2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Kesley looking good. Hoop Central on X: "Walker Kessler looking unstoppable in open runs. (via @swishcultures_) https://t.co/VGoZ9tLj5M" / X

 

all he does is improve on both ends, and what's he's "produced" is one of the league's very best offensive players. this is incredibly tiresome.

 

Luka Doncic is one of the greatest offensive players of all time and just entered his peak. If healthy, he will average 35+ against OKC and SA, no problem. He is unstoppable.

You always have a chance with a guy like that, even if I think our FO has not done a particularly good job surrounding him with talent.

And no Reaves is not even close, maybe in the regular season he can take the load off Luka, but in the playoffs he hasn't shown to be good enough to be a #2.

You can bring up all the regular season stats you want, but that doesn't mean anything when you get to the playoffs and you have shooting splits of 40/26

 

anyway, i've begun thinking--and activity in the hardy thread brought it back to mind--what happens if no trade materializes?

we still have 16 viable nba players and only 15 roster spots. we could be forced to simply cut someone. would that be hardy or knecht? guessing knecht, as hardy's got the bigger salary, which could help in future trades. i don't think we'd pay in draft capital to get off knecht without having to cut him (i think we would if it were part of a trade, though, if that makes sense).

anyway, it would be weird to end up cutting either, for different reasons. knecht was obviously a first round draft pick who--people have completely forgotten--had a pretty solid rookie year. and hardy--while seemingly acquired to be a trade piece--actually got a jersey number. is that standard practice? is he in the camp in slovenia? he played with luka before. it's just sort of an awkward situation.

 

his playoff splits for his career are 44/36, comparable to lots of guys you would claim are playoff-proven.

his last three series, he was playing hurt, and it was pretty obvious it was affecting his play.

 

Well if we go by stats he will be an all time great But Stats and and making deep playoff runs not the same when building a team. This is why Fans get split and one may find it tiresome. Its not a question if he is talented. But when you have stars role players have to fit and help hide your flaws not compound it. Its different now. Now he is the star. So players have to fit him now. Skills was never the question fit and need was

 

yeah I dont understand why some bad team won't take a flyer on Knecht. He is a versatile scorer who can become at least a microwave bench guy. Thought he could be a Tyler Herro type of player if he progressed.

 

i thought he could be a bojan bogdanovic type, and i'm not sure that's not still possible. like, the nets could use a guy with his skillset, imo. hell, the heat should consider him, too, imo.

 

after playing a potential 82 games its safe to say a number of players enter the playoffs dealing with some form of injury they dealt with and during the playoffs. 3 series in a row the excuse is injury? Jalen Brunson played through a left wrist and forearm injury during the New York Knicks' playoff run, missed 15 games during the season, was seen limping and banged up in the playoffs. This fall in the physical taxing category of the playoffs.

 

yes. three series in a row he was coming off or going into an injury that required him to actually miss playoff games. in his first two years in the playoffs--when that wasn't the case--he looked pretty good.

i laugh a little at the "playoffs are a totally different animal" stuff, tbh. reaves has had huge playoff games and hit huge playoff shots. this idea that he's some sort of shrinking violet doesn't compute for me.

 

i'd also like to point out that in 4 of his last five playoff series, a noted clutch nba player on a super max has basically put up the shooting splits reaves has whilst being an even more problematic defender. i'll let you figure out who it is, but let's just say that people wouldn't be claiming he wasn't worth 40 per or capable of being a #2 on a title team.

 

No, we are not allowed to include his performance during our WCF run in the discussion. Him stepping up big as our official 3rd option and hitting clutch shots against Memphis should be struck from the record.

No evidence that conflicts with the narrative is allowed.

 

Well, i hope Lamelo pisses off Ant and he joins us (demands a trade). Him and Luka with Kessler would be AWESOME.

 

but it resulted in nothing more that easy exits. I cant say Austin injury were more serious than other who have dealt with injuries. an Example is Indy Tyrese Haliburton, they still went to the finals.

 

Reaves is better than Lamelo

 

Well, yeah... but i want Ant, not the Ball brother

 

You’re so much on Reaves’s jock but you have my curiosity now. I don’t know how to figure the mystery out but am curious as to the bold statement that no one would not consider them capable of being a “2 on a title team. Care to share?

 

it's jamal murray, and no one would contest it because he's literally been the #2 guy on a title winner.

for the millionth time, dallas and denver have both shown you can win in the playoffs with a top two similar to the top two we have. we just have a weird contingent of fans who want to doomsay despite these facts.

 

Welp...On another note..we are probably going to play Okc, SA, Denver or Minnesota, in the first round.

We went 0-8 against OKC

1-3 against the Spurs

3-0 against Minnesota

2-1 against Denver.

Those are the measuring stick games for us this season. It will be interesting to see how this group fares against that foursome.

As an aside we went 6-3 against the Firecrackers.

And inexplicably 1-3 against Phoenix

 

Luka is a bad man, but I wouldn't rank him over Jokic. That dude is a 5 playing point guard, and killing it. He's an unicorn for real, there is nobody else like him in the NBA. Luka isn't the only superstar in the West, so I don't know about him just powering us through, due to his magnificent greatness. As great as he was in Dallas, I dont think they ever finished higher than 4th in the West? I believe that was the conference finals team, not the one that went to the Finals.

Austin..my dude..yeah he still has something to prove in the playoffs. It's a different world going from the 3rd option to the 2nd, and the spotlight gets brighter, when you get that 40M contract. He seems to have problems with some guys in his age group, but that's the NBA. Only the super stars ball out against everyone they face. That's a very small, select group of guys.

I guess I'll call this the " Show me what you got" campaign. A lot of guys on this team will be stepping up into bigger roles here. I know Luka is going to ball out, I expect Austin to hold his own for the most part...I have no idea about the rest of the guys tbh.