The Batum one isn't even worth discussing lol.
It's really not
This is one that sounds a bit like what Masai was talking about but not really. Masai mentioned how we are "going to get young players and develop them" while also saying "we are not tanking". Well in this we don't really tank unless the pick is shit. Matthews would be a decent stopgap. The prize is that pick. One of Ayton, Bagley, Doncic, Jackson, or Porter will be there. i'm high on Porter personally and think if he wasn't hurt would be a top 3 pick. Would Dallas do this? Probably not since Cuban has already said that tanking for a pick is probably the best way of turning it around in Dallas.
Cube is cool with playing the rebuild game, because they pretty organically built a contender, went throug the contending cycle, made a bunch of mediocre to bad moves trying to maintain that after it's best before date and then declined. They're in the right place, and the right time to hit the lottery a couple of times, clear some old bodies and bad contracts, and start making splashes once they have a team of young athletes in place. So yeah, I doubt they trade the pick. With that said my previous point stands...no game changer other than Ayton imo, and he won't be available to us in a Demar trade, 100%.
You're really down on Wiggins eh? The lack of defensive effort is concerning for sure. I think he offers enough upside at a young age to be worth a gamble. Thibs is known to be a hard ass. Derozan for a younger version of Derozan wouldn't be the worst deal. I think you're overvaluing Lowry a bit in recent posts. No where else have i read that he has the value you assume he does. I'd love for it to be true but 2 more years of Lowry declining doesn't seem like good value. Derozan for Wiggins + would be a risky move but one that could pay off pretty big.
I dislike the media narrative in the NBA every bit as much as I dislike it in the NHL. We get told stuff by the hockey media all the time that is obvious garbage. Remember when every non trash defenceman was going to cost us Nylander or Marner in trade and we would be smart to make those trades immediately because we need a defender? Yeah, NBA stuff is no different. It's way more instructive to look at what moves actually get made and their composition. Top 10 point guard, only signed for 2 years. The only stink on him is the "Lebron's bitch" stink. People can assume his decline, and that's cool it will happen at some point but it hasn't happened yet. All of the metrics point to him holding steady in his prime this season. He's not reliant on quickness and athleticism, but on decision making, shooting, court IQ. All that shit ages well. He's actually a really good bet to play out the next 2 years as a top 10 PG. It's really easy to buy into the narrative right now and be down on Lowry and Demar, but we need to remember that there are about 20 teams in the league that are trying to figure out how to just get into the situations we keep choking in. They're all trying to win too, and Lowry is a legit upgrade for almost all of them.
As for Wiggins, I'm down on his performance absolutely, because his performance warrants it. Wiggins was a 2 win player this year and had a negative VORP. Kyle was a 10 win player (with a 5.0 VORP). The statistics suggest that if both perform like they did this season but wearing different jerseys, we're a 51 win team and the Wolves become a 55 win team. That's a hell of a swing. Even assume Wiggins bounces back to previous performances and it's a 6 win swing instead of an 8 game swing. So much ****ing talent, but this idea that he's massively valuable and that Kyle is a throwaway is silly and one that I doubt NBA front offices (who pay way more attention to analytics than they do to narrative) put much stock in.
Agreed on this. Kawhi would be a stud. I don't see this happening unless the rumors of a rift are true. I fully expect Kawhi to stay and all this bs to be forgotten. I also expect another team to beat our offer if it does turn out they are moving Kawhi.
Boston has so many cheap moveable pieces that it will be tough beating their offer. I think it's way more likely that Kawhi stays in SAS and they punt on Aldridge.
