No doubt. I would rather use Whitmore or Sheppard but I couldn't make the numbers work. I have no doubt Jalen Green productivity would increase with good 3-pt shooters around him. Green age 23 exceeding is kinda important. I'm showing 5 players that can drive: Sengun, Jalen Green, Durant, Cameron Johnson, Aaron Holiday 7 players making 37% or better in Catch-n-Shoot 3's. 3 players earning 68 NBA percentile in PnR as Roll Man. Rockets with the good 3-point shooting can run about every offensive set efficiently. Horns, Weave, Hand offs, Pick-N-Roll, Pick-N-Pop (w/ B Lopez), Isolations (5-man out), etc. We have enough defenders to get by in Dillon Brooks, Tari, Brook Lopez. Brook Lopez was practically DPOY a couple of years ago just by playing Drop Coverage and having the Bucks funnel everything his way. If it makes you happy we can draft a defensive Point Guard at #19. I don't know how Walter Clayton is at defense at the NBA level.....but the guy is a winner.
You have either completely lost it or are just having a laugh. Maybe you got into the wrong medicine bottle. Just weird for a guy that usually has pretty good takes.
What do you disagree with? The only change I found is SnT of Adams. Dalton only makes $4.8M. Adams will want probably $12M or more. So we might have to take more than just Knecht from Lakers. Please discuss. It's only my unedumacated guess
Trading Amen for Durant is beyond idiotic and no coach or GM in the league would consider it for a moment and you’re even adding picks. Starting Aaron Holiday are you kidding me? Cam Johnson over Jabari for a slight improvement on offense, but a massive downgrade in defense. You just went from a completely unbalanced roster favoring defense to a completely unbalanced roster favoring offense. You don’t win championships with massively unbalanced rosters.
Fred either takes the pay cut or get traded. We get KD with picks and either Dillon and fillers or just with Fred. Jabari and Tari get their extensions(it will be cheaper doing that sooner than later) And we fill the rest of the roster out with quality cheap players like a Andre Drummond, Bol Bol, Malcolm Brogdon, etc.
First of all. People are completely over exaggerating Amen Thompson. He is a solid defensive player that gets you 10 points per game without Steven Adams. Durant has been to more than a few All Star games. Still on top of his game....the Ringer top 100 had Durant at #14. But if you look at the list guys like AD, LeBron. and others have no business being in front of him. According to their list I would put Durant #5 ahead of Luka and Ant-man. That's a list of performance today......not future years. Durant at 37 is still unstoppable. Dude can go left or right and shoot and make about anywhere in the half court. Suns had the 3rd best 3P% last time I looked and and a top notch offense. It was their defense that couldn't stop anyone. Blame Booker and Beal. Durant doesn't take a lot of plays off like LeBron and others. People like to crack on Holiday here for some reason. On offense I show the reasons you can get by with him. If Reed can surpass him great, but until then Holiday works. You have been crying about VanVleet for months. Why cry now that his bloated contract gets used to bring in a star? On defense I just posted his numbers in the season where they were better than Sengun at every level. If he can't be out there because of defense, then take Sengun out as well. We will play more of a zone defense anyway you big baby. Cam Johnson will do just fine. Freaking T-Wolves and Knicks use Julius Randall and KAT defensively and win. I think we can win with Cam Johnson playing better perimeter defense than them. Read my lips.....we can't afford the Jabari extension!!!! This is why I trading him for something. He starts at $30M. Rockets can offer him $20M, but Ja ari can say no, I'll text free agency. He may start out as RFA.....but then goes to UFA the next season. At first I had Dillon x Can Johnson but the Nets want out of that money, unless maybe for a younger player like Jabari. Because they may lose Nic Claxton, Joci Landale mIght entice them. Do a little more research on Durant an Cam Johnson resent years. They will be better defensively with Udoka than you think. We can do Cam Whitmore for Knecht. They make about the same. Lose Steven Adams to Free Agency. Not sure you are considering the cost of Jabari and Tari in the equation. Followed by Amen and Cam the next year. Team won't stay together as is......and win now.
I think the front office would prefer a diamond in the rough rather than a big ego/big name. Someone that has breakout potential that meets our needs and aligns with our current identity/“ethos” - I think there are guys out there that can shine in our system that may not be as obvious as high-profile options.
Amen has started less than a full season out of position. Being a top defensive player in the league so early in his career is way more than solid. Durant is great and I have been a proponent of trading FVV in a package for him or trading him for a bag of peanuts if necessary. Including Amen in a trade for Durant is asinine and completely unnecessary. FVV, Landale, and #10 probably get it done. I am in favor of getting Durant, but not at an astromical price. The Rockets are fixing to pay 30m for FVV, but can’t afford Jabari’s 30m, LOL. Cam Johnson makes 23m. I don’t think 7m is a deal breaker to keep one of the best defenses in the league somewhat intact. Aaron Holiday is cracked on because he isn’t very good. Getting rid of FVV a bottom 10 pg in the league and replacing him with what would be the worst starting pg in the league is not even worthy of consideration. His stats are great while playing 10 mins a game against bench players. I think maybe you are just a closet Jalen only fan, and want to do anything to increase his stats.
If the Lakers want to sign Adams, they would probably do a SnT for one of their many PFs. I’d try DFS or Rui. A Knecht trade works, but I think they need to alleviate the glut at PF. Plus, Knecht is young and only making $4M, so it doesn’t do much to bring their payroll number down.
He is Tate but 3 inches taller and longer wingspan. Sengun, Tari, and others haven't improved shooting but maybe Amen will....maybe he won't. I give you the last word. Amen gets points as an under the radar guy. Get steals
There’s no **** in my eyes. You may not like Amen because of his jumper but he’s one of the rarest archetypes of players I’ve ever seen. Sure, Durant’s stats and efficiency when healthy still have him performing amongst the top players in the league. I’m not denying that. However, there are many more factors to consider when making a foolish trade as you suggested. Salary, value, and ceiling. Amen Thompson is one of the most valuable assets in the league right now. Period. End of story. You don’t trade a 22 year old potential superstar for a 37 year old in any form or fashion.
No. That’s ok. I shouldn’t have come as hard at you as I did. I generally am very respectful of your ideas.
current, jaded, mid-30s version of me says no changes. a more fun middle school version of me would say 2 deals: 1) FVV, and PHX 2027 for KD 2) Jalen, Tari, Brooks, PHX 29, BKN 27 and more picks for Giannis Reed, Amen, KD, Giannis, Alpi is our starting lineup. Whitmore, Jabari off bench middle school me was so much more fun on this forum
What happens? A combination of what others have said: 1) I don't think Fred is leaving. Get used to it. They negotiate something like $30-$35 a year for 2 years, 3rd is an option? I know, that's a lot for Fred. 2) Adams is healthy and ready to make more than his $12 million. I think he leaves for more money. So: 3) We go back to Jabari at PF and Sengun at C. 4) No extensions for Tari or Jabari yet. They won't accept $20 mill (Tari might). 5) Dillon isn't being traded, much as people would like. 6) Jalen won't get traded because Stone or Tillman loves him. We have to hope he plays better and can get traded at the deadline. We hope a lot of players play well and can be traded at the deadline. 7) We won't give up enough for KD, which is fine with me. Phx thinks they can get most of their picks back for him and that's not happening. All this talk of FVV+#10+matching salary is ridiculous. Phx would just laugh at that offer. 8) Giannis might get traded when he realizes Lillard is going to be out (and he sucks, I hate Lillard). The Spurs offer a weak package and get laughed at. If he leaves, let's hope he doesn't go to SA or OKC. 9) We're running it back! Ugh. 10) We get seed 5-8 and realize (too late) that we should have started consolidating RIGHT NOW instead of kicking the can. Stone is risk averse and the running it back strategy won't work. OKC is miles ahead of us, LAL and GSW may be better than us next year. Minn is probably better than us next year, too. That puts us 5th, but we have to contend with whatever LAC, SAS, etc do next year. 11) My hope is that dropping from 2nd seed to 5th causes Stone to wake up and make changes. It may be a year too late (so that we don't get enough value).
Worst case scenario, we run it back with the same backcourt. Best case scenario, we trade back and get 2 picks in the 15th-22th range.
Think we trade the pick ala Spurs with dillingham and get a first in 2089. Then go for a big trade in July? Not Durant.
KD will need Amen to anchor the defense. Tari is good, but he can't do Amen's job. Amen will have to adjust in the backcourt along with KD or come off the bench though.
