2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

That's what they said about AD.

 

The kid is 24 years old, 2x All Star, played 70 games last season, and has career averages , of 25pts 7 rebs and 4 asists.

New Orleans can have anybody they want off this roster, and two FRP as far as I'm concerned.

Meh..we are supposed to balk at giving up Tinkerbell and Rui, for Zion Williamson? That's crazy talk, damn them draft picks. You gotta roll the dice on that level of talent. Like I said, they can have anybody off this current roster. Lebron and AD excluded.

A couple of years ago, some folks around here, were talking about AD being about done, and on his way out the League by 35.

 

Beggers can't be choosers my friends. If you can get him, get him and make sure you tell him he has to go next level with his fitness.

 

Just say NO!!!

 

Mavs just lost to Utah.This loss It is their 4th in a row

 

I’m with Slick and Ox, two guys who never agree on anything, except with Zion Let’s go get Zion

 

What level of talent? Tell me the accolades of Zion please, he's an entertainer who never achieved team success because he's never healthy or when he is it's not enough.

We have to stop valuing players for what they could be after a few years of evidence.
Plus, some people really haven't learned with Russ. You can't just put together players that are good and it works. Zion only operates in the paint, same area where Bron and AD score the most. It just makes 0 sense in terms of fit, spacing and all the data we have seen. It's proven to be a wrong setup

I'd rather get Dejounte, Trey Murphy, Herb or even CJ before Zion.
I have nothing against Zion, he's entertaining to watch. But it doesn't lead to results and he's the worst superstar after Kawhi. He played LESS THAN HALF of the games since he joined. And he's young. Are we expecting it gets better as he grows older? With our medical staff? Seriously? Drop NBA2k, this is real life

 

i think his contract is very weirdly built and could protect his team against him completely falling apart:

that said, i don't think NO trades him to us even if we want him. moving him here after AD (and considering we got a ring and they just continued to be the pelicans after that trade) would be a bad PR look.

4th in a row by 2pts or less. in fairness, the first three were against good teams on the road and without most of their frontcourt. the last one was without kyrie. still, though, have to find a way to close games out when you've got luka. they were very good in the clutch last year.

bigger issue is that their defense has predictably disappeared since acquiring klay and moving djj.

 

A bunch of complete utter nonsense man. So many wack takes in this one, where do I start? Accolades? He's a 2x Allstar and he's only 24 years old, WTH are you even talking about?

Did AD achieve team success in New Orleans? Oh..I guess that meant that we shouldn't have traded for him too then?

Perhaps we should stop making these declarations of career failure, after a few seasons?

If we had a 24 year version of Westbrook, it would have been an entirely different conversation. Lebron is about to be 40 years old dude, did you see that data?

Spacing, fit, more flailing around about nothing. Rui operates in those same areas right now, doesn't he?Smh..just for s***s and giggles..peruse the difference between these two for a sec.

https://stathead.com/basketball/ver...urce=bbr&utm_id=hachiru01&utm_medium=sr_xsite

Lol..man you like to consider yourself, to be lecturing me on NBA basketball, for some reason. You don't know WTF you are talking about, the majority of the time IMO including this one.

Rather have, Herb, CJ or Murray? FOH with that .

You don't have anything against Zion,but he's the worst superstar after Kawhi? More dumb s***, yeah I do expect his conditioning to improve as his career goes, he's young, the talent isn't in question. The Pelicans use football trainers, that might have something to do with their injury situation. IDK.

We are the Lakers, they are them, the place no star caliber player, wants to stay for long. "They not like us." That song fits.

Real life, Meh..you are in the Twilight Zone on this one bud. We'd probably got outbid for him anyway. But you're smoking something, with that little hatchet job you posted.

 

Zion is a heck of a talent warts & all. I don't think New Orleans would trade him to us. What for, unless they're getting the better end of the deal by a significant margin? Would I be interested? Absolutely.

I think LBJ is retiring next year. Between now and then, Rob needs to be big-game hunting. I'm hoping Cleveland gets bounced out in the second round, Sacramento fizzles, and Fox and/or Mitchell become available by some miracle.

Probably as pipe as Zion coming to the Lakers, but a man can dream!

 

Yeah I came a bit too harsh to be honest, sorry for that.
But I really think you're wrong. You just said Rui and Zion play the same areas. That's as far from truth as it can be. Zion is a point forward with no jumpshot, who powers inside and score in the paint. Rui lives in the midrange and is a corner spacing forward. Two completely different players.

In 5 seasons, he had 3 playing less than 30 games. 3 whole seasons!! He also NEVER played in the playoffs. NEVER. Last year he played 70 games, good enough to put NOLA in the play-in (wow...), to then be available in the playoffs. That's his accolades. All-star is all about hype and media, and Zion is a media favorite. That means nothing to me. Russ has the record in TDs, MVP and multiple All-Star and he was still the worst possible fit to our 2 greats.

That's why I did the 2k take. Because Zion is awesome individually, he has tools no other player has. It works amazing in video games. But at this point we should already know, especially the Lakers' fans, that it's not just putting stars together, it's how they fit together. It's also about availability. Nets had Harden, Durant and Kyrie together. Clippers had Harden, Kawhi and PG. They both achieved nothing.

We have absolutely no reason to bring a star that never was, when he's the worst possible fit to AD and Bron + he's only half of the time available. That's for desperate franchises who have no better alternatives. We have.

But we see fit differently. The other day you suggested trading DLo and Rui for Valanciunas and Vucevic. Losing half of our best shooters (in a team that already struggles in 3pts) to have a clough of centers and taking out the ability to have AD at the 5 which is where he operates the better in playoffs and crunch time, including in the title year (with Kieff or Kuzma at the 4). It would also leave us with Vincent as our only PG, a guy who has been borderline unplayable.

I just disagree with the way you look at basketball and your rationale. No reason to come out as strong though, anyone can have their opinion, we just have really opposite ones.

 

If you can buy low on Zion, which I feel like most deals with us would be doing at this point, you do it and don't look back.

The decline with LeBron has been slower than anyone would have thought, but its there despite him still being able to produce at a high level. He's exactly the kind of guy Zion needs around him to get his head right.

Pelicans won't trade him to us though. It took a lot to get them to relent and trade AD to us. Can't see that happening again.

 

agreed with your post except this part. i think we're semi-desperate in that the lebron/AD era is coming to a rapid close, and we don't have another star in the making. we definitely want one. zion is probably the only one currently available (maybe trae young, too?), hence the discussion.

i agree with others that we're one of the last places NO wants to send him, though. should he get his health right and dominate, they won't want to have to deal with the PR fallout for a decade.

 

I get that, but we are still a place many stars want to play (brought us Bron and AD) and we still have assets. At this point, we can be in the discussion for any superstars in the next 2/3 years. I think there's like 20 teams who are in a worse position than us.
As we've discussed in the past, Ant, Luka, Mitchell, Booker can all become available in that period and I would hate to not be able to get them because we went for Zion.

But yes, absolutely agree that we will need to hit really well in the next couple of power moves we do, otherwise we will suck for many years.

This is a clear case of opportunity cost.

 

Luka is morphing into the worst defender in the league - he's seriously threatening Dlo here for the title. I kid I kid

 

Zion has proven on and off the court that he doesn’t have the self-discipline to survive being in LA.

 

Full injury report for Friday's Suns vs. Thunder NBA Cup matchup

The Oklahoma City Thunder will host the Phoenix Suns on Friday. It'll be the first matchup between the two squads. It is also the first NBA Cup group game for OKC.

The Thunder (10-2) continue their season-long six-game homestand.

Both teams have lengthy injury reports. What could've been a matchup of two of the best teams was ruined with several injuries.

The Thunder have a lengthy report. Chet Holmgren (hip fracture) is out. Isaiah Hartenstein (hand fracture) is out. Alex Caruso (hip soreness) is out. Jaylin Williams (hamstring strain) is out. Nikola Topic (torn ACL) is out. Adam Flagler (two-way) is out. Alex Ducas (two-way) is out.

The same for the Suns. Kevin Durant (calf strain) is out. Bradley Beal (calf strain) is out. Grayson Allen (hamstring soreness) is questionable. Jusuf Nurkic (ankle sprain) is questionable. Collin Gillespie (ankle fracture) is out.