thecampster

15 minutes ago, Watchman said:

You'd really pay Simmons $35 million a year?  Really?

For the right deal, yes?

I'm going to try to explain this as best I can.

When Trae is trapped, and with DJ off the floor, or with DJ on the floor without Trae, there is no one they gives the ball up to that can take advantage of driving lanes. We lose our entire drive and kick opportunity. We lose the lob and the floater.

Ben Simmons is a freak and at his best receiving a pass moving toward the basket.  Not just because he's impossible to stop physically with the ball in his hands, but because he is capable of passing / dribbling while moving in traffic.  In our current sets, if our PGs give up the ball, they can't get it back to spot up (DJ gets more of these than Trae due to height but still few).  We are movement stagnant on offense. Not the case when you add Simmons on the floor for either of the other 2. It isn't that you lose Bogi's shooting and replace it with Simmons. Its that Simmons gives you someone who must be stopped from dribbling and that requires a double team and increases off ball shots for Trae/DJ.

On the defensive side of the ball, Simmons has a length problem few can match. he disrupts lanes, creates havoc.  Brooklyn's record this year has a lot to do with once Simmons got healthy, they were finally at least average defensively, allowing Durant and Irving's offense to carry them.  

I have always been a Simmons fan at what he does despite his shooting. Do I want to pay him $35 million a year, no...but Simmons + Curry IMHO > JC/Bogi from an impact perspective and that's the salary tradeoff you're looking at.

More importantly, JC/Bogi for for Simmons/Curry is netting you at least 1 of those 1st Brooklyn just got.

So a bit of background.  I was given info early yesterday that I posted in the insider private message.  Very cryptic, something was going down.

Message this morning from the same guy.... Phoenix F*#$ed us!

I now have a bit to go on. 

Atlanta and Phoenix stayed engaged on the Clint/Bogi deal that they revised multiple times with Phoenix who kept hedging on Bogi and his knee health.  At some point, they reworked it including Collins and removing Bogi....pieces from Phoenix changed a bit as well but included Ayton coming here and there was a 3rd team involved which is why he couldn't give me details.  The deal was evolving and we were going to get 2 protected 1sts in the process and take their Crowder problem.  The Hawks were reluctant and trying to drive up the price, down their send price. 

It seems, Phoenix was playing us the whole time trying to leverage our deal to get Brooklyn to drop their demand for 4 1sts.  

At the same time, Brooklyn was trying to see if there was something to be worked to get JC.  Phoenix stopped trying to withhold the 4th 1st when they realized they could lose out on both the Atlanta deal and the Brooklyn deal.  

Per the guy, we had other deals in place during this time but held off as they really felt they could get a deal done with Phoenix and may have ruined our other big deals. Phoenix may have burnt some bridges here and with other teams in the league. Per the guy, we aren't the only one they were trying to leverage to work a better deal with Brooklyn.

Lastly, Durant drove the Irving trade, not Irving trade drove the Durant deal. Per the guy, Irving's trade demand was in relation to learning KD was being moved.  He felt betrayed by the Nets who sold him on the idea they were giving he and Durant a shot to win a chip.

Lost in all of this is Josh Hart to the Knicks for Cam Reddish, Ryan Arcidiacono, Svi Mykhailiuk and a lottery protected 1st.

Knicks had to include a 1st to send out Reddish.  Meaning the Reddish trade with Atlanta was actually Knox, 2 1sts, 2 free agent scrubs for Josh Hart.  More terrible team management.  Means the Knicks spent 3 x 1st round picks to get Josh Hart.

IMHO, Phoenix got absolutely fleeced and this won't lead to a chip this year.

3 hours ago, AHF said:

Catching up and glad things seemed to have calmed down.

MODERATOR COMMENT

It is never ok to launch a bunch of explitives against another poster or to make threats, etc.  That is a short road to being suspended from the site.  If you feel so insulted that you want to respond like that, report whatever is triggering that response to the mods.

Let’s work to eliminate labeling other posters as haters or stans.  Both are ways of insulting the other by saying they are not being rational and that their views are lesser or compromised.  That is never helpful to actual discussion.

(And no D pic threads.  Handle that off-site.)

No...absolutely not. The public has come to expect D pics from @kg01and I can't in good conscience let you railroad his D pics off the site. As a sign of rebellion...I'm posting my own. My favorite D in the world...mister Van Dyke.

6 minutes ago, JeffS17 said:

Do you guys think Ben has any guilt collecting that $175M+ playing like he is now?  I'd be walking around my mansion thinking "man did I really earn this" and I'd probably have an existential crisis or mental breakdown

I could live with that guilt....just saying.

1 hour ago, AHF said:

I have reservations about the mental headspace in which both Simmons and Ayton reside separately.  I don't want both of them for sure.  I'd rather gamble on Ayton if I had two pick between them.

Who are you and what have you done with AHF?  He would never make this spelling error!!!

8 hours ago, Sothron said:

The NBA should raise the number of plays on each squad to 15 to match actual NBA rosters. I say this every year and they will never do it because it would mean the players would make more money with more All Stars each season.

Trae and DJM got robbed, Trae especially. 27 and 10 every night and he's playing without question the best defense of his career.  DJM is also posting very solid numbers and is good on defense. 

Instead, the corpse of Derozan makes the AS game as a "guard" when he hasn't played shooting guard literally at all for now four or five consecutive season. 

Hawks are a playoff team and yet don't have a single player in the AS game. Haliburton and Randle somehow make the AS game along with Derozan's corpse. 

Typical anti Atlanta bias. I thought Trae had finally gotten past this. This is now two out of the last three seasons Trae Young has been amazing and yet somehow does not make the AS game while much less talented players make it. Tell me it is a conspiracy without telling me it is a conspiracy.

IMHO this is a blessing. A chance for everyone to rest, get healthy.

12 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

you try too hard at whatever this is, when it's really unnecessary.

Boy do I hear that one late at night a lot!!! 

2 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Meanwhile.....

Teams interested in Bogdan Bogdanovic

But league sources say the Hawks have no shortage of trade interest in Bogdan Bogdanović as well — as in “half the league is calling” type stuff. The 30-year-old guard has a player option for $18 million next season, so most teams would understandably view him as a short-term rental (with the hopes of re-signing him if he opts out). To this point, the Hawks haven’t shown much interest in moving him. Capela could certainly help most teams and would yield a good return, but he continues to have the kind of chemistry with Young that likely means he’s going nowhere. If you somehow haven’t noticed, it’s quite important for this iteration of the Hawks to maximize Young’s powers.

 

– via Sam Amick @ The Athletic

 Top Rumors, Trade, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Atlanta Hawks

 

 

Young isn’t going anywhere. The same goes for Murray. Collins is the most likely one on the way out, of course, and it’s worth repeating that the asking price is known to have decreased significantly from recent years (per league sources, there is a focus on landing a quality player, or players, in return but no mandate for a first-round pick). That development is clearly a reflection of the focus on salvaging this season, as opposed to recouping the vast assets lost in the Murray trade with San Antonio in the summer. As we’ve reported recently, the Jazz and Rockets are known to be among the teams in pursuit.

 

– via Sam Amick @ The Athletic

 Trade, John Collins, Trae Young, Houston Rockets, 

Hype gen plant articles...I love it.

5 hours ago, JTB said:

I’m still a little mind blown from last nights game. The biggest stand out in that game in my opinion was watching OO and JC try to guard Zubac when directly under the goal. Watching these two smaller players guard a beast under the goal is what I should say.

smh…don’t get me wrong, the low amount of 3s taken was very noticeable as well but physically seeing Zubacs size compared to JC and OO is just really upsetting with the decision to not play capela more that game.

Looking at the minutes now…. Zubac played 37 minutes compared to Capelas 28 minutes. Nothing is wrong with capela and they’ll use the minute restriction excuse.

 

If capela is being held back for trading purposes I hope they do the trade soon because you aren’t even giving yourself a realistic chance to win the game when you let these centers around Zubac size that’s not a star score so easily in the paint.

A related thought here, is OO/Clint's inability to draw their man away from the basket with outside shooting just gives players like Zubac a chance to play to his strengths.