2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

This platform recognizes twitter.com, but the new links that are provided from the social media platform are x.com. If you take the time to switch the X to Twitter in the link, they will show up.

*edit, just saw the boss post. I think I have the same issue from my mobile actually.

 

using this link, as an example, all I did was change the x In x.com out to the word twitter, and the link is now embedded

 

SMH..people are talking like Trae Young, is some kind of scrub or something. No..he is NOT. I question the durability of the little dude, with that much money invested in him to boot. His game however, would be electric with James and Davis IMO. That's a P&R nightmare scenario with AD,

I like Mitchell more, but he's not been exactly an Ironman himself lately. Rob might have something totally different up his sleeve than either tho..we'll see.

 

i was looking up okc's picks, and if i read correctly, they have 5 in next year's draft--basically none of them project to be lotto. i'm sure they'd love to trade giddey and some of those for an upgrade, but nobody will bite on that on garbage.

5 non-lotto picks in the same year. brilliance.

 

Maybe Danny Ainge will bite

 

Jason Tatum

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-on-top-15-contract-to-make-conference-finals

Employing the NBA's highest-paid players was not a formula for success during the 2023-24 season.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert was the only player among the NBA's 15 highest-paid players to advance to the conference finals.


There is an amusing irony to that stat, given many would have pegged Gobert's as being the worst contract on that list coming into this season.

Instead, Gobert returned to form to win his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award and played a pivotal role in Minnesota's Game 7 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday. Gobert made four of his five shots—including a turnaround jumper—in the fourth quarter as the Wolves roared back from a 20-point deficit to earn a 98-90 win over the defending champs.

It's a bit jarring to see so many superstar-caliber veterans failing to make a deep run into the playoffs, with the 2024 postseason perhaps being the formal dawning of a new era.

 

VanVleet on that Top 15 contracts list is hilarious

 

the next generation has taken over

guys like lebron, curry, and KD aren't winning titles anymore

 

For this season. I don't think any Western Conference Champion, has even made it back to the Conference Finals, in the following season, since GS with KD. The West is brutal.

 

it's pretty evenly balanced and very few wc teams are tanking. if we weren't the laker, i'd say right now would be the time to tank and rebuild, tbh. but we can't really do that.

phx, gs, the clips, and maybe NO and sac should be seriously considering just bottoming out if any of their upcoming picks are protected, imo.

but i just looked and basically all of phx's outgoing picks are fully unprotected. yipes. good thing the owner has deep pockets...

golden state won't do it, but they're great tanking position--they have most of their picks going forward.

only the clips' 29 pick is protected (top 3).

so...yeah...lots of teams are going to be going all-in to win over the next three years in the west.

 

The arms race never stops in the West. This is why I feel like, we must try to upgrade our roster. It doesn't really have to be a homerun trade, but man, Rob had better nail down, some absolute killer, small moves. If not.

 

We thought the new generation had arrived and the 2000s guys were done when the Thunder beat us/the Spurs/the Mavs in 2012, then the Spurs made the next two Finals and won one. If LeBron and AD are still Top 10-15 players in the world next season there's still some chance if we can make the right moves with the rest of the roster.

The West has a lot of very good teams, not sure if there are any truly great ones that would/should deter us for trying to meaningfully improve for next year. The Wolves are awesome but Conley and Gobert are really important to that team and they're getting a bit old. I think Denver will be the same or worse. I think the Mavs will be the same or worse (compared to their post-deadline team, which was great). I don't know about OKC, filling out the edges around an awesome young core is exactly the part that Presti struggled with last time. The Clippers and Suns will probably be the same or worse. Memphis will be back but they're frauds. The Rockets and Spurs should be better, but better probably means out of the playoffs to play-in.

All that to say, I don't think the rest of the West has made us obsolete just yet. But we need to bat close to 1.000 this off-season. We can't afford a zero from our MLE spot like Nunn and Gabe. We can't miss on most of our minimum signings like we did in 2021-2022.

 

Good for AD to make it. HIs next coach didn't vote him on either team too

 

What Bam is doing that AD isn't
This Heat culture b******* it's ridiculous

 

Yep! Even if all our defensive players where close to peak, things could have been very different.

 

What about the legs race?