lol, right ahead of their #3s! ingram over brown was defensible, and i'm still not sure they're that far off in terms of talent (or production, really). ball over tatum was rough. ball over anyone was rough, really.
Great take! We need to be very mindful of what we do. In 2031 we have AD retired (and LeBron obviously). Both will leave for nothing, so we are saying we have 2 new superstars until then, without having a pick every odd year.
I love that not even 2 days went by after Rob tried to make excuses about being "restricted" with the new CBA, and then the Knicks went and sent 5 f***ing picks for Mikal Bridges (but gave up no core players in the deal). I hope he doesn't think that he needs to do the same thing here and get Trae Young... But damn, if there's an opportunity to get a Mikal Bridges type guy for our picks and maybe 1-2 players that weren't in our rotation last year plus 1 guy that was in our rotation (Vincent / JHS / Vando)....then I think you gotta do that. I'm looking at a guy like Brandon Ingram potentially being avialable
tough call, but NO probably doesn't want to do it anyway because they own our pick next year. i think this complicates our angles on valanciunas, too, as if they think he could help us make the playoffs, they would be very disinterested in facilitating that in any way. if ingram didn't play for NO, i'd be willing to give up dlo or rui + gabe, the 17, and the 2029 (top-3 protected). i think he slots in as 2nd/3rd scorer and would start at sf here and make us very hard to guard. not a super fit as he needs the ball a lot, but if we're going to go with non-ball-dominant pgs, it could make sense, as he's ok as a pick and roll initiator. defense has never gotten to where i expected, which is disappointing.
Didn’t Kobe endorse Tatum before the draft or around the Draft? That should have been our first sign. Ingram and Tatum, I bet, would have worked like this. Add LeBron still and I bet things would have been different. oh well, win some. Lose some.
Yuck man. Just like with Randle, Ingram looks terrible with our 2 stars. These guys don't play winning basketball. They're strengths collide with other stars, and they aren't good enough to be the stars themselves. Knicks got better when Randle got injured and NOLA was closing games without Ingram because they looked better. They both have nice qualities and belong in the league with high minutes. But they're just not winning material because they need the ball a lot and you can't win a lot having any of the 2 being on your top usage. They also don't provide spacing as they both feel comfortable in the mid J area and the paint. LeBron and AD can't have more guys who like that area (DeRozan is a bad fit for the same reason). I wish them both the best, but no way I see us improving by adding any of them
we don't know if they can't play with our stars because they haven't played with stars. both players clashed with ball-dominant guys (zion and especially brunson are incredibly ball-dominant, imo). word here is that we want lebron off the ball, and AD is the opposite of ball-dominant. both BI and randle have full seasons shooting 40% from three (ok ingram has a few just below). randle shot 53% on corner threes last year. ingram shot 46% on corner threes two years ago and in his first year in NO he shot 44% from the corner on pretty high volume. you ignore those guys defensively at your own peril, imo. we can't know if they can play with our guys until they do, though. there are certainly guys i'd prefer, but these are guys who are actually available. and neither guy is on the kind of contract that can't be moved if things don't go well. we could be looking at a hard pivot after this year, so that's important to keep in mind.
At LeBron‘s age, it could happen at any moment, if we are being realistic. He has been a legendary in the durability department, but that could end at literally any second.
I still have a hard time seeing Lebron not demanding the ball, whenever he wants it. Who is going to say no?
If he wants it it’s often a good reason, plus not bad to change things up. At the end of games against Denver no one else was getting it done. He’s a smart guy who if he has good guards handling the ball and scoring isn’t going to want to pound the ball some inordinate amount time a big % of the time as some here fear.
We never had seen Russ playing with Bron and AD but everyone knew the misfit. Same logic can be applied to your arguments. We don't know if they work because we have never saw them playing together either. Btw, we saw Ingram playing with Bron and it wasn't good. My main argument is that in what Randle and Ingram are at their best, we have 2 guys who are better. Yes, Randle developed the corner shot in the contract year, but it's still him. He still likes to attack the basket and try difficult jump shots, it's his nature. I don't know the scientific concept for this, but there are just guys who play a type of basketball that loses more often. Randle, Ingram, Russ, Beal, Poole are just guys that when they play at their best, the team is closer to lose. I think the fact that their whole career they've been in losing situations and that their teams enjoyed their greater success when they were out, says it all.
Rob should know the cap; he's the VP of whatever title they give him. Still, would like to see a capologist. The new CBA is a nightmare and we need to seek every advantage possible. That said, I don't hate Rob. I think he's been okay, and I liked what he did last season. He tried to keep a core together that just got to the Western Conference Finals. We have some needs on this roster as is, but I'm hopeful he can fix those to some extent.
I think it’d be helpful to have had DLo’s expiring salary to trade if he opted in as well, but of course he is holding us hostage, he said he had leverage or power and plans to use it and he is. Aside from him we really only have Rui, Vando, Gabe and minimums to trade with our picks. I’ll be more interested to see what we do when/if DLo opts in.
