Let the Kevin Durant sweepstakes begin! Will he or won’t he leave OKC? I think he’ll stay.
Is anyone going to pay Dwight Howard a max salary?
Dirk Nowitzki opted out of his final year. I’m hearing GS is interested in him as a Plan B if things don’t work out with Durant. But I guess he’ll also stay put and sign a multi-year deal with Dallas.
Al Horford will probably get a max deal, maybe from Atlanta.
DeMarr Derozen is another big name some are maybe overlooking as an unrestricted free agnet. I suspect he’ll also stay put in Toronto.
Actually, there are quite a few big name UFA’s out there. Mike Conley, Luol Deng, Hassan Whiteside, Rajon Rondo, Al Jefferson, Joakim Noah, Nicolas Batum and many more.
And of course, the question of what will LeBron do? I can’t believe he’d leave Cleveland, but I’m hearing stories about his kids being enrolled in Brentwood schools and all kinds of rumors.
Can’t believe anyone would trade for Rose, but doesn’t sound like the Knicks gave up too awful much. Dude is hurt a lot and, frankly, doesn’t seem interested in playing basketball.
Jeff Teague was traded to Indiana. The Pacers ship George Hill to Utah. I guess the Hawks are committed to Dennis Schroder.
I don’t think you should be either excited or depressed… for Indiana, that’s a ‘shuffling things around’ kind of trade, not a game-changer. Teague and Hill are both average to above-average PGs overall; they’re better at different things, so it’s moving some defensive value for offensive value, which within what the Pacers need is probably a small plus. Contracts are the same (expiring after next year), Teague is two years younger. All the pundits who graded the move seem to have it as a B-/C+ for Indiana.
I’ll be honest, outside of Simmons and Ingram I didn’t know much about anyone else in the draft in terms of how they project as NBA players. I like Buddy Hield and I know Denver wanted him at 7, but New Orleans grabbed him at 6. Denver still managed to get Jamal Murray, the PG from Kentucky. Not a bad pick. The Nuggets also had a pretty good late pick in Daniel Hamilton from UConn.
Atlanta probably should have taken Demetrius Jackson (PG Notre Dame) seeing as how they just traded their starting PG Jeff Teague. They did get a PG later in the round, but Jackson could be a stud and they opted for a SG from France instead.
Serge Ibaka was traded from OKC to Orlando and I’d say OKC made out like bandits in the deal. They pick up Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the rights to Domantas Sabonis (yes, he is the son of Arvydis Sabonis). Oladipo is a nice looking guard who can play the point or a 2. Ilyasova is more than serviceable as a PF. And Ibaka seems to be on the downside of his career.
I wanted Atlanta to take Dejounte Murray the PG from Washington. The fact that San Antonio, a team known for finding diamonds, took him, makes it worse. Especially since Atlanta is known for finding dross.
Taurean Prince could be okay but I didn’t hear anyone praising his up side.
I think Teague is a definite improvement over George Hill, the stats don’t show much difference but watching the games shows Teague to be much more dynamic.
Yeah, I think that’s what Indiana wanted. Hill might be a better player overall, especially defensively, but Teague creates for himself and attacks more like a traditional point guard. Hill is more of the new breed of total basketball point guard, who you put around a superstar like George or LeBron or Harden and they make 3s and defend.
Teague will handle the ball a lot more and take more shots than Hill, and I think the Pacers want to try to have a more dynamic offensive attack with less pressure on George.
I believe it will be the highest bidder will win. A superstar will fall in the lap of the Golden State Warriors alongside Curry and Klay Thompson i am sure! Congrats to Derrick Rose! Good luck in New York!
So as an Orlando fan at first i was unhappy about this deal for Serge Ibaka, but the more i think about it the more that reaction seems more sentimental than logical. Viktor Oladipo is a great guy but he has three years in the NBA under his belt and three years of college ball before that, at this point it seems unlikely that he will ever be more than what he is now. He was arguably the third best player on the lottery bound Magic, probably fourth best when we had Harris, and Ibaka is an All NBA defensive player that addresses a real need for the team. I don’t see how he can do well with two ball dominant players in OKC, he is just not a spot up shooter at all.
I cannot imagine a scenario where LeBron doesn’t want to have at least one year of reigning as the conquering King James of Cleveland, so there’s no way in hell he is going anywhere unless somebody signs over ownership of a franchise to him or something.
This is what he worked for his entire life, this is his redemption moment, and you can bet he isn’t just going to walk away without reaping the rewards… especially with how the cap explodes next year as well.
Not a Magic fan, but I’d have rather seen Aaron Gordon get more minutes. Ibaka is 26 years old and just put up lowest per-game numbers in 4 years in blocks, points and rebounds. Gordon is 20 years old and I bet in 30 minutes a game he’d get you the 12/7 that Ibaka does.
Apparently the Bulls and Celtics almost pulled the trigger on a deal that would have sent Jimmy Butler to Boston for Jae Crowder and the 3rd draft pick. Are the Bulls trying to rebuild? I get trading Rose, but Jimmy Butler is that whole team. Pau Gasol is apparently looking for a new team, too.
Butler doesn’t like Fred Hoiberg a whole lot; it caused some problems.
I assume the deal with Ibaka is that everyone just accepts that he was much less than fully motivated last year because he didn’t get the touches he wanted. It probably stung to be relegated to a corner 3 guy where if you don’t catch and shoot, you don’t shoot at all. Especially when every game Kanter was coming off the bench and getting the touches he thinks he deserves.
So maybe Orlando figures OK, you chafed a little bit under the lunatic direction of Russell Westbrook, you’ll be back to max effort for us and the rebounds and blocks will come back.
