ShooterSays

Dame/Portland and whatever Phoenix decides to do with Ayton will be interesting over the next couple days. If Dame decides to stay, Ayton could make sense for them.

Reminds me of the Joe Johnson trade to BKN. Salary dump for a bunch of expirings. But even we were able to get a protected first out of it. Ayton the next big domino to fall? Phoenix needs a defensive anchor who can rebound to pair next to those 3. Capela would honestly be perfect but they ain’t got to offer.

best *available* fit.

I agree with that. I think both DJM and Hunter are back UNLESS one of these 3 guys become available. However, I do think we have new starters at both PF and C.

If you replace “X” below with any one of these 3 players, we gotta be the favorites in the East: PG - Trae / Jevon CarterSG - X / Bogi / Mathews SF - Bey / GriffinPF - Porzingis / J. JohnsonC - OO17 / Lively II / Bruno

Last 2 Dukies - Jalen Johnson & AJ Griffin have worked out really well for us! I’m with ya Gramps, I say we go back to the well for a 3rd straight time.

I’m good bringing in a vet big to help out until Lively is ready. Actually think that’s a good idea. But even as a rookie, OO stepped in and gave us solid minutes during our playoff run. I think Lively would be okay, but never a bad idea to have too many bigs. A solid vet + rookie has been a good recipe for us the last 3 years at Center. OO / Lively would hopefully be the same.

The new CBA is the wild-card in all of this. If Landry and Kyle are big game hunting for a 3rd star, I guess 3 rookies could make sense from a financial perspective to offset 3 guys making $35M + But definitely not ideal for a team in win-now mode.

Good post. I agree with all of this. Here’s my solution to it that I proposed in my mock off-season thread: PF - Porzingis / J. Johnson / 2-wayC - OO17 / Lively II / Bruno I will say that as long as Giannis is in the East, OO has heaps of value. Man is literally the Greek Freak stopper.

That would be a tough trade package for us to beat, unfortunately. Unless KP flat out tells Portland he won’t resign there next year. I mean…I definitely wouldn’t want to live there lol

Makes sense if Ressler doesn't want to pay the tax this year or ever.

For what? CP3 and some second round picks? They have practically nothing. That no-trade clause biting them in the 4ss hard.

Doing a quick update to this mock because I'm bored today based on the rumors I've seen on here lately. I also don't want to post this trade in the Insider thread to avoid cluttering it even further. Not sure if Washington goes for this, but if they're hitting the reset button it could make sense. And with it looking like KP is going to opt-in, he's a 1 year rental at this point. Get a FRP for him and start the rebuild. PG - Trae / Jevon Carter / Forrest (2-way) SG - DJM / Bogi / Mathews SF - Hunter / Bey / Griffin PF - Porzingis / J. Johnson / 2-way C - OO17 / Lively II / Bruno Players on my radar: Jalen Brown OG Anunoby Mikal Bridges Would not hesitate to trade a combo of DJM + Hunter for any one of these players. Just don't necessarily think these 3 guys are on the block...just yet.

Zion catching lobs from Trae would be Highlight Factory 2.0

Travis likes his draft picks. I don’t see him making big extensions until he has his centerpiece (like Trae). Guys like Dennis and Prince who had value he traded for picks.

I bet Travis loves him some JC. Drafted the man, outplayed his draft position, and gave him a huge contract. Reunion?

Man I’ve been preaching this for months! Not to mention both KP and OO are 2 of the top 10 shot blockers in the league.

Woo hoo Washington fire sale!

He’s a Heat then. Beal, Butler, Bam won’t be fun for the next 5 years.

Yeah definitely going to need a 3rd team because Phoenix ain’t got nooooothing on that roster after the KD trade.

My thing with Zion is I’m fully committed to building around OO and I don’t believe a 6’6” PF and 6’8” C is a recipe for success.

I’d be more willing to trade for Zion than Siakam. I’m out on Siakam as well all things considered.

And any trade for Siakam NOT involving DJM, Hawks have to ask themselves are they willing to pay $35M + each for a “big 3” of Trae / DJM / Siakam next summer. And there’s no way I’d do that. It’s not a championship core imo.