Wake up it’s not 1961 anymore We and every team needs an ariza/luc/draymond/JGrant not a two center lineup that can’t guard ****
This guy has potential to hit the three, roll to the basket and protect the paint. Only worry would be the pick and roll on the defensive end. See below: https://pickandroll.com.au/p/three-situations-that-may-provide-jock-landales-nba-opportunity
There's a Lithuanian big in the Chinese league now. Fantastic back to the basket game, did well shooting from 3 in his last season in the NBA. Goes by the name Donatas...
Ignore trade/salary implications, does anyone think Karl Anthony Towns would pair well with Wood? He’s a bit soft, and so is Wood, so that is certainly a concern. But two skilled big men would be a unique frontline. Towns could be a Jokic-lite type player. Surround them with some three and D guys, a good PG, and one or two tough guys and I like what we got. Towns seems like an achievable grab, at some point Wolves/he are going to give up and want to reset.
We’ll have cap space to take a salary dump from a team but there aren’t any good free agents next season so I guess that won’t happen this season
I'd give up multiple assets and a max contract. Dude is legit and would complement Wood like a dream. Perhaps I'm biased, though. I long for the days of Hakeem, Shaq, the Twin Towers, etc.
No we need a defensive big next to Wood. Collins is worst that Wood as a defensive presence. That big from Sacramento was unhappy. Houston should do some due diligence there and see what’s it about. Gordon and one of those low probability protected draft picks should get the job done
Collins seems like the type of player we should be after. Trade several assets to get him and sign him to a max contract assuming his defensive potential is at least above league average. I have seen enough from Wood that I think he can be at least average defensively at some point. It may take him awhile as he will need to bulk up to get there. Having another athletic young big to grow with would be great though. In an ideal world, Gordon and Wall build up their value enough to where you can trade them at the deadline or this offseason with whatever you can get in return or as little assets as you can give up. Trade for Collins and sign him to a max contract. Only 23 years old. A little concerning that he hasn't taken another step forward but his defense does appear to be a little better. Either way, I would bet on his upside on a team that will maximize his abilities. Then give the max to Oladipo assuming you were able to unload Gordon and Wall. you would have Oladipo, Wood and Collins as the "big three" for the future in a system that maximizes all three of their skill sets. Wood's small salary allows for 2 max contracts (Oladipo at $33 mil) + (Collins at mini max = $28 mil?). That is about $75 mil tied up in your 3 best players. Wall/Westbrook + Harden were making $80 mil not to mention Gordon at $16 mil. Anyways, I doubt Atlanta will part with Collins easily especially for only draft assets. Will likely want at least a young player with star/upside potential which we just don't have. Would probably take 3 picks at least but Rockets should be doing what they can to get young talent like this to pair with Wood and hopefully Oladipo. This would only be possible if we can somehow figure out how to unload Gordon + Wall for minimal assets but I just can't see it happening since there are only so many players that equal Wall's contract and we would have to take back bad contracts in return. The only team I can see that would actually consider Wall would be New York Knicks but they don't have any bad contracts anymore. They could trade Julius Randle to a 3rd team and get Wall + several picks back from us and a young player from the 3rd team. Still not sure I want to unload Wall since the asking price will be so high unfortunately. We do need to cash in on some of these Brooklyn picks so we aren't hedging all our bets on the Brooklyn picks. Would be nice to turn 2 of the picks and 2 of the swaps into a young piece that is looking for more money or bigger role somewhere and that is when Stone needs to strike while still having a treasure chest of assets for the future.
It's impossible to ignore salary and trade implications if you eventually want to get him, either through trade or free agency. He's still young, one of the best offensive bigs in the entire game and still one of the worst defensive bigs. That said, I don't think he'd pair well with Woods at all, imo. The best pairing next to Woods, I think, would be someone like Clint Capela or Draymond Green. Someone who can defend the 4s and 5s and doesn't care if they score 0 points. If Tucker was taller (6'9'' or so), then Tucker would be perfect.
They are such a unique situation bc one of their biggest can guard guards without a problem. Westbrook could not score on AD and even harden had trouble. If you can find a big who can do that then you would be solid. And honestly as far as big guys go Dwight Howard and Mcgee are pretty up there and gasol (though a shell of himself) is a former defensive player of the year.