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Lance would be the most exciting but also terrifying move - potential all-star and/or disaster in the making. Ariza would be pretty cool; Deng would be okay.

I was under the impression that Woody hated Drew for going behind his back and angling for his job. Maybe not?

What I think is that I clearly don't pay as much attention to the NBA anymore. I've never even heard of Kent Bazemore. I had to google him to make sure this thread wasn't some kind of pop culture reference that I was missing.

How disappointing. I thought all would be revealed by now.

I'd be down with this as well. Fortunately, I'm not a GM, because I love change for the sake of change.

I'm thinking Deng isn't plan A, but he might be among the more obtainable options. (Maybe we see if we can make anything happen with Carmello or Love, explore potential restricted free agents, then move to Deng?) Or maybe we'll do like we did with Millsap and target Deng, show up on his doorstep at 12:01 a.m., and make him feel like our top priority. I have no clue, but if we can get Deng for a reasonable deal I wouldn't mind - same goes for a few of the other wings out there on the market. Adding Horford and a legit starting SF to our roster makes us pretty competitive in my opinion (hopefully good enough to beat Indiana, for instance), especially if Payne also turns out to be a quality player.

I agree with this as well. Mostly, it's surprising to me that Bebe and Lou Williams were apparently the key to getting us off the treadmill and winning NBA championships. Personally, I like the idea of opening up $15 million in cap space while still keeping Teague, Korver, Carroll, Millsap, and Horford on the roster. It remains to be seen what will come of the cap space, of course, but you can't be a major player in free agency without it. Deng isn't necessarily the most exciting option, but I'm willing to let this play out and see what happens.

I wasn't overly optimistic that Bebe would ever amount to anything in the NBA. Interesting prospect, yes, but we now have $20 million in cap space and we didn't give up any of our core assets. I like it.

Double Dragon, Double Dribble, Contra - very nice. Hadn't thought about those games in a long time. On a related note (okay, not really related at all), I typically buy into the idea that older players make worse NBA prospects, but I don't think the general rule applies as much to Payne for a couple of reasons. First, we aren't drafting him as a potential all-star and hoping he'll develop his raw athleticism into a complete package over time; we're drafting him to play a certain role - to space the floor with his shooting - and that skill is already there. So if you say he won't improve much, I say he doesn't need to improve much. Second, Payne's perimeter shooting isn't dependent on being older (and thus stronger) than the dudes he's playing against (i.e., he's not a 6'8 power forward who's bullying younger guys around the basket, he's a 6'10 power forward hitting perimeter shots). While I do think he could use a bit of a quicker release, overall I think his shooting should translate to the NBA. Finally, Payne's not a tweener or a sub-par athlete. Some tweeners slowly become successful college players, but ultimately they can't transition to the NBA (someone like Jimmer Fredette or Shelden Williams). Jimmer's shooting, for example, translated to the NBA fairly well, but overall he's too small to be a SG and too slow to be a PG, just as Shelden was too small to be a C and not athletic enough to be a PF. Payne, on the other hand, is 6'10 with a solid wingspan and appears to be a good leaper and fairly strong, so I think he'll be able to rebound and defend his position while still hitting shots from the perimeter or getting dunks when the opportunity arises. That's a long way of saying he should be able to do exactly what we drafted him to do, which makes him a good pick at 15 in my opinion.

I'd love to have Thompson and I think he'd be great in our system, but so is Al. Not sure how we'd find a center, either. But I'd definitely consider this, especially because Al keeps getting hurt, and Thompson is just such a killer from 3 (although he's not really a great at anything else). What would y'all think about an undersized but very quick and skilled lineup like this? 1. Jeff Teague / Shelvin Mack / Dennis Schröder 2. Klay Thomspon / Lou Williams / John Jenkins / Lamar Patterson 3. DeMarre Carroll / Kyle Korver / Mike Scott 4. Paul Millsap / Adreian Payne / Mike Muscala 5. David Lee / Pero Antić / Bebe

Most second rounders don't pan out, so I don't mind rolling the dice on a humongous dude who's only been playing ball for 4 years.

To me, Carmello is a superstar in name only. All-star, yes, but not superstar in terms of on-the-court production. You get a guy like Lebron or Duncan, you think: now we have a legit chance to win a championship or at least get to the finals, because this guy has done it before multiple times. (Of if you draft a guy with a rep like that, you're still blissfully ignorant and optimistic that he'll be the next so-and-so.) You get an established guy like Carmello, though, and you think: hopefully we'll at least make the playoffs, unlike Carmello's Knicks last year. Or if we're lucky maybe we can get to the second round, like Carmello has done only TWICE in his entire career. With that being said, I do think we could use a scorer at the SF position, and Melo is certainly that - but is he the kind of scorer we need in this system? Would he buy in? And does he add anything defensively? I'd be intrigued to see how it turned out if we got him, and certainly we could use the bump in national interest, but I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer looking at other options first.

From Seinfeld, "The Gum" episode: DEENA: (doubtful) That was your best friend? GEORGE: Yeah, yeah, but he doesn't wear glasses. DEENA: That man was wearing glasses. GEORGE: I know. Don't you see? (emphatic) He was doing it to fool Lloyd Braun!

Sounds like I've got something in common with a top 3 pick in this year's draft. Nice.

I've been saying this as well: we're not Miami, L.A., Chicago, or NY, so usually no one considers us - but man, our roster would be ridiculous with Lebron: Compare Haws vs. Heat this year: *PG: Teague v. Chalmers - Advantage Teague by far *C: Horford v. Bosh - Tie, and I think Horford would be great with Lebron (great shooting, better defense, strength, and rebounding than Bosh) *PF: Millsap v. Whoever - Advantage Millsap *Lebron v. Lebron - Tie *Wade v. Korver or Carroll - Advantage Wade, but....Wade's breaking down, plus he's not a better shooter than Korver, nor is a better defender or 3-point shooter than Carroll, and in a way I think Lebron would be better at least as well off with an elite specialist on the wing who can either defend or rebound, depending on the matchups, instead of a guy who mostly scores off the dribble or on 2-point jumpshots like Wade. Finally, we have the cap space to sign Lebron without giving up a major piece, we'll get a nice draft pick this year, we've got a good coach, and a bench consisting of a top 15 draft pick / Korver or Carroll / Schröder or Mack / Scott, Jenkins, Muscala, Bebe and Pero wouldn't be all that bad. I really don't think he could join a better roster to fit his skill set from a pure basketball perspective.

The choice isn't Embiid or whoever's there at 8 or 15 - it's Embiid or Al Horford, Jabari Parker, or Andrew Wiggins, because I don't think Embiid will still be there at 8. If you have a guy with potential who needs to develop but has chronic back and foot issues, that's not a good combination for a top 3 pick in my mind.

Greg Oden, Yao Ming, Sam Bowie, Bill Walton....not sure I want Embiid after this news, at least not at the top of the draft. Too many talented big men haven't been able to overcome these kinds of injuries. I'm not a Wiggins fan, either - too much of a Marvin Williams mentality to me, although I think Wiggins has far more physical talent.

I doubt we'll be recruiting Lebron (and I doubt even more that he'd actually consider coming), but I think we'd be instant title contenders if we could add him - Teague, Carrol, Lebron, Millsap, and Horford would be an incredible starting lineup, plus we'd have a nice bench with Korver and Lou Williams for scoring, plus a 15 pick in a deep draft...Shelvin, Dennis, Mike Scott, Bebe, Muscala, Pero, Jenkins...can't see how that team wouldn't be at least as good as Miami and probably even better: Lebron plus two all-star big man, an athletic PG in his prime, and two role players in Carrol and Korver who are perfectly suited to play on the wing alongside Lebron, no major weakness at any position, plus a low pressure fan base and media....that would be my sales pitch.

I will now do my fantasy GM thing: -Trades: Horford for 1st pick; Schröder & Lou Williams for 8th pick -Picks: Joel Embiid; Gary Harris -Sign: Greg Monroe PG: Jeff Teague / Shelvin Mack SG: DeMarre Carrol / Gary Harris SF: Kyle Korver / Mike Scott PF: Greg Monroe / Paul Millsap CR: Joel Embiid / Pero Antić

I don't really know a thing about him, except his stats in that final four are impressive. I like the 8-16 shooting from 3, the size and the production. I also think we really need a wing with his skill set. If he's there at 15 and Ferry and Bud think he's worth that kind of pick, I'd be excited. Also, in reading that article, it's true that his coaches think he needs playing time to develop, but one of them did say he had all-star type of potential - and almost anyone available at 15 will need some development and playing time.

Love it - been waiting for this for years. Now they just need to ditch the primary logo altogether and just go with the new pac!

Looks like he averaged between 9 to 11 ppg over the last four years - now he's barely playing and has a PER below 4. Doesn't sound like he can help us much but I'm not opposed to adding him.

I like a Chad Ford proposal I saw recently - basically, the three teams with the three worst records averaged out over the last three years before each draft are entered into a three team lottery for the top three picks. So basically, you'd have to be bad for three straight years just to get a 33.3% chance at the top pick - thus eliminating most of the incentive for tanking.

I'd do it if our lineup could ultimately look like this: PG: Jeff Teague / Shelvin Mack / Dennis Schröder SG: Kyle Krover / Lou Williams / John Jenkins SF: LeBron James / Demare Carroll / Cartier Martin PF: Al Horford / Terrence Jones / Mike Scott CR: Omer Asik / Gustavo Ayón / Lucas Nogueirra Also, I plan on winning the lottery this week and buying the Hawks.

That game was almost unwatchable, mostly because of the Hawks...but then again it's only the 1st preseason game with a new coach, new players, etc. Not sure what to think, but it definitely wasn't encouraging.