Perkins is not a defensive center anymore. He's barely even a basketball player. That the Thunder chose him over Harden continues to astound me
I really don't understand the point of this thread.... who was saying Aldridge is a bad player during the offseason? He's having a career year, absolutely, and I'm really glad we have him right now, but the whole point of contention over the summer was about whether Aldridge would sign an extension here. He has not done that yet (because he can't until the summer), so I think it's a little premature for the "I told you so" threads. There are indications from Aldridge that he will sign, so that's definitely encouraging. I hope he does. I would love to be wrong about him leaving.
LaMarcus strikes me as someone who needs to be acknlowedged, respected and appreciated. I think the MVP chants from the fans will go far in helping him stay motivated and playing at a high level. Added bonus: he'll be more likely to resign with us if he feels the love. Keep the MVP chants coming. He certainly deserved them last night.
I've always been firmly in the keep LA camp unless we have no choice, but these what if's are fun and honestly even the biggest homer couldn't have predicted this season. When considering trading LA this summer all I could think about though is how a trade like that worked for Utah and OKC. Utah traded DWill and seemed to get a handfull of decent guys but look where they are now. OKC made the biggest mistake of their franchise by trading Harden for a handful of players. Thing is in this league you don't win unless you have a dominate player on your team and since BROY and Oden went down LA has always been our best chance at that.
I agree, if this season keeps on going I'd say he is a lock to resign and not even Canzano will be able to run him out of town.
One significant difference about Harden is that he's much younger than Aldridge. He was 23 when OKC traded him. Aldridge is currently 28, Harden is only 24, so the Thunder traded away a superstar who isn't even in the prime of his career. LMA is just now in the prime of his career, so it's a different situation. Those of us who were in favor of trading him during the summer were looking for trades that would improve the team, but also work with the timeline that made the most sense. Nobody could have predicted that the team would be THIS good, and I'm glad we didn't make the trade, but adding Oladipo to our core would have been interesting to say the least.
I think a lot of it came down to the dramatic difference of opinions in the philosophies of how you rebuild a team. My take (and a lot of others) was we don't need to rush into trading him. Be patient and see how things turn out. You are right in the fact he could still bolt after next season. (or get hurt etc) but trading an all star for multiple players who are not all stars, does not have a good track record of working out. For the one or two who just plain argued that LMA sucked.....what can you say? You can't debate with people like that. Bottom line is yes this is more fun. Even if things go south this season, it was the right decision by Neil. Too many things have to happen to get another player as good as LMA. Why rush him out the door?
OK, Bennett was a reach at No. 1, but I can't believe he is this much worse than projected. I'd happily con the Cavs out of him right now for a couple of our DNPs, or draft picks, if we had any. Buy low, take a gamble, nothing to lose, yadayada.
Well, I think the reasoning was that his value most likely wouldn't be higher than it was last summer. That thought was clearly wrong, because Aldridge is playing at an MVP level right now. If the team decided to trade him, he would bring back significantly more right now, than he would have five months ago. It was all about value, and usually you get less value when a player is nearing the end of his contract. Especially if he's demanding a trade OR has made indications that he's unhappy, both of which were rumored last summer and only partially confirmed by Aldridge (he never demanded a trade, but he was unhappy). Brian and I were pushing for a trade because we thought Aldridge wanted out, and we thought his value was probably at its highest.
Fully agree but I'm tired of interesting. I'd compare Harden and LA situations a little closer than you though. With their age differences and the fact that bigs just take longer to develop than guards, they were both at somewhat similar points in their career. I will concede that before this season I would have traded LA for Harden straight up and even now I would think long and hard about it. Personally I always thought LA had it in him, he's shown flashes, first example that comes to mind is that 4th quarter in Dallas a few years ago. I also think that everyone (including me) really underestimated the value Lopez would have to LA's production, getting LA off the C's on the defensive end has proved to be the difference............. Just imagine what LA could have been doing the last few years with a healthy Oden next to him.
There were a few of us who really wanted to see an Aldridge for Harden/Ibaka trade. Not saying the Thunder would have gone for it, but I think if they could do it over, they would jump at that deal in a heartbeat. At this point, however, I'm not sure I do that trade because we have Lillard, and our two stars compliment each other very well. I'm not convinced that a Lillard/Harden backcourt would work. If the Spurs have proven anything, it's that a quick point guard and a dominant forward can win championships.
Cleveland looks like a disaster this year. Remember when they won the first pick and everybody was debating on who's future was brighter, ours or theirs? Que in Bennett and Bynum, along with Waiters and they have really blown it. Last year they could have drafted Drummond or Lillard (Drummond made more sense for them but an Irving and Lillard backcourt sounds recockulous right now.) Then subtract Bynum and add a FA who is worth a shit, and trade their draft pick of Bennett for Oliadipo or Carter Williams and they would be topping the east right now. Not like any of the choices are far reaching either, I think most of us saw this coming, but maybe not to this degree.
I remember that, Harden and Ibaka for LA was a pipe dream. When they were shopping Harden I think it would have been Harden for LA + someone. Maybe Batum + LA for Harden Ibaka. Got to remember the time frame of the proposal, LA was still considered a soft player. By the way how shitty would it be to watch Durant, Westbrook and LA (maybe batum also) destroy the league this year?
Their management is horrible. Even a blind man could see that they should have traded Westbrook instead of Harden. They would have gotten more for Westbrook, and he's the one holding that team back. The trade they got was not very good. I'm not sure that they would have balked at Aldridge for Harden/Ibaka, but who knows... that would be an interesting question to ask Presti.
If they even have draft picks. The "can't trade your first round draft picks two consecutive years" rule was added because of Cleveland. We of course have made mistakes as well. But the Bennett pick was crazy. A KI and Oladipo back court would have been unbelievable.
I'm actually a fan of McLemore as well. Either of those guys would have been a great pairing with Kyrie.
Yes, it is. I for one would have thought differently knowing that we would have had such a good offseason and development from Freeland.
