What is this nonsense? You don't truely believe that 'getting anything is a bonus' when you trade away one of the most gifted big men on offense in the history of the game? And he's shown improvement on the defensive end as well. What the Wolves need is a better coach and better pieces. Rubio is decent but hardly a winner, Vanderbilt and McDaniels are nice talents, and the rest barely known how to play the game. The difficulty here is that improving that squad starts with trading DLo. And a better front office (they just dont know how to draft in the lottery most of the time: Flynn, Culver, Wiggins, Edwards, etc).
I am going to start by saying, I am not for this trade. Here is Bleacher reports latest. Portland gets Drummond, Cleveland gets Nurk, Hood, Little and a second. The also suggested DJJ and a proteced 2023 1st for Lonzo Ball.
On that first trade, I don't think I would give any one of those three alone for Drummond, Guy is getting paid $28 million and looking for another big payday.
CJ + for Beal Steal Drummond from Brooklyn Lonzo Ball is Rondo in the right system - in LA he showed flashes of being an elite defender. Lavar aside, Neil should at least consider him. Shake things up a bit!
CJ for Beal is a pretty lateral move and doesn't fix a single issue of ours. Drummond? No need for him with Nurkic back. I don't know how we'd sell him on being a backup for us when he'd be a starter for Brooklyn. Lonzo would be terrible in Stotts' iso-heavy offense. He can't shoot well from any area of the floor, and his playmaking hasn't been all that great. CJ's AST% has actually been 5 points higher than his, while his TO% has been 12 points lower. Would rather keep Trent and run C.J. at the backup point than to give up on Trent or slide him over the 3 to fit in Lonzo Ball.
Drummond's value is a 2nd round pick, late first at best. Nurk is a valuable t asset so i would never include him in a trade for Drummond. If Nurk could be traded for a very good forward i would be ok with Drummond being our C, but not a fan.
I don't see how you arrive at the conclusion that Nurkic is so much more valuable than Drummond. I get that you could claim that Drummond's value was partially set by the latest trade. But how did you arrive at the conclusion Nurkic would have more value their numbers this season give an edge to Drummond. now, Drummond has an expiring contract so he isn't 'controlled' next season like Nurkic. And his salry is more than twice that of Nurkic. But Drummond doesn't get injured. He only missed 10 games over a 7 season span and has played in every game this year. Nurkic is an injury magnet and you simply can't depend on him staying healthy personally, I think both players have about equally low value for different reasons
Ι believe Drummond is a slightly improved version of Hassan. I think he is a bad basketball player when you try to win. Nurkic is cost controlled and that matters. Also the fact is he misses games but those last two injuries were just freak accidents not injury proneness. I think he makes his teammates better when he is in shape, Drummond doesn't.
I think we need to go away from the old fashioned center. I'd love to get someone like Markannan. Ideally we would have a really good defensive power forward with a center who can stretch the floor.
Since two stretch big men who can defend is unrealistic, I'd like one of the two front court players to be able to shoot and one to be a rim-running lob threat. Which is which isn't a big deal to me. Ideally, both are mobile enough to not embarrass themselves on switches on the perimeter. Beyond that, rim protection would be nice, but the lower priority (since, again, perfect players aren't realistic, so we have to prioritize). I also don't really want big, lumbering centers (or power forwards) anymore.
So I've already pitched this trade a few different ways but now I want to see if you think that this would be interesting to all parties. For the record I don't care what Dame thinks of it now. He'll like it when guys are finishing the bunnies he sets them up with, his teammates are able to bailout his mediocre D and his backup doesn't undo everything he has done when he's on the bench. All of this is contingent on what the teams are doing at the end of February because it can't go down until then. So we would guarantee our pick to Houston so we could trade the 2023 first to the Cavs. I think that trade makes it so the Knicks get to play a lot of their young players while CJ and Nurk are out and then bring CJ and maybe Nurk back slowly. Nurk is an upgrade over Robinson but maybe they like Robinson and look to flip Nurk. I think the Cavs do this for the draft picks and look at Noel as a place holder. For us this gives us cap room in the offseason to re-sign DJJ if we want if he opts out and then all of our RFAs (Trent, Zach and Allen). Allen is much more mobile than Nurk defensively, is a phenomenal shot blocker and actually dunks to finish around the hoop. This season the trade puts us in a much better place with a rotation of: Dame, Gary, DJJ, RoCo, Allen, Rivers, Melo, Enes and Hoodie. Getting this done probably takes firing Olshey and bringing in someone with enough sense to do this, which would also mean that they have enough sense to fire Stotts and get someone in here that likes defense and at least some motion offense.
A Lillard/Randle pick and roll/pop would be great. Randle can also get his own shot and is a great distributor when he is initiating the offense. When Randle is not one of the primary scorers on a play he can hit the spot up three. Rivers is a helluva back up at both guard positions and plays hard on defense. Allen is a shot blocker and finishes at the rim. We can go small with the starting lineup of Dame, Gary, DJJ, RoCo and Randle or big with Dame, Gary or DJJ, RoCo, Randle and Allen. If we went with what makes the most sense to me we'd have a rotation of Dame, Gary, RoCo, Randle, Allen, DJJ, Rivers, Hoodie, Enes. That's a better team than we currently have on both sides of the ball and it's deeper.
IMO, CJ>Randle. Nurk and Allen...I think nurk is better, just can't stay healthy. Then we throw in a 1st for rivers? No thanks
Yeah, because of the talent disparity going to the Knicks and from us, I did think that maybe the pick that went to the Cavs essentially for Allen could actually be the Mavs first rounder this year that the Knicks own the rights to. That might make it a little more palatable for us. The thing is that I know CJ is a better player than Randle but not by much and Randle fits with Dame far better than CJ does as a second option. Allen might not have as many skills as Nurk but Allen moves a lot faster than Nurk and both blocks shots and dunks when Nurk alters shots and frustrates the hell out of all of us by not finishing stronger around the hole. Adding Austin Rivers to the bench is huge as well. You are basically upgrading Ant with Rivers. Plugging in someone who knows how to effectively play both guard spots on both ends of the floor for someone who at this point just doesn't come close to understanding how to do that. This trade also frees up a huge amount of cash for us that could be used to re-sign Allen, Trent Jr, Collins and/or an opted out Jones Jr. or have max level money available if we didn't pick up Hoodie's option, renounced the holds on Collins and Allen and Jones Jr opted in. It just gives us a lot of flexibility.
In a vaccum, Nurkic might be better than Allen. But, in addition to Nurkic always being on the injury list, I think Allen fits this era of basketball better. Taking everything into account, I'd probably rather have Allen. I think that CJ plus a first is probably too rich for Randle and Rivers, even though I'm not the biggest CJ fan. If that first round pick were maybe a second, I'd probably be cool with that kind of trade.
I'm not really happy with Giles and Stotts doesn't seem to be either. Watching Timberwolves tonight. Towns and Davis sitting. Two guys interest me. Naz Reid listed as C/F. Has a motor, shoots 40% from the three, 2.5 blocks per 36. Jarred Vanderbilt. listed as a F but is 6'9" with a 7'1" wingspan. 61% from 2, per 36 11 rebounds, 2.5 steals, 1.4 blocks and even 3.3 assists. Each of their salaries is a good match for Giles or Melo. I would prefer to trade Melo (eligible in three days?) Would Minnesota want a marquee name like Melo?
I think PJ Tucker could save our season. He'd add shooting, defense, leadership, and some fire. Houston has an unrealistic view of his value, but I think it would be worth it to propose Zach, Giles, and a second rounder for him at the least. He's got chemistry with RoCo, can play as a small-ball center or next to Kanter/Nurkic, and could serve as somewhat of a mentor for Nassir Little. With that trade and a healthy CJ I think we're back to being a real threat.
