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Hunter isn't allowed to defend Ingram.

Murray needs to shoot the damn ball. He keeps giving it up when he has good shots then it leads to a TO.

John Collins, AJ Griffin, Jalen Johnson, Clint Capela, Kevin Huerter, DJM were all non-lottery picks in recent history. No thanks in giving that up for Crowder. That pick will be key depth (with potential) for us over the next 4-5 years. Crowder is a half season rental who wants more money and will put us in luxury tax, and doesn't move the needle to us becoming a contender. It's just a bad trade all around.

If he plays for a lotto team with low expectations and a lackluster fanbase, it's possible he could get somewhat closer to his career numbers. But on any team with pressure and expectations it just isnt going to happen. Which means it's pointless b/c we are trying to compete. No contender wants him on their team b/c they know he will choke in the playoffs. You literally can't play him in the 4th quarter.

Why would we want Simmons? Please stop with this crap. We are going to give up assets AND pay him max money? He is a zero on offense. No thanks. Not to mention his value is perimeter D, and on our team he'd have to play the 4 he won't be effective. Please move on from this he has regressed even from a few years ago. He will completely choke and breakdown in the playoffs and he can't be played in crunchtime.

If they had him 3 last season with virtually the same record, that disproves your alphabetical theory. This was a message. But agreed that Trae would be higher if our record was better. But the Hornets are terrible, Ball is worse in virtually every measurable category, he's only played 23 games (and they are 7-16 in those games) and he is 3 spots higher than Trae. Maybe your point is that if you are in the top 4 there is like no choice but to vote high, and the players just look at teams 7th-16th the same. But this player ranking is just bad, even if they didn't take it seriously. To me it's a clear message. Honestly think it will motivate Trae.

Doubtful. When you do a ranking you assign a number by a persons name. They clearly had Ball above Young. This isn't an alphabetical thing. Even if it's in alphabetical order, there are 100+ backcourt players to select from, so they clearly had to scroll down to select Young, then choose where to rank him. They chose 12th.

Since this is about record to you, Lamelo above him?

100% clear disrespect from the players. They just don't like his play, he probably annoys them with his foul baiting. The guys they voted immediately above him is laughable. He hasn't had his best season so far, but he clearly better than the 12th best backcourt player in the EAST. That would imply that he's somewhere in the 40th-50th best player in the NBA right now. Dude was all-NBA last year and has lead us to an ECF as the only all-star on a super young team now he's fallen that far? If he doesn't make the ASG it's a joke. Hopefully this is fuel for him. Pissed off Trae got snubbed in '21 ASG then took us to the ECF and proved everyone wrong.

Players voted Trae at #12 for backcourt players in the East, behind guys like Lamelo/Garland/Brunson. Don't even know who 10/11/12 were. Crazy. I don't think we will have an all-star this year.

Huge win on the road, we tried to blow it but luckily held on. Can we just cruise to an easy 10 point victory for once? When we have a 10-12 point lead with less than 5 minutes we always seem to make it interesting. Luckily Murray hit a big shot, Collins made his FTs and Shai didn't convert. I know it's not easy on the road and OKC is solid but we reverted to ISO ball and everyone standing around at the end. If you watch the first 3.5 quarters, then the last 5 minutes or so, it's crazy. Its either Trae or DJM dribbling at the top of the key letting the shot clock fall to about 8 seconds then they attempt to beat their man. The entire team stands there watching. Have we not learned anything? Our offense has been looking so good outside of crunchtime b/c of this.

There is some of that, but we just don't box out consistently. Not sure if it's coaching or lack of effort from the players. But when you box someone out, they can't jump, if they do it's an easy over the back call. I'll see a shot go up and the players just watch the ball in the air, they dont go find a man to box out. Sometimes I will see 1 or 2 of the guys boxing out and the others ballwatching the shot lets their man sprint into the lane untouched for a running peak jump to compete for the rebound. Boxing out doesn't work unless everyone is doing it. One free runner can go grab that board, this is a major problem. It's just not being coached enough, maybe pros just have too much pride to do the dirty work like boxing out IDK, but it would help tremendously.

The offense definitely seems to be playing better as of late. But turnovers and giving up offensive rebounds (which is basically a turnover IMO) are killing us.

These offers are just so brutal. Trading Collins is purely a save money move, not to better the team. We already did this with Huerter. We are going to regret trading him so badly.

How could Nate not understand this simple basketball concept? Of course Trae is our best passer, but this has NOTHING to do with that. Trae is a great passer because he uses quickness and deception to trick the defense. He might shoot, he might drive, he might pass, he can deceive the defense. When he is an inbounder he cant drive or shoot. The defense KNOWS he is passing, virtually taking away his entire strength. Now he's just a short guy trying to pass the ball over a 7 footers outstretched arms which is VERY hard to do. Inbounding is hard even if you are the same height as the defender. You can't move your feet at all.

Literally came here and logged in to say wtf is Trae inbounding the ball there.

Team has turned a serious corner and its not just because we are healthy. Sure thats a part but its clear this team is starting to gel, root for each other, have fun, play with confidence. Its night and day. It seems the morale changed after the Heat win. Like we lifted last years proverbial monkey off our back.

This league is so talented it's ridiculous. Gotta tip the cap to the Knicks if they keep shooting like this. We are playing well they just can't miss.

Good analysis, and I agree with a lot of what you are saying. This is much better than some of the previous stuff you are saying . There will be nights where we need him to look for his shot more though. But i do tend to agree that getting others involved generates better effort on defense and higher team morale overall, all other things being equal.

I just don't want to trade Collins. He's a great fit for this team. Great lob threat/finisher/PNR guy for Trae who can also hit the 3 ball, good FT shooter, much improved defender. Like what else do we want out of the 4? Unless we are getting a Lauri or Siakam package no thanks. Anything else is going to be a major downgrade. Capela for Ayton package I'd do as we fill some major holes that way.

I like CC, but I like Ayton a lot better. If we had 5 guys who can shoot midrange or further and all make free throws, it adds so much to our team offensively. CC does a lot well, but he's a total lane clogger, doesn't shoot FTs, and is easy to guard. Ideally I would like to pair JC and Ayton together as our 4/5, but its doubtful Tony would be willing to pay for that.

Agreed, but we are severely limited with Capela. You have to have 4 shooters around him. Capela is a great defender when he has a size advantage. He isn't great against bigs with size like Embiid, Giannis, Lopez and he can't make them work hard on defense. Capela is easy to guard b/c he has zero range, and he can't shoot free throws. Go back and watch our deep playoff run in 2021, Capela was kind of a liability after the NY series. I'd trade a Capela package for Ayton ALL DAY long.

Man i would love to see Collins and Ayton together. Ressler probably isn't willing to pay for it, but they are a great fit. Both can shoot, both can play the PNR. Trae/DJ would have 2 lob threats and the floor is spaced out extremely well. Solid defense and rebounding also. If Collins departs, we could start OO or Crowder depending on matchups. I would lean towards OO since we are already getting killed on the boards, if Crowder replaces JC at the 4 we get worse. OO will hurt spacing, but at least he can shoot FTs and his jumper has improved this year.

I just don't get it, none of these trades fix our 3pt shooting or rebounding issues. Simmons - We get worse at rebounding and shooting, AND take on another max contract? I just don't see how that ever works unless we can get KAT, then we have 4 max contracts. Capela has to go immediately if we trade for Simmons. The Utah trade for Vanderbilt/Beasley. Absolutely destroys our spacing/shooting. We would have zero shooting from the 4/5. Won't work. Crowder? Improves our shooting but kills our rebounding. We going to swap Collins for Crowder at the 4 when we're already getting destroyed on the boards? You cant play OO and CC together for extended minutes so that's just a nonstarter for me. All of these deals are going to require major changes afterwards to make it all fit. Maybe that's the goal, IDK. I think we should just wait until the summer if this is all that's on the table.

I should have clarified. I didn't mean that management would actually want to tank this season. Ownership is probably dumb enough to think that an OO/CC starting frontcourt would work after making this trade, the reality is it won't. BTW OO isn't that much better a rebounder than Collins. The negative impact to our offensive spacing would largely outweigh any slight increase in rebounding.