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I like Illysova a little bit but he's not a guy you trade Stauskas and a first for.
Was about to post that.
Yup
I think JR Smith will play well with James. I'm more concerned about Irving. He looks terrible lately.
Thought I read somewhere that they were buddies. Not sure how, or why... I'll try and find it in the morning.
I think the gist of it is JR would travel to Akron in the summer to train with James. We're talking high school, since they are roughly the same age, maybe leaking into their NBA careers.
FIFY.
Not sure where you got that 60% from. Their first 27 games they were 21-6 and opponents were shooting 71.6%. A little low and unsustainable but nothing terribly ridiculous. The Bucks opponents were actually lower at 70.4%. Bumping them up to about 75% would only added about a point a game which wouldn't likely have cost them a game as they had been outscoring teams by 8.7 at that point. Since then, opponents have been shooting 75% against them which is heavily skewed by the Bulls going 43/47 (13 FTA in the last 2 minutes). Removing that game and teams are shooting 72% during their 'regression' (Wiz opponents shooting 70.9% during that stretch).TobiasFunke said:
Don't remember where I saw it- I assume the sample size was much smaller than 27 games, like maybe their 13-2 start? And yeah, DeRozan's injury and the schedule flipping on them is obviously a significant factor in their regression. I still like them a lot, though- certainly more than the Wiz, probably about even with the Bulls. Although they trail the Wiz by a half-game in the standings the point differential paints a vastly different picture. There's also the fact that they're guaranteed a division title, although the way the Cavs are playing the top 4 may not have to worry about home court anyway.
In their first 5-15 games it hovered between 65-70%; someone is feeding you some bad numbers.
Did you see that crazy Globe and Mail article about their long-term goal to sign Wiggins in 2021, and how winning two playoff series may be "more trouble than its worth"? I don't get that. There are a lot of paths to the Finals for them this season- an injury to any of four Hawks players might actually make them the favorite in the East unless the Bulls or Cavs flip the switch. Sure, they probably get killed by the West team once they get there, but reaching the Finals is a big enough achievement that if you have a reasonable shot and there's a move to be made, I think you gotta make it.
Nah. Newspaper articles are the absolute last place I go for sports news; especially Toronto (Jays or Raptors) news. Terrible stuff. The only decent writer in Toronto is Doug Smith @ the Toronto Sun. Used to read his blog before they put it behind a paywall.
That would be an amazing trade for OKC, but in would also push them significantly above the tax line. The trade really doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Brooklyn though. They would be trading their only asset other than Plumlee and one of the better half dozen centers in the NBA if he's healthy, and they will still have tons of money on the books between Williams and Johnson with limited first rounders the next four years. I'm guessing this trade doesn't go through, or if it does, there are more assets going to Brooklyn and OKC finds a way to dump more salary.
The salaries all work, the trade just doesn't make much sense to me.
Just FYI, but according to ESPN Jackson is not involved in the rumored trade. Although other pieces could be added to make the salaries work.
The trade only makes sense for OKC. Brooklyn dumps its best player to pickup a headcase. Charlotte dumps the headcase (which makes sense) but takes on Jack who isn't very good and has more guaranteed money left on his contract. I suppose Charlotte also gets Lamb, so maybe they think taking on Jack is worth taking a chance on Lamb for the next 1.5 years. Even for OKC, the trade goes against everything they've been about. They add something like $3M in salary taking them $5M or so over the tax. This seems like an odd year to go over the tax as they are probably only a little better than 50/50 to even make they playoffs and they traded Harden a few years ago when they were title contenders to save money.
He's also a strong rim protector, but i would be very suspicious if I were the Thunder that the Nets are selling for pretty much pennies on the dollar. Prior to the injury last year, Lopez probably would have been one of the top 15 assets/players in the NBA, and now Brooklyn is trading him for what amounts to cap relief? Maybe they know something about his foot that we don't.
Don't forget that the Thunder tried to keep Harden and would have gone over the tax. They offered James 13ish, which would have put them well over the cap.
Brooklyn saves about $8 next season (and half that for the remainder of this season) and they get a guy who might help put people in the seats while they're losing. Stephenson was a Brooklyn HS legend.
Nets are only motivated to get under the luxury tax for next season since Prok is trying to sell (and getting rid of Jack's 6.3 cap figure is a win for them also). Everything else is just window dressing.
They wouldn't have been over the tax if they had amnestied Perkins one year AFTER trading Harden. They had one more full year of Harden before their hand was forced. At that point they could have Amnestied Perkins who made $7.8M, never having acquired Lamb or Adams they would have saved $4.2M and they would have never needed to sign Fisher and his $1.4M. There is $13.4M, which is just a hair under Harden's max salary of $13.7 last season.
The Knicks went into the season actually hoping to win and have a payroll of a team attempting to win. That all came crumbling of course so they've moved into full on tank mode. Pretty different scenario from Philly IMO.
His defensive rating has always fluctuated between bad and horrific, he's not a passer, and he hates rebounding. He has a player option for $16m next year and he will send OKC soaring into the luxury tax. He's basically missed two whole seasons since 2011 with a foot injury. IIRC the Nets were a lot better without him last year. He's a great post scorer but I am just not convinced that would move the needle all that much for a team with so many ball dominant perimeter isolation scorers. seems desperate to me.
I understand that as an owner is trying to sell a team they like to dump all the future salary obligations they can, but I just find it hard to believe that this is the best offer they can get for Lopez. The Stephenson trade could happen without OKC's help, Lamb isn't highly regarded. There has got to be a better deal they could get for Lopez while still squeaking under the tax.
I think with everything that's happened afterwards it's the worst trade in league history. Could become one of the worst in American sports history. They took a budding dynasty and flushed it down the drain. And in doing so, traded the guy to a conference contender.
I guess it depends on what you think of Stephenson (and it's Stephenson plus cap relief). The only real recent comp is Rondo and that netted Boston basically 2 late 1st round picks (my memory may be off on that though).
They would be replacing Perkins with Lopez. It doesn't matter too much what you think about Lopez, you can realize how big of an upgrade that would be for them. I do agree with you that it doesn't seem like a good fit though, and it certainly doesn't feel like a trade they would be seeking. It almost seems like they are the team leaking this to the press to show their fans that they are trying to improve the team and they are willing to take on salary, even though the trade wouldn't go through.
Nobody's rooting against an OKC title in the next two seasons more than me, but I think this is excessive. They won 59 games and were the 2 seed in the West just last season. They were perhaps an Ibaka injury away from reaching the Finals, and even with him out for Game 1 and questionable the rest of the way they went to OT in Game 6. They were pretty close. The season before that they won 60 and were the 1 seed until Westbrook was injured. If their bad luck with late injuries had befallen the Spurs instead they likely make the Finals three seasons in a row.
My point is that they could likely make the Stephenson trade without OKC's help and find a more beneficial trade for Lopez. The number of teams willing to trade for Stephenson is very small, if Charlotte wants to get rid of him, they don't have many options.
