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

Few Irwin things from his post-game pod last night.

-From people he's talked to, the Hawks aren't thrilled with the league wide offers for Murray. So I wonder if A) that's why we're considering in the lead, cause I don't think our offer (without AR) is better than what several other teams could offer. B) if that's based on their current ask of 2 firsts + starter and if/when they're more realistic, the competition increases. If that's the case and if it's true they're good with our deal if we get DLO on a 3rd team, then we might want to get on that STAT before we're bidding against more teams and/or have to increase our offer. C) if they decide to keep him because the offers aren't good enough and try again this summer. The national guys don't think this will happen (namely Stein and Haynes). So can one assume from that the price of what they want and what they'll accept isn't *that* big of a hold up?


The other items sounded more like his thoughts instead of his sourced reporting, even though he might be coming to these conclusions based on what he's hearing...

-Thinks Plan B was Rozier but now that he went to Miami, that makes plan C the new plan B and that's Brogdon. He did say he's heard the Blazers don't want DLO either (makes sense with their plethora of young guards). But at least if we're canvassing the league for potential 3rd teams for a Hawks deal, we'd have those same teams on speed dial for this plan.


-He thinks we're looking at Charlotte as a team to snatch up their buyout guys -- GH and Lowry (I saw this morning they're trying to trade them to squeeze draft assets out of them). If you know you have GH locked up in a buyout, it's much easier to move off Rui.

- both he and Kam Bros brought this up on their respective pods. For those not wanting to move DLO because of how well he's playing now. If he keeps up this level of play, he's going to opt out. Meaning we're back to paying him more than he's worth or (more likely) he walks and gives us two middle fingers in the process. During the in game interview with Haynes last night he called being on the block "humiliating." You don't stick around on a team that you feel is humiliating you.

 

Would absoltely love to bring Brogdon without losing Dlo. Rui makes sense for them that a young team who could use a scoring 4 to pair with Grant.
Please make that happen!

It's not perfect as they still need a POA defender but if Cam and Vando ever are healthy at the same team that need is a lot less pressing then just having another very good guard available

 

What a colossal mistake the Milwaukee Bucks makes.

When the news broke that Griffin was out, and Rivers might well be his replacement, a rival NBA executive texted this to CBS Sports: "And the other Eastern Conference contenders breathe easier."

There's a reason for that relief.

Rivers is quite literally one of the coaches who has most often snatched failure from the jaws of NBA postseason success. Again. And again. And again.


In its illustrious history, the NBA has seen just 13 blown 3-1 series leads and, somehow, Rivers has coached three of them. He is 6-10 in Game 7s, by far the most losses for a coach in NBA history. <ITAL>Ten.<ITAL>. That is, obviously, quite a lot. And he happens to be 17-33 in games in which his teams had a chance to clinch a playoff series, which is a brutal 34 percent win rate. That, too, is the most losses for a coach in such a scenario in NBA history.

There are many reasons Rivers is a uniquely bad choice for Bucks general manager Jon Horst and the other decision makers in Milwaukee. But first and foremost is Rivers' almost astounding postseason shortcomings since winning that championship in Boston.

What a colossal mistake the Milwaukee Bucks made.

On the heels of firing Adrian Griffin a mere 43 games into his head-coaching career, the Bucks turned to perhaps the one viable name least likely to meet the expectations and pressure now mounting in Milwaukee: Doc Rivers.

There are a multitude of factors playing out in Milwaukee, none of which seem likely to be a particular Rivers speciality. This is a 30-13 team that just fired its head coach, which means every move, stumble, struggle and drama will be magnified – and require steady coaching that protects its players from the drama circling outside the locker room.

There's the need to properly and completely unlock the Giannis Antetokounmpo-Damian Lillard tandem. Rivers never did so with the pairing of Joel Embiid and James Harden. Nor the triumvirate of Chirs Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. And so on.

And, most important, is the fact you don't fire a head coach while boasting one of the NBA's best records unless you believe him incapable of also making a deep postseason run — something Rivers hasn't done since his new players were in middle school.


This is not some idle, throwaway level of fret for this Bucks team and the choice they've made. Rivers has proven himself, time and again – and certainly since leading the Boston C Bags to one championship 16 years ago – incapable of leading aspiring championship teams anywhere good.

This wariness to turn to Rivers is also an open secret across the NBA.

When the news broke that Griffin was out, and Rivers might well be his replacement, a rival NBA executive texted this to CBS Sports: "And the other Eastern Conference contenders breathe easier."

There's a reason for that relief.

Rivers is quite literally one of the coaches who has most often snatched failure from the jaws of NBA postseason success. Again. And again. And again.


In its illustrious history, the NBA has seen just 13 blown 3-1 series leads and, somehow, Rivers has coached three of them. He is 6-10 in Game 7s, by far the most losses for a coach in NBA history. Ten. That is, obviously, quite a lot. And he happens to be 17-33 in games in which his teams had a chance to clinch a playoff series, which is a brutal 34% win rate. That, too, is the most losses for a coach in such a scenario in NBA history.

There are many reasons Rivers is a uniquely bad choice for Bucks general manager Jon Horst and the other decision makers in Milwaukee. But first and foremost is Rivers' almost astounding postseason shortcomings since winning that championship in Boston.

He had a star-studded team with the Los Angeles Clippers for seven seasons and never made a single conference finals, a ceiling Sixers fans will be familiar with. Because over his three years in Philly, while coaching the guy who dropped 70 points the other night, Rivers' teams again failed to get past the second round of the playoffs.


Perhaps that's because Rivers' teams have also blown multiple 3-2 series leads — four, for those counting, including last year against the C Bags when he still coached that Sixers team.

That, too, offers insight into why Rivers is a perplexing choice for the Bucks job.

 

bucks were the only team in the east capable of beating boston in a 7 game series and that's not happening with rivers as their HC

i've already started preparing myself for a C Bags-clips final

 

would do rui for brogdon straight up, but i think we'd need to add salary. would love to move gabe/rui for brogdon, as it would also get us under the tax, which is nice for long-term plans (and of course, the buss's wallets...). they'd want an asset for that, though.

 

only injuries will prevent it. the clips have the personnel to beat denver, and i still can't take minnesota seriously. okc is too young, and the clips would blow their doors off, imo. boston looks like the best team in the nba by an even wider margin than they did this time last year.

i must now go vomit.

 

Totally fine giving a protected first and JHS for this to happen. Brogdon is a baller. Yeah he's injured a lot but he's a dream backup guard for the Lakers. All star caliber backup who you can pair either with Dlo and AR. You can't leave him open and like Mike Conley he just makes good stuff happen all over the floor. He is actually one of those guys who can win a playoff game with a strong game.

I think people are underselling what this team can do because they are very strong at a lot of positions but that is overshadowed by how weak they are at others. No other contender literally has only two guards that you can trust to play more then 20 minutes a game. Fix the guard position and this team can fly (which to me is you don't lose a strength in Dlo, you fix the Max/Gabe catastrophe).

 

Exactly. lol

 

I like Murray a lot, but the Hawks moving on from a talented guy on a good contract continues to concern me a bit.

 

Well they don't want to trade Trae and his backcourt with Murray who has to defend SGs isn't working ..

Would Murray become a good defender again here by defending PGs is TBD

I do think his fit with Bron and AD wouldn't be as good on offense as DAR's ..

 

I completely agree that Rivers is a bad/overrated coach, but not with this part. I think he did a pretty good job developing Embiid as the focal point of the offense and the Harden/Embiid two-man game was pretty great in the regular season until Harden did his usual playoff disappearing act. I thought he had CP3, Blake, and DJ fitting together about as well as they could have too. Those teams failed because of poor supporting casts (Clippers), ill-timed injuries (both), and just general choking (both), not because their stars couldn't play together.

 

Lakers lights would be too bright for him

 

Quotation marks and source would help here?

 

Can't wait till MIL up goes 3-1 in any of the series. Will bet a house against them

 

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...-a-mistake-for-the-championship-minded-bucks/

 

The fit isn't there. Ownership has pushed the emphasis that they need to be good... but they really need to be good starting next year when it's time to pay up on those draft picks. So if they're going to shake it up, they need to do it at the deadline and/off-season.

This week i heard on one of the national pods (forget which, they bleed together) that Murray has quietly let them know he wouldn't be against being traded.

I'm not sure the solution or how to construct a winning team around Trae at this stage. Being a black hole offensively and Chucky Atkins defensively, it's really tough with his salary and being in a small market.

I see it as a chance to buy low on DM5

I don't think it's as much position based as it is scheme and fit. If you're on a defensive team who has the best defensive player in the league and the ask of you offensive of is less and you can focus your energy more on the defensive side of the ball. He's also better as the primary ball handler than the secondary, which fits with the ask and doesn't happen on a healthy Hawks team.

There's not a star in the league who's worse on D than Trae this year


Dejounte has had no serious career altering injuries and is only 27. I really don't think he went from an all-defensive team defender to not being a good defender. Maybe the effort has slipped cause what's the point next to Trae? I don't know, but I'd expect a significant uptick on a team with AD, Vando, Cam, and playoff Bron.

 

Okay. That makes sense.

 

OK. This mfer sounds dumb. Pass.

 

My other concern is if we think DLO will opt of his contract and we will end up with nothing.

I am much more concerned about that possibility given the way the season has played out for him.

 

Interesting comment from DLO on being on the block. Apparently since the Lakers didn't come out and deny it, he feels it must obviously be true. But hey, he's the one who hasn't played defense and insisted on the contract he got. He made himself a tradable asset. Some guys....

that being said, if we trade him do we really get better?