2018-19 NBA Thread

[MrCrowesGarden]

This is the editor of the Pelicans SB Nation site. I can only hope this is really the case.

[Socnorb11]

The problem is that AD and his agent pretty much took a dump on NO, by making it obvious that he's going to LA after 2019-20. Boston could offer up a helluva deal, but why would they do that for 1 year of AD?

[MrCrowesGarden]

If you think you can win a championship.

Plus if the quote is accurately stated, it sounds like Ainge is willing to give what the Pelicans want regardless of circumstance.

[MAGA]

imagine drafting AD, watching him every other night for years and then him leaving right before he takes his step to undisputed best player in the NBA. Likely for a coastal team that has lost more championships than your city will get to in all their sports combined. [expletive] terrible.

[33anda3rd]

imagine drafting AD, watching him every other night for years and then him leaving right before he takes his step to undisputed best player in the NBA. Likely for a coastal team that has lost more championships than your city will get to in all their sports combined. [expletive] terrible.

He's not indisputably the best player in the NBA because Giannis.

It's also his career and he has a right to do whatever he wants with it and needs not consider the hypothetical "you" in your hypothetical. He has like 15 years to max out his career and get everything he wants out of it, whether that's the most money or the most wins or whatever.

If I were the "you" in your hypothetical and I was a Pels fan emotionally invested in them winning, I'd probably be asking why the team's owner, a 70-something widow who also owns the Saints, allows the guy who runs the Saints to also run the Pelicans, and why so many of the decision-makers share responsibilities between the two teams. I'd ask why ownership has a GM of the NBA team who is effectively a powerless lame duck of a manager. I'd ask why they had the best PG of his generation in Paul and squandered it. I'd ask why last year they had a top-5 player in Davis paired with Jrue Holiday, Julius Randle, and for a half season Boogie, upset the Blazers in Round 1, then reverted to a lottery team. I'd ask why virtually no free agents want to play in one of the most fun, livable cities in America. Because Davis leaving isn't a Davis issue. It's a New Orleans basketball issue--no star player wins there, and all the star players leave there.

[thrill]

Not all that relevant to this conversation, but still want to point out how disgraceful it is that the Bulls are AD's hometown team and they've mismanaged the franchise so terribly for the last 20 years that he has zero desire to ever play there despite them having one of the more attractive possible packages to offer in the form of some combo of Markannen, Carter, and Lavine + a top 3 lottery chance for Zion. They're not even in these conversations and that's a huge indictment on everyone on the management side of that building.

[MAGA]

You're overcomplicating it. It would just really suck to be a fan of a team with a player like that and watch him leave. Whether it's as a FA or forcing himself out and being traded. At best you can acquire picks that have a 1% chance of becoming an AD level player. The fans don't decide who runs the team. And okay, a guy who is a top 3 player in the NBA and 25 years old.

and I agree Thrill. The Bulls aren't a coastal team but considering their history and the cool factor of Chicago, watching them be a non-factor as guys make their move is weird.

[33anda3rd]

Denver could offer up a package of G. Harris, Will Barton, MPJ and Juancho, and probably not miss a beat. In fact, with Isaiah Thomas due to be healthy any day now, the backcourt depth could become cumbersome very quickly. Jokic dishing to Brow and the Blue Arrow would be damn near unstoppable. It's a Big Three that probably trumps even Golden State's. However, knowing almost for certain that Davis isn't staying in Denver probably makes it not worth it for the Nuggets.

Murray/Davis/Jokic would be stoppable the same as Harden/Paul/Capela are stoppable and Kyrie/LeBron/Love were stoppable and so on. That three is not on the same level as the Dubs Big Three, and it's irrelevant because the Dubs have a Big Five and next year will have a minimum of a Big Four. Plus they'll still have depth next year with Iggy, Jones, Livingston, McKinnie and probably a return of at least one of Cook and Looney.

The Nuggets, without making a single move for next year have a depth chart of:

Blue Arrow / Monte Morris
Harris / Malik
Barton / Craig / Juancho
Porter (if healthy) / Lyles (if they exercise QO) / Lydon / Vanderbilt
Jokic / Plumlee

And they have roughly $20-26MM they can spend. They could exercise Millsap's $30MM team option and make a couple corresponding moves, they could do a lot of stuff. But that amounts to returning a core that has the 2nd best record in the West right now, which is pretty great. Make the trade you're talking about and it becomes:

Blue Arrow / Monte Morris
Malik / ?
Craig / ?
Davis / Lyles (if they exercise QO) / Lydon / Vanderbilt
Jokic / Plumlee

And they have maybe $35-40MM to spend. And they need someone to guard the opponent's playmaking 2s and 3s, because both Beasley and Torrey Craig are not that guy. And those two players also have to be knock-down shooters when the D collapses the lane on Davis and Jokic, because you can't make an NBA team win these days around twin bigs and no awesome perimeter shooting. Basically they need and three-and-D 3 and a shot-creating 2 who can play some D. Can they get those and fill in their depth chart and still field a competitive team around that for under $40MM in cap space? I'm skeptical.

[33anda3rd]

Not all that relevant to this conversation, but still want to point out how disgraceful it is that the Bulls are AD's hometown team and they've mismanaged the franchise so terribly for the last 20 years that he has zero desire to ever play there despite them having one of the more attractive possible packages to offer in the form of some combo of Markannen, Carter, and Lavine + a top 3 lottery chance for Zion. They're not even in these conversations and that's a huge indictment on everyone on the management side of that building.

I don't think Reinsdorf cares as long as they put money in his pocket at the end of the year.

That draft night deal a couple years ago where they sold the rights to Jordan Bell to the Dubs for a few million dollars tells you all you need to know about the priorities and direction of this team: in rebuild mode and in need of every future asset they could get, they sold a draft pick for a few million cash.

[thrill]

Durant and Cousins are probably going to leave for cap reasons. At that point, a Denver Big 3 would be on par with the Rockets and Warriors Big 2.5 (Draymond being the .5) AND they would be waaaaaaay younger.

That said, AD would never sign an extension in Denver and they'd be dumb to give up too many assets to get him for a rental. Especially with the tenuous future of the Warriors when you project out more than one year. Denver is as well positioned as anyone in the West when you look 3-4 years out.