stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

ant is great. i'm not sure he's so great that he will just be able to lift any old team past the first round. at least in the next 3-4 years. can he impose his will on a playoff series and put a team on his back and just drag them up the mountain? maybe he can't do that until he's 28 (seven years from now)? so we'll see

i think they have to play their KAT card but it feels like a copy of the trae young conversation where you're looking for a team that is willing to give up significant assets to acquire a massive contract for a one-way player who is prob not good enough to take his team past the second round (or first, shit) w/o significant help and/or luck. an elite big man shooter is easier to fit into a team than a ball hog PG but KAT isn't being paid like he's brook lopez. and the wolves essentially fucked their franchise trading for a guy to play his position bcuz KAT doesn't really have anywhere to play on D. so idk. but if i was them i'd be looking to get off that contract tomorrow if i could

I have to assume Rudy is almost untradable now

Best case for Rudy-dumping is trading him for another maxed-out or nearly-maxed player who's on a shorter duration contract, but is generally less playable than Rudy. I wonder if Kawhi would qualify?

I mean, I don't think the Clips even think about that would they?

ummm no

haha no way in hell

damn rudy has a player option in 2026…

the wolves aren’t in an idea situation, but they have a budding superstar who’s 21 and a guy in KAT who should be tradeable despite his obviously limitations; he’s still on the team that drafted him and I don’t think there’s precedent for a guy with his pedigree not finding a suitor to give him another shot in a new situation. the clippers are a disaster but then playing in LA makes things a little easier to swallow…even still I’d probably rather be the wolves

I don’t think there’s precedent for a guy with his pedigree not finding a suitor to give him another shot in a new situation

we also don't have precedent for players getting paid $50m+ per year. if you trade for KAT you're taking on salaries of $50m, $54m & $58m for the three seasons *after* next year (he gets paid $36m in 23-24) right as the new CBA rules that hammer teams for going too far into the tax kick in. now, the CBA does incentivize teams to go some way into the tax, but if you're paying KAT $55m you're presumably trying to compete in a real way while operating under an effective hard cap. and you know that KAT has to be, at best, your second best player if you're going to be a title contender. so then you gotta find another guy making a similar salary or even more, while also filling out your roster & you're down assets (presumably) bcuz you traded for KAT.

all of which is to say again if i'm the wolves i'm trying to get rid of KAT immediately. the future on that contract looks really bad & i don't see how his value increases the closer those $50m salaries become to reality. i think he can play better in the playoffs w/ more experience (he just does a lot of dumb shit) but he's also a 27 year old who has been in the league for 8 years. i think we probably know what he is at this point.

i'm really curious how teams look at guys like dame, beal, KAT etc who could be out on the market but have the insane extensions that from my perspective look even worse given the new CBA landscape

KAT is a much better player than just being a "salary dump" but if i could salary dump that contract & get nothing back except some roster clarity & future salary cap space i'd do it

he also missed 2/3 the season. and extremely untimely injuries to 2 of their top 6 players. i think theyll be a top 4-6 team next year if everyone stays relatively healthy.

are you talking about the t wolves

Yah

Kat entering his prime. Ant, Jaden another year older. Full season w Conley instead of DLo

putting denver aside on one end and houston, san antonio, portland & utah aside on the other end you could plausibly tell me that any of the other 10 west teams could finish between 4-6. but i still see the wolves as an 8-12 team

the biggest thing that sucked about KAT being out for so long is it provides this blank space where you could project anything, we went through a whole year and still don't really know. i could see management going either way, get out from under KAT get back some picks or - which I think is plausible - what Spottie just said, run this back and it can only get better.

are they willing to pay naz reid is another question. their tax bill is gonna start hiking real quick

I just don’t think a team with edwards, gobert, and either KAT or what KAT gets flipped for is a real threat to finish out of the play-in. they’re probably closer to 6-8 than 4-6 imo tho

are they willing to pay naz reid is another question. their tax bill is gonna start hiking real quick

― Spottie, Wednesday, April 26, 2023 3:37 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think they are going to let him go, hopefully to the jazz so him and walker kessler be the twin towers of wolves regret

feels like ant will eventually be good enough to earn a top 4 seed for whatever team he's on, but also feels like that team isn't gonna be minnesota

they need to can finch. he clearly has no clue.

the more I think about it, given Ant's and Jaden's progression it would be nice - had the Rudy trade not happened - to have the option of trading KAT, getting another good player and picks, having a Naz Reid and Walker Kessler as diet KAT and Rudy but way younger and cheaper, then keeping some of the intriguing young pieces like Alexander-Walker, Josh Minott, Luka Garza and being in the same zone as OKC

uhh....ok?

Anthony Edwards could face legal action,per @DenverSportsCom

“A law enforcement source said Edwards picked up a chair & swung it, striking a security guard…A source confirmed the incident and said both employees were injured & asked to file charges.”

pic.twitter.com/gtSYeMA5YR

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) April 26, 2023

I mean... c'mon

im not seeing much there but idk.

i think we can all agree it should be legal for ant edwards to do wrestling moves on ppl and arena employees sitting courtside

I keep watching that clip and wondering what I'm supposed to be seeing

well he's swinging a metal chair in a crowded space while running which isn't wise but it's not the ideal angle to know what the hell happened

a better angle

Had this sent to me, Idk original source. Credit to them.

It is unreal how something as harmless as moving a chair can get the assault label and ensuing fallout.

Everyone involved is a joke. pic.twitter.com/IbOL04ptz1

— Jackson Lloyd (@JacksonLloydNBA) April 26, 2023

Unbelievable

Lol also as more and more phone videos of this are going to surface and studied like the Zapruder film

very serious stuff call the cops

i mean he clearly hit the blonde lady in the back. that would hurt

video got sent to us

yeah kinda hard to tell still but the tip of one of the legs coulda dinged her pretty good. reckless and dumb from the kid.

lad,

extremely normal thing to do with a metal chair

dont worry im sure both employees are going to get a nice little check for calling the police

if thats what file charges means in the first tweet maybe its just some hr shit if so fine please stop swinging chairs laddy

although it does saw law enforcement source i guess

does acab include security guards

surely the team will cough up a bag of cash to get them to not press charges that's just how this works right

💰

idk its not like theres a felony there lawsuit is prob the more likely thing they want to avoid

if you were at a cookout and some guy swung a chair celebrating getting a ringer in horseshoes and he accidentally hit two people a little bit with the chair and they called the cops would they even come idk

i support a little involuntary wealth redistribution. ant can afford it

would think itd be the team that pays but same diff

maybe theyll fine him idk

cavaliers, bucks: welcome to the nba offseason

good post-mortem of the Wolves season:

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2023/04/greater-expectations-not-met-with-greater-results-in-entertaining-but-disappointing-season-for-wolves/

shams already on the bud beat hes done

“Mike Budenholzer’s status as Bucks head coach is very much shaky, there are questions across the organization… I’m told Budenholzer has two years and $16 million left on his contract.”

NBA Insider @ShamsCharania reports on Milwaukee following its disappointing playoff exit. pic.twitter.com/WhmEtPNR5R

— The Rally (@TheRally) April 27, 2023

$5M for each timeout he didnt use

btw hes not shams level but sam amick is a really bad writer

A businessman who was part of the group that bought the team for $550 million in 2014 and sold at a valuation point of $3.5 billion nine years later.

the nytimes should give the athletic some editors just an idea

https://i.imgur.com/a430Ioi.png

seems like a lot

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels has agreed to a five-year, $136M contract extension, his agents Nima Namakian of @InnovateSports and Bill Duffy of @WME_Sports tell me and @JonKrawczynski.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 23, 2023

One year for each finger he broke when he punched the wall and fucked his team's playoff chances

lol

ok who’s starting the new thread

2023/24 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "THANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

last of the stashing - hawk's extend Okongwu's rookie deal, 4yr 62mil but do not extend Bey who will now be a free agent this offseason

that could be a steal of a contract for okongwu

agreed he fits a whole lot better in Snyder's scheme. replacing Collins and Capela with Okongwu and Johnson is going to make the hawks really fun

locking up a young guy on a cheap deal usually works out pretty good if theyve any promise

i guess thats not totally a cheap deal but it seems pretty reasonable

in *this economy* thats a great deal