If the pacers get the 5th pick this year, this trade would be highway robbery

Calling them winners might be an overstatement, but I think they did as well as they could. I don’t love the Garland trade, but ultimately I think it was the right value for Harden and it’s obviously a gamble that LAC felt good taking. I’m hoping I’m wrong and that Garland returns to form, but I think the Zu trade was an A+ from the FO. Zu is a good C, but his value was only going to decline as his contract got shorter (because the value was having a C for multiple years on a great $) and if his offense regressed with Harden gone.

The fact that they have a shot at a 5-9 pick in a loaded draft is great, and a 2031 Pacers pick is a good gamble if it doesn’t convey.

Guy is a two time all star and hasn’t averaged unded 18ppg in 5 seasons. He’s more than a solid starting pg.

I’m not the highest on Garland, but I think you’re underselling him. He has only ever averaged less than <18PPG his first two seasons, so I think 15 is an understatement. On top of that, he’s still 26 years old and he was steadily increasing his scoring output until Mitchell was brought onto the team. He’ll never be a good defender for sure, but I don’t see why he can’t continue to raise his scoring and assist numbers.

He was an All Star last year on a team that was the #1 in the East where he had quite a bit of overlap with his co-star Mitchell.

Even that is fine because Harden is 36, and they were going to get nothing for him.

All thats left is to up his efficiency which any player can do by getting unlimited reps in

Is he better than Austin Reaves?

ADDITION BY ADDITION

They weren’t gonna pay him what was necessary in RFA, and he wasn’t going to want to return to the bench when Hali comes back. Hopefully this works out as a win/win.

We DESPERATELY needed a starting caliber center and zubac’s contract is unbeatable. We also weren’t anywhere near title contention when we made the trade so we were more focused on developing our guys than winning now

Yup. Murray, Jokic, and AG have barely played together this year. They are 17-7 with AG. Not to mention Johnson and Braun both missing significant time.

The nuggets are still my pick to make it out the West if they’re fully healthy. They fixed their bench and even without one still dragged the Thunder to 7 lol

You play who’s in front of you lol go back and compare teams that season and name a team we wouldn’t absolutely have decimated aside from the Celtics. There was no stopping us, Celtics Nuggs finals would have been an all timer though

2020/21/22/23 were probably the weakest NBA Finals. And I include the Warriors win in that.

Since then the league’s gotten better as younger talent has exploded.

I understand trading Mathurin, but I think trading the two picks on top of it for Zubac was a massive overpay.

It’ll be interesting to see what $ amount Mathurin goes for. IMO, there’s a chance that LAC gets him for a good deal considering the immense guard depth in the draft, limited cap space all around, and multiple quality scoring guards in this FA class. If the handful of teams know that LAC plans to retain him, that itself can deter teams from even throwing him a contract in RFA.

Zubac value was his cheap contract + being an elite center…

“Elite” is nonsense. He’s 29 and yet to make an All-star game. He’s a solid starter, but that’s all – and I like Zubac, but come on, let’s stay at-least partially tethered to reality. The Clippers were also slightly better without Zubac this season, than with. Although last season, to be fair, they were miles better with him.

I don’t see how anyone could conclude that Zubac was any better than the 6th-best center in the West, and very unlikely to improve further, so that was a really expensive trade for a player of that caliber.

This is an overstatement based on his play in Indiana.

Benn is a microwave scorer who can get to the line at will, but he has a questionable shot appetite (lots of deep 2s) and he struggles to fit into a more team oriented style. In other words, he’s a good/physical man defender but he clearly gets lost in schemes, and he’s a good isolation scorer but his court vision and passing leaves a lot to be desired.

That being said, he’s young, clearly has a ton of talent, and if he can raise his court IQ, he’ll be a very good starter for years to come. It’ll also be interesting to see what $$ LAC can retain him considering there’s limited teams with cap space this free agency + there’s like a million quality guard prospects in the draft and a handful of solid scoring guards in FA (Simons, Norm, White, Ayo, etc.). If LAC gets that Pacers pick this season or if Garland works out, there’s a real chance they can set up their back court for the next few years.

For some reason…..🤣🤣 clueless we were a half or a major injury away from a ring..

He definitely does not do it on both ends lol. He can be good defensively but it’s rare, he has way too many lapses