We were up in the first half game 6 and 7 if the WCF, but a great margin. Didn’t set the tone for the second half.
We need Carmelo coming off the bench when Harden isn't playing, not starting and playing most of his minutes with James Harden when we need our top defensive players. Starting isn't about putting your 5 best players on the floor, it's positioning your best team units, which is why Gordon hasn't been starting. We don't need more offense with Paul and Harden on the floor. But Carmelo is all about ego, and his ego can't stand doing what's best for the team. He will start because his ego demands it and he will play 80% of his minutes next to Harden, making for an epic defensive tandem.
Harden plays the whole first quarter. Thats just a joke. If camelo is off the bench that means he will come in the game with chris paul off the floor and playing exclusively with harden. It doesnt effin matter. Hes going to be on the floor with harden. Start him. Bench him at the first tv timeout. Bring him back in with paul end of 1st /1st half of the second. Starting the game means he is on the floor with paul more often. You are acting like melo is going to be a low minutes bench player that only plays when harden rests in teh 2nd. If he plays with harden off the court excusively he is only going to play 10-15 minutes a game.
It's about winning. Building a winning team. Drummond cannot win. Paid too much. Can't anchor the defensive paint. Had to leave the game because he's a bad defender and bad free throw shooter. Drummond is just a big strong athlete who is dumber than a sack of hammers. He'll never win as the primary 5 making a max salary. Never.
@cyberx thanks for the melo update today. Have you heard anything about them going after Nick Young? It’d be awesome if they convinced melo to take the minimum so they could throw the mle at Young. Cp3/Gordon Harden/Green Ennis/Young PJ/Melo Capela/Ryno (spot minutes at the beginning of the season to see if he can get his shot/confidence back) That’s a ton of 3 point firepower off of the bench! Plenty of people for cp3 to feed when he comes back in the game for Harden.
On the latest Lowe Post podcast around the 58:00 minutes, Khris Middleton has been available for trade but at a high price. I think he is the perfect Ariza replacement and he is a much better shooter. It might be a rental if the Rockets go for him.
Except for the sack'o comment, I frankly agree. AD shoulda played 'back when' but plays now and there is a real AD who is stylistically ideal for today's NBA. And he ain't dumber than a sack'o(tho I wonder why AD traded Boogie for Randall???).
Very Bucks heavy on the Lowe Post podcast @malakas Spoiler http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=24115033 Lowe: They(Bulls) got to choose between do we want Jabari Parker or a salary dump/draft picks? They could have done the Denver deal. If not that same deal, a version of that. They chose this instead. It's an unpopular choice among most NBA decision makers. Some of that has to do with Jabari, some that has to do with the opportunity cost of missing out on a first round pick. I have a sense this was cooking for awhile. It took maybe a week or so to figure the dollar amount, whether the Bucks would rescind the QO. They seemed to really specifically target Jabari. Seemed to me this was a guy they zeroed in on early in free agency. Nick Friedell: Bulls, specifically Gar Foreman, has a long, solid, standing working relationship with Mark Bartelstein, one of the top agents in the league, based in Chicago. Most teams have one or two guys they like dealing with. For the Bulls, it's Bartelstein. I don't think that hurt at all. Friedell: Bulls loved Jimmy but didn't believe he was the #1 guy on a title team so they didn't want to pay him like a #1 guy and sent him to Minnesota. Lowe: [on Anthony Davis/Bulls] At least a handful of teams can outbid them on the trade market. 2) If they have Jabari ('19-'20 season), they may not room for a 30% max contract. Lowe: How will they defend anyone when Lopez isn't on the floor? In LaVine & Jabari, you're not just talking bad. You're talking comedy. Keystone Kops comedy. LaVine is bad. Jabari is clueless. He has no idea what's happening on defense. He'll have to guard SFs because Markkanen can't do it. That's a much bigger problem than Jabari playing SF on offense. If you're 28th-29th-30th on defense & don't have LeBron on your team like the Cavs did, it's hard to win on any night in the NBA against anybody. ... I'm skeptical this will work. ________________________________________________________ Lowe: Any surprise the Bucks cut bait on Parker? Windhorst: Never seen a press release where a team says they jointly rescind the QO as the Bucks put out. I know why they did but I laughed to myself. Jabari's career with the Bucks took a huge hit when he tore his ACL for the 2nd time but his career with the Bucks effectively ended when he turned down the extension last fall, which different numbers have been reported but I believe was in the neighborhood of 3 years, $54M; maybe a bonus million in here or there. Once that happened, the window of opportunity to stay with the Bucks was narrow. They had an opportunity at the trade deadline to trade him but rolling the dice on him having a healthy, productive 2nd half was a better alternative that what they could have traded him for. You can argue maybe they should have included him in the Bledsoe deal instead of the 1st round pick. Ultimately this summer, if had been left with no options & took his QO, the Bucks would have been very happy to have him back at that. Other than that, I don't think they seriously decided to keep him. I think they thought there wouldn't be much interest. As it turned out, Bulls made a robust offer; apparently the Kings were in there. I'm pretty sure as the Nets cleared space, they had the Jeremy Lin deal done, as they cleared space before going ahead taking on Denver's money, I think they kicked Jabari's tires. I think the price was too high & moved on. So 3 teams were interested. The fact that was the case & none needed to do business with the Bucks, it was never going to happen for them. ... I also think Jabari has a very powerful & well respected agent. I wouldn't say that under every circumstance this would happen but the agent basically said, "Would you pull the QO so my guy can get this deal?" Bucks didn't see a way they could leverage it any further. So I think they said, "OK, we'll pull it as an act of goodwill." They really liked Jabari. They liked him in the community, on the team but I don't think they were willing to commit because of the knee problems & incredibly high number. The negotiation on pulling the QO is most fascinating. You have two organizations in the same division & also the geographic connection. If Jabari has a rebound year, it'll be in the Bucks backyard but you had a very influential agent involved & you had a positive relationship with the player. There was probably some tense meetings within the Bucks, will be play hardball or not? They decided to do right by the player. Whether that's a good decision or not, you could talk to 10 executives and get 10 different answers. Lowe: They do have a fondness for Jabari as a person & player, that's true. I do think the chemistry issues reached...in the eyes of at least some in the organization almost reached a point of no return in the playoffs when he started complaining about playing time & other things. I can't report for certain but I know this, if Giannis wanted Parker back, he'd be back on the team. No matter how much they signed Ersan for, the hard cap, blahblahblahblah, if he said 'I want Jabari back', he'd be on the team & they would have found a way to make it happen. I'm sure a conversation like that took place. I do think there were enough people ready to wash their hands of the situation. Windhorst: It wasn't like Giannis said 'Get this guy out of here.' Windhorst: Kings haven't spent their money yet. They've been used by one RFA. We have two top RFA in Marcus Smart & Clint Capela. I thought for sure, at least two RFA would get plucked. One ended up getting plucked with Jabari. The Bucks big move of the offseason was getting Mike Budenholzer. There's a time where the Hawks wanted compensation, weren't gonna let him out of his deal then Bud got out of his Hawks deal, then Toronto was interested. For Milwaukee to get Bud without giving up compensation is a great win for them. He'll make a huge difference. Nothing against Jason Kidd. I think they'll be a completely looking different team. I think they'll be a more serious competitor. Windhorst: (What happened with Bud/Raptors/Raptors coaching search) There was some dynamics being discussed in the league about the Toronto coaching search. After all the trades & signings Masai made, the guy has been one of the most prolific deal makers in the NBA over the last decade but he had never hired a coach before. There definitely was some stuff in the league about how that coaching search went. Even the candidates themselves, about how the process went when they got there. There was a lot of stuff that came out that I don't have on firm ground. They ended up right back within the organization after all that. Lowe: Bud better be good. The hardcore members of Bucks twitter are aware of this. The Bucks are at a crisis point...not crisis point but at a massively important moment in the Milwaukee organization. Losing the #2 pick for nothing is & isn't what happened. He's torn his ACL twice, an OK player, some would say disappointment. Not a cornerstone for sure. That's who they lost. However, there is not a lot to show for any of the drafts that took place before Giannis, nor is there much to show that have taken after Giannis. Sterling Brown I think will be decent. Thon Maker has shown flashes. Windhorst: He's shown flying leg kicks as well.
Spoiler Lowe: They've missed on other picks. Brogdon will be a free agent after this season. Windhorst: Brogdon is eligible for the Josh Richardson extension, which is for 4 years at the MLE. Am I correct in saying that? Lowe: 120% of the league average or MLE, whichever is larger. Windhorst: I think Richardson got 4 years, $42M. Norm Powell also signed that. I assume the Bucks will offer that. Lowe: I wouldn't assume that. Windhorst: Maybe not 4 years but I assume they would offer the extension now. This is a good time for teams to extend players, considering the cap space next year. Lowe: Not that many veterans for whom extensions make sense. Brogdon is one. ... There isn't a lot in the cupboard. They traded 2 picks for Greivis Vasquez. It was a one and a two. They traded Brandon Knight for MCW instead of the Lakers pick. There's a whole lot of missed opportunities. Parker is gone. Bledsoe, Middleton, Brogdon are all free agents after next season. They overpaid Ilyasova. They may not have any cap space. If all are on the books as cap holds, they have none. If just Middleton & Brogdon are on the books, they have like $10M or less, not enough to be relevant. They have to renounce Bledsoe & Middleton to have major cap room. If they bring the band back, that's your team. Then you're out of trade assets. Bledose, Middleton & maybe Brogdon are too big of a number to trade. You still owe a pick for Bledsoe. This is...Giannis is 3 years away. He will want to see a path to 55+ wins. That path is either all the guys on the team right now keep getting better & the coaching is special. That may happen. That may be the best & only path. The other path is cap space or you strike a killer trade. If these guys get paid, they won't have the ability to do that. People have seen this coming but we're here now. This is the Giannis moment, where it'll either work or it won't. Windhorst: Middleton has been quietly available in trades over the last year because I think they know in 2019, Middleton on the open market with all that cap space could be dangerous. Not that you'd lose him but it'd cost to keep him. Lowe: My understanding is they've wanted a home run for him. If you give a killer package, we'll talk. I don't know that he's been available available. Windhorst: There's a difference between being shopped & being available. If you had a GM on the stand, prosecution would say "Mr. Horst, is Khris Middleton available?" He would say "Yes." Defense would say "Is he being shopped?" "No." Defense rests your honor. Same thing with Kevin Love. Is he being shopped? No. If you called with Love offers, will they hang up the phone? No. They're both free agents to be & teams are skittish about that next contract and going into a market with a lot of money out there & not every team will hit their mark and will go after guys like that. The Bucks have a lot of guys, Middleton/Bledsoe gotta have a good year. Brogdon, if he doesn't extend and not only because of his foot concerns, any long term contract with him will be problematic. You won't be able to get insurance on that foot I don't think. Maybe I'm wrong. It's been red flagged by a bunch of teams which leads me to be believed it'll be red flagged by the insurance company. Brogdon is potentially playing for a contract. Bud is under pressure to make them better. It could end up being a perfect year where they're all highly motivated, you have a great year and then you're like, "Lets keep them together." I understand your point it's a delicate moment with Giannis' clock ticking but it could pay off. Lowe: He's good enough. Giannis is absolutely good enough to take a team on paper that doesn't look like a Conference Finalist that far. I like Brook Lopez. Windhorst: Why didn't the Lakers re-sign him? Lowe: You & Ramona wrote the story about why the Lakers did what they did. Windhorst: Do they intend to play LeBron at center? KCP is your two guard. Who's your three? Lowe: Ingram. Windhorst: Four? Lowe: 'Bron Windhorst: What about Kuzma? Lowe: Comes off the bench. Windhorst: So you're gonna have a team that thinks itself as legitmate that will start McGee at center. Lowe: That's 2-time NBA Champion JaVale McGee to you. Windhorst: I do think Lopez & Ilyasova does fit with what Bud wants to do. Lowe: Bud wanted Ersan and he got him for 3 years. ... End of the day, I don't mind letting Jabari walk. Windhorst: I think the Raptors are in the driver's seat for Kawhi. I think the Lakers/Sixers have given up and with the Nets/Bulls/Hawks spending their cap space, it makes it harder to assemble a multi-team trade. I think the Raptors are in the driver's seat. Your offer if you're Masai? Lowe: DeRozan, Siakam and at least one first. I've seen snark on twitter that the Raptors stuff is a joke. I've seen it being dismissed. It may not happen. If you think it's a joke, recalibrate your expectations.
