Trades possibilities....and what teams are open for business

I see no reason to have Chet at center except at end-of-game situations when they want as much offense on the court as possible. He seems much better suited to be playing the 4.

 

OKC just got rid of Giddy who took 73% of his shots from the 2P area last year, Joel Embiid took 84% of his shots from the 2P areas and he takes a lot more space than Giddy.

Chet, FWIW, took 63% of his shots from the 2P area. SGA is not a 3P shooter, he needs the space to attack (SGA took 82% of his shots from the 2P area). You just need more spacing to make SGA effective. That's the modern NBA. You can't have multiple high usage players that love to operate within the 3P line when one of them (SGA) needs that space.

I just don't think this makes sense. The reason the Gobert / KAT combo worked, was because KAT is such a good 3P shooter, and Ant Man is better operating outside the 3P line than SGA is.

 

You can't compare Embiid to Gobert offensively. I'm very confident Embiid would work great with SGA offensively. The #1, #2, and #3 biggest risk to OKC if they ever did explore acquiring Embiid is his health.

 

I am saying that if KAT was not such a great 3 point shooter, the KAT / Gobert combo will not work because they both would require the same space. The same issue that will happen with SGA and Embiid.

If I were a betting man, I would guess what OKC is looking for, mostly is a secondary creator that can space the floor, basically, Giddy with an outside shot, PG13 would be excellent for them, ironically. The 2nd thing they probably look for is a backup center with girth to give them extra size.

 

Yep. People seem to think you're plugging the lane if you don't have 5 guys standing around the 3pt line. If it came to fruition and OKC got Embiid, an SGA & Embiid pick & roll should be deadly. Having weapons around the perimeter will obviously open up the lane some, but it's not do or die.
My big concern would be who your finishing 5 would be. SGA, Chet, Embiid for sure. Do you leave Williams on the bench because of matchups? Caruso, Dort, Wallace? That's a good problem to have, but I think it's still a problem.

 

It's possible the Rockets would have picked up the options on ALL of these players but if i was a betting man I would say that the Rockets are really close to some kind of deal or deals not a matter of IF just a matter of when and what team(s). I hope the Blazers can either get that 3rd pick and/or move off of a Grant or Thybulle or something but this is the type of deal Cronin should be looking to take advantage of for the future of this team.

 

Could Ayton be a trade piece in trying to move up in the draft to Atlanta, Houston or Detroit? With all of the smoke around Portland taking a center in this draft could that mean DA wasn’t what they wanted to work with going forward?

 

I doubt Atlanta would be interested. Houston and Detroit (particularly now they've fired Monty) are more plausible.




Obviously pick swaps would also be involved

 

Ayton is like a box of candy you never know what you are going to get night to night

 

The Thunder were the #1 team in the West as a very young squad by running the 5-out offense. I do not believe they are going to abandon it just for a chance to run pick and roll or pick and pop from way out of the 3 point line with Embiid while minimizing Chet. We have seen how hard it is for teams and players to change their playing style when they acquire new players. We were told that the Dame / Giannis pick and roll will be deadly, but that forgot to mention how much better both players are with the ball in their hand - which basically relegates one of them to playing more off-the-ball, both seem to be less effective in that role. Maybe it will be successful 2nd time around, maybe we will again, find out that when you try to combine 2 players that need the same space (or the ball) to be effective and they need to adjust, it does not always work too well.

If I am Presti, I do not think even a little about ruining what OKC so carefully built with a trade that requires them to completely change how they play and abandon what made them so successful. They are ahead of the curve with something that obviously works. Address the real problems (secondary creator, backup center for rebounding) and let experience set with what you got.

 

If I was as bad as the Bulls, I would have opted for the pick.

 

Lmao hell no

 

Cronin unless the Lakers are giving us 5 1sts and yes I know that is not possible -- but even if they could do this I would never do anything to help the Lakers. I think we have all sat back and watched teams bail out the Lakers with deals and if you do that Cronin just pack your bags and leave town cause most fans will not be forgiving.

 

I'll take 17 and their next available first rounder. Otherwise they can pound sand.

 

We get Reeves too right?

 

Oh look, a team with even less desirable assets than the Mavs

 

And somebody's already eaten all the good ones