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

Rinse…Wash…Repeat.
What a waste.

 

Morant (hip) is considered week-to-week and doesn't have a specific timetable for his return, the team announced Saturday.
I want 40 points blowout.

 

This team doesn’t have the killer instinct to destroy someone by 40.

 

JJ will find it

 

It takes the team’s best players to display it on the court.
In a regular season game, LeBron is too old to want to do it(for preservation reasons that I agree with) and AD is too chill.
No mamba mentality in either.
That being said, I absolutely LOVE what AD has been doing.

 

curious to see how phx does without durant. he was a worldbeater for the first 9 games. we're the only team that beat them.

new orleans has sputtered to start, and i believe they own their own pick and have milwaukee's in this draft. if you're NO, do you see if someone's willing to give you something for zion? feel like there are still teams that will do it, but you can't wait much longer. you can bottom out this year and maybe get two lotto picks now, some unprotected future picks, etc. they should be in firesale mode, imo.

on the flip side, zion's 24 and is under contract at below super max for four more years. it ain't happening in NO--which team near contention moves some picks and expiring salary for him? we'd be a candidate if he were a guard, imo. he's a terrible fit with lebron and AD, though.

 

Injuries are one a new level this year. DAMN.

Also their best player a lean undersized guard. not comparing the two cause Ja is one of the most athletic players to ever play but the Grizz understand very well how to make it work with plays, style and lineups to prop up that kind of small guard.

 

Valanciunas just makes the most sense asset wise. Lopez requires giving up too much salary.

You can do a straight swap for Gabe + draft compensation. But I'd prefer to extend it a bit. Something like Jonas + Johnny Davis (expiring) for Gabe, JHS, Wood + draft compensation. That way we clear a roster spot and save a couple million.

 

I already know when Durant is going to come back
Nov 26
22:00 ET Lakers @ PHO

 

LOL hurt again from one of his high flying shot (?) attempts. Coming down awkwardly from high up anyway.

 

We need another center, and I think we all know this, but I'm not excited about Jonas or Brook. However, Jonas's salary is a lot easier to trade for because of the cost and gives us room for flexibility to make other moves.

Rui's shooting lights out from the three-point line right now. His finishing around the rim sucks, but hopefully that improves. Cam Johnson is lights out from the corners, he's a good athlete, but Rui is on a better contract and makes Cam redundant, IMO.

As always, there will be sellers at the trade deadline. As much as I want the roster upgraded, we'll just have to wait until December 15 to see how the team is doing (which players can increase their value) and what is available, IMO.

 

Three names popped up in my mind: Nick Richards (already linked to him), Clint Capela, and Nikola Vucevic.

 

yeah, i think a lot depends on what happens in the next 10-15 games. around the 20 game mark, teams start to figure out how the season is going to go, and trade season opens up on 12/15, which is a few games later.

looking at the schedule, the chalk would have us at like, 9-6 over the next 15. if we do that well or better (15-10 record or better), we're in good position. if we're worse than that, we may find ourselves looking at some of the more dramatic options.

but yeah, right now i really don't know how to feel about things.

 

Honestly, because he can never stay healthy due to not being able to lose enough weight(just my opinion), I would never entertain the thought of trading for him. I’m not rooting for it to happen, but I won’t be surprised to see him out of the League before he reaches his 28th Birthday.

 

Watching Hayes get abused by Yabusele solidified my desire to get a real backup big sooner than later.

 

Very interesting
It means that load management is BS in Capital letters

The 57-page report emphasized the fluctuation between star players missing games. Between the 1990s to today, the average number of games missed per season by those defined as star players rose considerably. In the ‘90s, it was 10.6 games. In the 2020s, it’s 23.9 games.”

Claiming basketball in the 1990s has any bearing on today’s game is incredulous and misses the critical issue the modern player faces– an ever-increasing load.

The league average pace has leveled off at around 100 possessions per game. This will help tremendously in keeping players' total load down as it puts a cap on how much ground they have to cover. The bad news is the growth in 3PAr has no real end in sight. Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, 3PAr settled in at around 39% of shots, but that figure has ballooned to 41.8% this season and it doesn’t appear the sport has found the upper limit for 3-point volume.

In reality, load management is about keeping star players’ physical loads in line with historical norms. The human body can only handle so much before it breaks. As long as the load continues to rise the management will as well. Until the NBA actually tries to combat the core causes of ever-increasing loads, star players will continue to rest, continue to break, and the same idiots will complain with the same tired points.

 

According to the linear forecast, it’s estimated that teams on average covered 1,282.5 miles in the 1979-80 season and that figure would hold steady for the next 15 seasons. In fact, the slight blip in the mid-90s coincides with the relative explosion in 3-pointers due to moving the 3-point line in. If we take those figures with a grain of salt, it isn’t until the mid-2000s that we’re consistently above 1,300 miles, and following the 2012-13 season, we see a massive explosion in distance traveled as pace and 3PAr spike. It took 34 years, from 1979-80 to 2013-14, for the league average distance traveled to grow 100 miles, but it only took five seasons to grow its next 100 miles. The load on players is coming fast and furious, and star players are bearing the brunt.

 

I like Cam Johnson as a replacement for Rui because he is a much better three-point shooter than Rui (sure Rui is shooting a good percentage, but his volume is still too low). Johnson shoots 39.2% from 3-point range for his career (3.1 3PM/8.0 3PA) compared to Rui (1.3 3PM/3.6 3PA). Johnson is also a better defender (career 116 defensive rating, 0.0 DBPM, 1.5 Steal %) compared to Rui (career 120 defensive rating, -2.2 DBPM, 1.0 Steal%). Unlike Johnson, Rui is a better three-level scorer and rebounder though, but I am prioritizing defense and shooting. Rui passes up on too many wide-open threes in favor of less efficient shots, like mid-rangers or post-ups. Lakers could do something like Dlo/JHS/Wood for Johnson/Wilson. I would also see if we could get a shooting/defensive shooting guard/and or center type for Rui/filler as an upgrade to Reddish.