Ray Young on what really happened on Draft Night...

[JTB]

As we all know luka and Trae are forever connected due to the draft night trade....check out the tweets below regarding a Forbes article that came out recently about all of this ....

 

I will just say this I don’t know what Ray heard or Trae but from what I recall Schlenk said they had Ayton number 1 and then a group of players at number 2 they would have been happy with but Rays comments that they were never going to the opposite teams is very interesting and the comment that Trae was set and ready to go to Orlando is interesting as well. 
This trade comes up so often even today I really wonder what the real back story is since everyone still makes a big deal about it !....had Dallas and Atlanta not came to an agreement on the trade where were these two players going originally?....

 

Any takers who want to try guessing what the “real story” is according to Ray Young?

if I had to guess there must have been talks with Memphis between Hawks and Dallas that Memphis  was dead set on Luka no matter what Plus at the time they were holding on to Trae and Dallas obviously wanted Luka and no parts of Trae likely because they just drafted Dennis Smith Jr prior to this draft at the  time. So that leaves Atlanta who wasn’t really dead set on any player after Ayton in my speculation and since we didn’t land the number 1 pick Schlenk went into “what can we do to add another asset to the team while staying high in the draft, type of mode” and taking the best talent available at 5 while acquiring Dallas pick for the next years draft was obviously what happened but I bet Schlenk was willing to move down to atleast 7 if he could gain a high additional asset if Dallas wasn’t willing to give up their next years pick.

 

In other words personally I don’t believe Schlenk had a clear cut guy at 3 so he was on the phone right after the 2018 lottery seeing his options then for the 3rd pick....Many believe Ressler forced Schlenk to draft Trae and I once thought this to but I now believe Schlenk is just more in love with being very active on draft day trades if he can assure there’s an asset in return rather than sticking to the team’s draft board . Schlenk is the “lets get as many opportunities in one Draft setting as possible type of GM”....we will see it again this draft . Maybe Schlenk wouldn’t be as active on draft day if we ever land the number 1 pick but until we do that and as long as he’s here I see Schlenk trading on draft day or trying to every off season no matter where we land.

Dallas wanted Luka so bad I wonder if Schlenk could have gotten more out of them.

[NBASupes]

TS said he was going to take Luka but my guy says it was going to be Trae. They even promised Trae family  which Ray denied as you see here. They just wanted an additional asset he said.

That was as far Dallas was willing to go

Tony okay Luka tho 

Edited August 26, 2020 by NBASupes

[JTB]

9 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

TS said he was going to take Luka but my guy says it was going to be Trae. They even promised Trae family  which Ray denied as you see here. They just wanted an additional asset he said.

That was as far Dallas was willing to go

Tony okay Luka tho 

I like Schlenk and still do as of right now but I didn’t enjoy his public comments about stating that they were going to take Luka had they stayed put at 3. Even if it’s true he said it after the fact which made it seem like he was trying to save face...to me if you make a firm decision you need to stand by it and live up to it. Don’t make these kinda comments to the public about internal decisions and we all know Trae saw that.

its one of the very short list of boneheaded things Schlenk has done since being here in my opinion.

[thecampster]

3 hours ago, NBASupes said:

TS said he was going to take Luka but my guy says it was going to be Trae. They even promised Trae family  which Ray denied as you see here. They just wanted an additional asset he said.

That was as far Dallas was willing to go

Tony okay Luka tho 

Ya, I think the story was that Orlando was sitting on Trae at 6 and the Hawks had a deal in place. If I remember the rumors right, Chicago wanted to move up to take JJJ at 3. They knew he wasn't dropping to them at 7. Atlanta was considering it thinking that JJJ going 3 would push Trae down the board. They found out Orlando was planning to take them at 6 and it limited their partners to trade.

Edited August 26, 2020 by thecampster

[Eddielives]

I really hope race had nothing to do with the pick. I yearn for the day when race is about as important as hair color. 

[marco102]

9 minutes ago, Eddielives said:

I really hope race had nothing to do with the pick. I yearn for the day when race is about as important as hair color. 

The only people making it about race is the media.  

Travis was rumored to love Trae and his style of play well before the draft process.  It was even talked about on 92.9 how much Travis loved Trae.  

It also wasn't that Luka was white, but the recent European lottery draft picks had not turned out so well. Luka's going to cause a lot of European players to get drafted high again. GM's will hope to find the next Luka.  It's not about being white/black/rreen/blue.  It's about finding who you think will translate best. 

Travis drafted Kevin Huerter in the same draft, but no one's talking about his race.

Edited August 26, 2020 by marco102

[NBASupes]

20 minutes ago, Eddielives said:

I really hope race had nothing to do with the pick. I yearn for the day when race is about as important as hair color. 

It's clearly not about race. Every insider is saying the same. Atlanta wasn't drafting Luka. They wanted Trae. That's what makes what TS saying strange. It's not that they weren't going to take Luka that day as they claimed, it was that, it didn't take much to move Atlanta off #3. We all know when TS wants value he can bargain for days. It seems like @thecampsteris right as well as least to me. All people within keep saying was Atlanta wanted more assets to move down and to land Trae.

Edited August 26, 2020 by NBASupes

[Eddielives]

If Terrence can’t back it up factually, shame on him for asserting it. 

[NBASupes]

4 minutes ago, Eddielives said:

If Terrence can’t back it up factually, shame on him for asserting it. 

I don't think so honestly. I think it's a cop out. Givony was close to TS. He was saying it's to sell tickets. But honestly, people questioned Luka ability to lead on championship team. It wasn't this no brainer decision for teams who want to rebuild and add talent. If it wasn't for the dumb Knicks and that stupid trade. There is a great chance Dallas would just be Memphis 2.0 right now. Good team with a nice future. Not a young contending type team

Edited August 26, 2020 by NBASupes

[AHF]

7 hours ago, JTB said:

 

Dallas wanted Luka so bad I wonder if Schlenk could have gotten more out of them.

We could have and I criticized the deal from that angle but what I think we could have gotten (an unprotected pick) ended up no different than what we got (the #10* pick) so I'm all good at this point.

*Thanks to Peo for the correction.

[High5]

Schlenk admitted he was going to take Luka if he stayed at 3. There's really no reason he would lie about that as it's kind of a slight on Trae. Most GMs say whoever they pick was their guy 100% no matter what. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by High5

[bleachkit]

I'm not sure why TS preferred Trae over Luka. They are both outstanding passers and that was their main selling point. Neither are explosive athletes. Trae is a better shooter. Luka is bigger and stronger. One thing people said about Luka is that's he's slow, but they weren't looking at the film correctly. Luka patiently attacks the lane waiting for a cutter or a shooter as the defense collapses. Going 100mph on every play like Ja Morant is not always a good sign. That's a tough way to maintain a career, and those get injured as they age. Guys like Luka know how use their body and are patient, not letting the defense speed them up, sort of LeBron-esque. 

[Peoriabird]

23 minutes ago, AHF said:

We could have and I criticized the deal from that angle but what I think we could have gotten (an unprotected pick) ended up no different than what we got (the #8 pick) so I'm all good at this point.

You mean pick #10

[thecampster]

1 hour ago, Eddielives said:

If Terrence can’t back it up factually, shame on him for asserting it. 

To be fair, Dallas wanting Luka had at least a little to do with race.  I mentioned this privately to someone recently but there are a few cities that are definitely more white player friendly and fall for the great white hope angle.  Boston and Utah, being the most well known but Indianapolis, Denver, and Dallas all fall into this category too when it comes to player acquisition.

[AHF]

1 minute ago, Peoriabird said:

You mean pick #10

Yes - you are correct.  The protection on Dallas's pick ended up being irrelevant.  

[macdaddy]

If Trae was going to end up in Orlando then that means another player had to move into the top5.  Just ignoring the teams who would that play be?  Bamba?

[marco102]

25 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

I'm not sure why TS preferred Trae over Luka. They are both outstanding passers and that was their main selling point. Neither are explosive athletes. Trae is a better shooter. Luka is bigger and stronger. One thing people said about Luka is that's he's slow, but they weren't looking at the film correctly. Luka patiently attacks the lane waiting for a cutter or a shooter as the defense collapses. Going 100mph on every play like Ja Morant is not always a good sign. That's a tough way to maintain a career, and those get injured as they age. Guys like Luka know how use their body and are patient, not letting the defense speed them up, sort of LeBron-esque. 

Travis likes pass dribble shooting in a prospect.  None of Luka's predraft analysis thought he'd be a great shooter.  He still isn't. It was a concern. He's just really good at converting near the basket.  Travis may have valued Trae's shooting a little more when weighing the prospects plus an additional pick.

[thecampster]

8 minutes ago, marco102 said:

Travis likes pass dribble shooting in a prospect.  None of Luka's predraft analysis thought he'd be a great shooter.  He still isn't. It was a concern. He's just really good at converting near the basket.  Travis may have valued Trae's shooting a little more when weighing the prospects plus an additional pick.

Let's be fair. If Trae had 2 elite shooters around him, he'd have 15 assists per night.  As Cam, Hunter continue to develop and with JC/Capela healthy, we might just see an assist season like we haven't seen in 20 years.

If you could bring back every pass Trae threw to Jones, Len, Bruno, Crabbe, Bembry and have Capela/JC/Huerter healthy and taking those shots, we might have seen records fall.  There were easily an average of 5 assists per night left on the table.

Edited August 26, 2020 by thecampster

[macdaddy]

3 minutes ago, thecampster said:

Let's be fair. If Trae had 2 elite shooters around him, he'd have 15 assists per night.  As Cam, Hunter continue to develop and with JC/Capela healthy, we might just see an assist season like we haven't seen in 20 years.

If you could bring back every pass Trae threw to Jones, Len, Bruno, Crabbe, Bembry and have Capela/JC/Huerter healthy and taking those shots, we might have seen records fall.  There were easily an average of 5 assists per night left on the table.

No doubt.  It's crazy to even think about and not only were there ton's of assist left on the table but there were passes not made because Trae knew he was more likely to convert than anyone.   I expect 30 ppg to go down probably and 10 assists to go up.  and i'm fine with that.  

[thecampster]

The first few months of Reddish shooting was pretty awful. Those were all missed stat opportunities for Trae.