2025-26 NBA Thread: Pelicans fan dismayed team not involved in gambling scandal, they are just actually this bad (19 Viewers)

[Jayrod]

Jokic is probably playing the best offensive basketball of just about any 11 game stretch of anybody ever - He is averaging 28.8/13.1/10.9 on .773 TS% so far this year. He has a WS/48 of .468 (the season record is .340), PER of 39.4 (record is 32.9), and BPM of 20.8 (record of 13.72) - even that TS% is 4% higher than anybody ever.

Another MVP or championship and he enters the upper echelon among Magic/Bird/Wilt/Russell/Duncan. He's already one of the greatest offensive players of all time.

His 6 game stretch:
"He's the first player in NBA history to average a 35-point triple-double while shooting 60% or better across a six-game stretch. He's averaging 35.8 points, 12.0 rebounds and 11.0 assists while shooting 73.9% from the field and 55.6% from 3-point range." https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46950822/nikola-jokic-puts-55-nuggets-rout-clippers

 

[Desert_Power]

Jokic is probably playing the best offensive basketball of just about any 11 game stretch of anybody ever - He is averaging 28.8/13.1/10.9 on .773 TS% so far this year. He has a WS/48 of .468 (the season record is .340), PER of 39.4 (record is 32.9), and BPM of 20.8 (record of 13.72) - even that TS% is 4% higher than anybody ever.

Another MVP or championship and he enters the upper echelon among Magic/Bird/Wilt/Russell/Duncan. He's already one of the greatest offensive players of all time.

I hope he gets another ring at some point. But the West is tough and not sure how Denver builds the other pieces around him.

 

[Zeppelin]

His 6 game stretch:
"He's the first player in NBA history to average a 35-point triple-double while shooting 60% or better across a six-game stretch. He's averaging 35.8 points, 12.0 rebounds and 11.0 assists while shooting 73.9% from the field and 55.6% from 3-point range." https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46950822/nikola-jokic-puts-55-nuggets-rout-clippers

That's just crazy.

 

[Sammy3469]

Ja Morant + Brandon Clarke
For
Anthony Davis

Works in the trade machine.

I can't think of a worse player than Morant to kick off a rebuild.

I pay zero attention to contracts and the like so this is maybe (probably?) a dumb comment but I’d take him over Trae Young.

was wondering earlier today, do Atlanta fans embrace Trae Young? is he popular there?

Atlanta is such a weird sports city.

• Lots of transplants
• college sports are bigger than pro sports.
• Larger black population than white in the city - but the teams outside the Braves have sucked for decades. The biggest known stars over the years have been white and mostly Braves players.
• The city in general and especially in the AA community have been starved of star players that we can call our own. Dominique was the closest we had until Vick.
• It’s hard to explain how big Vick was here because he was legit the first guy that we had that seemed like a superstar- that whole saga really deflated the sports community
• Other than that most of the other guys have been fringe all-star guys for a season or two.

So, to now answer your question. Trae came in and the city embraced him even though several of us hated they traded Luca to get him (and obviously it was a stupid decision - not Nico-level stupid but still stupid). But he came in and put on a show - similar to Nique. But it’s clear you can never win anything with him as your centerpiece. He hasn’t done anything wrong and people still love to watch him play because he is entertaining. But as a life long fan who wants to win I just wish he’d go away - he’s incapable of changing his game and his size is always going to be a huge liability on defense which I’m assuming is why he barely tries. He takes horrible 3’s all the time.

It’s no coincidence they’ve looked better and won more since he’s been out.

Seriously, the person who has to be Nico's biggest fan Travis Schlenk. No one even brings up that trade anymore.

 

[Sammy3469]

If losing by 40 to the Hawks at home doesn’t convince Vivek to embrace the tank, nothing will.

I would be very interested to see them tear it all down, if only for the reason that I have no idea what they could get for anybody.

• Sabonis and his trade value has been well discussed here. Quietly, the Kings have been MUCH (like 20 pp100) better with Eubanks on the floor - I haven't heard any talk of this though. After watchin them play the Nuggets twice in ~a week, it really stood out to me so I looked up if it was a season trend. It very much is. I think they are probably better just hanging on to him to have a crowd favorite.
• LaVine has been quietly kind of great on an individual level for the last two seasons (.642 TS%, .443 3pt%, 23.4 ppg). He would have a very good market if he didn't make $47.5m.
• Schroder has been off to a terrible start but is probably positive value on his contract.
• DeRozan, much like Sabonis, probably has a couple teams that value him significantly more than the rest of the league. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody desperate for reliable offense gave up a bad 1st.
• Monk is playing well enough but a little overpaid for a 6th man. Positive value but not 1st round positive.
• By far their best asset is Keegan Murray but they just overpaid him. With his extension, they probably couldn't trade him until the offseason when the poison pill ends.

I think their best bet would be to exchange some of their decent players for bad salary to get extra value. The issue being there that most of the bad salary is on teams that aren't good enough to pay to dump salary (Wizards, Blazers, Pels, Chicago). The only awful contract that seems to make sense on some level would be Paul George.

LaVine would have decent value if the team taking him can extend reasonably. However, I don't know how many teams are in the market for a 30 year SG who presumably wants to get PAID though (that's not a knock on his contract, just on the state of NBA rosters in general). Most of the playoff quality top 6 teams seem fairly settled for the next year or two and everyone else seems fine with developing over time.

I won't be surprised if DeRozan ends up getting bought out.

 

[thecatch]

If losing by 40 to the Hawks at home doesn’t convince Vivek to embrace the tank, nothing will.

I would be very interested to see them tear it all down, if only for the reason that I have no idea what they could get for anybody.

• Sabonis and his trade value has been well discussed here. Quietly, the Kings have been MUCH (like 20 pp100) better with Eubanks on the floor - I haven't heard any talk of this though. After watchin them play the Nuggets twice in ~a week, it really stood out to me so I looked up if it was a season trend. It very much is. I think they are probably better just hanging on to him to have a crowd favorite.
• LaVine has been quietly kind of great on an individual level for the last two seasons (.642 TS%, .443 3pt%, 23.4 ppg). He would have a very good market if he didn't make $47.5m.
• Schroder has been off to a terrible start but is probably positive value on his contract.
• DeRozan, much like Sabonis, probably has a couple teams that value him significantly more than the rest of the league. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody desperate for reliable offense gave up a bad 1st.
• Monk is playing well enough but a little overpaid for a 6th man. Positive value but not 1st round positive.
• By far their best asset is Keegan Murray but they just overpaid him. With his extension, they probably couldn't trade him until the offseason when the poison pill ends.

I think their best bet would be to exchange some of their decent players for bad salary to get extra value. The issue being there that most of the bad salary is on teams that aren't good enough to pay to dump salary (Wizards, Blazers, Pels, Chicago). The only awful contract that seems to make sense on some level would be Paul George.

LaVine would have decent value if the team taking him can extend reasonably. However, I don't know how many teams are in the market for a 30 year SG who presumably wants to get PAID though (that's not a knock on his contract, just on the state of NBA rosters in general). Most of the playoff quality top 6 teams seem fairly settled for the next year or two and everyone else seems fine with developing over time.

I won't be surprised if DeRozan ends up getting bought out.

He's on a partial guarantee next year. I think it's more likely someone gives up an asset and a bad contract to acquire Derozan's deal and save some money next year.

 

[Kev4029]

Jokic is probably playing the best offensive basketball of just about any 11 game stretch of anybody ever - He is averaging 28.8/13.1/10.9 on .773 TS% so far this year. He has a WS/48 of .468 (the season record is .340), PER of 39.4 (record is 32.9), and BPM of 20.8 (record of 13.72) - even that TS% is 4% higher than anybody ever.

Another MVP or championship and he enters the upper echelon among Magic/Bird/Wilt/Russell/Duncan. He's already one of the greatest offensive players of all time.

I hope he gets another ring at some point. But the West is tough and not sure how Denver builds the other pieces around him.

I think they have the other pieces around him. I don't think they are as good as OKC but I think they match up very well with them and I think they are measurably better than the other 28 teams in the league. If everybody is healthy, I think there is a 90% chance that the champ this year will be one of those two teams. The only thing I would like to see the Nuggets get is a backup PG - Murray is not the best PG against backcourt pressure and the team's combination of "backup" PGs (Brown, Strawther, Braun, and Pickett... especially Pickett) are bad against backcourt pressure. It'll be tough to fill that void with somebody that is both good enough offensively and not a horrible liability defensively while not demanding to be part of the full time rotation. Chris Paul? Jose Alvarado? Deuce McBride? Jokic would love to have Bogdan Bogdanovic and he would come cheap.... I wonder if Strawther, Nnaji, Pickett/Tyson would work.

 

[Kev4029]

If losing by 40 to the Hawks at home doesn’t convince Vivek to embrace the tank, nothing will.

I would be very interested to see them tear it all down, if only for the reason that I have no idea what they could get for anybody.

• Sabonis and his trade value has been well discussed here. Quietly, the Kings have been MUCH (like 20 pp100) better with Eubanks on the floor - I haven't heard any talk of this though. After watchin them play the Nuggets twice in ~a week, it really stood out to me so I looked up if it was a season trend. It very much is. I think they are probably better just hanging on to him to have a crowd favorite.
• LaVine has been quietly kind of great on an individual level for the last two seasons (.642 TS%, .443 3pt%, 23.4 ppg). He would have a very good market if he didn't make $47.5m.
• Schroder has been off to a terrible start but is probably positive value on his contract.
• DeRozan, much like Sabonis, probably has a couple teams that value him significantly more than the rest of the league. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody desperate for reliable offense gave up a bad 1st.
• Monk is playing well enough but a little overpaid for a 6th man. Positive value but not 1st round positive.
• By far their best asset is Keegan Murray but they just overpaid him. With his extension, they probably couldn't trade him until the offseason when the poison pill ends.

I think their best bet would be to exchange some of their decent players for bad salary to get extra value. The issue being there that most of the bad salary is on teams that aren't good enough to pay to dump salary (Wizards, Blazers, Pels, Chicago). The only awful contract that seems to make sense on some level would be Paul George.

LaVine would have decent value if the team taking him can extend reasonably. However, I don't know how many teams are in the market for a 30 year SG who presumably wants to get PAID though (that's not a knock on his contract, just on the state of NBA rosters in general). Most of the playoff quality top 6 teams seem fairly settled for the next year or two and everyone else seems fine with developing over time.

I won't be surprised if DeRozan ends up getting bought out.

Lavine for Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert would work. I doubt Detroit would give up much more than a protected first rounder next season, if that, but they do have so many incoming 2nd rounders. Maybe Ivey could be included and the trade grows a little bit to get Monk and Ellis or something.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Not sure if a BS social media thing, but I saw that Nico was floating trading Flagg and that partially led to him being fired?

 

[Mister CIA]

I have poor attention skills, but is there any discussion to be had around a deal of AD for Trae? Maybe mix Toronto into the mix: AD > Toronto; Trae > Dallas > Quickly to ATL, as a deal starter.

Then Dallas can move on from Kyrie. Not sure if there is any remorse in Orlando, but I'd be intrigued by a Kyrie for Bane trade if it's possible for the Magic to tread water in the regular season and begin the playoffs with Kyrie (seems like an ambitious recovery tmeline, so probably a no) .

 

[Sammy3469]

If losing by 40 to the Hawks at home doesn’t convince Vivek to embrace the tank, nothing will.

I would be very interested to see them tear it all down, if only for the reason that I have no idea what they could get for anybody.

• Sabonis and his trade value has been well discussed here. Quietly, the Kings have been MUCH (like 20 pp100) better with Eubanks on the floor - I haven't heard any talk of this though. After watchin them play the Nuggets twice in ~a week, it really stood out to me so I looked up if it was a season trend. It very much is. I think they are probably better just hanging on to him to have a crowd favorite.
• LaVine has been quietly kind of great on an individual level for the last two seasons (.642 TS%, .443 3pt%, 23.4 ppg). He would have a very good market if he didn't make $47.5m.
• Schroder has been off to a terrible start but is probably positive value on his contract.
• DeRozan, much like Sabonis, probably has a couple teams that value him significantly more than the rest of the league. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody desperate for reliable offense gave up a bad 1st.
• Monk is playing well enough but a little overpaid for a 6th man. Positive value but not 1st round positive.
• By far their best asset is Keegan Murray but they just overpaid him. With his extension, they probably couldn't trade him until the offseason when the poison pill ends.

I think their best bet would be to exchange some of their decent players for bad salary to get extra value. The issue being there that most of the bad salary is on teams that aren't good enough to pay to dump salary (Wizards, Blazers, Pels, Chicago). The only awful contract that seems to make sense on some level would be Paul George.

LaVine would have decent value if the team taking him can extend reasonably. However, I don't know how many teams are in the market for a 30 year SG who presumably wants to get PAID though (that's not a knock on his contract, just on the state of NBA rosters in general). Most of the playoff quality top 6 teams seem fairly settled for the next year or two and everyone else seems fine with developing over time.

I won't be surprised if DeRozan ends up getting bought out.

Lavine for Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert would work. I doubt Detroit would give up much more than a protected first rounder next season, if that, but they do have so many incoming 2nd rounders. Maybe Ivey could be included and the trade grows a little bit to get Monk and Ellis or something.

That was the one place I was thinking might work, but I don't totally understand the whole Ivey thing. Of all the teams, they seem like the one with one meaningful move available (right amount and length of movable salaries, picks, need), but do you really want that move to be LaVine and his defense? Dunno. I think the smarter move is looking for an upgrade on Harris especially since he's expiring (and thinking this through, Lauri, if he's available, may make more sense)

 

[mr. furley]

Not sure if a BS social media thing, but I saw that Nico was floating trading Flagg and that partially led to him being fired?

the leaks about Nico Harrison these past few days have been pretty funny but this seems almost impossible to be true

 

[Mister CIA]

Not sure if a BS social media thing, but I saw that Nico was floating trading Flagg and that partially led to him being fired?

Nico needs a meaty character role in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

 

[John123]

Jokic is probably playing the best offensive basketball of just about any 11 game stretch of anybody ever - He is averaging 28.8/13.1/10.9 on .773 TS% so far this year. He has a WS/48 of .468 (the season record is .340), PER of 39.4 (record is 32.9), and BPM of 20.8 (record of 13.72) - even that TS% is 4% higher than anybody ever.

Another MVP or championship and he enters the upper echelon among Magic/Bird/Wilt/Russell/Duncan. He's already one of the greatest offensive players of all time.

I hope he gets another ring at some point. But the West is tough and not sure how Denver builds the other pieces around him.

They did. Not guaranteed but their bench is way better than last year. Even with those impressive numbers I think Jokic is playing 3 min/game less than last year. The bench is not getting killed every time he sits.

 

[Yo Mama]

Not sure if a BS social media thing, but I saw that Nico was floating trading Flagg and that partially led to him being fired?

When I was posting all my fake AD trades the other day, I almost threw in a LeBron for Flagg/Lively deal for the Mavs to lean further into the championship pedigree and reunite LeBron/AD/Kyrie.

 

[Desert_Power]

Jokic is probably playing the best offensive basketball of just about any 11 game stretch of anybody ever - He is averaging 28.8/13.1/10.9 on .773 TS% so far this year. He has a WS/48 of .468 (the season record is .340), PER of 39.4 (record is 32.9), and BPM of 20.8 (record of 13.72) - even that TS% is 4% higher than anybody ever.

Another MVP or championship and he enters the upper echelon among Magic/Bird/Wilt/Russell/Duncan. He's already one of the greatest offensive players of all time.

I hope he gets another ring at some point. But the West is tough and not sure how Denver builds the other pieces around him.

I think they have the other pieces around him. I don't think they are as good as OKC but I think they match up very well with them and I think they are measurably better than the other 28 teams in the league. If everybody is healthy, I think there is a 90% chance that the champ this year will be one of those two teams. The only thing I would like to see the Nuggets get is a backup PG - Murray is not the best PG against backcourt pressure and the team's combination of "backup" PGs (Brown, Strawther, Braun, and Pickett... especially Pickett) are bad against backcourt pressure. It'll be tough to fill that void with somebody that is both good enough offensively and not a horrible liability defensively while not demanding to be part of the full time rotation. Chris Paul? Jose Alvarado? Deuce McBride? Jokic would love to have Bogdan Bogdanovic and he would come cheap.... I wonder if Strawther, Nnaji, Pickett/Tyson would work.

I mostly agree with your take. A backup PG or a guy that can create his own bucket reliably in the playoffs. Obviously they have a core that has done it, for some reason I just doubt they will again. Not trying to be a hater.

 

[SWC]

i still cant believe they stole an mvp from joker and or anteater and gave it to embid i mean come on take that to the bank brochachos

 

[SWC]

nico will never have another nba job where you interact with the press he might get some sit in an office and make sure the trampoline guys are lined up for halftime but thats about it and good thats how it should be take that to the bank bromigos

 

[Moe.]

Going into the season I didn’t think the Thunder had a chance to break the wins record, but I’m starting to think it’s possible and Denver winning a ton of games is a big part of why.

The year GS did it, San Antonio was on their heels all year (GS didn’t lock-up home court until their 70th win or something like that) and I could see the Nuggets playing a similar role this year. There will be no easy matchups in the 2nd round but I think both the Thunder and the Nuggets want no part of each other until the WCF, so Denver might actually take the regular season seriously this year.