nba off season 2024 bud 2 suns etc

if i’m atlanta i’m either taking a project or a big man but i am not taking a project big man. if the argument for clingan is that you’re confident he can be a good starting center and you just want that certainty then cool. otherwise i’m going for whoever i think is most likely to be a top 2 ball handler/scorer on a good team. simply from a value perspective i think that’s the swing you have to take

taht guy might not exist in this draft, but u might be describing future #1 pick reed sheppard

the logic of trading up is i guess if you're like the knicks (#24 and 25) and you dont want to try and work in two rookies onto a team thats trying to compete now, and maybe you feel more certain about a guy who'll be off the board by the time it's your turn. portland and sa should both by taking their two lotto picks bc they need as many spins of the wheel of talent as they can get.

you can’t make an nba defense out of sheppard and trae young

they would trade trae

i also don’t think there’s gonna be many teams looking to take on multiple players in this draft either. i think it will actually be a pretty static draft at least thru middle of the first round bcuz i don’t think teams asking for future assets are gonna get them

i wouldn’t trade trae just to get a younger guy who might share his problems

don’t really like any top draft prospects this year but i have optimism that rob dillingham can become a jamal crawford type

reed sheppard as no 1 overall pick just doesn’t pass the smell test to me regardless of the team

im looking at guys like risacher, castle, jalen williams brother, buzeilis

nobody in this draft is a #1 pick archetype tho, right now it's sarr (can he even play) and risacher (will never be a lead ballhandler, might be a cam johnson or mpj type at best) getting most of the attention, imo teams should not care about reaching and just get guys who will fit with their current stars or are versatile enough to fit in multiple schemes

spurs fans are salivating over castle, i dont see it yet. spurs spacing is so bad right now, and he'd be a project.

buzelis is interesting bc he's the sort of athletic big wing that every team needs, i just dont know if he's good at basketball haha

g league route is gonna be less and less common if the prospects are perceived to not develop and they can make more money at duke

exactly, NIL killed the ignite (this is praise)

literally

spurs fans are salivating over castle, i dont see it yet. spurs spacing is so bad right now, and he'd be a project.

― polyamerie "it's more than this 1 thing" (m bison), Sunday, June 16, 2024 6:02 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

he shot 75% from the line which implies that he could get to dece three point shooting, but his whole game is kinda like that squint at him and he looks like a really good nba player but his upside is prob more likely solid starter, on the other hand everyone in this years draft is like that

how about williams at 4 and topic at 8

should be interesting to see what the market is for these tier 2 or 3 level stars

The New Orleans Pelicans are unwilling to pay Brandon Ingram an average of $52 million annually, per @cclark_13

“Brandon Ingram has one year remaining on his contract. On July 6, he becomes eligible to sign a four-year extension worth $208 million. The Pelicans value Ingram’s… pic.twitter.com/LrG46jQjPl

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 17, 2024

feel like topic could be a steal guy who put up numbers in europe at 18 years old, seems like a bad 3pt shooter (30%) but could possibly be a very good one (88%ft!) and is dropping due to a torn acl an injury that players tend to recover fully from, has elite feel for the game and an elite skill (passing), great height (6-6) for his position (pg)

not going to pretend i've broken down castle tape but one thing that intrigues me about him is that you usually don't see the best play from, or the full games of, young ball handlers on loaded college teams, especially ones w/ dominant big men. this is largely why so many kentucky guards over perform in the NBA. uconn had three perimeter players who, from what i can tell, are borderline NBA prospects take more shots than castle.

i watched some castle clips and the thing that made me think hes not going to be a star is he wasnt getting those easy buckets against a set halfcourt defense that make it obvious hes just much better than the guys hes playing against, he was effective but it was more of a craft thing working his way to the basket with multiple dribble moves, and his shooting isnt great, athleticism prob nba average, good but not overpowering size, almost certainly a guy who will get minutes in the nba but i dont see the high upside there

has elite feel for the game and an elite skill (passing), great height (6-6) for his position (pg)

the heat have done a good developing nikola jovic, but you can also watch highlights from his first ever summer league game and see that he just had a good feel for how to play basketball, naturally looked to pass, had good height even tho he was skinny, had some skill w/ the ball etc (read the first ever post on jordan's heat bløg). even if he is only ever a good bench player the four guys drafted ahead of him were david roddy, marjon beauchamp, blake wesley, and wendell moore jr. i still think feel for the game, ability + willingness to pass, ballhandling skill etc the euro way are underrated in the draft

for sure, feel pretty confident that jovic is going to be much more than a good bench player too

another thing re castle is hes convinced hes a point guard refuses to workout for teams that already have one, its just weird theres no evidence that hes got the stuff to play there in the nba, i mean i get the vision he would be more valuable if it were true but idk if he just expects teams to believe him

i believe castle can become an average-ish shooter maybe, tho tbh im not that swayed by ft% as a harbinger of 3p potential if its just around league average. (ie tre jones came in with similar shooting woes, has improved a lot from the outside and from ft and he's still below average as a 3pt threat).

spurs desperately need a lead guard who is a threat to pull up from 3 and/or blow by defenders to create space for wemby, and i dont think castle will do either of those things well enough. if he cant be a starting pg, then hes kind of a utility wing which is a good bench player at least. guy who i like more: devin carter who has a lot of the same defensive upside as castle with a lot more offensive polish. my bias is guys with legit two-way skillsets and i like him more than any other guard prospect.

dont know what to make of williams bc he shot well from 3 but on very low volume. i think he will fit well as a transition threat, and he is archetypally the kind of player that the spurs could use as a wingmate for vassell. i think hes a high upside swing, i wouldnt mind it for them.

im not a huge topic fan, i think hes too slow and has too short arms to be a plus defender and i want players who can't be hunted on switches.

good reminder that very few things can overcome bad ownership

Source: The Bulls passed on multiple offers to trade Alex Caruso for multiple picks, including one in the top 10 of the 2024 draft

The reason? A mandate from ownership at the trade deadline to push for the playoffs

More —> https://t.co/AAdSMkcPrc

— Will Gottlieb (@Will_Gottlieb) June 17, 2024

lol thats so dumb

topic is a baller you cant build a team around all solid two way guys you need ballers

spurs could just trade for garland tho

xxp

A mandate from ownership at the trade deadline to push for the playoffs

lol

xp imho carter has that dog in him. i dont hate topic, tho, i think he can hoop.

Dallas Mavs welcome to the offs eason

all right which of these 20 guys are changing teams soon:
bron
pg13
trae
dejounte
ingram
kat
garland
mitchell
draymond
klay
randle
tobias
lavine
demar
caruso
butler
herro
mikal
kcp
lauri

a lot of the maybe thats kind of crazy

Yah prob close to half of those

btw til thats 2nd apron teams get their 1rp bumped to the end of the line if they are in the 2nd apron in 3 out of 5 years, thats brazy

if you're boston thats no big deal youre already #30, if ur the suns lolllll

the 2nd apron penalties are very harsh lol

guys who prob arent going anywhere from that list bron mitchell kat dray mikal kcp

i'd add randle to that list of guys who'll stay, bcz the knicks drastically overvalue him

if bron wants to win a title, he will leave la, but i think his heart's not in it and he'll take the big sack of cash

Unofficial luxury tax payments per team:

Golden St- $176.9M
LAC- $142.4M
Phoenix- $68.2M
Milwaukee- $52.5M
Boston- $43.8M
Denver- $20.2M
Miami- $15.7M
LA Lakers- $6.9M

The 22 teams below the tax are projected to receive $11.96M each.

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) June 18, 2024

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/warriors-offseason-plan-1a-is-to-avoid-luxury-tax-entirely-owner-joe-lacob-says/

i think the warriors are going to look a lot different next year

i'm taking the under on trades involving trae, dejounte, garland, mitchell, KAT, butler etc i think teams have sky high asking prices for players whose contracts make them questionable as longterm assets

where is all the demand to trade a bunch of assets for a PG coming from, this has yet to be adequately explained

yeah itd prob have to be more of a their teams are ready to move on type situation for some guys

garland to spurs has potential to be a more legit trade that makes sense for both teams

tho might require a third team in the mix idk

dejountes on a p reasonable contract imo, and i cant imagine cavs will keep both mitchell and garland.

all reports are pointing towards cleveland keeping mitchell so yeah they kinda have to move garland, pretty bad timing tho since he had such a bad season, could see them waiting and hoping he bounces back to start the season

the outline of a deal that makes sense is something like keldon+draft picks (2 1rps?) and salary filler (zach collins?) for darius. i think they could get him for far less than what theyd need for trae and i think he'd give you like 85% of what trae can. but its still an awkward defensive fit.