2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

fans, the media, and owners getting on board with long-term losing is a big driver here. can you imagine being an okc fan? good gawd! which contract are we going to eat for picks this year? how is our "crabs in a bucket" development approach working with bunch of 23 year olds that need reps? how are we going to unload half of our 8 selections in next year's draft for more selections in future drafts?

it's like a weird pyramid scheme. flattening the lotto odds has helped, but only a bit. as long as fans can be sold on hope instead of results, amassing picks will be seen as victory! i blame guys like pritchard and morey for turning managing basketball teams into part of the theater. i swear, the houston fanbase was more enamored with daryl morey's vaunted business acumen than anything that ever actually occurred on the court there. the press used to fawn over pritchard (now it's ainge) hoodwinking yet another rube!

meanwhile, the teams that just build winners year after year are wholly unimpressive to everyone.

and you're right, the relitigation of the AD trade is a great example. so, we win a title, but the pelicans make the play-in once, and zomg look what they're doing! their best season in recent memory involved being like 4 games better than our worst season since lebron got here. do not want.

"but they're going to be great". lol. teams will crash and burn and return to prominence while the draft pick hoarders are "playing the long game". what's better?

to bring it full circle, i have more respect for what denver's been doing over the past several years than what okc's been doing. and it's interesting that minny hired denver's guy (probably because they see what i see), and then ainge supposedly rooked him. we'll see. beauty for ainge is he gets to sit there for three years while the jazz are noncompetitive and be like "all part of my master plan". imagine if other jobs worked that way. what a racket.

i'm a college professor, what would my dean say if all my classes sucked and i barely showed up but i swore it was because in 5 years, i would teach the best courses in human history! i'd be fired. yesterday.

 

Exactly.

These teams build up war chests of draft picks and it rarely amounts to much. They sell their fans on futures that are never going to come. The media runs it as well. It's crazy.

 

With salaries so high, I suspect many of the owners are thinking high draft picks are the better commodity. They may think the ONLY thing better is an absolute #1 option superstar in his prime.

 

And even if they do come true at some level, it most likely takes a minimum of 5 years to rebuild and get back to the top. Add the year or two up front with amassing the draft picks and a few more years to the front of that while you realize the team you rebuilt LAST TIME does NOT have the stuffing to make rings a possibility. I usually say that a rebuild is typically a 10+ year endeavor.

 

I definitely think finances factor in. Put together a cheap roster that the fans can still get behind because they are so young.

 

I really hope we never sign Kyrie Irving. He’s such an idiot.

 

I'm shocked we haven't seen any names leaked from these. Obviously Collison is one of the guys.

 

Eff off Collison. SMH another small, old guard with his prime wasted.

 

wait we also give up two first round picks besides our best player going forward?Unfortunately with GM (I like to get) Rob Pelinka around this trade Is also within the realm of possibility

 

Checks height. Only 6-3. Yep. It's accurate.

 

Same, I never wanted to trade Russ for him.

 

20 years from now we'll still be hearing rumors about darren collison signing with the lakers

 

We got nearly a whole page devoted to a rumor from Cole Swider. We're getting up there in credibility with youtube channels like Hay Ho TV, Hoàng Bi & Chipi Gaming. Damn.

 

Only a 33% career three-point shooter. I remember he lit us u for 24 points on 4/11 three-point shooter one night.

 

well, it was...us. i wish we could have played us last year.

 

Remember Mike Dunleavy Sr. and the coaching searches? Same type of thing.

 

If the whole billionaire, team owner, Shark Tank thing doesn't work out for him then I'd offer him a 10 day. Would be one of our 3 best shooters. Plus he's 6-2, so he fits right in with the height we target.

 

Got that same secret weapon slo mo release going on that LS has been teaching AD.