2023 General Offseason/PostSeason League News

[Mori Chu]

Thanks for giving me another reason to dislike Draymond. Ayton’s highest scoring average is still the season before CP got here. It was never able to recover with CP here.

C'mon ... you mean the season Ayton missed a chunk of time for a failed drug test? And played only 38 games?
When you ignore context, your takes look silly.

To be fair, Ayton's performance WAS enhanced that year...

[INFORMER]

CP's presence on the team did marginalize Ayton. CP3 wants to bounce pass and no-look bullets to guys around the bucket. That isn't Ayton's strength. CP3 got a little better at finding Ayton for lobs, and Ayton got a little better at catching chest and bounce passes on the move, but ultimately it wasn't a great fit.

When Ayton shined in the 2021 playoffs, it wasn't Paul elevating his game; it was Ayton being motivated to try to get a max deal, and even that didn't last versus Milwaukee.

[JeremyG]

[Shabazz]

CP looked washed last year. I can't believe golden state is excited about that trade lol

That trade was 100% about getting off of Poole's deal. Now they're just justifying it as a bball move after the fact.

[ShelC]

DA put up better numbers his rookie year but wasn't as impactful. They were empty stats his rookie year. CP's presence raised everyone's level. Some guys rose up to it like Book, Mikal and Cam. DA played well that first CP season when we went to the finals because CP was on him. That wore off tho because DA's isn't a "sicko". He's a guy you have to push into the gym and all the speeches and prodding got annoying after a season or two.

We know DA isn't a roll man. He's not a catch and dunk guy. He wants to post, turn and fade or face up and shoot a jumper. We'll see how that works now with Book, Beal and KD looking to drive and dish.

[Cap]

Shitty by Portland. Dame has been more than patient there. But I do agree Miami doesn't have the value without including Bam. They need a third team.

If Miami and Dame are playing hardball, then Portland can. Bam AND Herro should be the starting point.

Brooklyn accommodated KD but got a king’s ransom for him. It hurts because it was our Suns who paid it, but it was the best for them. Dame and the Heat are looking at the Beal trade, but they should take KD’s as their reference. Gratitude can only take you so far.

On a related note, Ayton is younger than Bam, we should step in offering him as a better fit timeline wise.

LOL, can you imagine? USG% last season:

Lillard 33.8%
Booker 31.8%
Durant 30.7%
Beal 29.2%

[Flagrant Fowl]

Dame is the KD of this summer and season. Teams like Portland can't afford to not get maximum value for their stars in a trade, so I expect his situation to be drawn out for months.

[Split T]

The biggest difference is Portland should have incentive to move Dame…Brooklyn really didn’t

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Shitty by Portland. Dame has been more than patient there. But I do agree Miami doesn't have the value without including Bam. They need a third team.

If Miami and Dame are playing hardball, then Portland can. Bam AND Herro should be the starting point.

Brooklyn accommodated KD but got a king’s ransom for him. It hurts because it was our Suns who paid it, but it was the best for them. Dame and the Heat are looking at the Beal trade, but they should take KD’s as their reference. Gratitude can only take you so far.

On a related note, Ayton is younger than Bam, we should step in offering him as a better fit timeline wise.

LOL, can you imagine? USG% last season:

Lillard 33.8%
Booker 31.8%
Durant 30.7%
Beal 29.2%

Oh!
I actually was thinking about taking Adebayo from Miami and sending Ayton to Portland, he is more adecuate agewise for a rebuilding Portland team.

[BKinSJC]

Shitty by Portland. Dame has been more than patient there. But I do agree Miami doesn't have the value without including Bam. They need a third team.

If Miami and Dame are playing hardball, then Portland can. Bam AND Herro should be the starting point.

Brooklyn accommodated KD but got a king’s ransom for him. It hurts because it was our Suns who paid it, but it was the best for them. Dame and the Heat are looking at the Beal trade, but they should take KD’s as their reference. Gratitude can only take you so far.

On a related note, Ayton is younger than Bam, we should step in offering him as a better fit timeline wise.

LOL, can you imagine? USG% last season:

Lillard 33.8%
Booker 31.8%
Durant 30.7%
Beal 29.2%

Oh!
I actually was thinking about taking Adebayo from Miami and sending Ayton to Portland, he is more adecuate agewise for a rebuilding Portland team.

Miami won't do a Lillard deal that involves Bam. He's too important to their identity on both ends of the floor, and part of the reason Lillard wants to go to Miami is to play with Butler and Adabayo anyways.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Shitty by Portland. Dame has been more than patient there. But I do agree Miami doesn't have the value without including Bam. They need a third team.

If Miami and Dame are playing hardball, then Portland can. Bam AND Herro should be the starting point.

Brooklyn accommodated KD but got a king’s ransom for him. It hurts because it was our Suns who paid it, but it was the best for them. Dame and the Heat are looking at the Beal trade, but they should take KD’s as their reference. Gratitude can only take you so far.

On a related note, Ayton is younger than Bam, we should step in offering him as a better fit timeline wise.

LOL, can you imagine? USG% last season:

Lillard 33.8%
Booker 31.8%
Durant 30.7%
Beal 29.2%

Oh!
I actually was thinking about taking Adebayo from Miami and sending Ayton to Portland, he is more adecuate agewise for a rebuilding Portland team.

Miami won't do a Lillard deal that involves Bam. He's too important to their identity on both ends of the floor, and part of the reason Lillard wants to go to Miami is to play with Butler and Adabayo anyways.

Of course that Lillard would want to just add himself to the Miami core, but no way Portland is going to take a Tyler Herro plus fillers deal. Dame has no clause to heist Portland as Bradley Beal did to the Wizards, their GM would get run out of town among torches and stones.

[Flagrant Fowl]

The biggest difference is Portland should have incentive to move Dame…Brooklyn really didn’t

What's the incentive? They're going to be pretty good if their roster is healthy.

[Split T]

I don’t think they will. They weren’t very good last year. They’re like a play-in team. Brooklyn went like 20-2 with their full team. Portland is geared up for a rebuild and pleasing Dame was the only thing stopping it.

[carey]

The problem is the west is still just so cutthroat. Portland actually has some really good young pieces. Shadeon Sharpe is real good. Scoot is going to be good. Jeremi Grant is good even tho way overpaid. Simmons is good. They just aren't that deep. If they get some good young talent from a not-Miami team they could be a playoff team sooner rather than later.

[Split T]

They don’t play any defense. Until they get serious about that side of the ball they are frauds. Capable of lighting it up and rolling anyone, but not sustainable.

[Flagrant Fowl]

You're right. They're very unbalanced. They should've retained some of that wing depth and used Simons to get off of Nurkic for a younger, upside big. Then again, that wouldn't appease Dame, but it sure feels like their front office hasn't had a well thought out plan to get better in the past year.

[Split T]

Ya they stuck with Dame/CJ far too long and then finally moved CJ and replaced him with Simons, who is just another CJ(all offense, no defense). Nurkic is a problem too. He can only play drop and all their guards are bad getting over screens. It’s a nightmare defensively.

I’m trying to remember what happened with Josh Hart? They should’ve kept him around.

[ShelC]

Hart's the kind of roleplayer who can make a good team better but he wasn't going to do much on a bad/mediocre team like the Blazers.

[Split T]

I feel like if they got a different C, ran Dame/Hart/Grant 1-3 and had a shooter at the 4 it could’ve worked.

[pickle]

Reddish trade.