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

Kornet looks like prime Tyson Chandler out there lol. I’m with Abeer, bring this guy in. C Bags probably try to keep him though with Horford maybe retiring and Porzingis a huge question mark.

 

I like it.
Again, people need to realize Austin isn’t going out for nothing short of an All Star coming back- that’s how much the FO wants to keep him.
I’m fine with going the patient route, but signing a serviceable C for our mid level early in FA.
If we can package Rui and others for a defensive big, I’de be down with that.

 

Porgy is straight garbage. Dude has been way over rated his entire career and hasn’t improved enough to be worth more than a vet minimum.

 

Porzingis isnt great but he is not trash he's been very sick for a few months
He is playing on IV's
Coach Joe Mazzulla said Porzingis "couldn't breathe" and wasn't available for the second half unless it was "absolutely necessary"

 

Warriors best players are too old .. They're done unless Giannis absolutely wants to be a Warrior ( but Curry staying healthy for 4 rounds is very unlikely anyways).

Same situation for the Lakers with Bron

 

Agreed on all of the above. I'd like a defensive wing that can guard POA and hit a 3 and a big thats decent defensively and a lob threat. The third player can be anything really, guard, wing, big.

 

Milwaukee say no, Tatum is worse than Giannis and probably won't be the same guy post Achilles. Either way, Boston can't afford an almost 500m spend on a team - even if they're winning rings. They're ownership can't afford it.

 

Stupid Zinger illness forced them to play Kornet. Was really hoping he would slip under the radar. I've been tracking his advanced metrics for months and they are always eye popping

 

Misuse of Kornet and Kuminga was criminal. Good to know other teams f*** it up as well.

 

Amazing how no one talks about defense with Curry either. No one ever targeted Jordan, Kobe, or Lebron on defense. Hell even a 40 year old Lebron they don't go after.

Same thing happening with Jokic (although his rebounding is outstanding which helps) or his missed FTs

 

I think its different with Curry. I don't think he's a bad defender at his position, but he's only 6'2". He's targeted just because he's the small guy out there more than because he's a bad defender at his position IMO. It's the same thing with Reaves. When he's out there with four power-forward sized guys, he's just the obvious guy to go after. It happens to Derrick White too and he's a very good defender! But when he's out there with Holiday/Brown/Tatum/Horford or Porzingis it just makes sense to attack that guy with your wings.

 

imo, it's not entirely bad because if kornet was cheap, boston could keep him easily. i figured even before this that he was going to fetch full MLE money from someone. i still think that's probably the market.

i've been whining all series about how jokic is getting let off the hook for his defense. i wouldn't mind if everyone wasn't dogpiling on luka. just incredible double standard.

curry's been a pretty substantial minus on defense his whole career (save for like, two seasons), too.

denver and gs built teams around them to make up for it, but that doesn't mean they're not every bit the liability luka is (or moreso).

i think he's targeted because he's small and not particularly quick or strong AND because they want to tire him out. make no mistake, that's why minny targeted doncic in our series. the whole idea was to make him work on that end. again, notice how denver hides jokic with their various schemes. teams don't get to tire him out making him play iso defense on faster players in space--denver simply won't let it happen. so much so that jokic just watched SGA bury them down the stretch in the last game.

 

In one of the biggest shots in NBA history the Cavs purposely had their 6"3' PG iso against Curry. Irving is definitely not big for his position.

 

Yes because the other 4 players on the floor were Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green. That's exactly what I'm saying; Curry is targeted more so because the Warriors typically have 4 good defensive players on the floor next to him than because he is a terrible defender.

 

I'd argue that they build that team to make up for his deficiencies. They couldn't play Ezeli as they had two guys who Lebron had to target which impacted their ability to rebound and set screens

In terms of historical argument this is rarified air of the best of the best, you would have to plan your defense to avoid a guy like Lebron. Teams attack Curry and that needs to be taken into account about overall legacy. Curry's needed some really over the top amount of talent to win relative to other megastars

 

Sounds like Lakers are leaning to keeping AR. If this is the case, I think they could end up doing something like this:

Move 1

Trade Knecht/Vanderbilt/Kleber/2032 1st to Brooklyn for Claxton

Move 2

Trade Rui/Vincent/2031 swap to Portland for Williams/Thybulle, or Rui/Vincent/31 swap for Smart/Bey.

Lakers may lean to trading the 2032 1st instead of 2031, to give them one more swappable pick, and also the further out the pick the more perceived value to an opposing team (further away from Luka's prime).

 

517

Fair enough. I guess my pushback comes from not wanting to criticize small guards just for being small guards, and from wanting to differentiate between guards that are targeted because of their physical limitations and guards that are targeted because they're physically limited but also just suck at/don't care about defense.

I think since 2015 or so Curry has had pretty decent strength for a small guard, actually tries defensively, and has good instincts to play the passing lanes. I think he's only a "bad" defender because he's 6'2". I'm not going to criticize him because he couldn't hold up on switches against LeBron in the Finals. There are like 5 guys since I started watching basketball that I'd be "comfortable" with as a fan defending LeBron in those situations. Kawhi won a Finals MVP because he "limited" LeBron to 28 ppg on 68% TS% in those situations. Contrast that with guys like Young or DLo, who have the physical limitations but also just doesn't care. Those are the guys that I that should be lambasted for it.

I think Curry does what he can within the confines of being a small guard who carries more of an offensive burden than just about anyone. But yeah, he should never be compared to LeBron lol. I didn't realize until recently that there are plenty of Warriors fans that still think Curry vs. LeBron is a debate.

 

but Lebron is still in their top 10-15 All Time most likely.

 

Realistic offseason:

PG: Doncic/Paul/Bronny
SG: Reaves/Goodwin/free agent
SF: Thybulle/Craig/free agent
PF: James/DFS/2nd rd pick
C: Claxton/Williams/Sims