2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

swider wasn't impressive at all. waiving him was the right move

 

F U BSPN !

 

yeah, again, our stars get hurt a lot, and that's not going away. i'll be surprised if we finish top-3 in the west, but i wouldn't be surprised by a title, either.

 

Load management really doesn’t work but we almost had an epic run in the playoffs with (almost half a season) injury rested AD and Bron. Just like the last championship, there was a long rest for both guys.

Something to ponder about going forward

 

I think we will be top 4. Denver will be up there. Phoenix depends on health. I don't see Memphis, Clips, Warriors, Mavs or Sac beating us.
We have good depth that should keep us afloat as long as we don't have like 2+ month without AD/LeBron

Reaves, Rui and Dlo should have a great year during regular season

 

sac's bringing back basically the whole squad from last year, so i don't expect them to drop off much.

memphis with ja out is a wild card. i mean, they've done pretty well without him in the past, and they added smart (and lost brooks, which they seemed fine about).

the mavs are another one for whom it's anyone's guess, imo. it didn't come together at all last year, but it's hard to bet on luka missing the playoffs twice in a row, and he dragged a less talented team to the conference finals the year prior.

i don't see why everyone jumped off the clips bandwagon, tbh. for the past few years, they've been picked to finish atop the west by most experts, and it's not like they got worse. they just keep getting injured. they might again, but you could say that for 80% of contending teams (that they have players likely to get hurt that are very important).

so, i'd put denver, phx, and the clippers ahead of us in terms of projected regular season record, and us with sac and memphis and maybe dallas in the next likely grouping.

curious to see how NO, okc, and houston do this year. will NO regain some of the momentum they lost in the middle of last year? has okc plateau-ed? will having adults in the room and an actual interest in winning be enough for houston? (my guesses are no, yes, no, but we'll see).

 

5th in the West just sounds about right to me. I can see us getting to 3rd or 4th if things go well and we catch some breaks on injuries. I think we are built to withstand periods of playing with just AD or just LeBron and there are real question marks with the other teams outside of the Nuggets and Kings.

 

I'm fully on board the Christian Wood train: would be willing even to promise a starting job for the first month of the season to get it done. Roster looks really really good but they have a gaping hole at big and I think having a guy with that sort of length who is a good rebounder who can stretch the floor really opens up AD both on defense and offense that we haven't had since the Bubble year.

 

On the Kam bros' pod Woike said he spoke to two league scouts regarding Wood and asked them to rank him from 1-100. One scout said "about an 8." The other team scout asked how low he could go, Woike said "one" and the scout said that's not low enough.

 

That’s super bad. Barely a warm body bad. Sounds like there are some juicy stories behind this.

 

jeezus ..... and that's when he's been paid pretty well, like Westbrook up until now (very well). am thinking HAS to have a lot to do with attitude, which "Shirley" isn't going to get better if having to agree to vet minimum. Counter point of course "contract/career year" ..... but was the same for Russ this past season and on two different teams and didn't work out for him.

 

What did the Buss boys rank him? That’s the only thing that really matters right.Why didn’t Woike ask them?

 

i mean, there's a reason why wood has bounced around from losing team to losing team despite what he's shown on the court.....

and that's aside from the fact that he can't defend and has zero bball IQ