Walker Kessler Discussion: Rim Protector And Lob Threat

Man no kidding. What a doomer take, and hell to the yes one of the best young centers in the league plus the one up at the top of the DEFENSE rankings with Wemby and a top rebounder 7'2". Exactly what we needed. We wanted him and needed to get it done, with other players we wanted on Hold. For who knows how long before they went Dwight Howard and panicked like the year he did after the championship and signed elsewhere.

 

lowe's always been a C Bags fan dressed an an objective observer.

whatevs. had the C Bags gotten kessler, it would have been a shrewd investment. hell, had anyone but the lakers gotten kessler at this price point for those assets, it would have been considered a coup.

i promise that if someone suggested this would happen ahead of free agency, lowe and his cronies would have called it pie-in-the-sky laker fan wishes.

f*** off, dude. i know who you are.

 

Oh yeah, Stevens would be a genius. Presti has been called a genius for dumping 3 rotational players this season and getting 2nds lol
They're substantially weaker but still framed as having a positive offseason for whatever reason

 

I don't get the media at all, Kessler's contract is fair. I also think two firsts is a fair trade for a player of his current caliber - yes the two swaps are maybe a bridge too far, but it's RFA, it is what it is. Imagine not doing the trade for the sake of two swaps?

If he develops, it'll be looked as great business by us and a cheap contract, if he regresses or is injured, it'll be looked at as a move we needed to make but didn't pan out.

 

hopefully he makes the trade look like a steal in hindsight

 

It is a certainty.

 

And then he compares the contract with who earns more to try to argue it's a bad contract. He already earns less than them!
When the correct comparison is with who earns less and, by his logic, are better, hence it's a bad contract.

So below Kessler is Allen, Poeltl, Turner, Hartenstein, Reid and Claxton.
He is the youngest and better than all of them on blocked shots, rebs, offensive rebs, rim protection%, FG% and so on. None is an all-star either which is another stupid argument. It's really crazy how people frame things wrongly just to push a narrative

Why is it really a bad contract?

 

cuz lakers.

stevens got executive of the year for dumping/losing half the C Bags title team for nothing. 11D chess!

 

It’s important to have context. They were set to pay 200m in luxury taxes this year - and the expectations was they were going to have to pay to dump salary. Instead they got rid of Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe who had both fallen out of the rotation while getting multiple assets and restructured Hartenstein’s deal so he stays a key piece of the team moving forward.

At that point they could have been just slightly over the 2nd Apron and pat a small amount of tax. Then Presti traded Dort for additional seconds. That’s probably going to draw criticism, however I think it was a really bold and forward thinking move. Dort has regressed a bit this year both defensively and shooting wise. Clearing him out allows Cason Wallace to start and make his claim for larger contract, while Ajay additionally takes more minutes in the back court as a result.

I do think it’s addition by subtraction and we see Wallace and Ajay take steps forward. Have they lost some depth? Yes. But that was regular season depth you need when you want to win 60+ games. They jsut need to focus on getting to the playoffs healthy. OKC still has a fantastic 8 man unit:

SGA
J Will
Chet
Hartenstein
Wallace
Caruso
Ajay
J Dub
McCain

All I can say is thank god they didn’t get Spencer Jones. He would have been perfect for them, a 1-4 defender that can shoot the three and has size. We dodged a bullet.

 

the depth is how you get to the playoffs healthy. they got to keep some minutes down because they had those guys. now that they don't, it can have a ripple effect.

and i don't know that i expected them to have to pay to get off guys. none of the contracts were bad (no vandos). i actually thought they might get another mccain type pickup or two, tbh, and i thought they could possibly get a 1st for dort.

i'm glad they didn't get jones, too, but it's a weaker team this year, and it figures to get weaker again when they start having to choose between guards. they will only be able to afford one of three of mitchell/wallace/mccain, imo. and if you think dort's on his way out (probably), don't look at caruso.

anyway, moving useful players for second rounders doesn't impress me. i get that he had to, but i don't get why i have to kiss his a** about it.

 

Yeah I'm with abeer.
They didn't do anything special. They factually got worse 3 players they trusted and played playoff meaningful minutes, even if for Joe and Wiggins it was only situationally.

Their depth definitely allows them to lose those 3 and remain very strong, but fact is they are down 3 guys. That's the aftermath of their summer. They added Mara, but he doesn't seem ready now. So their summer math is not good. It just doesn't hurt them because they have been very good hoarding and developing talent.

So the point is, their summer was bad. It wasn't an easy one but they weren't able to minimize the impact.
Which doesn't mean it changes the West picture, but I think the Spurs had a much more promising summer, Tobias is a great fit and their 2 picks seem exactly what they needed. Obviously they were in a better position and their bill will only come in a couple years, but looking only at this offseason, Spurs are stronger and OKC weaker.

 

to return to previous discussions about this:

how much development has been occurring recently there? people assume sorber and topic are going to just swim right away despite basically never playing. this is the tremendous advantage they got from the tanking and star-selling. but it comes home to roost when you're trying to win.

spurs are still on the upswing on the trajectory. their tough decisions are on the horizon, but not yet here. wemby helped by taking less than supermax, but harper and castle will be up for maxes, and it just squeezes things down the line.

both teams got a head start. one got a ring out of it when everyone else got hurt. the other squandered their first shot. despite breathless fan/media rhetoric, you're not guaranteed another one, much less the 6 or 7 everyone assumes, lol.

to return to the point: getting seconds for expiring role players is good business. but simply assuming that those will be churned into similar value is faith more than evidence, imo. again, okc's batting average on this stuff isn't as high as people suggest. furthermore, when you've got a supermax and two regular maxes, you can't hand out isaiah joe-type contracts to guys who were producing at joe-levels and hoping it pans out. there's opportunity cost there that didn't exist three years ago.

and you can point to the nets and say: well, why didn't they do it right? and you'd be right. but i'd also say that if the nets got the paul george trade gift, i'm guessing sean marks could have made all the presti moves after, no problem.

and before someone says that okc had to get to the PG situation to begin with, my response is that everyone views okc being a backwater as a negative, but it's actually been a huge positive (SA, too). bkn--like the lakers--couldn't afford to rehab and sell off assets and intentionally suck. the fans and media would be merciless. but nobody gives a s*** that okc and SA did it. and hey, play the hand you've got. just don't tell me these guys have it all figured out and everyone else is behind. presti couldn't do that s*** here. nope.

 

I would argue that McCain replaced Joe when they traded for him last season while Aaron Wiggins was already out of the rotation because Ajay took his role. They let go of those very good 11-13 guys to keep their luxury taxes down. That’s just good management.

So that leaves Dort. He was part of their 10 man rotation in the playoffs but by minutes played he was 7th and mainly due to Jalen Williams being injured. I think this is an addition by subtraction situation for them where they’ll lock Cason in as that 5th starter while Ajay and Caruso man the bench. They’re really just short one backup wing to complete their roster.

And they almost got him with Spencer Jones.

I really think the whole, they lost their depth, isn’t really true. They’ve still got an extremely strong 10 man rotation - one of the best in the NBA.

We’ll see what happens with the new bigs and guards they’ve drafted over the next 2-3 years and how they add parts with their draft capital on top of that.

 

i don't. cason wallace was on a podcast the other day talking about how dort always got the toughest assignment, every night. now that will be wallace, and everyone has to move up a spot. that can come with a cost. is caruso going to have to play more in the regular season? what does that do to his ability to put the cape on in the playoffs like he has recently? he's 32 and already in decline with a playing style that historically doesn't hold up over time.

anyway, the argument was whether or not presti deserved praise for dumping useful players for second rounders, and i still say no. anyone can do this.

 

I’m not sure what happened to Dort this season, but he had a bad one. His shooting slumped and he became a negative on the offensive end and lost some of his agility on the defensive and was mostly inept at stopping the top options.

He may rebound this year, but last year, Wallace was the better player. Even with all that in mind, if Jalen Williams is really damaged and his hamstring isn’t a thing of the past this season, they’re jsut going to lack a big wing. They can get by with Caruso, but you can’t have him going balls to wall for 30 mins a game nightly. Either way I think Caruso is the next piece they’ll let go to pay the next guy.

They’ll eventually have to decide between Chet and Williams too and be left with one of them, Hartenstein, SGA, Wallace and Ajay. That’s the reality of this CBA.