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NBA Off-Season 2019 - Bridge Over the River Kawhi


Relic

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Shiiiiiiiiiiiit.  That's all they got?!?  Two picks half a decade away, a couple swaps, and Paul?  Goddamn.  Wonder how long it takes before they figure out a way to sell Paul to the Lakers.

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1 hour ago, DMC said:

I'd say Brady would be the most obvious example.  But your point is correct, it'd be harder in the NFL because you need 22 guys.  In baseball though?  Mike Trout could be much more influential, if he wanted to.  The fact he doesn't is kind of admirable, but also disappointing in a way.

I personally don't think Brady would be the GOAT without the GOAT coach coaching him.  Manning had shitty coaches for most of his career and just straight dragged teams to the postseason.  

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8 minutes ago, DMC said:

Shiiiiiiiiiiiit.  That's all they got?!?  Two picks half a decade away, a couple swaps, and Paul?  Goddamn.  Wonder how long it takes before they figure out a way to sell Paul to the Lakers.

It does seem low. And Westbrook has so much time left on his contract that he can't realistically demand a trade in a year if he had gotten sent to the Heat or Magic or someone like that. 

Maybe the demand just wasn't there for the Thunder to get a bigger haul. He does have a terrible contract, and I maintain what I said before about it being extremely difficult to envision him on a champion team (unless he changes his style of play; which, considering that Harden keeps the ball even more than he does, maybe he'll have to).

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1 minute ago, DanteGabriel said:

Damn, did Chris Paul just get done like IT4? The side dish in a trade for a big star?

Well, he had a slightly worse contract than Westbrook, so flipping him plus some picks for Russ makes sense.

Neither guy has quite as bad a contract as Wiggins, tho, so I guess there's that.

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28 minutes ago, briantw said:

I personally don't think Brady would be the GOAT without the GOAT coach coaching him. 

Meh.  I mean you're right that he's been blessed with the GOAT coach, maybe.  But outcomes are outcomes, and it's impossible to argue with his.

28 minutes ago, Fez said:

Maybe the demand just wasn't there for the Thunder to get a bigger haul.

It's either that or just plain incompetence.  I do expect the former.  There just wasn't much of a market for him.  Now I guess we'll get to see what Presti's Thunder could do if Durant left instead of trading Harden first.

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30 minutes ago, DMC said:

Meh.  I mean you're right that he's been blessed with the GOAT coach, maybe.  But outcomes are outcomes, and it's impossible to argue with his.

Fair.  I think Peyton was a better quarterback though, although Brady is definitely more clutch and benefited from the best coaching ever.

 

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3 hours ago, Fez said:

It does seem low. And Westbrook has so much time left on his contract that he can't realistically demand a trade in a year if he had gotten sent to the Heat or Magic or someone like that. 

Maybe the demand just wasn't there for the Thunder to get a bigger haul. He does have a terrible contract, and I maintain what I said before about it being extremely difficult to envision him on a champion team (unless he changes his style of play; which, considering that Harden keeps the ball even more than he does, maybe he'll have to).

Low? They got two first rounders long after Harden and Westbrook are done as useful players and two pick swaps which are basically as good as first rounders. Four potential high lottery picks. Sure they had to take on Chris Paul's terrible contract but if you're OKC who cares about the next couple years? That's an amazing haul for a player that it wasn't clear would fetch much in value at all while making $40m a year at the end of his prime and not looking at all like a player who will age well. I thought maybe they'd get off his contract and get a single protected first rounder or two if they played their cards perfectly. 

I'm blown away by what Presti has done in these last two trades. The assets that OKC now possesses are unlike anything we've ever seen before in the NBA. 

 

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This is generally the kind of move I hate my teams making...I am very much a ‘build through the draft’ model guy and that’s always been an uncomfortable fit with Morey for me. That said, Morey has publicly stated that building through the draft is by far the best model unless you are one of those few teams where FAs routinely choose to go, and for reasons that mostly baffle me, Houston is one of those teams. 

Another issue is that, ‘on paper’ this seems like a terrible fit, but then I have learned that Morey often has access to better paper than I do, and MD might be the coach best suited to getting RW to be a better (or more suitable) version of himself offensively. Many originally thought Paul was a horrible fit, though of course now they will point to his 3 pt fg% and revise. I personally like Paul much much more as a player than RW, but he was aging fast and his health issues come playoff time were likely to continue (unless load management becomes the new trend) and if a rift developed between he and Harden I guess that had to be addressed. 

I am disappointed but willing to wait and see.

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37 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

This is generally the kind of move I hate my teams making...I am very much a ‘build through the draft’ model guy and that’s always been an uncomfortable fit with Morey for me. That said, Morey has publicly stated that building through the draft is by far the best model unless you are one of those few teams where FAs routinely choose to go, and for reasons that mostly baffle me, Houston is one of those teams. 

If you're winning, it is easier to convince people to join you. Building through the draft is great when you don't need the player now and are looking long-term, but in the short-term its probably better to get known players if you're going all in.

It does serves as an important lesson though. If you're going to trade your future you need to win in free agency.

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20 minutes ago, Proudfeet said:

If you're winning, it is easier to convince people to join you. Building through the draft is great when you don't need the player now and are looking long-term, but in the short-term its probably better to get known players if you're going all in.

It does serves as an important lesson though. If you're going to trade your future you need to win in free agency.

Absolutely. I prefer the draft model, but my other major philosophy (especially for the nba) has always been get stars and work the rest out later, and Morey absolutely gets that as much as any gm in sports. 

As a result, part of what Morey has done is create an environment where Houston is almost always in on any star talent available, whether as free agents, s&ts or just trades, and that has a carry-over where star players will be more likely to go there because they know other stars are likely there or coming, and some role players will go because stars will increase their value. Over time this leads to a lot of turnover, something I find at least aesthetically unappealing but Morey seems to be completely fine with. 

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2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Can anyone remember an off season even a 10th as interesting as this?

 

nope, this is the craziest off season ever. Someone needs to make a visual map of all the players who changed teams. It's a staggering amount of reshuffling. 

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6 hours ago, Jaime L said:

Low? They got two first rounders long after Harden and Westbrook are done as useful players and two pick swaps which are basically as good as first rounders.

Oh, give me a break.  First, the swaps - especially the first in 2021 - might not matter at all.  The overvaluation of midlevel draft picks by NBA's intelligentsia is amusing to an extent, but I'm sorry, those picks are unlikely to matter much at all.  Second, two picks that far away along with a guy they would gladly release if they could?  And now I'm sure OKC is trying to figure out how to move him?  Yeah, that is low.

1 hour ago, Relic said:

nope, this is the craziest off season ever. Someone needs to make a visual map of all the players who changed teams. It's a staggering amount of reshuffling. 

I remember the..2000 free agency period.  When the Magic were supposed to sign Tim Duncan and Grant Hill.  Instead they signed Hill and McGrady, and the latter was the only one worthwhile.  Anyway, that's the most excited I ever was about the NBA in July.  But you're right, this offseason is crazeballs.

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8 hours ago, Jaime L said:

Low? They got two first rounders long after Harden and Westbrook are done as useful players and two pick swaps which are basically as good as first rounders. Four potential high lottery picks. Sure they had to take on Chris Paul's terrible contract but if you're OKC who cares about the next couple years? That's an amazing haul for a player that it wasn't clear would fetch much in value at all while making $40m a year at the end of his prime and not looking at all like a player who will age well. I thought maybe they'd get off his contract and get a single protected first rounder or two if they played their cards perfectly. 

Those picks are so far away from now that they have almost no value. There's just too many variables we know nothing about yet. How will the Rockets be in those years? How will those draft classes shape up (because sometimes there's only one or two players worth it in the lottery)? Plus, they're so far away in time that the team can't do any current planning based on what players they might get from them.

The picks will eventually gain value, as we get closer to the years they'll occur. But that's a pretty weak haul for a guy that's still a top-20 player in the league. Plus they had to take Chris Paul's contract.

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Nobody was going to offer much for Westbrook's contract. I think this deal is really good for the Thunder and I say that as a huge Westbrook fan. He declined a lot last season and who knows whether he'll be able to bounce back given his age and the knee issues.

I really don't see him and harden fitting well, but we will see. I hope it works out.

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