stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

yeah blazers could use a young big with some upside, and it’s easy to tell yourself it’ll turn around somewhere new. dumping nurk’s deal is a plus. taking a flyer on a guy who went 18 and 11 last year isn’t the worst idea.

The Phoenix Suns got a lot better and a much deeper roster with Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson. The Lakers are the best in the West followed by Phoenix and Denver behind them.

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) September 27, 2023

did the suns really get a lot better going from ayton to nurk, adding grayson allen, and two guys have never moved a needle

rare miss from magic

i am pumped to watch this suns team, such a strange roster construction

Watch this moment from last season’s All-Star Draft.

Giannis picks Dame with his first pick instead of Jrue. LeBron smells fish and calls it out. pic.twitter.com/I1nQW9uwfj

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) September 27, 2023

we'll never know how much of it was dumb luck but the blazers choice to take this deep into the offseason appears to have worked out how they wanted--not sure this deal was available before giannis started his september media tour.

i guess the part that was clear dumb luck was the suns having decided they'd take just about anything to get rid of ayton.

windhorst said on his podcast that the nurkic for ayton swap was agreed to a week or two ago. it seems like they were just waiting around to potentially build it into whatever dame trade portland ended up executing. it explains why phoenix is in the middle of all this just to get nurkic, grayson & little. it seems like now that he's gone the media guys feel comfortable saying that the team was never going to bring him back this season

that's crazy, i don't know what else to say

Suns big thing for me is I just don't think KD is ever going to stay healthy

even when hes healthy hes just not nearly the player he used to be, even when hes putting up crazy numbers

his lack of playmaking and physicality has always kinda combined to be a playoff achilles heel but that just didnt matter when he was on the dubs super team, and now hes lost a lot of mobility too

celtics shut him down last year and people were like fine maybe a fluke they had the perfect roster to do it, then the nuggets did it this year too

speaking of durability, nurkic's games played for the last 4 years: 8, 37, 56, 52.

yeah really curious to hear what went down with ayton and the suns that they were all in on this version of nurk, a shadow of who he was when he was gonna be someone

tbf to nurk, the 19-20 season was basically cancelled just as he was returning from the catastrophic leg injury, he missed two months with a fractured wrist in 20-21, and he was mostly held at the end of the last two years for tanking reasons. he's signed through 2026 when he'll make 19.4m

right, so he'll scale right up to playing 85-90 games during their deep playoff run next year

for nuggets reasons, nurkic going to the suns is the biggest heel turn possible and I will enjoy rooting against him, but I do think he can be a championship piece if he stays on the court

i'm just saying the stuff i assume the suns' FO is telling itself, i don't see nurk doubling his work load or anchoring a porous and weird perimeter defense which the latter is honestly laughable xp

oh yeah i know you are, i think the suns are insane and their team is even more of a house of cards now

i feel like on the defensive end a lot is going to be asked of whoever plays center for the suns… i don’t see nurkic being up to that task. when it comes to high level playoff games aren’t they just going to be playing small and switching everything? they need a mobile athletic big. it just feels like a bad fit to me.

i seriously can't wait to see what this suns team even is and also what they are in february

they don't know what they want to be/they want to be whatever booker and kd tell them to be

KD as a small ball big works if you have draymond to pair him with, or prime ibaka.

now they have two big question marks in their 'best five'. the ghost of eric gordon and nurk?? i dont like that one bit.

lol theyre mad

Trail Blazers acquire Deandre Ayton, Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara in three team trade with Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns.

Learn More: https://t.co/VGHyYr4nwZ pic.twitter.com/TZjcMBQe6A

— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) September 28, 2023

an official corporate-approved statement isn't indicative of anything but what the corporation thinks will be the most favorable framing for maximizing its current and future profitability. iow, it says nothing worth discussing.

oh ok thanks

that's a real bad jersey shop truly pathetic

lots of anti-semitic adam silver posts at the top of nba twitter replies these days i see

need more hoops talk on bluesky

don’t think sports will ever really come to bluesky without video

Yeah honestly Twitter has gone way downhill but I can't really think of going through an NBA season without it

James Harden had a party and had the club holding up Daryl Morey is a liar signs pic.twitter.com/DvtK1BJ5ZY

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) September 27, 2023

occurs to me that this new bucks team matches up pretty well with the nuggs

nuggs d is vulnerable to guys like lillard see devin booker, and theyve got a bunch of good to great big men defenders to throw at joker, tho tbf its unclear if he can be defended at this point

i don't see many flaws in the bucks starting group. they may be able to address the 5th role/connaughton spot at some point down the line. but when you're knocking middletown down a peg from "we really need you to score 25 a game" to basically the role that MPJ plays alongside jokic/murray and then asking lopez to just make threes and rebound... that feels really strong to me. it doesn't even feel like they need much more shooting out of the fifth spot given that middleton and lopez will be playing off the ball a ton.

i guess on defense they will be weak at the point of attack but lopez and giannis are about as good of a backstop as you could come up with. we also have not really seen a version of the bucks defense where giannis is used as a 1 on 1 stopper on the other team's best player... i don't think they'll have much of a choice now that they've swapped out holiday for lillard. it's also possible that their defense hits a new level even w/ the defensive downgrade at PG if adrian griffin is willing to be more flexible than bud was

dame airs his grievances with a fake drake song, a+ drama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47chbFnmh94

will be interesting to see how all that xp scheming plays out not just with dame on board but also a new coach

lol that song dame is so serious

and yeah wld be interesting to see giannis in stopper mode more iirc hes historically been a lil undisciplined in perimeter d but maybe if hes asked to focus more there he can tighten it up potential is obvs very high there tho not sure if hell ever be able to keep up with quick guards but one would think he should be able to check the jayson tatums of the world

dame is a serious man. hoops is not a game for him, but more like a weapon he points at his enemies (nb: most of his 'enemies' aren't really enemies, but he needs to imagine they are).

dames music sucks lol

Until next summer.. 😭✌🏼 https://t.co/Vxeczn5AqB

— Tyler Herro (@raf_tyler) September 28, 2023

lol

ha wow

i'm getting super stoked to watch the bucks this year

marks thinks portland will get 2 1sts + for jrue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s4chCs4_BY

woj too

take that, miami!

seems like just about every contender in both conferences is in the mix on that one so that makes sense. my question is whether jrue tries to influence where he goes at all