2019 NBA Catch-All - It’s Fantastic

I saw that it matters when the deal for AD becomes official, as that will significantly change LA's cap situation.

But yeah, LeBron is 35, and coming off the first seriously injured season of his career. You've got, perhaps, two more good years of him left, maybe 3. You gotta go all in if you've got him, you can't go all "the process" on this.

Roke wrote:

Ramona Shelbourne tweeted the Pels control the Lakers' next 7 first round picks through the three they got plus pick swaps. Will be interesting what the protections are like, LeBron could be gone after 2 more seasons.

My head is trying to grasp the logistics of this.. what the??

TheGameguru wrote:
Roke wrote:

Ramona Shelbourne tweeted the Pels control the Lakers' next 7 first round picks through the three they got plus pick swaps. Will be interesting what the protections are like, LeBron could be gone after 2 more seasons.

My head is trying to grasp the logistics of this.. what the??

Yeah. They gave up a lot. They completely mortgaged the future for the next 2 years. If they don’t win it all this will be “The Process”, but like the opposite of that.

Prederick wrote:

I saw that it matters when the deal for AD becomes official, as that will significantly change LA's cap situation.

Yup. It’s because of the way cap holds work and the one for the 4th overall pick. Davis also has 4m trade kicker and if keeps it that’ll further reduce their cap space. Essentially, if Davis keeps the trade kicker and the trade is completed on the 3rd, Lakers have 10m less cap space.

One resultant take from all this that I can’t get with: the Celtics are big losers in the deal?

The pundits can’t help but make their takes hot I guess. The Raptors took a small gamble on Kawhi and they won a championship so that means every team with a shot to land a superstar should? Except they’re very different situations. Kawhi was a distressed asset and the Raptors gave up a guy they knew wasn’t going to cut it in DeRozan, a rotation big in Poetl, and a late 20s first round pick. This has been recognized as a very lost cost. The Celts would have had to throw in the farm for AD, same as the Lakers did. Except AD’s people specifically said he wasn’t going to stay in Boston.

My thing is who exactly where the Lakers bidding against to go that high? No other team was offering close to that at least from reporting. Griffin really took advantage of their disfunction!

LeapingGnome wrote:

My thing is who exactly where the Lakers bidding against to go that high? No other team was offering close to that at least from reporting. Griffin really took advantage of their disfunction!

The Laker's were in a pretty desperate situation. This summer's their last chance to add a max-level player plus acquire AD. I could be wrong, but I believe If they waited until next summer to sign AD Ingram being a restricted free agent makes a trade more difficult to put together. Plus LeBron's what, 35? It was now or never.

He’ll be 35 on December 30th.

Yeah but he should be well-rested for next year.

Blind_Evil wrote:

He’ll be 35 on December 30th.

Now I feel old. Again.

LeapingGnome wrote:

My thing is who exactly where the Lakers bidding against to go that high? No other team was offering close to that at least from reporting. Griffin really took advantage of their disfunction!

In fairness, the deal was nearly identical to what Demps and Magic hashed out 3 months ago. I don't know if that makes this trade better or worse.

I think Zion is the winner in all of this. He goes from having the weight of a crappy franchise on his shoulders to being surrounded by young talent. These guys are gonna grow together and should be a fun watch.

Kawhi wearing a "Board Man Gets Paid" shirt during the parade today

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There's a video of Lowry leading a "5 more years!" chant standing beside Kawhi. These guys are enjoying the hell out of this.

mindset.threat wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

My thing is who exactly where the Lakers bidding against to go that high? No other team was offering close to that at least from reporting. Griffin really took advantage of their disfunction!

In fairness, the deal was nearly identical to what Demps and Magic hashed out 3 months ago. I don't know if that makes this trade better or worse.

I think Zion is the winner in all of this. He goes from having the weight of a crappy franchise on his shoulders to being surrounded by young talent. These guys are gonna grow together and should be a fun watch.

I think a big difference is where the draft picks fell. Griffin could sell trading away the second franchise player in team history a lot better when he has a new one coming in, and when the Lakers have the #4 pick to offer, rather than where they were slotted (#11 I think).

mindset.threat wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

My thing is who exactly where the Lakers bidding against to go that high? No other team was offering close to that at least from reporting. Griffin really took advantage of their disfunction!

In fairness, the deal was nearly identical to what Demps and Magic hashed out 3 months ago. I don't know if that makes this trade better or worse.

I think Zion is the winner in all of this. He goes from having the weight of a crappy franchise on his shoulders to being surrounded by young talent. These guys are gonna grow together and should be a fun watch.

On Bill Simmons podcast this week he makes the point that no rookie of Zion's stature has come into a better situation as a rookie in a long time. I think he's right. The team will be loaded with potential and all the players will be on the same timeframe.

Vector wrote:

There's a video of Lowry leading a "5 more years!" chant standing beside Kawhi. These guys are enjoying the hell out of this.

I looked up one of those videos. Lowry is so endearing.

He also received the plant.

Just put him in the HoF now.

DSGamer wrote:

On Bill Simmons podcast this week he makes the point that no rookie of Zion's stature has come into a better situation as a rookie in a long time. I think he's right. The team will be loaded with potential and all the players will be on the same timeframe.

Oh absolutely. Going to that Pelicans team right now is just a perfect situation. I still think both teams "won" that trade.

Prederick wrote:

He also received the plant.

Just put him in the HoF now.

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/084ula7wvvx21.jpg)

Prederick wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

On Bill Simmons podcast this week he makes the point that no rookie of Zion's stature has come into a better situation as a rookie in a long time. I think he's right. The team will be loaded with potential and all the players will be on the same timeframe.

Oh absolutely. Going to that Pelicans team right now is just a perfect situation. I still think both teams "won" that trade.

Totally. I don't think it was terribly smart for the Lakers to sacrifice a decade of basketball for the chance that LeBron in his 17th and 18th seasons can drag AD and a bunch of corpses to a title, but once that was the path they'd committed themselves to, you might as well go all in.

The NBA is weird in that you can pretty quickly recover from lack of youth and depth in a pretty short order. You also tend to know who a player is fairly quickly. There's not a lot of evidence that Hart, Ball, and Ingram are actually going to be major contributors or stay healthy. NBA picks should have more value to high cap and over the cap teams but since teams are so bad at drafting, it never works out that way.

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/hestay by ENJT, on Flickr

IMAGE(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48082288528_ac05df44ec_z.jpg)
GM Masai Ujiri by ENJT, on Flickr

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Head Coach Nick Nurse by ENJT, on Flickr

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The Raptor Mascot by ENJT, on Flickr

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Danny Green by ENJT, on Flickr

Eric Moreland's entire role on the team is keeping a hammered Gasol upright.

Mike Conley traded to Utah, so they should be pretty fun next season. I'm hoping Indiana also gets a good point guard to also move them up a level because I think that would be fun.

Roke wrote:

Mike Conley traded to Utah, so they should be pretty fun next season. I'm hoping Indiana also gets a good point guard to also move them up a level because I think that would be fun.

Anyone but the Lakers!

Let's gooooooo!

(and Boston)

The Memphis Grizzlies have traded guard Mike Conley to the Utah Jazz for Grayson Allen, Kyle Korver and Jae Crowder, the 23rd pick in Thursday's draft and a future first-round pick, league sources told ESPN.

I like Conley and cheer for him, but that seems like a lot for an over-30 point guard who already misses about 20% of the games every year. Are teams just not valuing first round picks as much any longer with the new lottery odds? I guess Utah is definitely not re-signing Rubio now, but it is a upgrade for them for at least next season.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Are teams just not valuing first round picks as much any longer with the new lottery odds?

First round picks, unless they are in the lottery, are just not as valuable as most people thought they were. The vast majority of rookies are bad. Even the ones who had good seasons usually only have good seasons compared to other rookies. Contending teams don't have the luxury of giving premium minutes to a rookie.

This draft is also considered an extremely weak draft. Zion is outstanding but pretty much everyone else has massive question marks.

I think everyone sees this year as being fairly wide open with the Golden State injuries. I would expect teams like Portland and Denver to take similar stabs.

LeapingGnome wrote:
The Memphis Grizzlies have traded guard Mike Conley to the Utah Jazz for Grayson Allen, Kyle Korver and Jae Crowder, the 23rd pick in Thursday's draft and a future first-round pick, league sources told ESPN.

I like Conley and cheer for him, but that seems like a lot for an over-30 point guard who already misses about 20% of the games every year. Are teams just not valuing first round picks as much any longer with the new lottery odds? I guess Utah is definitely not re-signing Rubio now, but it is a upgrade for them for at least next season.

I think it’s pretty good for the Jazz. The only particularly useful player they gave up is Crowder and they can and should find an equally capable small ball 4. The first pick in tonight’s draft is 23rd, pretty low. The other pick is I think 2022. The Jazz’s two centerpieces are 22 and 26ish so they will probably still be good then.

Zach Lowe compared this to another trade that involved Utah: GS salary dumped Richard Jefferson, Andris Biedrins, and Brandon Rush to them along with two unprotected first round picks to make room for Andre Iguodala. Without that trade you can make the argument that this GS dynasty never coalesces. Those unprotected picks were 2014 and 2017, turned into Rodney Hood and Josh Hart.

I'm glad the Jazz got rid of Grayson Allen. Can cheer for Don and the team with less guilt now