Him and Memphis feels like a match made in heaven.

He has the exact statistical profile, advanced stats, etc. that they love. They have a hole at PF after the Jaren trade and if Edey can stay healthy he’s the perfect fit next to Boozer.

I thought Okafor and Bagley would be giga busts. I think Boozer will be a superstar. Boozer and Edey as a twin towers duo will be ridiculously strong

The only main caveat is if Edey can stay healthy imo

Wouldn’t suprise me if he’d be consensus #1 in a re-draft ten years after the draft. 

Or not a lottery pick anymore. 

“He kept winning everywhere” doesn’t really mean a ton especially since teams can be stacked before the NBA, where he will likely be put right into a team that generally sucks.

The overall talent level of players on Duke compared to even BYU is huge. And even then, he didn’t “win” in college. He lost when he played a team that was as strong overall as his. Now does this mean he will be a bad player? No. It just means that looking at count of games won means nothing when there’s such a large disparity in talent in those games.

I also believe Darryn Peterson will be a bust.

He won’t be like a Wiseman-type bust, but more of a Wiggins/Kuminga-type where the team that drafts him tries to find something there that just isn’t.

“He just kept winning everywhere”

The JJ McCarthy of basketball, huh

Thats what I thought about Jalen Brunson. I never thought he’d become a top 10 player, but as a Nova fan I always knew he was gonna at least be a very good player. I couldn’t believe it when he fell to the 2nd round

Cam Boozer #1 is not a crazy idea. I forget what journo it was but he created a check list of all the traits Sam Presti checks off when he’s drafting. Things like plus wing span, a bunch of different offensive and defensive stats, free throw rate, rebound rate, etc. Last draft the 3 guys who checked all the boxes were Flagg, Harper and Edgecombe. On Down to Dunk this week they ran it against this year’s draft and Boozer was not only the only guy in the projected top 5 to check all the boxes but he maxed out the Presti check list more than any other player.

TJ McConnell? Excuse you, that’s President TJ McClutchell. Thanks

He’d win Pennsylvania based on the Philly vote alone.

White man that can get the Christian vote. I see it

Can vouch

He’s gunna replace his great-great-great grandfather Mitch in the Senate

Giannis is past his prime.

Still good, but getting a superstar haul for him right now while you can’t get a winning roster around him anymore is the right call

I could see it. His injuries are starting add up right when he’s starting to age. 

I hope he doesnt turn into a KD type where he bitches and moans everywhere he goes.

Could see it. He’s gonna enjoy being so in demand

Happens to hall of famers sometimes… Shaq and KD and probably others

After what he did to my blazers that doesn’t even feel like that hot of a take

2 First teamers on the same team?

5 times in the next 3 years does indeed sound insane

That hasn’t sounded that insane over the last month.

I feel like the only way he could be retroactively “right” is if someone admits that that trade landed them cooper Flagg. Otherwise AD has even more health issues than Luka and always has

The decision to trade Luka has always at least been defensible IMO, but they should have gotten way more in return.

Especially if he misses another playoffs through injury (whether fairly attributed to conditioning or not).

Trading Luka was valid.

The return was not.

I don’t think this is a good take. Luka’s body has a lot of wear and tear yes but the reason he got injured this year is because he leads the league in usage. Our best month of play was when the ball was in his hands the most but it’s not sustainable for him to have to do everything either. That being said, he’s also going to need to add off-ball offense to his game for the ball to be out of his hands more often.

Basically the why can be reasoned the how can not

He has already led a team to the Finals and you are saying he cannot win one?

I would have agreed if he didn’t lose like a gajillion pounds.

I’ve been a big critic of Luka and think trading him wasnt necessarily a bad call (the process of trading him was awful by any metric), but it’s weird to say a guy who has made the finals absolutely can’t win a title

I mean the #1 pick was sheer luck. Had they not traded him they wouldn’t have been in the position to get it but you can’t really credit Nico for that. Not shopping around and getting a half eaten bag of potato chips in return for one of the best players in the league is borderline criminal. 

Luka has one playoff win with the lakers

What’s insane is someone spelling complementary right. This means your prediction is destined to come to fruition

I’m so stoked for Beam Team: the Return. This is the only one I want to come true. I will keep rocking my Kent Bazemore Sactown jersey until this happens

I hope this does happen for you guys.

Feels unlikely, but definitely possible if the young core doesn’t develop as expected. They have so much youth though at least a couple of them gotta keep moving forward I imagine, and all their draft capital.

Please have it be related to flopping (can review, give tech, etc)

I could easily see this if they come down on carrying, almost every “point forward” would struggle lol

Remove the corner 3. Only have the ark part for 3s. Right now I feel like winning is too dependent on who shoots better from 3.

5 point half court line

I think one that could actually happen is a rule to stop late game fouling. Something like if the officials think a non shooting foul was done intentionally by the defense it is a tech and the offense retains possession. That and doing challenge reviews offsite to speed them up could be the NBA equivalent of the pitch clock in MLB.

It’s not about NIL money vs. rookie contract money, it’s about getting to the supermax faster by not spending an extra year in college

Media narrative that’s total bs

With Duke getting Amazon money, this isn’t out of the question

That last sentence is far and away the hottest take of this thread

And obeying traffic laws

Hey, I dunno about Melo reading books now, but he’ll definitely have earned more respect from around the league and will be (correctly) seen as a winning player and in conversations as the Hornets GOAT (still love you Kemba)

>organization is a model for the rest of the league

Not as long as Miles Bridges is on their roster. Fuck that piece of shit.

I agree but I think the biggest factor that will effect this is actually going to be how reffing is handled and refined over the next few years.

This is dumb. Superstars have always taken plenty of middies in their mix. It’s role players taking lots of threes to space the floor. Those threes arent turning back into long twos.

Can the league copy the playstyle? This feels like people crediting Curry for the 3pt revolution (like everyone wants to shoot 3s now) but really D’Antoni was more influential in creating a roster that had that many spot up shooters / 3&D guys.

There would need to be more midrange savants for there to be any copying. With the exception of the foul calling argument. Yes SGA is extremely skilled, but also he is able to create space in the midrange bc of the foul bait risk. If that’s how the refs continue to call it, the midrange could become extremely efficient if you factor in how many foul calls these guys get.

Threes and stretching the floor have been a vital part of forward thinking offenses since the 7 secs or less Suns/‘08 magic. I feel like we’re more likely to see less perimeter-dependent offenses like Boston/Charlotte as they’ve been shown to be exposed by physical teams that can defend/score in the paint

Makes sense that 1 player started it and it’ll “leave” with him.

Another franchise trade

Mavericks turn into a Dallas based co-op, fans now get to vote on trades (lol)

probably because they have to pay all their guys or trade them lol

Nobody can be a dynasty under the current CBA.

Our current roster is going away after this year. Some guys will have to get traded or let walk.

Embarrassment of riches.

Please let this happen lol

Nah, he retires in 2028. Then in 2030 he hosts a 20 year anniversary special revisiting “The Decision.” The program starts with a black screen, then 2 words appear on the screen: “I’m back.”

Teams have 25 minutes to make a pitch, then LeBron announces he’s taking his talents to the Las Vegas Outlaws (for an ownership stake in the team).

Keep cooking.

Idk about Utah, since the west is beyond stacked, but I could totally see this for Washington

The Pacers tanked this year and also they took three games off okc 

Imagine a team waiting til lottery odds flattened to embrace tanking.

They took *three * off okc. And Halliburton was sidelined for game 7. They really could’ve won 

He will also be, tragically, a “what-if?” He’ll be like Embiid if they try to get 30+ min out of him a night.

What are the chances that another player with almost the same name as Paolo Banchero will come in and dominate that quickly? I’m not buying it

they seem pretty committed to building around him tho. interesting take

I could definitely imagine this happening if the Wolves don’t reach the Finals over the next 3 yrs. Maybe it’s another Grizzlies situation where the Wolves FO decide that they’ve hit their ceiling and that this core isn’t capable of going further.

Ant hasn’t given any indication he wants a trade, but just judging by his personality, I wouldn’t rule it out as a possibility either.

Conversely, they never get past the Spurs in the WCF, starting this year.

Idk about this one lol. Even if we give him this year, which isn’t a given, to even get that conversation started, he’d need four, I’d say (you could argue three since that would be half), so he’d need to win two of the next three championships.

The league just changes so fast, and the Thunder will have a hell of a time keeping their championship roster together, that i could see Shai retiring with “only” one or two (the most likely outcome)

Wow real insane take bro 😂

He does look really solid

It’s insanely difficult to win even 2 championships in this era. There’s no way he wins 4.