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

yeah, it's embarrassing for the announcers to have to try to explain it to casual fans, too. i mean, he just gets someone on his hip, initiates contact, takes a shot, and falls down. he gets the call 2/3 times when it's actually a defensive foul maybe 1 out of 5 times.

it's getting very harden-esque.

if i were anthony edwards, i'd be studying SGA film all summer to see which calls he gets. edwards is just as good a shooter from midrange and three, imo, just as fast/quick, and MUCH stronger. if he can get those calls, everyone can just pack things up.

 

I hate forearm extension that Tatum and Shai so all the time and get away with. Youre not even allowed to have your forearm up on a perimeter player as a defender but these guys literally do a forearm shiver on the defender like a defensive tackle off the block

Meh Im still hoping OKC loses. Outside of Caruso just don't like watching Shai or there style of play. Yes I'm not even a Seattle guy but that team shouldnt win till the Sonics come.back

 

yeah, my frustration is just with the uneven application of the rules. if you can push off, then lots of guys can "create space".

it was kinda like in our series with minny when randle was suddenly allowed to lead block for himself. i've seen the same guy get called for offensive fouls a zillion times on the same moves!! but suddenly, it was fine.

sort of like how moving screens are fine...if they're set for steph curry. you can't set one for malik beasley, though, cuz...rules.

 

Suns will be a team to watch. What do they get back for KD? If they move him for multiple pieces does that move Royce or Martin down the rotation enough they'd consider moving them for an expiring since they'll probably still be in cap hell with the Book + Beal pairing? If they invest in a starting center, can you convince them to come off Richards already? He's cheap and looked really good since getting there.

Man, that contract sucks. If it was only 2 years i could talk myself into it pretty easily because I think he can still be a championship level game changer defensively during Bron's window. Wonder what kind of draft compensation they're willing to consider.

 

sucks that gs and phx have both prioritized center acquisitions, too. i don't want to get into bidding wars for centers of average quality.

i think the thing that nobody talks about with the boston situation is that it's just as important to them to shave money immediately as it is long-term--probably more important. so to me, any deal they do needs to involve a team with space either, directly or as a salary reservoir.

my money is still on them finding some desperate team (maybe us, but hopefully not) who will trade expirings and picks to a cap space team for porzingis, allowing boston to just shed his deal.

like, if it were us, it would be maybe kleber/vando/gabe/knecht to the cap space team. again, not advocating, but this is the kind of thing i think will happen somewhere else.

 

I've never liked OKC. Found them annoying in the Durant/Russ/Harden years. They're even more annoying now; I'm tired of the talking heads lauding them as this genius organization. They tanked for draft picks and lucked into Kawhi demanding PG be sent to the Clippers with us as leverage.

 

Or he has in his own mind compared to past greats …. says he is …..

Maybe sleeker quicker Luka doesn’t as much? But FAT Luka uses that off arm on every single drive seems to me?

 

DLO too constantly from lack of burst speed. AR (when not sporting a severely jammed big toe or other injury) ….. hardly ever with any of the off arm stuff. That guy with his “sneaky athleticism” (thanks Tyrese from FIBA Ball ) and handle / jukes ….. sees an opening for a first step on the defender and gets low to the floor with his body and his dribble and goes like hell toward the rim.

 

Edwards gets away with bad performances because of his personality .

He's VERY good but not there yet when it comes to leading a team to a title

 

Simmons and Lowe brought up Atlanta as a potential Giannis trade. Atlanta could offer Jalen Johnson, Risacher, Niang's expiring, #13 and #22 in this year's draft, a 2029 unprotected 1st when Giannis is 34 and a 2031 unprotected 1st when Giannis is 36. I think they also have some swaps they can add as well.

I really hope it's a middle-tier East team like that who gets him, rather than Houston or the Spurs.

 

you rarely see him extend his full arm out like SGA does on almost every drive. he's much stronger; so if he did, dudes would go flying, btw.

if you take away his ability to just shove his retreating defender in the chest, his scoring average would drop several points, and he's suddenly defensible with one guy, imo.

thus, not fully legit to me.

 

multiple bidding wars for a starting center this summer

 

that's pretty similar to the one i posted a couple weeks back, and i think both teams should strongly consider it. the east is ripe for the taking, and atlanta would still have young, daniels, okongwu, mann, and, if they want, levert to play alongside giannis.

milwaukee may not get better offers than johnson and risacher in terms of guys who might be able to help you win now (which they need due to not controlling their own picks).

anyway, we'll supposedly know a lot more in a week, right? i think giannis has more control here than it seems.

but i also hope he stays east. we've got enough competition as is.

 

They'd need more shooting for sure, and I'm not sure Young is the guy Giannis would want to tether the rest of his prime too. But they'd be a really good and exciting team in a market that really supports the team when they're competitive. Atlanta has been considered a sleeping giant in the NBA for a while now, similar to the Warriors before Curry got there.

Yeah, all the discussion of Giannis trades thus far have been about who has the most assets (Houston, Spurs, OKC). But that's almost never how these trades play out. Its usually the team that can meet a threshold level of acceptable assets among a list of preferred teams the star has indicated.

 

luka trade is much worse

as bad as the SGA trade was, you can't blame the clips for going all in with kawhi and PG

if anything, blame the hornets for trading SGA to the clips in the first place

 

btw, defense piece for SGA here.

my issue with the harden (and now SGA) defenders is that they can never really make the argument that their guy is actually being officiated properly. they make two separate arguments:

1. that their guy is good.
2. that their guy has a special talent for understanding referees.

the latter is b*******, and i'll never accept it, tbh.

the former is fine but does nothing to really address the point. lots of players are good or athletically gifted, or whatever. not everyone gets to push off with impunity. knowing that you're going to get away with it isn't admirable, imo.

the whole piece is really just saying that he's a good athlete who moves weirdly, and thus it's ok for the refs to give him special treatment, and we should all shut up about it.

this makes zero sense to me, and it reads EXACTLY like defenses of harden during his prime FTA days.

"he's not a foul merchant."

"ok...he is, but...you gotta appreciate the manipulative artistry!"

no, i don't.

 

Not everyone likes Shai
Pat McAfee: «He often falls, even when no one touches him, and the referee whistle fouls on him. This playoffs has been a lot more physical,but Shai is like NBA from five years ago when everyone flopped. Is it a skill? It annoys me. Should this annoy me?

Jamal Crawford: «This should not be annoying. If you remove all his FT, he will still be the leader in points per game

 

he averaged 32 points including 8 made FTs per game, jamal. of course they matter.

further, the argument i always made about wade was that he also got to be more aggressive and get more clean buckets because he knew the refs were going to be on his side 4 times out of 5. so it shows up in made FG (and especially fg%).

anyway, i like him more than harden because he plays defense and because he actually can score in a lot of ways (prime harden had no midrange and really wasn't a strong finisher without the refs). but that doesn't mean he's not a foul merchant--he definitely is.