2022 NBA Offseason

[DG_ThenNowForever]

 

 

This is funny, but I blame Danny Ainge.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

About those pro-am tournaments:

 

 

Skinny tall dudes with foot damage is bad news in the NBA

[gosioux76]

On 8/21/2022 at 7:22 AM, DEAD! said:

These meaningless pro-am games are nothing more than public practices for the players. They are not going all-out for 40+ minutes each time. Players are just as likely to get injured on their own private workouts than a charity event.

With the FIBA tournaments, the players are going hard every game because they are meaningful. Which means they are more likely to wear down.

 

Isn't the greater good of these events about allowing kids who probably couldn't afford an NBA ticket access to these NBA superstars for a day? At least that's the way it's been positioned. 

 

So in that sense, these pro-am's aren't much different from an NBA goodwill mission to China or Africa. It's part of growing the game. 

[dont care]

16 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

About those pro-am tournaments:

 

 

Skinny tall dudes with foot damage is bad news in the NBA

Aaaaannnndddd he’s out for the season

[DG_ThenNowForever]

4 minutes ago, dont care said:

Aaaaannnndddd he’s out for the season

 

A celebrated Thunder rookie playing in Seattle was always tempting fate..

[Burkell007]

16 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

About those pro-am tournaments:

 

 

Skinny tall dudes with foot damage is bad news in the NBA

I was never sold on him, he just looked fragile and skinny. Needs to bulk up more or this will keep happing.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

15 minutes ago, Burkell007 said:

I was never sold on him, he just looked fragile and skinny. Needs to bulk up more or this will keep happing.

 

Big guys' feet are always worrying, and I agree -- moreso based on the Chet's frame. KD and Corey Brewer were able to succeed in the NBA as comparatively skinny guys to everyone else, but they had way more time in the perimeter and way less time in the paint.

 

There's some twitter body-shaming scolding when it comes to pointing out what everyone can see -- Chet Holmgren is a skinny dude! -- and I think that's too much. 7'0 and less than 200 pounds is just too small. Man's probably got a way overactive metabolism, so there's probably only so much protein powder he can take while still remaining mobile. Sometimes your body works for you; sometimes it doesn't.

 

If him spraining his foot didn't happen against LeBron in a pro/am game, it probably would have happened sooner or later against another NBA big. Those guys tend to be twice the size of who Chet's played against in college and Summer League.

Get well soon.

 

EDIT:

Also, Rob Pelinka's 2021 offseason probably cost the Lakers one if not two championship opportunities. They dumped Caruso for THT, and now they dumped THT AND positive player Stanley Johnson for Pat Beverley, who we all swore was washed three seasons ago.

 

To say nothing of Russell Westbrook.

 

Rewind 2021 and do nothing, and you've got LeBron/AD/Kuz/KCP/Caruso + whoever else they could have picked up. That's still a more appealing lineup than LeBron/AD/PatBev/Russ/????

[Digby]

Shams:

 

Quote

The Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired guard Donovan Mitchell in a trade with the Utah Jazz, sources confirmed to The Athletic. Cleveland is sending Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, three first-round draft picks and two pick swaps to the Jazz for Mitchell, per sources.

 

Wasn't betting on that landing spot!

[FinsUp1214]

First thing’s first: I’m going to miss Spida. He was one of the most fun-to-watch players to ever play here, and did a lot for the underprivileged in the Salt Lake community. Cleveland, you’re getting a good one.

 

Onto what this means for Utah, this is clearly a rebuild and it’s clearly going to be tough sledding for a couple or more years. That said, the Jazz got about as great a haul to kick off a rebuild as you would hope from Gobert and Mitchell. Consider that they turned those two players into this:

 

Collin Sexton

Lauri Markkanen

Ochai Agbaji (2022 14th pick)

Malik Beasley

Leandro Bolmaro

Walker Kessler (2022 22nd pick)

Jarred Vanderbilt

Patrick Beverley, who was then flipped for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson

7 1st-round picks

3 1st-round swaps

 

…and that’s without even trading Bogdanovic or Conley (yet). I’m pretty excited by this haul and it certainly does a lot to make the sting of losing Gobert and Mitchell easier to bear. Maybe it’s the optimist in me, but I think the Jazz are now set up perfectly for a rebuild and it hopefully should be of the 2-4 year type rather than longer.

[MJWalker45]

12 hours ago, FinsUp1214 said:

First thing’s first: I’m going to miss Spida. He was one of the most fun-to-watch players to ever play here, and did a lot for the underprivileged in the Salt Lake community. Cleveland, you’re getting a good one.

 

Onto what this means for Utah, this is clearly a rebuild and it’s clearly going to be tough sledding for a couple or more years. That said, the Jazz got about as great a haul to kick off a rebuild as you would hope from Gobert and Mitchell. Consider that they turned those two players into this:

 

Collin Sexton

Lauri Markkanen

Ochai Agbaji (2022 14th pick)

Malik Beasley

Leandro Bolmaro

Walker Kessler (2022 22nd pick)

Jarred Vanderbilt

Patrick Beverley, who was then flipped for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson

7 1st-round picks

3 1st-round swaps

 

…and that’s without even trading Bogdanovic or Conley (yet). I’m pretty excited by this haul and it certainly does a lot to make the sting of losing Gobert and Mitchell easier to bear. Maybe it’s the optimist in me, but I think the Jazz are now set up perfectly for a rebuild and it hopefully should be of the 2-4 year type rather than longer.

This is great for Cleveland. I was wondering what they might do to take that next step and I think this is it. Sexton was great for Cleveland when healthy, but over the last two years he's no longer the focus of the team. Bringing in Mitchell feels like the team has improved, but they still need something else to push them over the line into serious contenders instead of just playoff contenders. 

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

28 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

This is great for Cleveland. I was wondering what they might do to take that next step and I think this is it. Sexton was great for Cleveland when healthy, but over the last two years he's no longer the focus of the team. Bringing in Mitchell feels like the team has improved, but they still need something else to push them over the line into serious contenders instead of just playoff contenders. 

 

Agreed, but don't forget Garland and Mobley will be a year better as well.

[Digby]

I liked the SexLand emergence but hard to argue against Mitchell being a clear upgrade. I think it's a great trade for Cleveland, they've got 3 or 4 All-Stars now. It's nice to see them being competent and truly going for it sans LeBron. Even though their uniforms suck now. Depth seems like it may be an issue for them, but that's a future problem.

 

Also, lol Knicks.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I can't believe Danny Ainge got 700 draft picks for Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, two guys who never even made it to a conference finals.

 

I also can't believe how nice the Cavs roster looks. Good for them; they'll be ready to make a move for Bronny in two years and sign a vet minimum deal for LeBron James all at once. 2024 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers is going to be wild.

[Digby]

6 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Good for them; they'll be ready to make a move for Bronny in two years and sign a vet minimum deal for LeBron James all at once.

 

Feels like someone is going to draft Bronny outrageously high (he's a mid-2nd rounder at best, right?) just to extort Cleveland, and who could blame them? 

 

Also, Gallinari tore his ACL on FIBA duty, which is a pretty unlucky twist to Boston's previously promising summer.

[MJWalker45]

23 minutes ago, Digby said:

 

Feels like someone is going to draft Bronny outrageously high (he's a mid-2nd rounder at best, right?) just to extort Cleveland, and who could blame them? 

As much as LeBron has been an Ohio guy, do most people look at his sons in the same way? They've been playing at private high schools in California for the last few years and other than possibly playing an Ohio school in a basketball tournament I don't see them being raised in Ohio brought up that much. 

31 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I also can't believe how nice the Cavs roster looks. Good for them; they'll be ready to make a move for Bronny in two years and sign a vet minimum deal for LeBron James all at once. 2024 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers is going to be wild.

Unless he falls to them, Cleveland should not be trying to get father and son together for a couple years just to appease their fans. Winning is what they need to focus on. Would I love to have Lebron back? Yes I would, but sometimes the ship sails and you can't keep waiting for it to come back to port. 

[DoctorWhom]

losing Gallinari before the season really sucks. Was excited to see him on a real contender.  

 

The replacement option being talked about  is.....Carmelo Anthony? IDK how to feel about that. Is he still a lazy, toxic, :censored:? 

Would he even be an improvement over Gallinari?  

[Digby]

54 minutes ago, DoctorWhom said:

Would he even be an improvement over Gallinari?  

I mean anyone is an improvement over Gallinari if he can’t play.

 

Melo or one of the guys from the ongoing Utah tear down works, if Brad and Danny wanna make a deal. Just needs to be the 8th best player on the team and knock down enough shots to make the bench minutes respectable and take the slightest  scoring load off the Jays.

[Kooky01]

Welp, any chance Utah has to contend for a title is gone. It's a shame because I like seeing small market teams succeed no matter what sport, especially the big market dominated NBA.

 

Cleveland on the other hand, might have something next season to get by the altar they were left at last year. 

[Indigo]

15 hours ago, Kooky01 said:

Welp, any chance Utah has to contend for a title is gone. It's a shame because I like seeing small market teams succeed no matter what sport, especially the big market dominated NBA.

 

Cleveland on the other hand, might have something next season to get by the altar they were left at last year. 

Utah never really had one. Their ceiling with the Mitchell/Gobert pairing was 45 to 50-ish wins and the second round, and that's where they hit all four* years. I get wanting to see small-market teams win, but this Utah teardown was bound to happen.

 

*except 2020 in the bubble where they got knocked out in the first round by the 3-1 Nuggets. Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell were trading 50-bombs like they were both prime Kobe. Man, the bubble was a weird time.

[FinsUp1214]

2 hours ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

Utah never really had one. Their ceiling with the Mitchell/Gobert pairing was 45 to 50-ish wins and the second round, and that's where they hit all four* years. I get wanting to see small-market teams win, but this Utah teardown was bound to happen.

 

*except 2020 in the bubble where they got knocked out in the first round by the 3-1 Nuggets. Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell were trading 50-bombs like they were both prime Kobe. Man, the bubble was a weird time.

This is, unfortunately, the 100% truth. It look me longer to see that than others, but the fallout of the Clippers series collapse and last year’s not-so-subtle regression was very clear writing on the wall that this core wasn’t going any farther than it already had. Ultimately, they had a great deal of individual talent, but the team itself just didn’t gel and wasn’t really built for a sustained run.

 

I think that’s precisely what makes this tear down easier to swallow for me than I would have expected; as much as it sucks to fall short again and watch the Gobert/Mitchell era end, this step is absolutely necessary for any shot at a title down the road. The team frankly needed to be built in a much different way than it was, and the hauls so far give them the flexibility to work that out in a way they couldn’t a couple of months ago.