Apples to oranges. Every single on of their old dudes still played last year. Love didn't...cuz he can't. What does it tell you that he got kicked off Team USA for being out of shape, or that CLE brought in his replacement for a large $ amount and is contemplating buying him out (as in give him ~60 mil to go home)? You don't even need to read the tea leaves on this one. It's cut and dry. Unless he comes here for a purely mentorship role (which I question given his history of being a prima donna), I want nothing to do with him. Maybe 3 yrs ago, but certainly not now.
Maybe he's looking for redemption too. Melo was thought to be toast, got in the best shape of his life, and was a pleasant surprise. You can't teach clutch shooting.
No, No, and fucking NO! I like Anderson, but Little has way too much potential. I want to see another year of him first. I admit he could still be a bust, but I love his size and athletic ability as a SF. He showed enough glimpses on offense that I would be very wary of giving him away. Hops with a 7'2" wing to go along with a strong build (at still only 21) is a good base to start with.
I would also accept D'Anthony Melton, and I suspect the Grizz would give him up for a second rounder, because they may have to waive him otherwise (in which case we'd never get him - he'd go to Brooklyn or something), especially with Desmond Bane looking so awesome. Downside: he's only 6'2", but he's Norm-esque in that he plays bigger. He's also not a true PG, so Slo-Mo would certainly be preferable. But he actually has better on-court/off-court numbers.
If there is a way to turn CJ and Nurk into Ben Simmons then that would be our missing piece. A starting lineup of Dame, Norm, RoCo, Nance and Simmons would crush other teams. A rotation of Dame, Norm, RoCo, Nance, Simmons, Ant, Nas, Zeller and Snell would not be bad at all. We might be the best defense in the league. We might also still have one of the best offenses in the league. Obviously Nurk would have to go to a third team bringing back an additional piece or pieces that make the deal work for Morey but I think that could happen. The other way is to trade CJ and RoCo for Simmons, which would hurt our shooting but we'd be even better on D and have a pretty powerful offense. Simmons is the missing piece.
And Melo was nothing more than a warm body who didn't contribute one bit in the playoffs. And we then deviated from our crucial development minutes for Nas to play his broke ass so he could climb up the scoring list. "Guardians of his legacy..." What nonsense-- since when did we become the franchise for reclamation projects? Let some other team deal with Love.
Fuck That! Nurk is vital to this team achieving the goal. I'm not trading Nurk & CJ for a malcontent.
This. His benching was completely unwarranted last year-- he was always at the right place at the right time and had shown a great amount of skill for someone who was labeled as raw. He contributed positively every minute that he played even while getting jerked around in the rotation from our idiot coach. Can't wait to see what Chauncey does with him.
A guy that's never once been a "malcontent" until his head coach and co-star turned on him isn't really a good example of the term. He's let that team switch his role over and over again and never complained. The fact is that he's made an all nba team, he's one of the best defenders in the league and he is a 6'11" athletic freak of nature who has a nice handle, can find the open man and get to the hoop at will. Nurk is a good passer for a big and continues to refuse to finish strong around the hoop... that's not in one series like what Simmons did, that's all of the time that Nurk throws up that weak shit. If I can get a 25 year old all nba player for CJ and Nurk... I'd do it in a heartbeat. And the thing is, I think it could get done.
So, a good player when he was the top guy on shitty teams? That's true of a lot of players. At least he got us the pick that ended up being Dame.
I like Nas, but his weaknesses are BBIQ and general skills. He's sort of the bizarro version of SloMo. And he's always injured. But as we're NOT going to get SloMo, and the team is obviously committed to Nas (they liked him enough not to make him play Summer League) we'll get to see how good he is this season.
Melo wasn't physically toast, as it is with Love. His problem was mental. He still thought he was a superstar and teams didn't want to deal with him. His style of play was also a relic of the past, utilizing mostly post ups and mid range shots. Love just looks completely washed at this point. It could be that he's physically not capable of being an NBA player anymore, or he's just lost all motivation, but if you watched him on the Olympic team, he was completely worthless out there. This is what Jerry Colangelo said after he got cut from the team: “I didn’t think Kevin Love was gonna play. I wasn’t even sure he had much left to play. He reached out to us and said he was in shape and said he felt he owed us. And on the basis of that, we’re looking at someone with international experience who at one time was a heck of a rebounder and could still shoot the ball. You know, being like a 12th man on a roster. Well, it didn’t work out. He wasn’t in shape. And he was way behind as it turned out. So you move on. Call it a mistake. Call it giving someone an opportunity. Someone who had equity with us. Guys who play for us get a little plus.”
