The hope here is that Vic continues to perform well enough that a fringe playoff team or a team that needs one more player to "get over the hump" will give us a sizeable return of assets back. Dallas is probably salivating that the thought of adding him for the playoff run. Vic for James Johnson (finally after all these years!), their 2022 1st unprotected and 2024 1st top 10 protected. Johnson comes off the books this year and we get two more 1st rounders.
The only reason to get Oladipo is to save money. I do not expect us to get much in return for him in a deadline deal because he wants to get PAID and apparently has made it known he wants to be in Miami. So... there goes any leverage.
Am I the only one who likes the Olapido trade? The dude is averaging 20 points a game this season and is solid on the defensive end. He takes a lot of the sting off of losing Harden.
Enough with this. I hate when people start parroting a single, vague line from a random article that likely spouts old comments.
I don't mind Oladipo over Lavert but the issue is if he's even staying here for longer than a fart in the wind. Screams $$$ issues, and Tillman's cheap ass, but maybe there is a Stone angle here, and maybe there is still more deals to come that make more sense than a straight up blow it up rebuild situation. I think you gotta give Wall, Boogie, and EG something to see if we have a team that can compete for the 8th seed at least. Oladipo is interesting as a back court running mate with Wall, but LaVert just made more sense if you were trying to actually build something with real players with a real future. Oladipo is a win now player with a dump now contract.
Levert is a stat padder. Rather gamble on Dipo being good again and trade his ass for more picks Presti style. This is the right way to rebuild. Does this move save Tilman money? Yeah of course, but I don't believe it was the main reason why we kept Dipo over Levert
We never got the young cornerstone piece in this Harden trade — that should be the number one priority in any Oladipo trade, not draft picks. We can get more draft picks flipping Wall, Gordon, Tucker, etc. Teams potentially interested in Oladipo: Heat, Celtics, Nuggets, Raptors, Mavs, and Warriors. Herro and MPJ are main targets. The problem here is leverage. Oladipo apparently has his sights set on Miami — so why would Miami give us Herro for example if they can just outright sign him in free agency? Is Oladipo + Tucker enough for MPJ?
iirc, the '22 Bucks pick is actually wherever Cleveland is picking. So it's based on Cleveland's record, not Milwaukee's. Not exactly a silver lining or anything, but it's a lot better.
The problem isn't Houston. It's the players not being able to deliver, or scared to be put on the spot to bring chip'. Miami was a fluke last season.
I think if either guy could have brought anything worthwhile in draft capital right this moment then it already would have been done as part of the trade. Levert at $18 per is pretty good but definitely not a steal (and again if it is then there should be almost no concern dumping it this summer). I don't think a lot of people see this additional leap and if he doesn't have it you're paying that for a somewhat inefficient bench scorer on a really good team. In 2018 Oladipo was playing at the level of like a #2 or maybe even a 1B on a championship caliber team. He's better this year than he was last year. There's a lot more upside there if he can really get back to form to turn him into something of value in my opinion. If you think it's dumb to bet on that, Wall is already likely less of a negative asset than Russ one month after we picked up an asset to swap them. The trade makes sense for both sides. We get the player that could turn out better. Indy gets more cost certainty and a player they control for the next two years in addition to getting below the tax line (every owner cares about this to some extent, not just Tilman).
This. The oladipo aspect initially confused me but I believe this is the angle Stone is trying to play, accumulate flexible pieces. Lavert is a nice player but hes not efficient. I would have taken him if we were built to compete for years but after the Lakers showed us how far away we are from doing that, its time to look at the POSSIBILITY of a full rebuild. Oladipo aligns with two paths a) compete for a playoff spot b) build more assets by flipping him Now if we keep Oladipo all year and then somehow let him walk in the summer for nothing, that would make no sense to me.
Someone else on this board gets it! Thank you so much sir! We have approximately $49,985,154 in expiring salaries. So I expect us to be very active come trade deadline, and we'll probably add another pick or two easily.
Volume scoring on low efficiency is the most abundant skill resource in the NBA. This takes zero sting away. This is akin to saying we lost Hardens scoring ability but hey we got Westbrook to carry us on that end!
Comparing VO to Westbrook is absurd. Harden: .444% FG/ .347% 3PTs Oladipo: .421 / .361 Westbrook: .378 / .303 That, of course, does not factor in Oladipo's defense prowess.