Around the League News - 2022 Offseason Edition

[ShelC]

i was being facetious. I wouldn't touch him. It will be interesting to see if he opts in and bets on himself playing 80 games to get a deal next summer or opts out in a month for a long term deal now. Tough to say if any team with max space this summer would sign him if he opts out and the Nets pass. I'd imagine he'd only want to play for certain teams in certain markets. Maybe the Lakers can make something happen with Westbrook if LBJ signs off on Kyrie?

[Indy]

He is going to opt-out, right? I guess it would be hard with so few teams with cap space, but he needs to lock in his last big contract. He is already on the wrong side of 30, and if he can lock in a 4 year deal that should guarantee him another 120-150M for his career, as opposed to the 36 he has on his option for this coming season. Unless a lot more teams have cap space next year.

Would you want that head case tied to your organization and eating up your cap for 4-5 years?

No way! But people sign great players that are head cases to enormous deals all the time. It only takes 1.

[Indy]

i was being facetious. I wouldn't touch him. It will be interesting to see if he opts in and bets on himself playing 80 games to get a deal next summer or opts out in a month for a long term deal now. Tough to say if any team with max space this summer would sign him if he opts out and the Nets pass. I'd imagine he'd only want to play for certain teams in certain markets. Maybe the Lakers can make something happen with Westbrook if LBJ signs off on Kyrie?

That certainly has the potential to be good since Kyrie is still great, but man it has the potential to explode in their face and I love that.

[JeremyG]

CP for Kyrie let's make it happen!

I would do that deal yesterday. I don’t think y’all realize what a 38 year old CP is going to look like.

[ShelC]

I don't think you realize what a pain in the ass, cancer and distraction Kyrie has been his whole career. You'd be tired of him by the end of training camp.

[Split T]

CP for Kyrie let's make it happen!

I would do that deal yesterday. I don’t think y’all realize what a 38 year old CP is going to look like.

Good thing he’ll be 37 most the year None of us know what he’s gonna look like, but 36 year old CP3 was all-nba…there’s really no indication that he’s slowing down. I think we learned he can’t be a high usage guy like he was in the Pels series, but I’d expect him to look about the same as last year..hopefully we can just rest him more next year and not have to rely on him to carry the offense.

[JeremyG]

CP for Kyrie let's make it happen!

I would do that deal yesterday. I don’t think y’all realize what a 38 year old CP is going to look like.

Good thing he’ll be 37 most the year None of us know what he’s gonna look like, but 36 year old CP3 was all-nba…there’s really no indication that he’s slowing down. I think we learned he can’t be a high usage guy like he was in the Pels series, but I’d expect him to look about the same as last year..hopefully we can just rest him more next year and not have to rely on him to carry the offense.

He had over a month off before the end of the season. Even when younger, he's never stayed healthy in the playoffs. It's foolish to expect him to at 38.

[Split T]

His inability to stay healthy in the playoffs is overblown. I did the math last year and out of like 100+ playoff games, he’s missed 6 due to injury. Just had some untimely ones.

And I credit this years collapse more to what he had to do in the Pels series with Booker out. He shouldered too much and likely got hurt or burned out. I guess we’ll see, but he’s proven to be pretty dang durable for us considering his health history and age.

[JeremyG]

His inability to stay healthy in the playoffs is overblown. I did the math last year and out of like 100+ playoff games, he’s missed 6 due to injury. Just had some untimely ones.

And I credit this years collapse more to what he had to do in the Pels series with Booker out. He shouldered too much and likely got hurt or burned out. I guess we’ll see, but he’s proven to be pretty dang durable for us considering his health history and age.

That's because he plays while injured (see 1st round 2021, NBA Finals 2021, 2nd round 2022), and Monty is foolish enough to let him. In the Finals he may have still been our best option, but he clearly hurt us in the other series.

[Indy]

His inability to stay healthy in the playoffs is overblown. I did the math last year and out of like 100+ playoff games, he’s missed 6 due to injury. Just had some untimely ones.

And I credit this years collapse more to what he had to do in the Pels series with Booker out. He shouldered too much and likely got hurt or burned out. I guess we’ll see, but he’s proven to be pretty dang durable for us considering his health history and age.

That's because he plays while injured (see 1st round 2021, NBA Finals 2021, 2nd round 2022), and Monty is foolish enough to let him. In the Finals he may have still been our best option, but he clearly hurt us in the other series.

You seem to be leaving out that he was clearly the best player on the court for either team in the 2nd round last year and the 1st round this year.

[JeremyG]

His inability to stay healthy in the playoffs is overblown. I did the math last year and out of like 100+ playoff games, he’s missed 6 due to injury. Just had some untimely ones.

And I credit this years collapse more to what he had to do in the Pels series with Booker out. He shouldered too much and likely got hurt or burned out. I guess we’ll see, but he’s proven to be pretty dang durable for us considering his health history and age.

That's because he plays while injured (see 1st round 2021, NBA Finals 2021, 2nd round 2022), and Monty is foolish enough to let him. In the Finals he may have still been our best option, but he clearly hurt us in the other series.

You seem to be leaving out that he was clearly the best player on the court for either team in the 2nd round last year and the 1st round this year.

And we were eliminated both years. If he can't play at a high level for an entire postseason, why would I care if he does it for a round here or there?

[Indy]

His inability to stay healthy in the playoffs is overblown. I did the math last year and out of like 100+ playoff games, he’s missed 6 due to injury. Just had some untimely ones.

And I credit this years collapse more to what he had to do in the Pels series with Booker out. He shouldered too much and likely got hurt or burned out. I guess we’ll see, but he’s proven to be pretty dang durable for us considering his health history and age.

That's because he plays while injured (see 1st round 2021, NBA Finals 2021, 2nd round 2022), and Monty is foolish enough to let him. In the Finals he may have still been our best option, but he clearly hurt us in the other series.

You seem to be leaving out that he was clearly the best player on the court for either team in the 2nd round last year and the 1st round this year.

And we were eliminated both years. If he can't play at a high level for an entire postseason, why would I care if he does it for a round here or there?

If Ayton can't play at a high level for an entire postseason, why would I care if he does it for a round here or there?

[Split T]

Outside of the 1st round, he was good all playoffs for us last year.

[JeremyG]

His inability to stay healthy in the playoffs is overblown. I did the math last year and out of like 100+ playoff games, he’s missed 6 due to injury. Just had some untimely ones.

And I credit this years collapse more to what he had to do in the Pels series with Booker out. He shouldered too much and likely got hurt or burned out. I guess we’ll see, but he’s proven to be pretty dang durable for us considering his health history and age.

That's because he plays while injured (see 1st round 2021, NBA Finals 2021, 2nd round 2022), and Monty is foolish enough to let him. In the Finals he may have still been our best option, but he clearly hurt us in the other series.

You seem to be leaving out that he was clearly the best player on the court for either team in the 2nd round last year and the 1st round this year.

And we were eliminated both years. If he can't play at a high level for an entire postseason, why would I care if he does it for a round here or there?

If Ayton can't play at a high level for an entire postseason, why would I care if he does it for a round here or there?

He does.

[Mori Chu]

I would strongly oppose trading Chris Paul for Kyrie Irving. One underrated thing we have going for us right now is a good culture and locker room. A big part of that is the leadership of CP3 and Booker. You swap out CP3 for a kook like Kyrie and everything could go out of whack. Kyrie has great talent, but I would not want to bet my team's fate on a guy as flaky and unreliable as he is.

If it came to a point where KD wanted to come to Phoenix but it had to be a KD+Kyrie for Ayton+CP3 deal, that would be tough. I honestly think I would rather have CP3 and Ayton than have to deal with Kyrie, even if it meant getting KD. So I hope the idea of Kyrie on the Suns is never seriously put on the table.

[carey]

I would strongly oppose trading Chris Paul for Kyrie Irving. One underrated thing we have going for us right now is a good culture and locker room.

Isn't the word on the street that there was something seriously wrong in the locker room this go around?

[BigLewy]

I would strongly oppose trading Chris Paul for Kyrie Irving. One underrated thing we have going for us right now is a good culture and locker room.

Isn't the word on the street that there was something seriously wrong in the locker room this go around?

Yup, Bickley referenced multiple sources saying CP3 and Monty had a falling out of some sort. It makes sense especially after seeing the team sleepwalk through game 7. I'm wondering if this quad injury CP3 supposedly had was pretty bad and Monty said he was going to reduce his role etc., and Paul flipped out and the team just knew it was shot due to injury/clashes.

Something definitely happened because the team had amazing chemistry all year and then seemingly just gave up.

[Mori Chu]

I would strongly oppose trading Chris Paul for Kyrie Irving. One underrated thing we have going for us right now is a good culture and locker room.

Isn't the word on the street that there was something seriously wrong in the locker room this go around?

We don't really know. Folks have been basically making up rumors and drama with no particular evidence as far as I can tell. We just want what happened to make sense. I can believe that there was some frustration with Ayton this season, but I don't really buy into the Monty/CP3 spat stuff. What exactly is the source for that story? They are extremely close based on everything I've ever seen or heard about them.

[specialsauce]

Okay okay,

Let’s sign and trade DA to Chicago for a sign and traded Lavine.

As part of a separate yet connected trade, we’ll give Chicago Cam J and Cam Payne in return for Colby White.

So in the end we’re trading DA/CamJ/CamP for Lavine/White

CP3/Book/Lavine/Bridges/???

Alternatively, we could ship DA to Det for Grant and their pick. Flip the pick with our own, + Cam J + Craig + Shamet for John Collins.

CP3/Book/Bridges/Grant/Collins

[Flagrant Fowl]

Okay okay,

Let’s sign and trade DA to Chicago for a sign and traded Lavine.

As part of a separate yet connected trade, we’ll give Chicago Cam J and Cam Payne in return for Colby White.

So in the end we’re trading DA/CamJ/CamP for Lavine/White

CP3/Book/Lavine/Bridges/???

Alternatively, we could ship DA to Det for Grant and their pick. Flip the pick with our own, + Cam J + Craig + Shamet for John Collins.

CP3/Book/Bridges/Grant/Collins

Coby White isn't that good, which is supported by you thinking he was named after a cheese.

I've also thought about a LaVine trade. His knees worry me, but I'd rather have him than many other "star" players like Jerami Grant.