Donovan Mitchell is nowhere close to being a legit top 10 player in this league, nor is he a real franchise player What argument does he have to even be considered a superstar?
For me a superstar is a top 10 player or so, although of course it's an arbitrary, subjective distinction. CBS Sports has him at #16, The Ringer has him at #15, ESPN had him as the 11th-best player in the playoffs, for advanced stats, RAPTOR had him at #12. You get the idea. You may disagree with these rankings, or have a stricter definition of who counts as a superstar, that's fine, but the general view seems to be that he's not too far outside the top 10.
I actually disagree with this take, if every super star wants to go to Miami in the first place it is because they are doing a lot of things right. They seem to not want to over pay for guys they can likely get for less, or take into other considerations like Dame and KD are in their mid 30s and just arent worth giving up a whole lot for. All of these guys have their flaws, Miami just is not desperate like Milwaukee and Philly were. Donovan may be looking to get out fairly soon, so he may be had for a lot less, and only one team can win. So if you passed up on 4-5 guys, even if one of those guys win you will have 4 disgruntled people wanting out and I think thats when Miami comes in with the low ball. They know when to throw everything at the right guys like they did with a prime Lebron, none of the guys that wanted to go are worth that much in return. Miami is also very close to winning it all, they would likely have to give up depth to get one of those aging often injured stars, which could easily push them further away from winning it.
i'm not sure there's ever been a time in the nba where there were 10 superstars at the same time in the league. Usually the number is in the 5-7 range. I'd say jokic, curry, giannis, embiid, luca, kawhi technically but he doesn't play enough, durant, maybe davis but he's borderline, that's about it
ESPN had him as the 11th best player heading into the playoffs which was already a huge stretch, then he proceeded to suck in the postseason as his team got embarrassed by a nothing special Knicks team while having HCA if people are considering the likes of Donovan Mitchell a superstar or claiming he has an argument to be considered one, then the term has become really watered down…there’s no way people thought Donovan Mitchell was ever a legit superstar during his time in Utah, and he didn’t do anything of note his 1st year in Cleveland
Yeah, they still gave up Vincent and Strus which were great role players for them. Duncan Robinson is expendable. Bucks showed urgency although they won the title 2 years ago, which is not a bad thing, shows ambition. Pressured by the Greek.
Portland really told Miami to sit on it lol I wonder if they tried to reeeeally play headgames and get Miami to make their offer, then tell those guys Miami doesn't want them. "Tampering" lol Jimmy, if anything is tampering it's the unabashed sense of entitlement in Miami that thought they could brow beat Portland into trading them Damian Lillard for scrap metal. If Portland REEEEEALLY wanted to take the headgames next level, they dangle Jrue out to Miami and see what they'll offer and tell them no again. That would be juicy. Portland gets a chance to revamp Ayton and now they can flip Jrue immediately too. Pretty good deal for old reliable, given a decent return for a good player in Holliday.
Heat's sub-reddit was pretty entertaining today. Lot of Blazers fans seems to be happy that Dame didn't go to Miami.
I think the moves are questionable though. They traded for a SG when they already have booker and now have no PG. Nurkic is a worse player than ayton AND he's always injured. It will be interesting to see how the suns mesh this year.
A Clippers Philadelphia Portland three ways seems the most likely here: Clippers get Harden, Philadelphia gets Holliday, Portland gets Mann + 2025 76ers first round pick. Clippers will have to make future trade to clear cap space. Powell to Houston sounds nice to me. In fact Powell for KPJ + FFRDP and KPJ cut would be glorious.
I think the new owner might be flexing for a message. My team now kind of mentality, which really gives him the douche bag vibes. But this is a different coach and he hasn't every really emphasized PG play. With the Pacers he was running with George Hill, CJ Watson, and Augustin. He clearly doesn't give a **** about PG play.
