2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

1st Team NO Defense!!!!

-Tony Allen (Probably)

 

Shaq on Wembanyama

 

Absolutely. They were the best players on a team full of superstars. They do benefit from tournaments like these that happen in a short period before a rest, like in the bubble. But it was never because of their play in the court that we haven't succeeded, albeit AD's offensive game can fluctuate at times.

I think people, mostly because of media, overrate the results, when a lot of times they are only outliers. I think to analyze the quality of management you should consider the results, but at the same weight of the strategy, context at the time of key decisions, the rationale behind it and the opportunity cost of such decisions.

Like, we lost consecutively to arguably the best team in the league and the best player. Both times by very thin margins. Raptors won a title after a shot bouncing 3 times!! Had it go out, Kawhi ain't that good and Embiid is not a playoff choker.
Narratives change suddenly in the NBA when a lot of times it's just a small detail that defines it. A timely injury, a suspension, a buzzer beater that changes entirely how a team or a player are perceived. I don't buy this polarization and try to look at things at a larger landscape.

I think we have been trying to assemble the best possible team to maximize Bron and AD's window, with the caveat of not breaking the bank.
2021 team was 21-6, had multiple champions in the squad, two 6MOTY and was likely the strongest contender. AD missed half of the games and went down in the playoffs when we were ahead of Phoenix and they had no answer to him.
2022 was filled with terrible decision making, but Bron and AD wanted Russ. Rob wanted Hield (Kuz confirmed he was heading to Sacramento until a last minute change).
2023 and last year we got eliminated (by very thin margins) by the same team, one that exploits our 2 biggest flaws: POA defender and a bruising center.
On the former, Vando was the guy that we expected to cover that but he wasn't healthy. Then we tried to correct with Gabe, but he wasn't healthy too. You can argue it's a bad decision, but with the info available at the time of the signing, it looked like a good one. Schroder didn't want to be a backup, you can't do nothing about it. We did try to fix it, which is good.

Regarding the center, I think it's overblown. I think we need more a backup center (better than Hayes) per se than a bruising big guy to play AD at the 4. AD will play 35+ minutes and most of them as a center, so it doesn't make sense to invest highly in a guy to play 15 minutes. Yes, we need it to beat Denver (like Minny proved) but that's it. We won't use another center to beat any other team in the West or East (except maybe the same Minny team, but you don't NEED it). Plus, not only AD at the 4 pushes Bron at the 3 which is not good as we know, it also means Rui (and Vando's) role are severely diminished, which is not a good use of resources, considering their payroll weight.

In sum, there was little that could have been done better in the last 5 years. Russ cost us 2 years. Sure the use of exceptions in Nunn and Gabe have blown back and letting Caruso go for THT was embarrassing, but at the time we took those decisions, nobody thought it would turn out like this. I don't think we have been missing at clear opportunities to upgrade the roster, when you acknowledge that we don't want to lose key assets for what's ahead


tl;dr: I think results are overrated in analyzing a GM/team job and in the past years the management have been trying to assemble the best team to compete, while prioritizing the future. We haven't been missing in any big swings doing so and we are still paying the Russ disaster

 

Shaq likes to call himself the most dominant ever (hence the question he was posed).
I take dominance as: no matter you try to do, the player finds a way to be consistently effective and compounds great numbers every time, especially when is needed.

I think Shaq was unguardable, but you could still foul him and live with it.
Hot take: Jokic has a very good case on being the most dominant ever.

 

Wanna bet? Or was it /s?

 

Oh Kareem is serious .... he's seen the error of his mean ways last season and is a true believer now.

 

I was going to ROFL on that, but I am already the “ Debbie downer”, the buzz kill and the party pooper and the negative Nelly here .

 

Naw man you've reformed. "One day at a time" Buddy .... you won't be like that just today. Remember this up on the wall:

God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference

 

We start the season with our playoff lineup, the one everyone was clamoring for. We should be OK for the first month. They just needed better coaching I heard.

 

it's the ceiling for most mid-1st round picks, tbh. decent chance backup journeyman is what jaquez and whitmore end up, too!

has shaq just not watched hoops since he retired?

 

the lineup i wanted was dlo/reaves/vando/lebron/AD. rui instead of vando is a bad defensive unit.

i really hope max or knecht impresses enough to start at the 3 and keep rui as a bench player. he's more effective there, imo.

 

Fixed it!

 

yep, usually like Shaq but this take is missing the boat, ......... heck, he is missing the island, ......... the whole dang continent. If Wemby stays healthy, I suspect he is going to rewrite the record book.

 

lol, i hadn't seen that one yet. guy is totally impossible. only injuries can stop him.

 

Exactly.

 

Phil Handys farewell

 

Rob cut off his main source of leaks. I guess the Westbrook video incident, put him on the suspect list, and the players wanting him to take over for Ham leak, did him in.

Snitches get stitches.