2018 NBA OFFSEASON

It’s gonna cost Kawhi about 5% of his income in taxes to go from home games in Texas to home games in Toronto.

torontos like as cold as boston fwiw, slightly colder than ny

feel like any analysis of this trade should factor in how mad kawhi will be this year as a plus

idk will def be curious to see where his head is at

man I love this move by toronto

I love it for the Spurs

it's good for the spurs if kawhi had truly given up on the team. don't love it for Toronto, feel like they need to win the east now to justify it

no I think they realized they’re at a crossroads and need to shake things up. someone other than lebron is going to win the east for the first time in 9 years — they just traded for the best player in the east (assuming giannis doesn’t have an MVP season I guess) and gave themselves a legit shot at making the finals, regardless of what happens next summer. if he decides to stay, awesome. if he decides to leave, the process of blowing it up becomes a lot easier because now you’re out of derozan’s contract

actually I forgot avout the part where they're getting rid of the DeRozan contract, I like it for them because of that

tbh I would bet on giannis being the best player in the east

toronto doing this while keeping anunoby and siakam is pretty nice

Yeah Kawhi can't afford another lost season so I think that he'll give his 100% this year to be a Laker next season, if things go south for the Raptors, they do have a decent trade asset.

I'm going to miss DeRozan, he is huge part why I went from casually following basketball to being a fan and I'm wishing him the best at SA.

gimme some raptor news

maybe we’re in for a kawhi vengeance tour? I dunno I worry that he might just be broken

Pop gonna have to rewind the clock to the pre 3 pointer discovery era I guess

Or maybe demar x the god chip engellund = magic I dunno

I wonder if Kawhi will hold good on his threat of sitting out the year if he's not a Laker. Would be hilariously dumb so I kinda want to see it happen.

Good for Toronto tho they had to break up that core it just had a hex on it courtesy of bron and now they have a shot plus kept most of their best young dudes

I wonder if Kawhi will hold good on his threat of sitting out the year if he's not a Laker. Would be hilariously dumb so I kinda want to see it happen.

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, July 18, 2018 11:44 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wld be amazing for toronto the league and in fact all of humanity

sad to see the spurs "dynasty" cut short like this but maybe they can pull another MVP level player out of their ass who knows

true it has only lasted [checks records] my entire adult life

ive just watched 5 minutes of jakob poeltl highlights and im now going to say the spurs won this deal.

poll: if kawhi's career goes full grant hill, is he a HOFer?

naw needs a few more years of allstar level production

poeltl is no domantas (I actually think he'll be good, I was just mad when the raps took him over domantas)

poeltl is... ok, already 22, might not have a spot in playoff rotations, weird name pronounced with an r even thos its spelled poeltl

poeltl reminds me of a prototypical spurs center (oberto, splitter) only way more mobile and vertical. guy who will do a ton of screen and roll action and catch lobs/entry passes to get some high percentage shots, and he can anchor the defense. gasol's defensive numbers have been good but he's a liability on switches bc he's so slow.

I think the spurs without an MVP probably end up being a current pacers or jazz type team who always outperform expectations of the roster but still struggle to crack 50 wins

idk about poeltl being a defensive anchor he seems p soft from what ive seen

i think poeltl will have a much better role on the spurs than he did competing for playing time with valanciunas

in the context of "the spurs" he will prob be overall "solid"

his advanced stats are rly strong and didn't get as much playing time. his age 22 stats look a lot like clint capela's and steven adams'.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=0&player_id1_hint=Jakob+Poeltl&player_id1_select=Jakob+Poeltl&y1=2018&player_id1=poeltja01&idx=players&player_id2_hint=Steven+Adams&player_id2_select=Steven+Adams&y2=2016&player_id2=adamsst01&idx=players&player_id3_hint=Clint+Capela&player_id3_select=Clint+Capela&y3=2017&player_id3=capelca01&idx=players

yeah idk capelas upward trajectory has been about as steep as possible and adams is just a beast physically

those are good points, altho (a) the capela season i highlighted above was 16-17 and those numbers were not that far off from his next season's improvement and (b) adams has 25 pounds on poeltl, but same height.

kinda wild that 'getting off the contract' of a current all-nba player (who is healthy) is considered a resounding success. that level of player doesn't grow on trees. and his contract isnt that bad at 27m per year. i think both teams did well honestly.

the spurs losing danny green, slo mo and kawhi is going to really kil their defensive versatility. pop is gonna have to come up with a new identity for this team yet again.

I trust the Popcess

Pop will be an excellent coach right up to the day he packs it in and starts a winery. I, too, trust his ability to wring whatever wins can be wrung from his roster next season.

spurs will be worse defensively for sure, although getting murray more minutes in place of defensive negatives like parker and mills should mitigate that a little. but the spurs offense sucked last year. demar should help a lot in that regard, and if he's used more as a slasher and kickout guy as opposed to a midrange jump shooter, it should open things up for 3 point shooting.

Both Derozan and Aldridge made moves to improve in 3pt land last season too and they will only continue I reckon this season. Interested to see how much Pop gets out of Demar defensively.

i never understood why pop ditched the crazy ball movement offense that got them their last chip, it was so nice

Pretty much personnel I think. Kawhi is an ISO player and his passing is one of the weakest aspects of his game

kawhi is actually very bad at basketball. you see, the thing is, he doesnt actually play.

i think there's more risk to this for toronto than you guys are acknowledging. "getting out from under the derozan contract" sounds nice but if kawhi walks you're a team still paying lowry/ibaka/norm powell and potentially jonas $83 million in 19-20 and idk if any of those save powell is movable even as expirings. without derozan or kawhi you're not doing anything that season but you're still not bad enough to get a good pick in 2020. so your rebuild is delayed at least 1 year, and you don't have a 2019 pick. their cap sheet is wide open starting in 2020 but still not sure who is signing in toronto especially for a team that could have no other vets. so maybe you start a full rebuild then but if so your young players are OG and siakam and delon wright if you want to keep them. that's basically it. so then it's a FULL teardown and maybe that works, or maybe you suck for 4 years and start yearning for the time when you were a top 2 seed and in the second round of the playoffs every year.

of course there is the upside of kawhi staying so it's not a crazy risk. i just don't think it's risk free in the slightest.

part of that "beautiful game" team was personnel. passing big men like diaw, splitter, and a productive tony and manu were the keys to that. once leonard became all-world and they got LMA, their offense changed to suit those two.

xxp

It’s def not risk free obv since kawhi is just a mystery now

That’s all just the regular danger of pushing the boulder near the top of the mountain tho. It’s probably gonna end badly and crush you but maybe you get there

Oklahoma City and Atlanta in trade talks, with Thunder targeting Dennis Schroder and Mike Muscala, per sources. Carmelo Anthony would go to Atlanta, with Hawks doing buyout. Atl looking to add asset to make Melo’s buyout a wash. Getting rid of Schroder is No. 1 priority.

— Mitch Lawrence (@Mitch_Lawrence) July 18, 2018

Ziller says it well on SB Nation

But if Ujiri believes that these Raptors reached their zenith with 59 wins and another spring sweep, and if Ujiri had trouble finding a path to move Lowry but was looking ahead to a retooling around the team’s younger players, then trading DeRozan was the best shot.

To do that and get at least one year of a top-5 player when healthy is incredible. If it works, the Raptors might have their best team ever and a conference champion. If the Kawhi experiment goes sour, the Raptors are in a retool and rebuild mode that seemed inevitable back in May.

Really, Ujiri can sell this move however he wants, and he can sell it totally dependent on what actually happens. If Toronto breaks the 60-win barrier and makes a run at the NBA Finals in a LeBron-less conference, this move was all about landing Kawhi. (You have to hope, for the Raptors’ sake, that such success would lead Leonard to remain in Toronto.) If Toronto falls flat, this move was a moon shot that opened the door for a needed retooling.

i don't think a team whose young assets are OG anunoby, delon wright and pascal siakam would be "retooling." that's a full on rebuild. if they had kept derozan and eventually shed lowry/ibaka then i could see the retool thing. rebuilding can be very not fun!!! (still think you do the trade in a heartbeat of course)

i think all the problems jordan described were on the horizon anyway, like if the point is that they have some tough salaries on the books then that was definitely, definitely true when it also included 3 more years of demar.

one thing i don't like very much is rolling the dice on this with nick nurse as a first-year coach who doesn't seem like he was the first choice for the job.

schroder backing up westbrook is a funny concept

i don't think a team whose young assets are OG anunoby, delon wright and pascal siakam would be "retooling." that's a full on rebuild. if they had kept derozan and eventually shed lowry/ibaka then i could see the retool thing. rebuilding can be very not fun!!! (still think you do the trade in a heartbeat of course)

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, July 18, 2018 3:00 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's retooling in the sense that Lowry and Ibaka are still Raptors. I do not believe they need a full rebuild for the next 2-3 seasons.