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

Says who? You? Seriously which teams were doing that? I don't remember that strategy being employed much, perhaps you can point some of those games out.

 

Man no disrespect but, if Lebron, AD and Russ, need to see some young kids fighting, in order to get themselves motivated and buy in, we are in serious trouble. Those three guy's reputation and standing in the league moving forward, are on the line in varying degrees this season. You have to step up and go get it done period, there are no excuses for any of those three, to come out lacking this season. It starts from the top, the leaders are supposed to set the tone for the youngsters to follow.

 

In reality, this is just a subjective opinion you hold.

 

I think that’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s what happened with Jordan and Kobe etc etc. What I’m seeing in the league more often these days: the stars of the league focus on things like scoring while they have “glue” guys or the “junkyard dogs” who do the dirty work.

So I’m relying on the guys on our team who will do that dirty work to focus on that and for our main guys to turn up their effort on both ends when it counts.

 

yep. they're an obvious dance partner. they were trying to extract multiple firsts from us (and others, it seems) and came up empty. though i'm now expecting russ to start opening day here (60/40), SA is an obvious landing spot for him.

lol that they want a 1st for richardson and 2 for poeltl, though. not unless you're getting undesirable (>1 year) salary dropped on you in the process, SA. word is they've accepted that mcdermott is negative value, so why not just move him and richardson to us for russ and maybe a pick swap?

i cannot stress enough that they have no actual pgs on their roster right now.

 

i think that's a theory some stars have, but it's not reality. that's a james harden mindset, and he's ringless for a reason (largely that reason).

now, i do think other teams do a better job building systems to maximize their stars (and minimize their flaws). part of why jokic became a good defender is denver worked very hard to build a roster and system that allows him to do what he does best on that end (and on offense, though that's much easier). we just kinda slap stuff together.

 

I can get with that

 

The reality is, Lebron is old and he can’t go pedal to the floor for 36 mins a game and 70 games a season. AD has had some unfortunate luck, but he isn’t a guy you want going hard every game either because of his play style. These are the two guys you want to get to the playoffs healthy and hungry.

But everyone else better bring the effort. At the very least, we got a good start with Bev, Reaves and JTA.

 

They are short on PGs but they have Tre Jones. Guy balled out late last year. A move for Russ makes total sense for them, but I don't see the assets from them that would make us move Russ

 

why not just have them go hard for 28-30mpg? that's basically what milwaukee does with giannis, right? i don't think you can afford to coast in nba games, tbh. you get beat that way. again, the prime heat trio, which featured 3 top-10 nba players--including the very best by a wide margin--only got two rings in 4 years together. the first one they lost because they thought they could coast some and survived with other dudes doing the grunt work. the grunt work is everyone's work. especially in the playoffs, but you have to get there in good position.

i mean...if the lakers were rolling into the season with tre jones and zero other pgs on the roster, you'd be confident? that's not even serious roster construction, tbh. it's becoming of SA, historically, and i expect that if russ isn't there, mike conley will be. or some other vet pg--because i can't believe pop wants to go 8-74 in his final season.

 

Whatever. You are a Westbrick Lover and no blame falls on him, no matter what. What MY EYES saw last season was abysmal defense by him.

 

Hasn’t the buzz all summer been that the Spurs are pretty transparently tanking? I’d imagine Pop has to know that and is on board with it, otherwise you don’t dump your only all star for future picks while not adding any additional talent.

Maybe Pop sees it as going full circle; he starts his coaching career in a tank job that awards the Spurs with Tim Duncan, he ends his coaching career in a tank job that awards them Wembanyama.

Their roster is so deplete of talent, that I don’t think Russ, Conley, or any other available veteran PG could really help them make a notable jump. It would only raise the floor just barely enough to get a few extra wins. We’re talking like from a 14th seed to a 12th seed. What’s the point in that?

I still think the Spurs make sense as somehow getting in the mix on a Russ trade down the line, but mainly just because their salary situation gives some flexibility in trade constructions. I don’t think they’d actually want Russ to play Russ.

 

my first post was meant to say "unbecoming", and this is my point--you say they're shamelessly tanking. ok. but we've never seen a team just roll into a season without a nba pg on the roster. they have/had money to burn, and the idea that josh primo or devin vassell or one of the rookie sgs they drafted is supposed to captain an nba offense is an affront to competition. even the shameless (shameful?) hinkie sixers at least had credible theories of players at various positions that would make a basketball team.

and honestly, tanking for #1 is a pretty terrifying proposition right now. odds are even that you end up outside the top 5, right? the spurs can add russ or conley and still be a bottom-5 nba team with basically flat odds at euro-holmgren. i can't imagine pop being on board with not even pretending like you want to compete. i'd lose a ton of respect for him and the organization if they don't do something to bring in a pg.

 

From Scotto @ HoopsHype

 

We've already assembled my least favorite Lakers team maybe ever. Why the f*** not. He'd fit right in.

 

Of all the “unlikeable” players we’ve acquired, Crowder is actually the one that would be the hardest pill for me to swallow … despite being the best basketball fit of the bunch (or at least, he plays the position of biggest need). I think he’s overrated in both areas, but he might be the only “3&D” wing we could realistically get.

And on the other side, Phoenix was apparently interested in Schröder, meaning they’re in the market for a back-up PG. And us getting Schröder makes Nunn expendable.

So I think a Nunn for Crowder trade might actually make sense for both teams. Would definitely balance out the positioning on our roster a bit.

Unfortunately that doesn’t work salary wise, I think we’d need to send out an extra ~$3 million in salary. Maybe in a few months once some of our other free agent signings become eligible for trade we can figure out some filler to match.

 

Zero chance lebron signs off on Crowder. He hates him.

 

yeah, crowder has gone out of his way multiple times to try and injure lebron

never say never, but i think lebron legit hates the guy