2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

McCain giveaway did him in.

 

Uhhhh, that’s why you build a team around them that is athletic and younger than we currently have.
We should have a team that plays nine deep. We barely have four we can count on- that’s why you never put all your hopes in “one big summer.” It almost never happens this way. Last time it did, we had the best GM ever who gambled a very good Center away, along with a bunch of other pieces, in hopes of signing Shaq. He just so happened to find one of the best players of all time out of high school in that same time frame.
We just got Luka last season.
It’s going to take some time.

 

I’m rooting for the Spurs to be hobbled by this series end. I’m not a big Wolves fan, but I like several of their players.
Yeah, the Spurs have been the most dirty, underhandedly built team by the NBA since I can remember.
Pop was a complete Jerk and is slobbered over every single time theirs a Nationally Televised Spurs game.

 

Come on man- JJ starting Thiero???The likelihood of that happening at the start of next season is less than me earning a two way spot with the Lakers.

 

He just has a lot of room to develop haha…

 

I don’t like the Spurs, but I don’t hate them. I have respect for their organisation, for pop and their players.

With the thunder, I just couldn’t stand the constant sniggering and laughing from the bench. That arrogance got to me and I wanted to wipe the joy off their face. I imagine the whole team felt the same way.

 

R.I.P. he was so good out of Gonzaga. Was huge on that Memphis team with Ja Morant. Him And Zach Collins at Gonzaga. What Legal problems did he have. The leagues gotta speak out more on the drug use. Players have to be careful.

 

What a piece of s***. Traded McCain for 2 bags of chips.

 

morey's always been such a joke of a GM and never come close to a ring

good luck to the next moronic team who hires him

 

i respect the spurs as an organization, but that's about it. f*** them forever

okc sucks with all the flopping, but there's absolutely zero rivalry there

 

Couldn’t agree more with all your points. SGA and the thunder as a whole lack authenticity, they’re trying to cosplay in what they think they should be acting like. To some extent I also felt that from Tatum when he won his ring. I don’t know what it was with the older generation, it felt real, I don’t know if it’s the rise of narcissism in the social media age, but the youth are over thinking about how they’re perceived and as a whole care too much about others opinions of themselves.

So you end up with these weird, goofy, arrogant situations. And frankly, I can’t stand that. I just want to wipe the floor with them next year.

 

Everyday we’re seeing the lessening impact of bigs in the playoffs in my opinion.

Rudy with 4/5 in 23 mins tonight
Naz Reid with 12/5 in 30 mins

Duren with 8/2 last night in 27 mins
Jarrett Allen with 9/5 in 32 mins

Unless you have a transcendent big like Jokic, Wemby or Embiid. Most teams are just playing different ways.

So I’m not so worried playing with a big like Claxton.

 

Sacramento Kings.

 

You’re not seeing the point. I’m looking for a huge development from Thiero. I’ve seen this before with Bynum he was a project.

Thiero has the body. He’s gotta use his athleticism to his advantage. He needs to develop a handle and it can be done.

He’s gotta keep working on his jump shot. I’ve seen this development with OG who was averaging 4 points a game. And Pascal also Kawhi had a shot that was broken then he mastered it.

don’t be Darius Miles where you’re just athletic or don’t work on your jumper. Giannis worked on his game. His body filled out. Thiero already has the body. Gerald Wallace worked on his game out of Alabama.

He’s got an opportunity. Take the kid gloves off. I want him starting. Goals. He’s gotta have goals. And he can start if he puts his mind. We need his defense. We need his athleticism. We need guys next to Luka that can defend and shoot.

Look at Jalen Williams out of Santa Clara. You gotta put in the work. The reason these teams like OKC and the Spurs are running us off the court is because they have superior bench play. We have to get our bench guys and our developmental guys to that level. Even a guy like Dyson Daniels. Or Jalen Johnson. Take the kid gloves off.

 

True, but at the same time, someone like Gobert is also the reason the T'Wolves beat Jokic and the Nuggets in the previous round.
Having a center who provides rebounding, offensive verticality, and defense seems fundamental to me.

 

could take this further to...you don't even need to spend claxton-level money or trade firsts for him? i've been saying for jj's entire tenure that it's very obvious he doesn't like playing centers. the exasperated "i can't play him" about ayton is definitely not the first--nor will it be the last--time he makes this statement about a center. the one we spend 25-30m on will also be relegated to the bench in key moments.

this is also true, however. my solution is to try things like houston did this year, but you know, not with oldz. one adams, one capela, each near mle money.

ayton and hayes is actually close to this model; you'd just prefer a little more grit in the ayton part of it, lol.

anyway, one of my concerns about getting claxton (for which i've advocated at times!) is that the current trend is actually these stronger, slower centers seemingly having the greater effect. like, hartenstein and mitchell robinson and kornet and (on the rare occasion he's healthy) adams. but they've got to do the dirty work (screen setting and rebounding on both ends).

i was interested in going as far as bringing back pappagiannis from europe, but he tore his acl this year.

interestingly, it's quite possible denver just cuts valanciunas this summer to save money. he wanted to go back to europe, but maybe a year in la would be appetizing to him?

 

Yeah, I think you just have to have a counter on your bench. You can't have a Jax backing up Claxton. The caliber of that opposite style backup depends on the caliber of the starter.

A) a no questions asked level starter, average backup and then a rookie or 2-way 3rd stringer
B) Fringe starter, elite backup, and a high end 3rd stringer who's skill is that of a backup but they're fine not being an every night player.

But if you have the lob threat, athletic, rim running C then I think you have to have a bruising backup.

This one is a bit of a caveat to my two pathways above but injury risk is my asterisk.... but this would accomplish what I'm looking to do at the position: Claxton/Time Lord/Jax rotation. you sell Jax on the fact that both are going to miss time with injury and there's also certain matchups where he's the better option than Williams.

 

Wendell Carter Jr is making $18 million next year. Young, physical, center. Orlando roster is going to get expensive. He'd be a name I'd target. Did pretty well against Detroit.