traded to because it was considered a backwater destination to have to live in. 

If it doesn't work out, they will get a ransom in picks and young players when they trade Giannis to Houston.

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17 hours ago, d2o said:

Meh, to be fair Bud should have been fired years ago.  Winning the title just made them have to keep him.   Trading one guy isnt some major overhaul.   I LOVE Jrue but he was supposed to be a stopper.   Jimmy Butler took his soul and then he couldnt score at all.   Dame aint gonna defend like Jrue but he aint gonna ever not be able to score.

Pick swaps are MASSIVELY overrated.   They dont mean shit when barring a MASSIVE disaster the Bucks wont be near the lottery anytime soon.   And if worse comes to worse they can always trade Giannis and recoup quite a few picks.  I know the swaps are a relatively new thing but when has one panned out to allow a team that is very good take some bottom feeder team's pick?

Should Bud have been fired? I’ll give you he was bad in the bubble even given all its weirdness, but they won the title the next year. Middleton got hurt the following year. And then Giannis got hurt last year. I don’t see how any of that is on him.  Beyond that he’s had the best record in the conference multiple times and that team went from wtf to 60 wins and immediately contending as soon as he took over. 

Regarding swaps, I think the jury is still out on their value. We don’t have a large enough sample size and the theoretically most valuable ones are way down the line. Boston did manage to get Jason Tatum with one. 

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8 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Should Bud have been fired? I’ll give you he was bad in the bubble even given all its weirdness, but they won the title the next year. Middleton got hurt the following year. And then Giannis got hurt last year. I don’t see how any of that is on him.  Beyond that he’s had the best record in the conference multiple times and that team went from wtf to 60 wins and immediately contending as soon as he took over. 

Regarding swaps, I think the jury is still out on their value. We don’t have a large enough sample size and the theoretically most valuable ones are way down the line. Boston did manage to get Jason Tatum with one. 

He was on the hot seat the yr they won and likely would have been fired if they hadnt.   Winning a title is very hard.   The fact they didnt win another title is not his fault with the injuries.   The fact that they flamed out spectacularly earlier than they should have was definitely his fault.   His lack of an actual system or plays were terrible.   His inability to make adjustments over the course of a series was displayed over and over.   He is a very good reg season coach.    That was apparent even in ATL.   He just plain stinks in the playoffs.

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51 minutes ago, d2o said:

He was on the hot seat the yr they won and likely would have been fired if they hadnt.   Winning a title is very hard.   The fact they didnt win another title is not his fault with the injuries.   The fact that they flamed out spectacularly earlier than they should have was definitely his fault.   His lack of an actual system or plays were terrible.   His inability to make adjustments over the course of a series was displayed over and over.   He is a very good reg season coach.    That was apparent even in ATL.   He just plain stinks in the playoffs.

We're just going to have to disagree on this one. I can't pin the Miami series loss on him last year when Giannis missed three games and then went 10/23 from the line in the series finale that they lost in overtime. And Miami was certainly not your typical 8 seed. They went on to beat Boston and go to the finals. I can't put the year before on him without Middleton when they took the Celtics to game 7. The Celtics went on to the finals. 

I'm also not buying what you are saying about a lack of a system and plays. Bud can coach. He built an entire offense in Atlanta around Kyle fucking Korver and took them to 60 wins and the Eastern Conference Finals. The rest of that team was Al Horford, Paul Milsap, and Jeff Teague. Not exactly the 1992 dream team. Now, the defensive adjustments he made (or didn't) in the Miami series last year certainly deserve to be scrutinized. But again, nobody is winning shit when your best player and league MVP misses 3 games. Not his fault.

In fairness, I am admittedly biased because I know the guy personally so I could be way off, but I think he got scapegoated for the injuries and Giannis flat out choking. Giannis made some comments that he should have been switched on to Butler in the Miami series, which is fair. So that probably had something to do Bud getting fired. You lose the star and you're done. But still, make your fucking free throws at a better than 50% clip and stop blaming the coach.

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6 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

So phoenix obviously has headliner trio but man they are small especially if Durant is the starting 4.

Nurkic hasn’t come close playing a full season in his career. Are they by going to get bullied by bigger teams?

Well yes they’ll get bullied by bigger teams. Jokic will abuse them, but he does that to everyone. Phoenix has to stay healthy and have Durant lead them. As much as I do not enjoy watching Chris Paul play, he was the leader they needed because no one else on that roster was capable of doing it. I am not entirely certain Durant wants that responsibility. Booker absolutely wants no part of leading. 

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50 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

Well yes they’ll get bullied by bigger teams. Jokic will abuse them, but he does that to everyone. Phoenix has to stay healthy and have Durant lead them. As much as I do not enjoy watching Chris Paul play, he was the leader they needed because no one else on that roster was capable of doing it. I am not entirely certain Durant wants that responsibility. Booker absolutely wants no part of leading. 

This here.   A greatly under-reported angle in the Suns roster build

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Really good article with some background the relationship between Dame and the POR GM Cronin.

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10091305-inside-the-messy-divorce-between-damian-lillard-and-portland-trail-blazers

In the Sept. 5 meeting, Cronin conveyed that if he was forced to do a deal with Miami, he had every intention of going after every attractable asset. Lillard knew then he was unlikely to end up in Miami.

Lillard then said if a deal couldn't be worked out with the Heat, he would prefer to rescind his trade request and return to the Trail Blazers.

Cronin's response to the seven-time All-Star was that there was no coming back.

Lillard was shocked, sources said. He said it was discouraging to hear he couldn't return, but added that he didn't want to be somewhere he wasn't wanted, and he ended the meeting.

Lillard was still hopeful a deal with the Heat was within reach. However, he had to face the realization that he might not be moved.

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Well yes they’ll get bullied by bigger teams. Jokic will abuse them, but he does that to everyone. Phoenix has to stay healthy and have Durant lead them. As much as I do not enjoy watching Chris Paul play, he was the leader they needed because no one else on that roster was capable of doing it. I am not entirely certain Durant wants that responsibility. Booker absolutely wants no part of leading. 

There’s 2 other guys on Denver bigger than Durant tho too. Considerably bigger.
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https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38520462/former-spurs-guard-joshua-primo-suspended-4-games-conduct
 

I always know that no matter how laughable things have been for the Purple and Gold over  most of the last decade that I can still count on the JV team to go and do something like this. He has zero business playing basketball.

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So phoenix obviously has headliner trio but man they are small especially if Durant is the starting 4.

Nurkic hasn’t come close playing a full season in his career. Are they by going to get bullied by bigger teams?
Yes. They are counting on being able to outscore everyone, which requires their big 3 stay healthy.

Good luck.
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9 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38520462/former-spurs-guard-joshua-primo-suspended-4-games-conduct
 

I always know that no matter how laughable things have been for the Purple and Gold over  most of the last decade that I can still count on the JV team to go and do something like this. He has zero business playing basketball.

Just wait until they sign Kevin Porter midseason!

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That ends up being about right for trading Lillard. Those two first round picks being pushed down to 2029 kind of hurts their timeline on a rebuild around anyone currently on the roster. If they're really all in on the tank, they should be taking offers on Ayton and trying to get some picks in 2025-2027. Mavericks?

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38 minutes ago, SilasCoade said:

That ends up being about right for trading Lillard. Those two first round picks being pushed down to 2029 kind of hurts their timeline on a rebuild around anyone currently on the roster. If they're really all in on the tank, they should be taking offers on Ayton and trying to get some picks in 2025-2027. Mavericks?

A starting front court of Ayton and Williams in today's NBA sounds pretty tank suitable to me.

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3 hours ago, HtownHorn said:

Portland doing some good work. They should be able to get more draft capital for Brodgon. They are going to be an interesting team.

yeah. they could flip both Brogdon and Timelord honestly and get more picks.   I could see contending teams looking to add either of them.  POR has done good work.

This was a very unfortunate byproduct of getting Dame for MIL though.   Having Jrue come right back to BOS is less than ideal.   BOS manages to make up for losing Smart.   They were done with Brogdon anyway but losing Timelord is gonna hurt a little bit.

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43 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

Jesus christ. Are people really going all in on Boston again? Tatum and Brown are never winning shit together but somehow they always are the favorites.

This year is definitely the year, until it’s not. Being a fan of the main rival of THOSE GUYS, yes I am good with every year ending like this for them. If the Purple and Gold aren’t getting to 18 then a successful year is them not achieving that either. 

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Kawhi is upset that the NBA is potentially mocking him

Quote

"I'm not a guy that's sitting down because I'm doing load management -- well, when I was with the Raptors, it was different; like, I was coming [off] an injury," he said. "And you have to know the details from the doctor.

"But if the league is seeing or trying to mock what I did with the Raptors, they should stop because I was injured during that whole year. But other than that, if I'm able to play, I'll play basketball. I work out every day in the summertime to play the game. So, no league policy is helping me to play more games."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38549589/kawhi-leonard-new-rest-rules-no-league-policy-helping-play-more

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49 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

Jesus christ. Are people really going all in on Boston again? Tatum and Brown are never winning shit together but somehow they always are the favorites.

I don't know if I'd go that far. They were one Steph Curry not going berserk game away from winning it all two years ago.

But it does feel like everyone else has taken huge steps to try to get better, while they're just banking on one of those two guys reaching a ceiling that may be unattainable for them.

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12 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

I don't know if I'd go that far. They were one Steph Curry not going berserk game away from winning it all two years ago.

But it does feel like everyone else has taken huge steps to try to get better, while they're just banking on one of those two guys reaching a ceiling that may be unattainable for them.

Once Jaylen Brown learns to dribble, they’re golden.

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1 hour ago, Michael Knight said:
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"It's a matter of, if you're going to trip on somebody; a lot of my injuries last year, I stepped on someone's foot or ran into somebody," Leonard said. "You've got to control what you can control and get the treatments that you can and listen to your body, keep moving and see what happens."

Yes... listen to your body. And your gravy training uncle, too. 

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