Looks like the Knicks are going to move into 6th place with a resounding defeat of Atlanta in Atlanta. Coupled with a loss by the Heat. Edit: its official, the Knicks are in 6th place. They beat the Hawks 122-101.
Yeah I'm not a big fan of swinging for the fences and falling on your ass while everyone laughs at you.
As opposed to not even taking a swing? Dont get me wrong. I don't really care that we didnt put all our chips on the table now. More upset that we didn't even bother trying to hit a single (Bey or Wiseman instead of 2nd rounders). Had glaring needs to add size... Guys were available, we decided to punt the season while watching Dame kill himself in his best season. It's gross negligence when you think about it.
Depends on what happens in the off-season. We could have two first-round picks. I would rather take a "big swing" or hope for something good in the draft over hitting a single and losing in the first round in the playoffs. If the Blazers had been good last year, we would not have gotten Shaedon Sharpe.
Depends on how big of a swing for me. I don’t like giving up 4-5 1sts for a player unless I know they will be there for awhile or if the team giving up that many 1sts have multiple guys that will still be there for the long haul. Rarely does a team give up that many 1sts and it is worth it. Right now, the Cavs are the only team to give up that many picks and make it feel worth it to me. Nets did this twice and failed. Wolves and Hawks are both regretting that decision right now. The Lakers got a chip out of their all-in move so you could argue it was worth it but even then, their future post-Lebron is extremely bleak.
And this one: "The Los Angeles Clippers reportedly reached an agreement Saturday to acquire All-Star forward Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder for forward Danilo Gallinari, guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a massive haul of draft picks, including five first-round selections." https://syndication.bleacherreport....r-danilo-gallinari-5-1st-round-picks.amp.html
I forgot about OKC as well. I’d rather wait to see where we are in the draft and then if we get the NYK pick before ever thinking about big swings. If we get a pick as high as 7th and NYK is as low as 22-24, there are a ton of big wings I’d take a swing on. Between Taylor Hendricks, Jarace Walker, GG Jackson, Jett Howard, Kris Murray (not a fan, but abunch of people here wanted Keegan), Leonard Miller, and probably a few more, I’d rather take a swing on two 6’8 rookies with upside than to trade multiple 1sts for OG or someone like that.
I could see the Blazers playing an offensively- entertaining style of basketball with lots of losses similar to the games against Oklahoma City and the Wizards. Lillard can rack up his points and climb up the career-scoring ladder.
Trade Fallout for the Nets: Mikal Bridges career high 45 points on 17-24 shooting, 4-6 from '3', 7-7 from the FT line, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Damn, would have LOVED him here.
Josh Hart on 3/12/22....44 points on 15-21 shooting; 6-9 on three's; 8-8 from FT line; 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals but apparently Chauncey decided he wasn't a scorer, and the Vulcans decided they couldn't afford his next contract. Bridges will make more than 23M/year over the next 3 seasons. Why would anyone think the Vulcans would agree to pay Bridges when they wouldn't pay Hart?
I love me some Josh Hart but this doesn't tell the whole story at all. Check out that game log: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202203120POR.html Look who is playing (and more importantly not playing). Who else was going to score? CJ Elleby is not even in the league and got the starting assignment and 36 minutes that night.
It might be different because every GM in the history of NBA basketball would take Bridges over Hart.
ok....you want to shift the discussion to a different field with a different set of goal-posts Now it's the field of the realistic expectations of GM's. Yeah, it would be great to have Bridges. But it's a fever dream. Completely unrealistic. Portland didn't have a Durant to trade for Bridges. They had an Ant; they had a Nurkic. They didn't have a boat load of unencumbered 1st round picks either. Portland doesn't have a single one so no, Portland + Bridges wasn't going to happen; and it was not going to happen this summer either you posted Bridges stat line in a game. Hart's stat line in a game was arguably better than Bridges. Yeah, the competition level was different. And yes, Bridges is consistently better than Hart. I never said otherwise by the way. The thing is, while there was no chance of having Bridges, the Blazers did have Hart; a middle-class man's Bridges...and didn't keep him. And yeah, I know what the justifications were
Hart is not a middle-class Bridges. He’s not an anything-Bridges, they’re not even similar players to make that comparison.
uhhhh....the comparison I was making is not the one you're getting exercised about. I know Bridges is better....geeeeezuz The comparison I was making is that both players have multi-dimensional tool boxes. Bridges is definitely better, yes. But there's not a chance in hell the Blazers could have added Bridges or will add Bridges any time soon. But they did have Hart and decided they wouldn't or couldn't keep him
Mikal Bridges is an amazing player, but there is almost no chance we could have traded for him with the assets we have.
Naw it's absolutely not, because only two players would have changed our trajectory in a meaningful way and they were traded for one another KD for Bridges. EVERYONE else, was a rotation guy at best. Sure some would have been great fits and talent I would have liked to add, but we don't know what it would have cost us. Avoiding a panic trade of Ant or ESPECIALLY Sharpe, in an ALREADY (come to Jesus it was fait accompli boys) lost season was the right move. We also stockpiled assets. Sure, I would have loved to get KD obviously, but look at what Phoenix paid! We didn't have the assets due to the Olshey Chicago pick protections. Could we have removed them? Maybe. I haven't heard any news about us turning down a Sharpe/Ant trade for KD so I just don't think we were ever really in the running. So lets just end this false narrative that we missed out on guys who would have allowed us to compete for a Championship this year, because only two mega talents moved (KD and Kyrie) and one of them was at our most overstocked position (Kyrie) and the other we never had a shot at (KD). Bridges would have been great, but the cost of Bridges was KD so...yeah let's stop making stuff up.
