2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

A bit, yes, but he’s still projected to be a late First Round pick in mocks. Mara’s been climbing up as of late. I suspect what’ll happen is Mara winds up being a late Lottery pick by the Bulls. The same could also happen with Krivas, depending on how things shake out from here.

Either way, I still stand by my previous suggestions for the Lakers finding a way to get another pick earlier in the draft in order to secure either Mara or Krivas, and have our #25 pick to acquire another prospect for depth.

 

Trust at some point in the playoffs the Lakers will need these young guys to contribute even if it’s for a quick 5 minute stretch.

 

This Peterson kid looks like Jordan to me. Now I see what everyone was talking about. Jordan athleticism Kobe athleticism. He looks like Jordan looked at Carolina. The athleticism and the ability to get the shot up so quick. Quick release. I love a quick release. He can score in bunches. He shoots the s*** out of the ball. Wherever he goes he’s making 15 all stars. Wherever he goes he’s turning that team completely around.

Effortless scorer. When he gets his defense at a top level. Where talking top 5 player in the league. It’s not even close he’s the unquestioned number 1 pick. just put him at 2 guard and get out of the way. I hear a hard worker. And humble kid.

I seen it Jordan Kobe LeBron. Lebron was so big a pure point guard. This kid is a bucket maker. And I see it Warriors will get the number 1 pick and pick him number 1 book it.

 

Whenever you have the combination of athleticism and shooting that’s incredible. Usually you tell the athletes to work on the shooting. He can shoot and jump through the gym. And he has a great handle and ability to put it on the floor. That’s Peterson.

 

This is a great post LT. Keep it up.

 

the 65 game rule is very stupid and has clearly done nothing to deter tanking

 

it was to deter players from taking 20-25 games off a year.

 

yeah, it sucks that the cutoff is arbitrary, but i think it's to prevent someone like younger embiid/kawhi from dominating for 48 games and resting the other 34. there's money attached to those all-nba honors, and the league wants the supermax going to guys who have put a**** in seats. i get it.

the surprising drawback is actually for competitive balance, as if a guy misses a cutoff by a bit, he gets paid less, and his team actually benefits from that in the form of paying a lower max for a better player. so, ironically, it could force bad actions by teams, which is probably what the players association is thinking right now.

that's obviously not happening with cade (nor giannis), but it could happen.

 

If a player is available for 48 games and the team goes 40-8 in those games and then they're 14-20 in the other 34. Should that player be the MVP? Or get all NBA honours?

The team is likely a second or third seed regardless. However, the win percentage with the guy on the floor is 80-85% and 41% when he is injured. I get the whole butt in seats thing. But with injuries you miss a player anyway, whats better having them healthy for two thirds of the season and playoffs or having them healthy for two thirds of the season and injured for the playoffs.

 

my first answer is maybe not. and part of the reason is that i'm not sure there's a ton of evidence that spurs-style dnp-rest/old have ever worked for anyone else.


btw, you're kind of describing kawhi this year, right? clips are 4-12 without him and 32-24 with him. if he misses the rest of the season and they go 2-8 without him, is he the mvp?

i don't get why coaches can't just scale back minutes, tbh.

i also want to know where all this outrage was when AD was "mr. glass" despite being available more than a lot of other big names. but that's my own axe to grind.

anyway, i do think being on the floor matters. and i also think guys like kawhi have sat when they could have played, purely to bolster their reputations. whereas kobe played through all sorts of things that hurt his numbers and stature but helped his team win more.

whether it's 65 games as a hard line...yeah, that's weird...but you can't just gloss over the fact that part of the measure of a player is being able to actually play. the awards aren't theories.

 

I will watch this s***!!!!!!!!!!!

 

that rule was made to say f*** you for load management. That rule should be called the Paul George rule.

 

… more than the Kawhi Leonard rule? I guess both of them are in the elite top 1% performers in that regard.

 

That blazers team should’ve won 2 championships but just like the Sacramento Kings they ran into us.

just unfortunate like the Suns and Sonics and Jazz they ran into Jordan.

Iverson Wallace and Webber and Bibby. You ran into Shaq and Kobe we could’ve won 7 championships. They were that dominant. Both players in their prime. Think of that Kobe and Shaq both in their prime. That’s like running into Jordan and Ollawjuwon at the same time or Lebron and Howard or Luka and Wemby you just ain’t winning.

 

Yeah minutes management are weird in the NBA. JJ is awful at it, our stars always play extended minutes even when hurt. I think coaches also want to save their butts which is the only explanation I can come up for it.

Btw, saw an analysis on the 65 game rule and Bill Walton is the only guy that won an MVP playing less games. There were 3 other instances but all in shorter seasons and above the 80% games played, the threshold of the 65 games logic.

I do agree with the rule. Best ability is availability. Maybe they can come up with a more mathematical way to deliver these awards where you can strip the 65-game rule but ponder the number of games played into giving these awards

 

Or the Kawhi Leonard rule.

 

I don't think the difference in Kawhi's on/off wins is good enough. I was more thinking of a hypothetical Wemby when he hits his prime. Is 55 games enough to declare him MVP if the Spurs win 45-10 of those 55 games? And then go 7-20 with him for the floor. I don't feel like a player should be capped by his availability if he gets his team to the playoffs and wins. Then unequivocally, he would be the Finals MVP at the very least.

It's an interesting argument thats for sure.