THE "OFFICIAL" AROUND THE NBA 2012-13 THREAD...........

The way that it was explained to me, they could have avoided the luxury tax by just doing the Rudy Gay deal, but they needed to make both deals to have the money to sign Tony Allen this summer. I didn't want to really see Speights walk, but when you put it in terms of losing Speights to keep Allen, I'm okay with it.

Besides, Darrell Arthur had just come back from being out a year and a half, so he was starting to eat up Speights' playing time anyway.

 

Unless we were able to just get a team to just take on Speights' contract in exchange for picks and a trade exception, we pretty much had to make that deal to keep Allen, who's really the identity and heart of the team. You lose Allen, and this team falls apart. The core is Gasol-ZBo-Allen-Conley, and so long as they keep those four players together, guys like Speights are just ancillary. He was coming into his own offensively, but it's really a push between him an Arthur on the offensive end, and Arthur is a big improvement over Speights on the defensive end.

The way that I look at that deal, it was essentially Speights and Ellington for Prince, E. Davis, and Daye. I would have been just as happy cutting Rudy Gay, but that wasn't realistic, and not too many teams were offering significant compensation on the market. The Grizz floated Gay out there for a while and just didn't get any offers worth biting at.

 

D-Rose cleared to play!

 

Wonder when he'll actually come back though... it'd be nice for ya'll if he came back this Sunday vs. the Lakers, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

It looks like the after Saturday, when the Jazz are likely to lose at New York, the Lakers will be tied for the 8th seed now...

 

If you hear, let me know. I picked him in my 9th round of my fantasy draft and have already lost Rondo for the season.

 

Jazz are done. I think it's a battle between us and LA for the last spot and we have a game against the Lakers at the Rose Garden comin up.

 

I don't understand why the Jazz didn't make a move at the deadline. They've got such a logjam in the frontcourt, but it's not a positive logjam. They've got two of the best vet frontcourt players in the league, but they've also got two of the best up-and-coming big men, and giving the young guys broken playing time will only hurt their development.

If I were them, I would have been shopping Jefferson for a backcourt prospect.

 

Well this pretty much sucks.... either we make the playoffs and lose the lotto pick, or we miss the playoffs and lose the lotto pick.... either way I'm thinking we are sending that pick to Charlotte.

 

We gain trade flexibility the second we lose that pick, because well be able to trade our 2014-15 first rounder. As long as Charlotte was waiting for our pick, we couldn't really trade any first round picks.

 

Meh is right. For athletes of that caliber, there was absolutely nothing difficult about that. Even I can jump up put the ball under my leg and loft that pass. The wide open catch and dunk was mundane for just about any NBA player. Yawn.

 

I don't think so. Either way we played hard and contended for a playoff birth. I'm proud of the team and excited about the future.

 

Mags, you and Eric suffer from the same problem. You can't see the big picture. Making the playoffs is great because it rewards our guys for their hard work, but it hurts our ability to better the team this offseason. Let's assume that our core continues to improve; this will most likely be our last time in the lotto for the foreseeable future.

What is more important; making the playoffs so we can be swept in the first round, or missing the playoffs this one time so we can get a decent pick and hopefully add to our core? This summer is our best chance to put some pieces around Lillard/Aldridge/Batum that will help take us to the next level.

I don't care about making the playoffs, I want to win a championship. The only way to do that is to improve the team, either through trade, free agency, or the draft.

 

Who says we will get swept if we play sas in the first round? We just own them and they've lost in the first round already.

Truth is making the playoffs will help this franchise greatly. I think it will entice free agents to want to be a part of our bright future. And I'm not sold on any player in the draft giving us that difference maker moving forward

 

The playoffs are different than the regular season because:

A) teams play much harder

B) the refs become a greater factor

 

Sure but it also favor teams with shorter rotations. Also Lillard is gonna carry us

 

Playoff experience is the #1 thing you need when trying to make a run in the playoffs. We have very little of that and making them and getting swept wouldn't be fun to watch, but it would get Lillard some playoff experience as well as our core players getting used to playing together in that type of environment. Is it better then a late lottery pick that has a high probability of not really being that good (outside of the top 5 and in some years top 3 it is like playing Russian roulette) and a very low probability of being a starter/rotation player, thats up for debate,I personally could care less about the Lottery pick as a prospect that most likely wont contribute much for a year or two and at worst will be a bust, what I do care about is the trade value a Lottery pick can bring in.
The worst thing is for us to miss the playoffs and not get the pick, then we get absolutely nothing, no playoff experience no pick. Whatever happens we have lots of ways to improve the team in the off season which is great for a team that is eyeing to make a big improvement going into next year.

 

STAT out 6 weeks, knee.