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

xp

They should hold on to them until the offseason probably. They don't need to do anything to remake the team next year because Harris is UFA and they will have a ton of room. Keep their options open and see what develops. Not sure that Morey sees things that way.

thing about free agency these days is almost no one good every actually seems to become a free agent, it makes too much sense for both the players and teams to just resign then maybe do a trade at some point

maybe theres a guy who want to go to philly out there tho, usually its not good teams that have the cap space

the PJ tucker era in philly will remain hilarious to me… i guess after last season’s smashing playoff success this team no longer requires the hard nosed veteran leadership & cultural stability only PJ tucker can provide

its funny when role players become famous

if you look at next year’s FA class it’s not like the sixers have some expansive menu to choose from. they’re gonna give maxey a massive bag and then they will potentially be able to sign kawhi, PG, siakam or OG, if any of them actually make it there. realistically they’re prob looking at one of the two raptors guys

a raptors guy would be great for them, siakam seems very focused on getting the super max from toronto not sure how they feel about that but im sure they dont want to lose him for nothing, og tho idk what his plan is

Thanasis shows why he BELONGS in the NBA 😤 pic.twitter.com/REgaZlrWL1

— BrickMuse (@BrickMuse) October 30, 2023

this is legitimately tough to watch, NBA nepotism is crazy

i think the raptors really like og prob would be happy to max him out maybe he wants to be on a good team tho, would be leaving money on the table

shoutout to thanasis dude has to be living a great life but def one of my least favorite athletes ever

jesus those clips lmao

my understanding is that OG is basically unextendable bcuz he’s on a crazy low number currently. what i can’t remember is whether a retaining team can make a better offer in the FA period than other teams, or is that only in pre-FA

on siakam there has def been drama there w him like they suspended him for insubordination a few years ago. but also have never traded him so who knows. they’re a very confusing team

my ultimate takeaway is that daryl has some tools at his disposal to fix all of this but if he is making a trade where he’s the one giving up the “star” for a few nice picks & a bunch of flotsam and then resorting to playing the FA game under this league structure… he must feel really backed into a corner

lmao yes I was watching Thanasis the whole time he was on the floor and was stunned at how terrible he was. it feels like his entire life goal is to achieve NBA immortality by being the only player to foul out in 2 minutes of playing time

the bit at :24 where Beauchamp (who hasn't exactly gotten a lot of minutes himself) has to get his attention and point to the man he's supposed to defend was hilarious. like I genuinely wonder how much this dude actually practices

couldnt they just hire him as giannis personal conditioning coach or something

beauchamp actually pushes him toward his man lol

defensive mistakes are back baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVXxk5VrCHg

wizards might break some records this year

you gotta hand it to the wizards GM because you look at their starting line up and it’s all normal NBA players in there w/ the exception of koulibaly. and yet they may still be one of the worst teams we’ve ever seen. like the combined might of poole & kuzma alone may have the power of the process sixers

just an insanely soft team its like they selected specifically for plushness

thing about free agency these days is almost no one good every actually seems to become a free agent, it makes too much sense for both the players and teams to just resign then maybe do a trade at some point

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 31, 2023 9:30 AM (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

maybe theres a guy who want to go to philly out there tho, usually its not good teams that have the cap space

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 31, 2023 9:43 AM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the PJ tucker era in philly will remain hilarious to me… i guess after last season’s smashing playoff success this team no longer requires the hard nosed veteran leadership & cultural stability only PJ tucker can provide

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, October 31, 2023 9:50 AM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Agree with all this re: cap space, it's just nice having a little flexibility for five minutes after being capped out plus no assets for a few years. Just saying they shouldn't blow it on bubble gum just because they can.

OG would probably be a great fit and has the Nurse connection, if that is worth anything.

og would be perfect for them def

tho not sure how hed feel about being a #3 option even if that is his natural spot

i can’t watch the video now but appalling shams is reporting that this was finalized by harris and ballmer.

i was pretty surprised that the sixers/daryl morey would do this now, maybe that explains it.

that's interesting. the narrative that harden returning to play was "untenable" and thus a trade needed to be made expeditiously is the exact opposite of what we understand morey's thinking on this stuff to be, so that seems plausible

i could def picture a scenario where the owners had the same reaction as the rest of us -- "wait this trade is seriously being held up over terance mann?" -- and basically just forced the GMs to figure something out and then called in the trade themselves

i think on its face the sixers got decent value it's just when you take the whole past & potential future scope of all the moves combined where you're kinda like, yeesh

Butler remains the great "what if" of the Sixers

yeah i dont think they were gonna get much better for harden, i mean its not impossible that some other team would decide they need him but its also not impossible that the clippers decide they dont need him

i cant believe teams are stilll coughing up anything valuable to employ harden.

yeah i wouldnt want him on my team for the minimum

kawhi and pg prob wanted him

Makes me think less of them

nba players love stars and are unclear on the concept of aging

do think hardens playmaking will help the clips, but the rest of it idk

ideally he would lean even more into being a point guard than he did in philly considering the clips have guys who can score the ball, which would make his playoff choking less of an issue too

more likely one of kawhi and pg are injured for the offs and harden and russ are your 2nd and 3rd options eesh

i’m a harden disbeliever to my core but if the theory is that as your third option there is a less chance of him driving your championship hopes off a cliff & maybe more of a chance he finds a role in which he can contribute without shitting himself… i guess i can kinda squint and see that? but that’s more to me if he just falls in your lap. they actually gave up real pick assets for him!

xp yes lol. we will be seeing PG, russ and harden shoot a combined 11-60 in game 5 of round 1 with kawhi watching on the bench

i mean they had to give up something, the players they sent over are cooked so its gotta be picks but yeah this is too much

- 2026 LAC first-round pick via OKC
- 2028 LAC first-round pick
- Two second round picks
- One pick swap

- 2026 LAC first-round pick via OKC

btw does this mean la somehow got one of the picks they traded to okc for pg back

I didn't know that the Sixers owner was a Harris and thought that Tobias was really throwing his weight around.

Not sure if this is true, but:

This 2026 pick that the Thunder are sending the Sixers will be the least favorable pick out of a few of the picks that the Thunder possess that year, I'm told. https://t.co/pzZvSQeERB

— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) October 31, 2023

Because they are seemingly always involved in a trade that features draft picks, the Oklahoma City Thunder will help clear the path for the Clippers to trade an additional pick to the 76ers. The Thunder will pick up 2027 first-round pick swap rights, in exchange for sending a protected version of the 2026 Clippers first-round pick they own to the Sixers. (This is likely to end up in a “last favorable” situation of the 2026 picks Oklahoma City owns.)

LA Clippers acquire
James Harden, P.J. Tucker, Filip Petrusev

Oklahoma City Thunder acquire
2027 first-round pick swap rights with the LA Clippers

Philadelphia 76ers acquire
Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Kenyon Martin Jr., Marcus Morris Sr., two first-round picks (protected 2026 Clippers (via Thunder), 2028 Clippers), two second-round picks (2024 Pacers, Jazz or Cavs (TBD), 2029 Clippers) and a 2029 first-round pick swap

https://www.spotrac.com/news/clippers-finally-acquire-james-harden-2057/

thunder dumping their worst pick for a swap that could maybe pay off, which i guess is something you do when you have a million picks

just posting this for the future pick info (assuming it's correct)

The Clippers are a truly hilarious franchise.

Kawhi, PG, Harden & Russ are all FAs after this season.

Here’s what their future 1st round picks look like:

‘24 to OKC
‘25 swap w/ OKC
‘26 to OKC
‘27 swap with OKC
‘28 to PHI
‘29 swap with PHI

They’ve also traded 6 2nds away.

— nick wright (@getnickwright) October 31, 2023

Harden was legitimately pretty good last year: his shooting percentages were right in line with his better years, and his defense was nearly as good as it was in Houston. obviously there's still a ton of risk there - he gets hurt a lot and he might singlehandedly kill you in the playoffs and then demand a trade, but idk I think there's some upside as a 3rd option there

he had a great regular season def and even was pretty cooperative as far as trying to be more of a facilitator and less of a scorer

its pretty funny how second round picks have value in pushing trades over the line but not much value as actual picks, teams want to feel like theyre getting an extra treat