I mean the CBA didn’t force the Lakers to spontaneously tear down their championship team and fire their coach. Nor did it force the Warriors to spend their time trying to develop young players and create “two timelines” instead of chasing one more chip with Steph. That happened before the CBA. The Bucks were already one of the oldest teams in the league when they won and didn’t really have a future in the first place. The CBA has only affected the Nuggets so far. The other cases are teams being victims of circumstance and maybe incompetence if you look at it pessimistically.

Especially as smaller markets. It’s why you’re seeing the Nuggets and Bucks have such parallel regressions. They had no choice but to max borderline All-Star players but are now handicapped by the aprons. 

I think with the new CBA it’d be hard to do much better than the Nuggets have by developing Braun and finding legit vet min contribution through Russ.

The nuggets rebounded well after struggling to start the year, I think they will have a decent showing in the playoffs

We are in what was the Bucks 2022-23 season where they were taken out as the top seed in the East by Miami. One year removed from a tough game 7 exit and two years from a championship.

So if we are on the same path as the Bucks, we are losing in the first round of the playoffs, making an ultimately futile all in trade this offseason and then quietly watching it all fade away

we are doing fine, i think we have the pieces to win it all this year

That was a lot to do with losing Kawhi and Danny Green.

Even then, we looked awesome right until the COVID break. After COVID - Siakam wasn’t himself, but we still took a very good Celtics team to 7. Can’t complain considering the circumstances.

Get to go under the 2nd apron too

Yeah over the last three seasons

Middleton -¹⁰⁶⁄₂₀₅ games played, putting up ~15/5/4 on 47/36/86 (58.0 TS%)

Beal -¹³³⁄₂₀₆ games played, putting up ~20/5/4 on 50/40/82 (59.5 TS%)

Real issue though is the hit on the cap sheet, dumping Pat/Portis means getting under the apron short-term, but a core of Dame/Beal/Giannis next season takes up $158 million (98% of the cap) for just those three. Would make filling out the roster brutally difficult.

Middleton is far more broken down, he can hardly play more than 25 minutes for 3 years now when he does play (barely). His ankles are not getting better.

And this is a move for this year and also the next three years. The Bucks have no cap room or picks to improve the team next to Giannis, and Middleton is a liability with zero trade value aging fast. They won’t get anyone better.

It doesn’t fix their major flaws, but it does give them a better shot. Bucks surprisingly have a top 10 defense this year. Beal instead of washed Middleton coming off the bench and missing most games doesn’t make much of a difference on defense; on offense you get a better and more reliable scorer who can play the whole game and take pressure off Dame for guard duties.

Is Middleton not a better defender?

Middleton with worse defense and size. Whether it’s an upgrade or not comes down to Middleton’s health.

But one thing is for certain - a Dame/Beal backcourt is gonna be super ugly defensively. No chance that team can defend the Celtics.

Yup - after the horrible start, team’s been good overall and even great at times (NBA Cup)

Me sowing: haha fuck yeah we got rid of Beal

Me reaping: OKC got who?

[Insert Young Thunder Player] Get ready to learn how to make cheese

Plz no

might explain why Presti held off on outbidding the Jazz for the ‘31 Suns pick

(also Wemby drafted Giannis as his 2v2 teammate on NBA2K last week, which has gotta mean something right. teams are circling…)

guitar noises

He owns the Browns too? That’s wild

The funny thing is we kept spending on old ass shit shooter firsts with no defense and now, at the cumulation of it all, we are spending on someone who’s old as shit, a shooter first, and has no defense

Yep and that title is worth 5x times to be honest . If the Bucks can get 10 picks for Giannis at ³¹⁄₂ yo I said it’s time to amicably part ways

Los Angeles Dodgers rumored to want in as well