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

Honestly though, a hypothetically healthy Isaac solves almost all of our problems. Just a defensive menace and a good lob threat that has shown he can hit the 3 on occasion.

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I'm at the point where I really want to shake things up and get more athletic.

• Reaves (14m) & Gabe (11.5m) for Isaac (15m), Goga (8.3m) and a 1st
• Vando (11.6m), Shake (3m) & 2 firsts for Herb Jones (14m)
• Resign Lebron (46m) & DFS (13m) for longer deals at less per year
• NAW via the MLE

Luka (46m) / Goodwin (2.35m) / Bronny (1.95m)
NAW (14.1m) / Knecht (4m)
Herb Jones (14m) / DFS (13m) / Vet Min (2m)
Lebron (46m) / Rui (18.3m)
Goga (8.3m) / Isaac (15m) / Kleber (11m)

We add alot of size and athleticism in NAW (6'5), Herb (6'8), Isaac (6'11) and Goga (6'11).

We've got a really strong defender at every spot in Goodwin, NAW, Herb, DFS, Isaac & Goga. We've got some good shooting from Luka, NAW, Knecht, DFS, Rui, Lebron.

I think the biggest issue with this team is how many of these guys can become consistent 2 way players?

• Luka is transcendent on offence so he gets a pass on D.
• Goodwin is a hustle guy with defence but was his shooting just a fluke over 25 odd games for us?
• NAW is a good two way, that needs to shoot better in the playoffs.
• Knecht needs to develop on defence to go with his offensive potential.
• Is Herb Jones a credible 40% shooter like he showed last season or is he actually just a 33% shooter to go with his perimeter defence?
• Dorian is a good two way, but is he slowing down?
• Does Lebron have the energy to play both ways, will his shoot be hot or cold next season?
• Is Rui going to improve his defence to go with his stellar shooting? Can he improve his 3pt volume?
  
• Can Kleber get healthy and find his shot again?
• Can Goga and Isaac be credible lob threats for Luka?

I also think once Lebron leaves, this is a credible team for Luka to make some impact moving forward, lots of athletic defenders and shooters for him to make stuff happen. It's also a good core age wise for him in Goodwin, NAW, Knecht, Herb, Rui, Goga & Isaac. Just needs to find another running mate for him in a few years.

 

Thank you Scott Foster and that's not a sarcasm . Draymond fouled out

 

Go bert didn't play bad 11 rebounds,9 points and 5 blocks.Other than last game vs Lakers when JJ played Vince Gobert isn't doing something different

 

could be some Drake or Barkley put big money on GSW +5.5 Minnesota won ,but didn't cover the spread.You never know these days

 

It reminds me a little bit of the Lakers - Rockets series after Yao went down .
.
Wolves might lose the series because they aren't the 09 Lakers.

I'm seeing two scenarios

Wolves in 5 or Warriors in 7 .

 

warriors play better defense than us. this keeps you in games. this is a good chunk of the reason this series is closer than ours (though, not much, tbh--the wolves just blew us out at the end like denver did, which was supposed to be dlo's fault).

i will say that minny's defense should probably allow even fewer points than they did with steph out, though, as the warriors' offense was pretty non-existent without him all year. that's probably some slippage in effort and execution.

 

Reaves is would never get traded for such a weak return.

 

Isaac is a bigger, better version of Vando but he also can't do much offensively, makes twice as much money and misses even more games. I'm not taking a chance on Isaac at his price point.

Suggs is the guy on the Magic I want, and someone I'd be willing to move Reaves for. I think there's a Reaves + matching salary for Suggs + Goga trade that makes a lot of sense for both teams.

 

i think because suggs's contract is about to jump, it gets tricky? though maybe because it jumps next year, it's ok? if that's true, getting him AND goga requires a lot of outgoing salary, which is tricky.

aside from that, i think they view him as a cornerstone piece along with wagner and banchero. now, they do have some long term salary considerations because banchero is due for a big payday after next year. also, anthony black will eventually need to be paid as well.

anyway, orlando interests me as a trading partner, as we could use one of carter/goga or one of suggs/black.

honestly, we could probably use cole anthony, too.

to get a suggs/black level player, reaves would have to be outgoing. but combinations of the others might be possible using expirings/knecht/firsts.

goga/anthony for kleber/gabe/knecht might be of interest to them? i'd love it, tbh:

reaves/anthony
luka/goodwin/bronny
rui/DFS
bron/vando
goga/hayes

we'd still have the tpmle to get another bench player, too.

 

Yeah Suggs' contract kicks in now so he's making $35 million (but it descends by a couple million every year). Reaves/Gabe/Dalton/Kleber for Suggs/Goga works in the trade machine.

I'm sure they view Suggs as a core piece and a big part of their culture, but that's exactly how our front office views Austin. I think it helps both teams on the court (we could really use Suggs' POA defense and dirty-mentality, and he's a decent offensive player too; Magic have a ton of size and defense but desperately need playmaking/shooting in the backcourt) but it would hurt both teams to see their guy go, which means its a good trade.

 

Our FO ain’t trading Austin for Suggs and others.
They’ve already publicly stated that he’s worth an All Star talent coming back.

 

This makes me feel really out of touch. I don’t know who Herb Jones is, but you’re ready to give up two pretty solid players and two first round picks for him. Makes me feel pretty clueless if this is actually a good deal. I don’t even know that I know anything about Herb Jones. But I think you reserve two first round picks for All-Stars and game changers. Is he that guy?

 

Jones is a top 5 perimeter defender who shot 40 percent from the 3pt line last year. COnsidering the Lakers picks are unlikely to be lottery picks it's not a bad move IMO

 

In 2023-2024 Herb Jones was 1st team All-Defense, fifth in DPOY voting, and shot over 40% from three. When he’s right, I think he’s one of the very best role players and the league and I’d definitely trade two firsts for him considering we’re sending out Vando, who’s probably negative value on his contract right now, and Shake who is a zero.

 

danger with jones is he missed a good chunk of last year and his stats when he played weren't strong.

interestingly, despite the uptick in three point shooting, his offensive metrics are down there with vando's, so buyer beware.

 

Great post, and great points regarding the shooting and defense concerns for some of these guys. I was wondering the same thing about Herb Jones's shooting. After seeing Goodwin return to his old self offensively, it got me wondering about guys like Herb Jones too. Herb is 6-8 though and is very athletic. Dorian is a concern to me. I like his intangibles, but he is clearly on the downside of his career. He is not a starter anymore, nor 6th man. So we got to be careful what we pay our 7th man.

 

yeah, he definitely didn't help in the playoffs as much as i'd hoped. i wonder if we'll be able to get that salary down a bit in exchange for more years. like, will he go for 4/40? he's 32 years old. i'm not even sure i want to do that, but we can't afford him just walking, either. wonder if we offer 2/30 or 4/40 declining or something.