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

Also LOL Dallas with the no. 1 pick. The west is going to be BRUTAL.

DEN - retooled around Joker & Gordon
OKC - another year of experience and maybe add another piece?
MIN - another year of experience
HOU - another year of experience and maybe KD
SAS - will they add Giannis?
DAL - AD, Flagg, Kyrie and their bigs
GSW - retool around Butler and the Chef
LAL - retooled around Luka and LeBron

I think the Clippers should blow it up, but Balmer won’t do that, so they’ll retool and make another run at it.

Memphis should also blow it up, they’ve got nothing for the top 8 imo. But maybe they’ll try to go around for another go.

NOP will definitely blow it up, Zion should be available, I could see whoever misses on KD and Giannis going for him in the west.

SAC will blow it up, Sabonis should be available and some of their younger guys.

PHX should also blow it up and send Booker out East to Brooklyn or something.

Not sure what POR and UTA are going to do, one seems to be on the way up while UTA hasn’t bottomed out yet.

 

Do you guys think its worth for us to try to get one of these better players on these tanking teams? (Zion, Sabonis, Markkanen?, etc)

 

I don’t know if Sacramento will ever do it but I would love to try to get Sabonis. He is basically Jokic-lite and I think his skill set along with Luka’s (and LeBron’s) would result in incredible team chemistry.

He would likely cost us both Reaves and Knect to start, future picks as well

 

Sabonis is the worst big to pair with Luka. Two defensive issues together doesn't work. Luka needs a long threat, rim protecter type

 

ah, now the luka trade makes sense. the league isn't even hiding the fact that they rig the lottery anymore

 

It's so crazy. I have 0 doubts this is rigged. Even Spurs with another top4 pick to give Wemby a supporting cast, after they get the #1 in Wemby year out of nowhere.

 

Tatum looked great, Knicks coming back from 14 down in the 3rd...Knicks steal it: fast break: bucket: I'm thrilled. Then they say Tatum was hurt, writhing in pain. They cut to it. I thought, "He wasn't really involved all that much in that play...so WTF?" Then they re-played the sequence: we've seen it before: the achilles: so obvious. I knew it immediately and will be very surprised if the diagnosis goes any other way, which we'll find out tomorrow. When you've seen these before - and most of us have - it has all the hallmarks of a torn or ruptured achilles. Man, that is some rough jit for an NBA player. Dude had 42 and was keeping his team in it. Damn...

That's so effed up for Tatum. And the Bags. Bad way to go out, but hey: we saw it with Kobe. In April 2013, against the Warriors. I remember where I was. He got up, hit both FTs, was helped off the court. He looked pissed he was hurt. Surgery the next day, then played the following December. Every guy rehabs this injury in their own way. Klay tore his ACL, rehabbed it, came back, then tore his achilles, and didn't play again for what? 940 days?

I think the Bags were 8-2 w/o Tatum this year. They can force a Game 6, but I don't see them advancing. Which, as a hardcore Bags-hater, I'm glad. But I take no joy in Tatum going out like that. Jayson is an all-time competitor.

It's lookin' Knicks/Pacers when I would've bet it was gonna be Cavs/Bags in the ECF. This is a weird-azzed playoff year, man.

And yea: the GSW are cooked. As they should be. Even if Steph's okay in MIN, I don't think they're as good as the T-Wolves. No effing way does this GSW team come back from down 3-1, in which, historically, you have a 4% chance to comeback from.

I think MIN gives OKC a rough time. Maybe even they win the WCF. The way MIN played us, I thought they looked good enough to win it. And to look at AR/Bron/Luka; Steph, and now Tatum: ya gotta add: "barring significant injuries."

 

Isaiah Thomas says hello and …. Oh about that “monster” BAG you thought you had …..

 

Dame, now Jason, Luka with the nagging calf injury, the entire rash of achilles injuries …. maybe it’s the ever so popular “step back”? Who’d a thunk the 3 Ball was “possibly” the culprit?

 

Jokes aside, the lottery is broken and last nights result just drives home how hard it is to build your team that way.

 

i still think there was zero chance of a dynasty there, simply because horford is so critical to what they do and he's old. same with holiday, who has been incredible defensively for them these playoffs. guys that age can't just keep doing this forever, and like us with lebron, there's no way to replace them nor trade them for their replacement (though boston would try, lol).

boston owns their own pick next year. be curious to see how they slash costs. the obvious move is zinger, but which teams have space? how much of that space are they willing to sacrifice for a guy who's hurt all the time and is best slotted as a sixth man?

yeah, at that point, you'd have remake the entire rest of the roster with long athletic types, including a shotblocking 4 who can shoot threes, which is a tall order...

as jsm has suggested, if sac cleans house, i want to pick at the remains, with keon ellis being the prime target.

 

I wonder, is Dallas going to make a run for Giannis? Something like Flagg, PJ, Klay, Martin and one of the firsts from OKC or US for Giannis and Tyler Smith?

Their roster would be:

Kyrie / Dinwiddie
Christie / Exum
Giannis / Marshall
AD /
Lively / Gafford

They need some guard help while Kyrie is out. I’m wondering if they could be enticed to swap Lively and Christie (with Hardy going for salary matching purposes) for Reaves & Knecht.

It allows them to have a PG while Kyrie is out and some shooting to go with their bigs in Knecht. Reaves slots into the SG spot when Kyrie is back. They’d probably ask for a first as well, I wonder if we could entice them with swaps?

Our roster would look like:

Luka / Gabe / Bronny
Christie / Goodwin
Rui / DFS
Lebron / Vando
Lively / Kleber

I’m wondering if we could get upgrade the SF spot with our first and expirings?

Could we also swing enough of a saving to open up the MLE for a backup big like Adams?

 

i mean, the whole point of the lottery to discourage tanking. the mavs didn't tank at all. they cynic might say it's because they knew the fix was in, regardless, but if that's true, wouldn't other execs have figured this out by now? like, once it's been fixed for you (*cough* SA, NO, CLE *cough*), does it really just stay under wraps until the grave? this is the main reason i don't believe it's rigged. also, as others have said, wouldn't this one be particularly on the nose? like, RIGHT AFTER the luka trade they get the first overall pick in a draft with an obvious #1?

btw, if the lotto is fixed, why hasn't the nba done charlotte a solid? man, they get screwed all the time! why always favor SA (who again got a gift)?

anyway, back to the main point--i think teams jumping/falling is a feature, not a bug. in that sense, the lottery is not broken but rather functioning exactly as planned--help teams that were worse off, but not necessarily rewarding the very worst for being especially putrid.

 

i know there's rampant speculation that dallas will do this, but i can't see it. you just got gifted a foundational piece for at least 8 years (if you don't go and trade that again!). kyrie is missing half of next year, minimum, and who knows what he will look like upon return. my guess is they split the difference between my suggestion (blow it all up and keep only flagg) and yours (double down on the present and move flagg for giannis). which would look something like trading washington and gafford for a dynamic back court player and trying to compete now without giving up on the future.

 

I thought Boston might try to get rid of Porzingis and Jrue this year. Keep their White, Brown, Tatum core with Horford and some of their bench.

But as you said it’s a tall task to get rid of KP. So now I’m thinking, maybe Horford retires or goes to ring chase elsewhere and they trade Brown.

Browns good enough to get them into the playoffs with that team but they’re a first or second round exit at best when they get there. But they’ll be paying 200 million in tax to do that.

If they trade Brown, maybe they can get a young player for the future, and picks. While tanking for a high pick themselves.

 

Even with Flagg, do they consider Reaves that backcourt dynamic player? That’s a lot of defence and bigs to go with very little creation. They’re really lopsided.

EDIT: but then again, they probably win a ring with Giannis and AD.

 

yeah, and it would be pretty on-brand for boston to break up tatum/brown in this fashion, tbh. it's probably smart but not at all sentimental. and i know everyone says there's no room for sentiment in sports management, but i'd argue we got AD and they didn't because sentiment entered our equation with kobe and didn't enter theirs with pierce/kg/allen nor isaiah thomas.

 

well, their gm's token line is "defense wins championships", so it would be hard to swallow going with a reaves/irving/thompson backcourt, right?

i still think they look to move washington and/or gafford for backcourt help in the form of a dynamic playmaking guard. i think i mentioned sexton as likely available, but my guess is they'd aim a little higher than that.

as for winning a ring with giannis/AD...i'm not positive. add in that neither wants to play center, and you're looking at a packed paint on offense. i don't think AD/giannis is a good fit. now, AD for giannis makes a lot of sense for dallas. this would be hilarious, as milwaukee could have had luka instead, but they are in a position where they actually need to compete right now (don't own any picks). is anyone going to offer a better win-now player than AD, if that's the route milwaukee goes?

 

It’s funny that this time around, it’s the checks they wrote that pushed them into a corner incidentally.

But it’s totally on brand. I could see them go for Sabonis and save 10m and get a first. Maybe then they trade Jrue to a contender for a young player and a pick. See if they can get anything for an expiring KP.