Not to mention San Antonio got an insane slate of lottery luck that has essentially built them into a contender:

• 2023 - 2nd worst record but moved up to 1st pick
• 2024 - 5th worst record but moved up to 4th pick
• 2025 - 8th worst record but moved up to 2nd pick

I mean, thunder got a #2 and a #6 (They would have gotten 4 that year with no lottery). Spurs got 1,4,2 in consecutive years.

The Thunder also had quite a few later lottery picks over those tank years. They probably would have done better in the new system.

Not sure who realistically would be able to. Brooklyns the only team with a large number of picks and they only draft busts

Okc were bad for two years. Hardly a tank. Who in their current squad did they draft with their own picks???

The NBA continues to make the same mistakes over and over again.

I know they want the 3-2-1 rule to combat tanking, but they need that rule to start several years after it’s passed so that teams can properly adjust.

It’s like the new apron rules. The NBA immediately implemented them (just staggered over two off-seasons). Teams that were set up under the old rules didn’t have enough time to reconstruct their roster. This has really hurt teams like Denver.

There are teams out there that never would’ve traded picks like candy if they knew this was coming. It will now take them YEARS to get in a position to benefit from the new system.

Washington and Utah getting top 2 picks before the barn door closed was also a stroke of luck.

I’m skeptical on either of those teams figuring it out long term, having assets and actually building a contender is two very different things.

It was so wrong of the league not to incorporate grandfathering in the new CBA. The teams locked into older contracts got completely fucked

OK but literally every dumbass NBA gm voted for this change except Presti so apparently a lot of front offices are just run by morons.

This is exactly it. Hit the nail. I don’t get how people find it hard to believe. It honestly wasn’t even a gradual transition. The rule changes are the rule changes and the teams that got ahead of it were the teams that were able to utilize lost seasons. The teams that consistently tried to win year in and year out without a full bottom out are ultimately the ones who will be in no-mans land for the rest of the decade.

And Knicks.

As long as the owner of OKC is willing to pay the luxury tax I dont see how the second apron penalties are even that bad. If the are comfortable forgoing the MLE level players for thier draft picks they will still be fine. Especially since they already have a championship roster, they shouldnt be too worried about anything.

Didn’t you guys have like a 1.4% chance to land Flagg? “Orders of magnitude”…

That’s why, outside of the aesthetics of how they play, I’ll always prefer the Thunder to the Spurs. So hard to cheer for a team that feels like they fell backwards into so many great players, while the Thunder have consistently been the best-run team in the league for years.

“Gets rewarded by the league” — they just got lucky

From an asset standpoint they are. 1.01 in a historically star loaded class, an army of young talented wings, Tre, Sarr, AD/Trae who they got for couch change, and a nice haul of future firsts including a Phoenix 2030 swap.

Edit: forgot to mention Bub lol.

“No hopes of a championship”

Speak for yourself Ruissack

Look if Sarr just gets a little stronger i like our chances in a few years

Be a matchup no one wants in the playoffs. Where the victor gets bruised. 

If Davis and Trae are healyth and on the team the whole year, they’re a top 4 seed easily. Unfortunately, there’s no way that’s happening. Davis will be hurt/gone at the deadline

We also traded Russ as well lol. We are the best at getting out of these contracts

and then back into. Sincerely, AD’s $62m Player Option

And with Minnesota completely blowing up “the best Nuggets roster ever assembled,” it’s going to be tough to get the right pieces around Jokic going forward.

DeAndre Jordan was 1st Team All NBA ten years ago. Andre Drummond 3rd team. Jahlil Okafor, Justice Winslow and Willie Caulie-Stein were on All Rookie teams.

10 years is forever.

I both look forward to that and dread it at the same time

Comments like these almost never age well, and I’m so curious to see what happens to derail that.

Like in 5 years will we be like “damn, the Blazers came outta nowhere to repeat” or something like that?

Or maybe it actually will be a Cleveland GSW situation and the league gets boring for a while again. So hard to tell.

They don’t have to win the title every year for a rivalry to form. The more recent data to suggest a Spurs rivalry forming is them going 8-0 in the 1st 2 rounds. That would indicate them playing a 1 or 2 seed Spurs pretty consistently in the WCF.

Rob Pelinka either nails an offseason or completely fumbles it. There is no in between.

Lmao we really gonna do another offseason of this huh

Memphis, GSW, Pels and LAC will all be worse than us.

Giannis and Book only good for 13th in the West?

Did those teams also have top tier draft picks as well? Cause that’s what OP is saying is crazy, being that good to win now for the foreseeable future, while also having insane draft capital

if I said “knicks” people would be on me for counting my chickens and you know it lol

Sweet puns

With all the Hornets’ second-round picks, they can dig for gold.

Fair for Jokic, but for Giannis it’s been longer than a minute and “not excellent” is putting the situation extremely mildly. When the fuck is that roster going to contend for titles again if he continues to stay there

True , but i saw worse players then MPJ on big contracts traded without giving any 1st round picks …. Teams actually get draft picks back on those trades.

Only Nuggets GM would have to give 1st pick for a great shooter like Porter in his prime years.