2018-19 NBA Thread

Yeah, Klay would be a great fit there. I just don't see him moving.

 

Boogie has looked great. I had been pretty dismissive of how much he could contribute coming off of that injury but he's been huge for the Warriors.

He'll have a lot of options. If you're the Knicks with two max slots... KD and Kyrie say no... Kawhi and Klay get locked up... and Boogie Cousins is sitting there available, do you offer him the max? I don't know that it's a great idea, but the Knicks are nothing if not stupid and short-sighted. Plus, Boogie would be MISERABLE there. Could be entertaining as hell.

 

I think the Lakers are offering a collection of role players with the hopes that the Pelicans will buy one of them possibly turning into something special and none of them seem to be heading there. Compared to what the Lakers want, which is a legitimate MVP candidate for the next 5 seasons, it's a collection of shit.

And it's the best they can do without getting a third team involved (lol, good luck with that Magic). The Pelicans made it clear, they want one guy that they can actually complement Holiday and they can build around. None of those guys fit that bill.

 

Nothing the Knicks have done since the draft tell me this is the Knicks we're used to. In reality Dolan has been pretty hands off since he hired Phil. I think he's much more interested in personal feuds and being a shitty musician.

And I say for a couple reasons. The Knicks apparently offered Porzingis to the Pelicans as the starter to a package. Pelicans said no because they weren't convinced he would stay past next year's qualifier (which he claims he'll sign, I doubt it. He isn't leaving $20M on the table next season after a bad injury) and the Knicks walked away. If Dolan was still pulling the strings, he would have added their pick (unprotected) AND Kevin Knox as a sweetener and gave up all the Knicks' assets without shedding any salary. The fact that the Knicks walked away and found a trade that got rid of a lot of trash and bad contracts...that's not James Dolan. Ever.

My belief is Steve Mills and Scott Perry either know something or know enough to risk it all.

 

Yeah, but isn't it REALLY on brand for the Knicks to talk to one of their stars, learn he's unhappy, get pissed and then immediately trade him without considering all of their potential offers?

 

Klay is interesting to me, I do think GSW will offer him max and it'll be up to him whether he stays or goes to L.A., and those are his two options IMO. He's either a Warrior or a Laker.

Nothing tells me KD is staying, especially not on a third one-year deal. The injury risk is getting high at that point at 31. And there's nothing that ties him to GSW to care about new arena. He's there to win titles. He's not embedded in the city like Steph Curry is. I doubt he spends a second in the Bay Area when it's not basketball related. And there's the Draymond factor. Last time KD had a supposed issue with a teammate, he left.

So either KD stays for max, Klay leaves for more money and Draymond, knowing he's in a walk year, is going to be a miserable teammate because in essence the Warriors gave Steph and KD $200M contracts and are expecting him to take a team discount. That'll be fun.

KD leaves, Klay stays for a very good contract if not the 5/$188M max it'll be plenty enough and he might leave enough scratch for GSW to convince Draymond to sign an extension and GSW locks up their "Big 3" for the foreseeable future. This is what's going to happen.

 

Do you really think that trade was put together in 30 minutes? That trade had probably been around since the start of the season. They checked with the Pelicans and that was about it.

What was legitimately a potential better offer out there? Who was willing to take those bad contracts, offer expiring deals and multiple first-round picks, one unprotected.

 

It's the Knicks, and the Mavs probably couldn't say "yes, don't worry, we'll file the paperwork!" fast enough. I mean, if they got some backroom deal with Durant's agent that he's coming, fine. But it is still the Knicks, so I don't trust that they've done that either.

 

Mona or MoeMoe or whatever the hell they call her was on ESPN Radio here in LA a moment ago and she and Sedano were defending her reporting this story. She said she didn't know if she wanted to do it or not, since it's just a family member and not the player saying it. She sounded truly conflicted.

For the life of me, I'm not sure why. It's clearly a story in the modern SoMe age.

 

It sounds funny and fits the general, well-deserved, narrative with the Knicks.

But Porzingis hasn't been happy for a while and they Knicks have dangled the idea of trading him since the 2017 Draft when Phil wanted a top five pick for him to draft Lauri Markkanen. Even though they fired Phil I think they were going to trade him in the offseason but he got injured. That Mavs deal had been there for a while. We're about a calendar year from the injury and he should be ready to return next month so it was likely just about how comfortable the Macs felt with his recovery.

I don't believe they even had a meeting. They brought him in to say he was traded and that was that.

 

Strange to see people trying to paint the Knicks' brain trust as competent.