Game Day: Mavericks (19-11) @ Suns (15-14), Fri 12/27/24

[Kryptonic]

At this point the only guys I really enjoy watching are ones who try hard and bust their ass on both ends of the floor. Night to night, that tends to be:

Dunn
Oso
Okogie
Royce
Morris
Plumlee
Book*

* - Book doesn't really bust his ass, but I'll take his offense and leadership with the rest of that squad.

I love KD but I think we really ought to see what we can get for him at this point. He's inevitably going to tear a ligament and be done for the year and we'll never get a good haul for him after that. Right now we could really change our direction by trading this guy for picks and youngs. Teams like Houston are right there waiting for us to call and have an embarrassment of riches to give us.

Nurk basically blows this year but I don't think we can get off his contract. Nobody is going to give us a wet fart for him in a trade if they've watched even one second of game tape of him from this season. It's a pipe dream to think we could flip him for Jonas V or some other less-ass center. Not going to happen. We need to make a KD trade first to get other assets (e.g. lots of picks) and then we could bundle Nurk+pick for something better maybe.

I also don't really think we can trade Beal. I don't hate the guy but I think we need to bring him off the bench to make best use of him given the rest of our roster. I don't think a trade is sitting there for Beal right now so I think you just have to try to make it work with him off the bench.

Sorry, but I think Booker is just as frustrating as the rest of them.

It’s time to parlay that big 3 into cooper Flagg and rebuild from there.

I think people hoping Cooper Flagg is a franchise savior will be disappointed. He’s good of course, but he’s not Luka. I think there’s a chance he’s just a super role player and not a star…like an Aaron Gordon.

Maybe…. But he’ll at least give a shit.

[ShelC]

We're not going to tank or blow up the roster yet.

We need a PG. Maybe RJ Davis fits the bill later in the draft.

[Split T]

At this point the only guys I really enjoy watching are ones who try hard and bust their ass on both ends of the floor. Night to night, that tends to be:

Dunn
Oso
Okogie
Royce
Morris
Plumlee
Book*

* - Book doesn't really bust his ass, but I'll take his offense and leadership with the rest of that squad.

I love KD but I think we really ought to see what we can get for him at this point. He's inevitably going to tear a ligament and be done for the year and we'll never get a good haul for him after that. Right now we could really change our direction by trading this guy for picks and youngs. Teams like Houston are right there waiting for us to call and have an embarrassment of riches to give us.

Nurk basically blows this year but I don't think we can get off his contract. Nobody is going to give us a wet fart for him in a trade if they've watched even one second of game tape of him from this season. It's a pipe dream to think we could flip him for Jonas V or some other less-ass center. Not going to happen. We need to make a KD trade first to get other assets (e.g. lots of picks) and then we could bundle Nurk+pick for something better maybe.

I also don't really think we can trade Beal. I don't hate the guy but I think we need to bring him off the bench to make best use of him given the rest of our roster. I don't think a trade is sitting there for Beal right now so I think you just have to try to make it work with him off the bench.

Sorry, but I think Booker is just as frustrating as the rest of them.

It’s time to parlay that big 3 into cooper Flagg and rebuild from there.

I think people hoping Cooper Flagg is a franchise savior will be disappointed. He’s good of course, but he’s not Luka. I think there’s a chance he’s just a super role player and not a star…like an Aaron Gordon.

I think he's got more offensive ability than Gordon and his defensive timing is fantastic, it's just Duke doesn't really utilize players effectively. With that said, I still might take the kid from BYU first overall because I love players that make others better.

He probably does. Feels like Gordon was underselling him a bit…just couldn’t think of another big elite defensive wing with good but not great offensive skills.

Marion maybe is a good comp. Not exactly the same skill set, but impact wise. I just don’t see Flagg as a #1 option. Think he’ll definitely be better playing off a more offensively gifted star. I think Flagg will do everything else…finish, move the ball, rebound, defend, hustle, etc. TBD on the shooting and on ball creation.

I can just see Washington drafting him and putting the ball in his hands and realizing he’s not that guy. Wiggins with a motor. Again, that sounds like a great player, just not a franchise altering one.

[Cap]

[quote=iLLmatic post_id=339882 time=1735407535 user_id=86]
Bradley Beal scoring 11 points as a super max player. KD scoring points but not doing much of anything else. 2/3 with the big 3 playing as usual. I hate this team. Wake me up when this experiment is over.
[/quote]

Win none of our own picks until ‘31, blowing it up and rebuilding is going to take a long, long time.

I hate how our owner has circumvented the Stepien Rule. That rule is there for a reason.

[Ring_Wanted]

Bradley Beal scoring 11 points as a super max player. KD scoring points but not doing much of anything else. 2/3 with the big 3 playing as usual. I hate this team. Wake me up when this experiment is over.

Win none of our own picks until ‘31, blowing it up and rebuilding is going to take a long, long time.

I hate how our owner has circumvented the Stepien Rule. That rule is there for a reason.

Might be time for a revision of the rule. As it is, you are forced to have a 1stR pick, of any kind, every other year. Make it so that the pick needs to be your own so you can only do 50% of this self inflicted damage. On the other hand, trades for stars become much more complicated because are challenged to send out enough value.

[Split T]

I’d just get rid of it…let someone trade all their picks if they want

[Mori Chu]

I’d just get rid of it…let someone trade all their picks if they want

Normally I'd advocate a "free market" approach like this, but I think the restrictions are important. You can see the reason why by looking at our team and our future. We have effectively traded away a decade of our future for a pile of magic beans. We're screwed, all of us fans, we are screwed and forced to watch a crappy team for years to come. If it were allowed for the GM and FO to trade away even more of our picks, they would have done so and we'd be even more screwed.

GMs don't care about a decade from now because they're almost certain to be gone by then. We fans do care; we'll still be here. The NBA needs protections in place to align the needs of the GM (short-term) with the needs of the fanbase and franchise (long-term). It is bad for the league and its ultimate product if short-sighted front offices ruin teams and turn a generation of fans away.

[Mori Chu]

[Cap]

I’d just get rid of it…let someone trade all their picks if they want

Normally I'd advocate a "free market" approach like this, but I think the restrictions are important. You can see the reason why by looking at our team and our future. We have effectively traded away a decade of our future for a pile of magic beans. We're screwed, all of us fans, we are screwed and forced to watch a crappy team for years to come. If it were allowed for the GM and FO to trade away even more of our picks, they would have done so and we'd be even more screwed.

GMs don't care about a decade from now because they're almost certain to be gone by then. We fans do care; we'll still be here. The NBA needs protections in place to align the needs of the GM (short-term) with the needs of the fanbase and franchise (long-term). It is bad for the league and its ultimate product if short-sighted front offices ruin teams and turn a generation of fans away.

When Ishbia first arrived his “fuck the future” attitude was widely hailed by fans as “being willing to do whatever it takes to win.”

Don’t put it on the GM. This is Ishbia’s doing.

[Superbone]

I’d just get rid of it…let someone trade all their picks if they want

Normally I'd advocate a "free market" approach like this, but I think the restrictions are important. You can see the reason why by looking at our team and our future. We have effectively traded away a decade of our future for a pile of magic beans. We're screwed, all of us fans, we are screwed and forced to watch a crappy team for years to come. If it were allowed for the GM and FO to trade away even more of our picks, they would have done so and we'd be even more screwed.

GMs don't care about a decade from now because they're almost certain to be gone by then. We fans do care; we'll still be here. The NBA needs protections in place to align the needs of the GM (short-term) with the needs of the fanbase and franchise (long-term). It is bad for the league and its ultimate product if short-sighted front offices ruin teams and turn a generation of fans away.

When Ishbia first arrived his “fuck the future” attitude was widely hailed by fans as “being willing to do whatever it takes to win.”

Don’t put it on the GM. This is Ishbia’s doing.

Exactly.

[Superbone]

I'm going to hope Ishbia has Mark Cuban's trajectory. I see a lot of parallels to start.

[Cap]

Ishbia’s making his kids happy by buying them all the toys they want, but he’s spending their college funds to do it.

And the kids are starting to lose interest in the toys. Time to buy some new ones, I guess.

[O_Gardino]

Owners have to learn the job just like anyone else. I won't judge Ishbia on what he did in his first couple of years, but I will start judging him based on how we handle this offseason. He has to have seen enough of Durant to realize the dude is hard to coach and hard to build around.

[Superbone]

Owners have to learn the job just like anyone else. I won't judge Ishbia on what he did in his first couple of years, but I will start judging him based on how we handle this offseason. He has to have seen enough of Durant to realize the dude is hard to coach and hard to build around.

Yep, it's all about the adjustments or lack there of.