2019/20 Players' Transactions: Breaking News , Trades, Free Agents, And Rumors

At this point I feel like people are dug in so hard on either side of this there is almost no winning. We’re lamenting that the offseason is lost because of one report in February. If we sign PG this summer I feel like some here won’t even be able to be happy now lol. It’ll be more like “yeah, well they made these grand promises, damn right they better have delivered”, instead of enjoying what would be an incredible moment for the team that all sides here seem to want. Can we not back off the ledge here for a bit at least? Trade deadline isn’t even passed yet, the offseason is so far away, so many things can happen to influence decisions, we are not out of the running for a star.

 

They did. And it worked.

Our current crop is outperforming any year that Russell was here. So they're already doing more than him. No I'm not, because we're better now than we were then.

Or a 20 ppg Center? Talk about cherrypicking your stat. Russell was traded for three reasons you just don't want to hear them all because you're focused on the cap space. We've had this discussion before and I proved to you that the quote at the time was about everything else that came with the trade as much as the cap space.

I didn't mean to accuse you directly, but you responded with Russell defense. I think it was fab who came through with the Russell comment and I've seen it on other sites and social media especially. I just don't understand the love for that kid. That was my main point and I stand by it. I too am okay with trading youngsters if we get an All-Star, but that's because I think the kids we have are worth that. I don't think Russell was/is and I don't think he's likely to rebuild that value any time soon. I also am happy he's not around because he was a knucklehead and the kids we have now are far more suited for long-term success (focus, drive, effort, etc).

I don't know what Russell's tenure with us has to do with Lonzo. Not all injuries are created equal. Russell just had surgery to repair loose debris in his knee. That's a really bad sign for a young kid. Lonzo is just a wimpy guy who needs to bulk up.

And again, no for a lot of reasons. First of all, Ball is a much better player than D'Angelo. Secondly, we don't need that anymore due to the freedom we gained after the Russell/Mozgov deal. Thirdly, we're in a different place than we were a year ago in terms of the talent we have and the success we've had. Russell wasn't leading us to this point. Could he? Maybe, but would you bet on that?

My other main point from the beginning is: we're better now. You and I agreed that we should have traded Clarkson/Randle/28th for George and maybe we were right and maybe we were wrong, but if George had lead Ingram/Ball to 35 wins at this point in the season I would hope that fans weren't watching Clarkson/Randle in Indiana and pining for them back when we've got freaking Paul George and are at 35 wins. Right now we're ahead of where we were last year by a long, long way so why are we looking back at D'Angelo Russell?

 

I’m sorry, I don’t want to argue this Russ stuff at all, but you lost me with your first statement here. Huh? This current crop has us at a better record sooner in the season than we’ve been at in years. And they’re doing something Russ didn’t, play defense. Yeah, he could score, and he makes some nice passes, but that’s pretty much where it ended.

Your second statement above, Ball is well liked by his teammates, so I don’t think the Lakers look to “dump” him. Russ clearly wasn’t, fair or not, which has been pretty evident ever since he was traded. Magic also made really strong comments about needing leadership here when Russ was traded and Ball was drafted. He didn’t come out and flat out diss Russ, but the message was still pretty clear, he wasn’t wanted here for on and off court reasons. I do actually believe in the culture change and think Ball is a good part of it (with Kuzma and Hart clearly also being so), so I still think this was a good trade in the end. As much as I’ve hated on Lopez he’s won us some games as well, where Mozgov most likely would have cost us games, if he even played.

 

Not really that easy. If you can’t land a star and you go the multi-year route, you CAN find success if you’re lucky and get an Isaiah Thomas or a Paul Millsap, but you can also end up with Allen Crabbe or Greg Monroe. Or, even worse case you end up with Mozgov and Deng. I’ll take 1 year KCP’s and Lopez’s over those other 2. My thinking with changing the plan is you have to stop going for free agents and trade for a star eventually. Eventually if we aren’t getting it done that’s what you have to do. If for example a situation like the PG one this summer arises again you get that deal done, you trade an Ingram and a pick if you have to in order to land a star and at least have a chance to try and retain them.

 

Holy crap that's real. What in the hell is happening here?

edit:


Jesus. C'mon Magic.

 

What the hell? Dude isn’t even a free agent til 2021, what are we doing? Magic, shut up man, damn.

 

Okay I went and found the article.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...tetokuonmpo-take-milwaukee-bucks-championship

Basically he was effusively praising Giannis and he's not allowed to do that as a the President of another team. I figured it'd be something like this, but it's just oversight from Magic. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bucks asked for this from the NBA and considered the praise a threat to Giannis staying in Milwaukee long-term, but if you read what Magic said it was all about Giannis in Milwaukee. I don't think anyone could construe it as attempted recruitment, just absent praise but he can't talk about other team's players.

Just a dumb oversight from Magic.