2020 nba offseason draft free agency etc

the idea of giannis going to toronto is strictly based on the premise of masai recruiting him personally & pitching him on some international vision for his basketball narrative. it has nothing to do w/ the roster of that team. a 35 year old kyle lowry is meaningless to that discussion.

when they tacked on that extra 1/30 to his contract the consensus was that it was to make him more tradable, maybe that was never true or last
season shifted their plans but i don't see why the raptors wouldn't at least entertain similar offers to what are being made for jrue. lowry is very valuable on that contract specifically as it pertains to the summer of 2021 & i'm sure masai knows this. the pelicans minutes share from last year is primarily taken up by young players to begin w/ and that's w/ zion barely playing and small roles for guys like jaxson hayes, frank jackson, alexander-walker etc who need more minutes. the idea that jrue is going to be traded for 19 year olds doesn't make sense. the pelicans want prime-aged players to match w/ their pre-prime core, this is easily telegraphed by their hiring of van gundy and immediate leaking to the press that they aren't trading jj redick.

btw lowry outrated jrue by any advanced metric you can find be it 538 raptor, win shares, win shares per 48, box plus minus, VORP, RPM and it's not particularly close in any one of those stats

i'm not sure, i think toronto having a strong roster would have something to do with giannis making a decision to go there. i always figured the 1/30 was basically a nice balloon payment that would leave them with cap space in 2021 and the opportunity to resign kyle to something a little cheaper using bird rights. i do agree he's a much better player than jrue.

also i don't really know what the pels are looking for in a trade but if you think they want prime-aged players wouldn't the easiest thing be just keeping him around? he's not blocking anyone at his position or something.

yeah if youre trying to win now why trade your best player

i think that's why most ppl don't expect him to be traded. they obviously want to win this year and he's a good fit on their roster. you don't hire SVG and then trade jrue for teenagers, there wouldn't be coherence in that decision. the middle ground is finding a player or two in the 26-28 year old range who checks both present and future boxes. the most sensible trade idea i've heard is jrue to the nets for something involving lavert and dinwiddie, those guys are in prime age and locked into reasonable multi year deals. it's not going to be a trade where the pelicans take back a bunch of picks or 20 year olds, there just isn't room on that team for more young players. zion, ingram, lonzo, hayes, alexander-walker, hart were all first round picks, frank jackson was the first pick of the second round, and they have another lottery pick to use this year.

the idea of giannis choosing toronto is far fetched in the first place and if he went there they would clearly re-sign lowry to like a 2/40 deal or something, but they could also potentially trade him for a player or two more on giannis/siakim/OG's timeline and still make more or less the same pitch to giannis, which, to begin w/, isn't going to be "look at our roster!". if jrue has trade value so does lowry, perhaps more, and if masai is who ppl say he is (a guy willing to make any deal) then idk why he wouldn't look into those offers. he has an incredible amount of sentimental value to that franchise which can't be discounted but that would represent a shift in masai's reported mindset when it comes to roster management.

according to some article i read no one in the league thinks giannis is leaving fwiw

if they get bounced in the playoffs again he could be the most loyal guy in the world and would still have to think about it.

toronto doesn't really make sense unless he just fully buys into the idea of masai as the next front office godfather or w/e

i'm not sure why it doesn't make sense. put him on their current roster and i would have them as the favorite for the championship.

well that would be true for a number of teams. they're prob gonna lose van vleet to FA & lowry is old. it would be a big bet on siakam & OG... i don't really see how that puts him over the top. neither of those guys are even better than middleton. you'd have to find a guard beyond 36 year old lowry. even just in the east the heat present a far more appealing situation

yeah heat and gsw both are for sure better "win now" option for giannis. obv i dot want to him to go to either.

the heat have a case. don't really see a path for him to the warriors.

yeah idk how the warriors would happen contractually unless they did a sign and trade? i don't see him going to LA so i would assume the major threat in the west is dallas. denver makes tons of sense from a roster fit standpoint but him signing there just seems super far fetched

yeah in my mind it's dal/mia/tor if he leaves

if gs was willing to offer dray and/or klay, i think it's feasible.

drays contract isnt very attractive

yah klay would have to be involved

if i was the bucks i would prob just call his bluff and tell him to walk to another team before i took back klay's contract... but maybe klay will look awesome this coming season

i dont know if the warriors would break up the splash bros. i know i would cry

ill be interested to see how the warriors perform if they start the season with wiggins still on the roster

this is shaping up to be a really good regular season - lots of teams who think they have a chance

i'm pretty bullish on the warriors -- wiggins contract is nuts but putting that aside i think he could actually be valuable for them on the court in a harrison barnes type role

i think theyll be somewhat like the 2014-15 team but the other top tier teams are better now

they're taking a number 1 pick who is still only 25 and asking him to be their fourth best player, it could work

a lot comes down to how klay looks post acl and if draymond shows signs of slippage. he was truly great in the last playoff run so i think he's still got plenty in the tank. also need some of those other pieces to land as solid role players. i think theyll use the trade exception too. theyve got options.

yah i have no concerns with wiggins. this is the role for him. he's just paid way too much is the issue.

they need everything to go just right to get back that top level and its rare for everything to go just right. and steph is 33 next year

just hitting that steve nash prime age

they need everything to go just right to get back that top level and its rare for everything to go just right. and steph is 33 next year

― micah, Wednesday, November 4, 2020 5:18 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

their margin for error is the same as any of the other top tier teams imo.

i'm honestly not sure that everything needs to go right. there is no juggernaut in the west right now. the clippers got embarrassed and have a roster that is in flux. the lakers got taken pretty close to the edge by a broken down heat team w/ much less top end talent than the warriors. nuggets and mavs still have a lot to prove. rockets are out of the picture, utah isn't scaring anyone. i don't think it's likely that the warriors come out of the west but i don't think it's some huge long shot either. imo the age factor is significantly mitigated by the fact that they just took a whole season off. by the time the season starts back up steph won't have played an nba game in 9 months, klay in a year and a half. i think they will look rejuvenated. it worked for lebron

everybody in the west is def slightly flawed. as constituted the warriors could look pretty good and still not have enough depth to get far in the playoffs.

Yah they have work to do to fill out the roster

The National Basketball Players Association has voted to tentatively approve NBA’s proposal for the 2020-21 campaign starting on Dec. 22 and playing 72-game season, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.

NBA set to tip off Christmas week.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 6, 2020

BALL

let's gooooo

trades

they're gonna trade the ball

damn rip talking stick resort arena

Talking Stick Resort announced today the conclusion of its agreement with the Suns over the naming rights to Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Negotiations for a renewal began in early 2020 prior to the pandemic. The resort decided to not renew.

New name for the new-look arena then.

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) November 7, 2020

dammit. that name was hilarious.

nothing can touch Smoothie King as long as that one's around

Ball Arena and Banker's Life Fieldhouse are both funny in their mundaneness too though

A buddy in college worked at a smoothie king and warned everyone that it was filthy and to never go there.

it's true, we are getting ball arena and i'm excited about that

Climate Pledge Arena is not yet an NBA venue but it is an atrocious name, hope u enjoy it

Speaking of arenas, three of the main cities that swung the vote had their arenas used as polling places because of the bubble strike but nobody's talking about How Hoops Saved America.

wld be a nice counterpoint to ratings twitter

the people must know how hoop blocked trump

id go so far as to say the election was "a slam dunk baby"

lame

New Houston Rockets GM Rafael Stone: “We’re still all-in” https://t.co/FADYf1ckQF

— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) November 8, 2020

theyll get a year to try again and then the owner will get cranky

this is one of the better articles i've read in a while--explains the differences between duke and kentucky as top recruit destinations and how that affects how we should think of their players as draft prospects: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/11/6/21551113/nba-draft-duke-kentucky-players