2018 NBA OFFSEASON

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.

schroder backing up westbrook is a funny concept

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, July 18, 2018 3:05 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It’s amazing

And if Reggie Jackson is precedent then when they dump shroder at the deadline or next summer we have lots of online shade to look forward to

...

"I just stick to my strengths. Look at the league...they don't pay people to play defense. To say that's a weakness...you can say that's everybody's weakness." -Jabari Parker

Does Parker know what the D in all those now highly prized "3 & D" players stands for?

dick

lmao jabari

i appreciate the self-awareness

thats a "i got this check, fuck with me" statement

3 & D Energy

lmao

haha

Sources close to DeRozan told @ChrisBHaynes that DeRozan met with Toronto brass in Las Vegas during summer league and was told he would not be traded. https://t.co/LUoend6hEn

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 18, 2018

trust me you will not be traded......... today.

fucking Jabroni Parker

Fun little nugget - active NBA players have scored more than Kawhi Leonard career high of 41 points 383 times (65 unique player).

I know it means nothing, but I'm a little sad he never gave us a 55 point+ game in his tenure to remember.

Speaking of shitty teammates is it true that Nash divorced his wife a day after she birthed a brown baby boy courtesy of Jason Richardson? That shit always sounded too wild to be true

— Beyonce has an uncle named Larry Beyince. Bruh.... (@DragonflyJonez) July 19, 2018

some googling reveals this is...probably true?

yeah this was a very juicy topic here in phoenix for a while.

savage

the rumor also ended up landing on Barbosa as well

wait was this a real rumor? lmao

dudes. c'mon. this was THE thing.

It was a dumb rumor.

man, j rich is scummy

The rumor is scummy. The kid looks like Steve.

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/retired-professional-basketball-player-and-founder-of-the-steve-nash-picture-id542237870?s=612x612

the kid thing has been debunked but not the affair. who knows with that. something was up to file for divorce the day of the kids birth.

Oklahoma City has agreed to trade Carmelo Anthony and a protected 2022 first-round pick to Atlanta for point guard Dennis Schroder and Mike Muscala, league sources tell ESPN. Anthony will be waived, and he will join team of his choice. Rockets are frontrunner.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 19, 2018

what are the thunder gonna do with schroder? neither him or russ are good off the ball. russ plays like 45 minutes per game and running them together seems like a bad idea. idk.

Sources: As part of multi-team Carmelo Anthony/Dennis Schröder deal, Atlanta's Mike Muscala will go to Philadelphia, 76ers' Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot will be traded to Oklahoma City and 76ers' Justin Anderson to Atlanta.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 19, 2018