I mean, they absolutely won't, because he's their charismatic star, and when you're a small market you cling to stars however flawed they are (what? Just talking about Ja here). But look at how much better they're playing since he went out! It would take an absolute legend of a GM with gonads of steel to trade him. And I wonder what you could get for him? (Zion?) Basically, he's Iverson II.
No more than posters coming up in innate trade suggestions or scenarios that aren't based in logic or reality.
I did, just felt like keeping in there because I wanted to. clearly my brain and my hands don't always agree with what words I mean.
Jaren Jackson in particular seems to do better without Ja, just like Kristaps does better without Luka.
Point guards used to be mostly pass-first types. Then the Derrick Rose era (not sure off hand when it began, maybe LeBron?) of ball-dominant scorers became commonplace. ISO ball is tough to stop when the primary scorer has the ball at all times. We've reached a point the past few years where the best young players -- the guys that come up in MVP and "who would you pick as a cornerstone?" discussions -- are in that mold, only passing when they can't get a better shot themselves, and they're all surrounded by questions of how to place complimentary talent around them. Obvious examples: Doncic Trae Young Morant Dame... Probably CLE/ORL's guys, but I haven't watched them. I might even throw Harden in, although he's a fairly willing passer. You can build a competitive team around those players, but I'm beginning to think you can't build a winner around them.
Hasn't him going out also coincided with Dillon Brooks coming back? At least approximately? Might have taken Brooks a couple games to get warmed up.
Probably the reason he slipped. Same issue with Desmond Bane. Perhaps that became a red flag after Jerryd "T-Rex" Bayless.
Brooks was more due to people projecting him at the wrong position, figuring he was too short to be a PF/SF and not a good enough shooter to be a SG. Just because he played a combo forward role in the Ducks' weird offense, didn't mean that was his natural spot as a pro. But, once those popular sentiments stick, even the trained eyes have a hard time looking past them.