The kings want to be able to lose both Demar and lavine instead of just one

I’m willing to let go of hall of fame talent like Paul George for the good of the game

I feel like 8 is already pretty generous? Contracts aside, how many teams are you looking at the 9th best player and thinking “I want that guy to start my franchise off” beyond potential asset acquisition? It’s OKC and…I guess the Wizards because they’re all young? As far as the players you’d want who wouldn’t be protected anyway.

Like expansion teams are typically bad so even if you do get a guy from the Thunder that breaks out, you’re probably still building through the draft and trades.

it makes more sense to protect fewer players.

teams will have their chances to trade their players beforehand if they have a surplus of desirable players anyway.

I want to lose Patrick Williams.

okc is voting expansion for sure

the sixer r hoping someone takes pg and more lol

Protecting more than 8 is fucking comical. 

This is the most thunder-coded report I’ve ever heard.

8 players is just about a full NBA rotation, it’s pretty damn generous

I’m down for the chaos. With the way OKC and San Antonio are set up, the rest of the league could use a ‘free parking’ turn.

Can we give the expansion teams picks to not have them take players??

Asking for a friend

This feels like a way to just fuck the thunder.

“Take my wife, please”

Bro it’s the 9th best player. 95% of the league 9th best player probably plays 10-15min a game IF that some nights. And if they are on a good team, that 9th best player probably isn’t seeing the floor in the playoffs.

8 feels pretty good to me for most teams. I mean how many players do teams regularly have committed for the next season? On a 15 person squad, feels like you probably already have like 3-5 people in FA each season.

As an example, Lakers only have 7 guys they could even protect. Spurs have 9. Then you have the Thunder who have 15 players though!

Name the teams that want the two player proposal, I just want to see something real quick.

Teams really crying about losing their 9th man.

I think the 9th best player on a team would love to be drafted, assuming he’d has a better chance of getting more minutes.

Id be pissed if I’m a good deep team and someone’s takes my 9th guy. Whole concept seems whack, just sign undrafted guys

Its not even about just your 8 best players. Its also your 8 best contracts.

I did not know you could only draft 1 player max from a team. Going to be cool to see how it plays out

OKC trying to protect their middle school aged prospects.

Protections should be 7 as it is. 8 is insanely generous considering you get years to prep contracts.

Screw the expansion draft, no need for it

New team, just start from scratch.  Ethical tanking 

It’s better for the league for new franchises to be good. 

I want 7 for the chaos lol, teams are gonna try to do some consolidation trades.

This is going to be an extremely funny saga the entire way through

They coming for my squad…

Competition is going to be shit if you don’t let those teams get good quickly. If you want to keep 10 players you don’t really support expansion.

Instead of 8 players that teams can protect i think it should be based on salary. The cap is 166m the 26-27 season. Say they can protect XXm worth of players and keep the limit to 1 per team.

Embiid and pg you are a Seattle SuperSonic

Protect 7.

Honestly if I’m a new team then I’m hitting free agency hard.

Can’t wait to see the big Jailyn Williams average 20 and 10 for the Sonics!

They can have Ayton

Let them fight

Compromise: Lose up to 2 but protect up to 15

Can we join the draft? For good time’s sake?

I can picture it now, lakers protect 8 players and bronny James isn’t one of them, las Vegas/ Seattle takes bronny in an attempt to also get lebron and it works. Las Vegas/ Seattle starts both bronny and bron to create hype and gain a bigger fan base quickly. Or am I being delusional?

I honestly think with they want the expansion teams to be remotely passable, they only let teams protect 7 players of their choosing, only let expansion teams take 1 player total per team (so 15 each). They also give them the 5th and 6th pick of both the first and second round. 

Because 8 is literally stupid. A team full of the 9th best players from each of the teams is literally the worst team in the league. And the expansion teams don’t even get that, they get half of the 9th best players in the league. 

Well duh

How many teams have 8 guys under contract in the offseason? I would bet the average is about 10? So that’s only 2 players per team that are in the draft

As a fan with no ulterior motives i think it should be 12.

The guys wanting two players gone are basically anyone who took on bad contracts or have contracts that became albatrosses lmao

Are protections mandatory? Like if a GM/owner just despised their roster could they make everyone available?

Sixers doing a something dance

Genuine question, how many team actually use more than 8-9 man rotations? Okc is an outlier, but aside from teams with the injury bug do many teams go into double digits on a nightly basis? A lot of times I’ll check a game or box scores and see teams only used 8-9 guys a night.

If they want Mikal, they can have Mikal

There’s the D league, Euro and Asian leagues now. Let them poach players from them.

Embid protected? PG? LJ?

It won’t happen because timing and stuff but it would’ve been really funny if the two expansion teams were announced and had the first two picks in THIS years draft which teams are unabashedly tanking for and is supposed to be generational

Can’t we just give them half of the Thunder and half of the Spurs roster and call it even?

I feel like 8 is good enough anymore than 8 would leave expansion teams with no talent

Doesn’t the NBA want parity? Allowing teams to protect so many players really goes against that.

So, here is an idea. First round, teams can only protect 4 players. So that guarantees the two new teams are getting a capable upcoming star player, or expiring veteran contract player that goes unprotected. Second round, they can protect two more, so the expansion teams can try to get a capable second option. Third round they can protect the next 2 for a total of 8. This way, the teams get their young draft picks, two starter capable players, and won’t be just a team of unprotected vets and role players.

I just hope no one takes nnaji! hes poised to be the next steph curry.

We only have one player, so I want the rule to be “protect one” and “lose as many as the Mavs need to have a roster”

tanking teams are like please take more. you can have 5