stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

funny thing is the suns were actually fucked when they made the kd trade, beal deal doesnt move the needle that much, tho it does prolong the pain

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.3347360875.4919/flat,750x,075,f-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.jpg

suns front office, on all-stars

that’s the thing I think people are missing…chris paul was underperforming his contract but it was much shorter and not guaranteed, aka somewhat tradeable, but worst case he’s a good fit with the roster. instead you turn that into…the worst contract in the NBA! a guy who in absolute terms is a comparable player to paul but a worse fit, completely unreadable, AND fucks the extended booker/KD window

beal keeps his no-trade clause!

i mean i guess waiving cp3 wouldve been the smart thing to do but theyd still have no way to put together a contender around kd

doubt there was another cp3 trade that makes them better at basketball

i agree w/ your first point i was listening to the lowe pod w/ bobby marks this morning and zach is like, you can't put the suns over denver but i've got them no 2 in the west. marks is like, yeah they'll have depth issues but you put those 3 guys into a playoff rotation and i love that. i had to look up at the sky to make sure it was still blue.

across the podsphere the plugged in types (windhorst, lowe) are, even w/ some reservations, dutifully explaining the suns' logic which basically breaks down to "we are being so reckless about our future that it would actually be irresponsible for us to not be even more reckless." they're speeding down a snaking mountain road at 110 mph like "hey if we're gonna go off this cliff we might as well do it at 130 mph" and i'm just having trouble believing what i'm hearing. maybe actually slowing down is a good idea? idk

if you were handed this team pre beal trade the best thing to do is prob trade kd, obvs theyre not going to do that so its all bad options

i do disagree w/ the idea that cp3 is better for them than beal tho. that may be true on paper in terms of fit or for the regular season but you can't be thinking of yourself as a contender and also be relying on cp3 to have all of his body parts intact by the third round of the playoffs. beal has obv had his own issues staying healthy but you can reasonably dream on him being able to dribble and shoot when the calendar hits mid-may

the cp3 -> beal thing is just a question of opportunity cost. i buy the idea that turning nothing into brad beal is a great trade but we don't live in a context free world

paul’s health is the major question of course, and at some point you might just read the writing on the wall and say his unreliability in may makes it completely not worth it. but I just feel like not enough is being made of the awkward fit. who is passing the ball on this team? defending wings? rebounding? booker and beal would be tiny on the wing. put booker at point and suddenly that’s a lot to ask of a guy who doesn’t have a spotless injury history either

like paul brings top 1% passing, above average defense, above average rebounding for his position. and while his shooting numbers have sort of fallen off a cliff the past 2 years, his larger body of work suggests that at least has a chance to regress in the right direction. I just don’t see the fit on this team with beal

beal will "be the point guard", which is prob fine, the least of their worries

if you’re a contender you can’t bet on cp3 you just can’t

what the heat just got out of kyle lowry, minutes & role wise, feels like a best case scenario use for this version of chris paul to me, if the goal is for him to be healthy enough to play 4 playoff rounds

its so insane, they won 64 games the year before last and had some guys with upside to balance out cp3 aging out. now they have nothing

potential 5+ year contender thrown down the drain as an overreaction to an admittedly abhorrent game 7 loss in the offs

many xps to J0rd - don't forget

2008 Celtics trade #5 (Jeff Green) + Wally Szczerbiak & Delonte West for Ray Allen and the pick that became Big Baby

Celts doing the instant rebuild that prevented Pierce from becoming a disgruntled trade-demanding star is probably the model for teams like the Blazers with Dame, and maybe the Wiz with Beal a couple of years ago. What they may not be considering is that without the KG trade, the one for Ray wouldve probably felt like moving deck chairs around, maybe getting back in the offs but certainly not making much noise there

near impossible to trade for 2 guys that good and still have a rotation tho

oh for sure. to clarify, i did not mean that this is the model they should be trying to follow, but rather it’s the model they have in their heads

and celtics really caught lightning in a bottle with rondo ascending and the right mix of ring chasing vets

there's at least one more i forgot too

2014 the cavs trade no 1 pick (andrew wiggins) for kevin love

there was a bunch of other irrelevant stuff involved incl a third team (philly) but we know what this was about

oh yeah there you go thats a real one

obviously a very unusual situation though for the team with pick #1 to be able to sign the best player in the league in free agency

of the ones we have listed, the allen/celtics & love/cavs ones were specific situations where a team was loading up on outside stars and so the pick had little value to them aside from being a trade piece

the jrue holiday trade ended up being great for the pelicans but anthony davis was 21 when they made that trade not 32. also the sixers made two pretty bad picks

trading the no 2 pick for elton brand and the no 5 pick for mike miller & randy foye feel like the closer analogues to what this blazers thing would be and needless to say those were not very good trades

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzGTB9RaEAAXpfa?format=png&name=900x900

puny humans and their "based ball"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzGXM4dXgAA-uLv?format=jpg&name=900x900

that my guy (left)

6’3” jj redick looking like lil penny

Would love to see a pic of Wemby next to Yao Ming and Kareem.

and also an average ILHer for reference

Breaking:

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

If I were the first 18 teams in the draft I'd consider skipping this kid.

epic shortarm

damn

lord help us

"Brandon Miller further solidified his standing as Charlotte's choice at No. 2... Both Miller and Scoot Henderson came back to Charlotte for second workouts... Miller was better the second time around."@wojespn on the Hornets' draft night plans 👀 pic.twitter.com/uuauLDuZRB

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) June 21, 2023

time for portland to Reboot With Scoot™

I’m gonna “watch some film” on scoot today but it doesn’t seem crazy to me to prefer the guy who actually put up good numbers last season and also isn’t 6-2

college is fake though

6-9 wingspan strong + stout super athletic, prob more physically capable than a normal nba 6-4 guy ie he has excellent size for a point, now all things being equal should a wing be preferred to a guard, of course, are all things equal, thats what the teams have to figure out

its funny players get better training in the g league and europe but going to college is still best for draft positioning, idk about overtime elite seems sketchy

overtime elite is basically another year of high school

post the best scoot draft breakdown video

I’m gonna “watch some film” on scoot today but it doesn’t seem crazy to me to prefer the guy who actually put up good numbers last season and also isn’t 6-2

― k3vin k., Wednesday, June 21, 2023 11:43 AM (fifteen minutes ago)

generally speaking if you're out on a limb w/ the charlotte hornets you prob want to be scrambling back to safety but maybe this is the one time they're right...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d05tQrhNMkA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsxg5Czd-xo

the guy who runs this channel is a regular guest with sam vecenie of the athletic for draft stuff

vibe check

scoot henderson: amazing name

brandon miller: accomplice to a homicide

scoot's got a bit of westbrook, ja, pre-injury derrick rose, chris paul. he's not a steph or dame type point which is obv the best case scenario for a pg leading your team, but he should be an all-star at some point in his career. his ability to put pressure on the rim, shoot the midrange, and his playmaking are really impressive. if the hornets were a competent franchise it wouldnt be a discussion. and if they dont like the fit with lamelo, they should trade lamelo.

miller's stats were good not great, he shot only 43% from two, notoriously was a poor finisher at the basket & isn't a great athlete. he's a very good three point shooter tho. there's some jabari smith jr, harrison barnes, andrew wiggins vibes to his profile frankly

scoot meanwhile is said to be a plus plus athlete for a PG... was listening to hollinger say he's not quite at russell westbrook's level but is comparable to derrick rose or john wall. he's also by all accounts a legitimately good basketball player already as a teenager, was just running a quasi-pro team which is a higher level of ball than miller

to me it seems like scoot has the skills and mentality to be a high floor prospect while also having the athletic upside of a high ceiling prospect. whereas miller has the high floor bcuz of the size & shooting but maybe not the athleticism or mentality to be a star wing player... again we return to the wiggins, barnes, smith jr type player

of course i'm synthesizing things i've been reading/hearing about these guys, i'm not a scout myself. but i think that's largely accurate

i'll also note for anyone interested in doing some amateur scouting reports & such that there is a dedicated draft thread where our takes can be preserved for time...

2023 nba draft thread: starring victor, scoot... and more!

peak rose was a better pure athlete than westbrook, russ is just a maniac