JeffS17

I understand the "short term tank" strategy on paper, but the more I've thought about this, the less sense it really makes to me. Not only do we need to build a winning culture, we need to build player value with the guys on our roster if we want to make any significant moves in this offseason. Tanking for a top 6-8 pick instead of a top 10-12 pick is not going to make a difference.

At this point its clear were fine losing for a better pick for this season. Thats what Im seeing anyways

What happened to Clint man, he’s barely an NBA player anymore. He looks like he has some kind of degenerative disease that causing him to lose coordination or something

Me too man, I don't even know if KAT is the answer, but he'll certainly have me excited to watch games again.

I don't see how re-signing Conley now changes anything about KATs availability this summer. They're in 1st place right now, and they could lock in a #1 seed for the playoffs, but KATs availability will likely be determined by their playoff performance. I personally think they will start to run into issues when teams are game planning against personnel, but we will see. Anything short of a conference finals appearance and I would put my money on KAT being available.

Ehhh, you guys would be the first to call out ownership and the front office if Trae asked out because they didn't acquiesce to what he wanted

Yes, I have, and there is a level of transparency required to build trust and establish a logical basis to the deal. This statement is fine and doesn’t go beyond that threshold. Nothing about it is going to force ys to drop our asking price— this isnt a secret salary dump situation. We simply disagree.

Just to be crystal clear here, we just spent the past month shopping Murray to damn near every team in the league, because to anyone with eyes, the pairing is not working, but you think it's this public statement by Landry that is going to tip off other front offices we want to offload him? Think about what you're typing.

I think this line of thinking is incredibly insulting to opposing teams GMs and front offices. Doesn't matter what Landry says at the podium, other teams are going to be in the know -- particularly if they're considering being a part of a high profile trade. I'm happy with Landry being honest and forthcoming. I worry much more about the transactions he makes, the draft pick selections, and contract extensions than i do him coddling fans emotions.

https://streamable.com/38cn97 This play kind of epitomizes Collins. Great hustle, good board, kinda surprised he didn't turn it over, then cannot make a pass to save his life.

If Cam wasn't a headcase and you put Bey's mind in Hunter's body, we'd have a dynasty

my point wasn't really the same exact players, but to highlight the level of salary we were carrying, and the level of talent, in tandem. Our biggest missteps were not trading guys when they had value. And out of Cam, OO, and Hunter, would have hoped we had an all-star hopeful. JJ is our big hope right now, no pressure on the kid at all, but we need him to develop into an all-NBA player

That ECF run was really the worse PR for Ressler lol We could have this exact same roster today for $184M. That means no JJ, no DJ, no Bey. This exact same roster would be well above the second apron. Who thinks these players are winning anything today? Probably would be above the second apron without making the play-in game. Which leads to the real issue, which is we have mismanaged our talent from a pay perspective and simply not drafted well. It's expected to get equal value talent (with the exception of pick exchanges) in trades, so unless you're developing guys to be better than when they arrived or drafting well, you cannot just magically upgrade the roster talent.

Yeah, he also has the issue the best player he's played with is at his position. Unfortunate him and KP didn't work out because that was the fit they needed, dude just stayed injured. Luka is much easier to work around from a defensive assignment stand point and he is a far superior self-creator (one of the best in the league). Will be interesting to see what Dallas can do going forward, because they still have a decent number of tradeable picks. But their most valuable player is 1. on a max deal 2. has 1 year left and a PO 3. is injury prone and 4. is a wild card personality. I can't see them getting a great return for Kyrie, and I don't see them contending with that roster. The single biggest thing they have over us is Lively looks really good for a rookie and if he can keep getting better, that's a very nice fit with Luka long term.

I'll try to answer the question seriously to give other peoples perspective, with the caveat trading Trae is absolutely not my first option path we should be taking. Most of the time you hear other guys needing help, it is either older vets that have a lot more time with their franchise (i.e Dame in Portland) without making much noise, or it is more complete players. Trae will be in the former group if we continue to be mid in the long term, or until he demands a trade. But for the latter group of players (think Giannis in Milwaukee pre-Jrue trade, or someone like Booker in Phoenix for a long time), it is much easier to jump to the conclusion a player just needs more help if they are an elite and complete two-way guy like Giannis or Embiid. Trae differs because his only elite skill is playmaking and passing vision, but he still has a lot of turnovers. And his efficiency scoring is not elite, and he has historically been a huge liability on defense. He simply has a lot more flaws that require specific skillsets on the floor with him. He needs guys with size, good rebounders, good floor spacers, good defenders, and a go-to 1st option on offense with size that can self create more efficiently than he can. Guys like Embiid just need good players around him, with the only real need being serviceably 3P shooters. Same thing with Giannis. A guy like Butler who is a +defender, can get you a bucket any time, and switchable on defense just needs other talent around him, nothing specific. So while it's technically true Trae needs help, and frankly, he needs help even more than these other guys, you're not going to see that sentiment very much because other guys have fewer flaws in their game that need to be covered up for. It's easy to just point to the fact guys like Dosunmo are cooking him on defense or he cannot be "the guy" in crunch time because of his size limitations. He just has a lot more holes that need plugged than most supermax dudes

Same, I choose to believe that was never a real deal on the table.

My biggest critique of Ressler is not letting Schlenk make basketball decisions, which ultimately led to Schlenk's departure. I personally have not seen a window where it made sense to pay the tax, but his meddling in the Murray deal will possibly be this eras death knell. The move felt like we were Blazers East at the time and that's what ended up happening... only difference is prime Lillard has a higher floor than Trae because of his size and shot making.

I can't, Kobe should be getting run imo regardless what our plan is next season.

The FO and ownership? Listen to the messaging Landry gives -- it's all focused on long term, not short term. It's clear they're focused on the next 3-5 years, not winning every game this season.

I want Schlenks vision with someone else negotiating extensions. I was very onboard with what Schlenk was trying to build, but he was handing out fat contracts and put us in some bad spots. Specifically, he didn't seem to weigh injury risk/history or availability into what we pay guys. And he got attached to his picks -- no way JC was getting that much on the open market.

Yes, that's what I'm referencing. But it gets us cooked like on the first play of the game Wednesday when Dusunmo just drove past Trae for a layup. You need really good chemistry and communication on defense to do what Snyder is trying to do with our defense, and we don't seem to be vocal enough right now.

Agree with everything he said and he did a nice job framing Trae's maturity issues positively (as needing more vets to be around), which is why I've suggested that was Quin and the FOs #1 priority for end of bench this year. Trae has to be willing to listen, learn, and be introspective though, and that's what I'm waiting to see from him.

Agree with you 100% here. But OG was going to sign with NY in free agency and chose his destination -- we don't really get opportunities like that unfortunately, in the same way Lakers and contenders pick up all the good vet min guys.

In my opinion, Quin is in a year of evaluation more than anything, and he's not hiding anyone or giving anyone breaks. I'm guessing he learned from his Jazz stint that holding even your worse defenders accountable is pivotally important, and he has absolutely done that here. It will be interesting to see how he shifts things going into next year.

Why did you ask for his source if you were just going to instantly dismiss it and reframe the conversation to bballref anyways lol such a funny interaction