thecampster

The trick is to watch summer league with us. You can put up 20 a day during summer league just off hype replies, rumor swat downs. I'd bet Spud and KG have put up 500 posts in one draft/summer league season.

I have a cat I would never let near a firearm for this very reason.

Welcome and thanks. Opinions always welcome and its usually not that combative around here. Well except for @kg01. Watch out for that guy.

You could always head over to the lounge and just comment once on each thread. Good stuff over there.

If I remember right, that number was chosen to allow casuals in while stopping drive by trolls.

My only concern is people reposting it for some personal glory can bring unwanted attention. Sources are not always in the org but are often 3rd party org employees with connections to the org. The repost to Twitter is irresponsible and selfish.

@AHF if not mistaken web content like we have on here is protected by copyright protection. I think an admin reporting the Twitter post for copyright infringement could get it taken down.

I would hate to lock it down but it only takes 500 posts to qualify as a senior member.

We're going there?

In our conversations, Supes has been saying for weeks he hasn't heard anything. In our latest round, he failed to weigh in at all. My guess is his guy/s wasn't/weren't allowed to tell him anything. We're in open discussion season so he's probably rolling with it right away as rumors are about to fly hot and heavy. There is no requirement we talk to each other but we use the chat as a way to verify things we've heard to see if anyone else was fed the same thing. We don't have to talk to each other. Its a service we've provided to each other as a way of shoring up info. This would be why you'll hear me say things like "my guy is saying" or "we've talked about and verified this"....either its a me only thing or its an at least 2 of us have heard it thing. Last year at the deadline, I was fed that Shariffe was being discussed as a throw in. Neither of the other 2 had heard that. Even though I'd heard it from 2 sources, I chose not to push that narrative because I couldn't verify it with a larger audience. I'm very choosy with what I say. Supes tends to accept he paints with a larger brush and dumps the rumors out there. He'll have a larger fail rate because of it but he'll also hit on things I'd exclude because his process is different. In most cases, all of these things we've been fed were probably discussed at some level, but some are more likely than others. The best example is last year when we broke very early (first with mods) that Simmons to Atlanta was a big thing....later we said that Atlanta was upset and discussing actions with the league for tampering. All 3 of us heard it and sure enough 4-7 days after we broke it with mods or the board, every story broke in the news. There's a reason we hammered that storyline. It was 100% true, no debate. In our early discussions, it was really obvious some people internal to the organization were trying to get it leaked and talking to whomever would listen (probably in an attempt to pressure the Nets to pull out early ). If I were to catalog it, Supes has had larger league info earlier than we have but with a higher questionable rate. Expected with how he's presenting. I've had the higher hit rate with Hawks and usually earlier. Sothron has some very obvious connections because in our discussions, I tend to say what I've heard and he tends to give greater detail. If our group had a narrative its Supes NBA at large, Camp Hawks, Sothron validator of info. Given my recent loss of sources, I'm guessing Sothron will break Hawks stuff first and I'll sit in the corner, nod and look pretty.

Crap, he said all do respect....now I can't get offended!!!

Well communities change constantly and the exchanges elevate and dip in waves. You can see the change in people's responses over time and how it fits the board or the board changes to fit them.

A very common topic in most college business programs is the danger of group think. The internet is the giant vat of group think. People tend to sit in their group thought bubbles and only listen to things they agree with and then venture out to expose others to those thoughts. They are so used to only hearing 1 real point of view that they aggressively attack opposing view points and cheer loudly when others agree. It's become so extreme on the internet that when people are being disrespectful or rude, they don't realize it because they see the person they are in disagreement with as diametrically opposed to reason. I remember a graph in one of my classes about this that the more isolated a group becomes, the farther from center they move, the less likely they are to see points of agreement, the more all or nothing their points of contention become. This happens on both ends of the spectrum. The farther from center you move, the less exposed to information you become and by extension the less educated. Fandom falls into this category on a 30 points from center. The more a fan of the Hawks you are, the less likely you are to be informed on players across the league. The more of a basketball generalist you are, the less likely you are to be engaged with the nuanced feelings of your favorite team. I think because this is the internet, people find themselves arguing from a point of view that isn't appropriate to who they are arguing with. Their perception of what is typed is affected by their worldview and they get angry or joyful when its not exactly how they interpreted it.

I'm not salty though. I get it. I don't get on here to argue or fight. Those days are behind me. If I'm posting, its usually just trying to elevate the conversation. I've seen the squawk move that way in recent years. I lot more nuanced discussion (and good KG/Spud jokes as well).

Yes, lets look at what Harden, a top 10 offensive player in the league netted. First, lets remember he was packaged with Millsap. 2 first round picks (from a team picking in the 20's), a player who refused to play, a defense challenged bench playing shooter and a center on the downside of his career. I'm not sure the point you're making. You had 2 malcontents traded for each other with some value role playing bench players in Drummond and Curry and 2 lower value picks. Your point exactly? You couldn't trade Gobert straight up for Harden but all of a sudden you expect more in trade compensation. Player value, Hunter + 16 > Curry/Drummond right now, forget Capela.

So the great things about communities like this is some of the posters on this board have known each other for 20 years. A bit of history, some of the people on the Squawk posted on group boards with each other before RealGM or the squawk ever started. Way, way, way long ago, this board was started and maintained by a couple of those people. There have been a few iterations of the Squawk going back a very, very long time. A number of us are holdovers from back then. I'm not even sure how to get into the old archives but the things you hear from some posters on this board are culminated, groomed thoughts of years of interacting with each other. Long ago we grew past arguing with others in most cases. This isn't to say you or anyone else isn't welcome here or that your opinions aren't valuable but many of the things said here go against years of history in most cases. We were all here debating such great things as "Will Chris Crawford ever live up to his potential?", "Should we really be trading away Nique while we're battling for the #1 seed?", "Will Steve Smith be better here than Miami?", "When will @Diesel learn to just hug it out with Marvin?" We were on the board and some of us joined up at the old Omni to see Josh Smith get drafted. There's a lot of wisdom here and none of us claim to be the keeper of all knowledge. I won't speak to the other guys who've claimed insider knowledge, but I can only say that there are plenty of examples of stories being broken on here that end up in the media days later. I leave you with one of my favorite quotes - "For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible" - Stuart Chase. Of course you can go with my other favorite quote: "When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When neither is on you side, pound the table." In our early days, there was a lot of table pounding here. Not so much anymore.

No I 100% get that and agree...hence why I said teams know and accept it because the oddity of the S/A level players is their ability to take over. Its so hard to quantify.

Let me explain the Jalen Johnson thing using my above chart. Jalen Johnson is right now probably a C to B level contributor if given minutes. Any team acquiring him would be doing so in order to play him. Lets call him a C ability. Being a lower 1st round pick, he has an E level salary. C ability with E salary = Great value. If salary were no issue, you could easily trade him straight up right now for a C ability player neutral value or a B ability player poor value. Salary matching screws this up but if using it to drop salary on an LT team, these types of deals get done all the time. The idea of throwing Johnson in is value = to throwing John Collins in. From a value perspective, teams see opportunity with the only risk is if the player doesn't live up to the value of the other player. You could take 20 rookie salaries in the league right now drafted outside the lottery which are mostly untouchable. JJ is one of them. If you (generic you) are casually reading this and don't understand it, I really can't invest the time to explain NBA futures trading on an individual basis. Consider this a good place to start. Reorg by Prod/GP. Will show you how teams see value (last column). https://www.spotrac.com/nba/valuation/2021/center/gmpct-25/active/

I kind of have a policy not to engage people on this board on cap/trade conversations but I am highly confident in what I'm saying based on a number of factors and since you decided to flick the tiger in the gonads, I'll lay it out. When consummating trades, NBA teams look at a number of factors. Most people when trying to match salary attempt to match salary 1 for 1 but this is not the case. Salaries can be matched .8 to 1 or 1 to 1.25 (+100k) in most cases. NBA teams don't see value like you and I see value. They slot players in a S/A/B/C/D/E format (or similar data points). In a theoretical sense, 2 E's = a D and so on but you don't trade 8 D's to get an A even if the math works out. On top of that, Most contending teams set their team's ideal team salary as (2 S (max), 1 A, 1 B and a combination of C's and D's to round it out.). Where trades can be pushed more or less in your favor is if the player ability is greater than his Contract. They use a matrix of value similar to what I'm showing below. Using the above chart, Gobert is an A ability player but an S level salary. Technically, he is a poor value. Rarely is an A or S level player a good value, typically only if they're on their rookie contract or were acquired after a buy out. NBA teams understand this and accept it. Clint is a B level player on a B level contract. He is Neutral value (see the chart). So although Gobert technically has more ability he charts lower in value, he can also keep you from getting another good, great or superior player. Hunter is a C/B level player on a D/C level contract. If he were locked in, Hunter would be a good value, but he's not locked in and will command more later so he's not as good a value as he seems. Technically, a deal for Clint and Hunter is a neutral and good level contract + a good value draft pick for a poor level value player (even though is superior in ability). In this scenario of value, Utah gets back neutral + good +good for poor value. Lets explore a few others. This past season, Huerter was a good value as he was a C level player but on a D/E level contract. Although he had flaws, he was such a small bit of the salary cap his value was good. However, his salary goes up considerably next year to the B level. His C level performance will drop this from a Great to Excellent value down to a poor value. Huerter will have to step it up. By contrast, Bogi was a B level player when healthy but had times of lower performance. If Huerter was a mid C, Bogi was a high C to low B. But a salary of B to A level pushes him to a neutral to poor value. My contrast of Bogi and Huerter will probably take a turn next year, as since Huerter got paid, more is going to be asked of him to live up to that contract. The "value" comparison will change. Lets contrast Trae here. I see Trae as A level ability (S Offense, D defense (at best)). Last year when only making $8 million, he was on a D/C level salary. This is unicorn level output. Only a few people a year have this kind of disparity in their ability vs salary and most are on rookie contracts. This puts him in good to great value and is why we could afford to pay someone. Instead of 2 S level ability players we had a bunch of B/A's. Its also why stepping up in the playoffs is a roulette table. B level players are not on all the time. Trading is not as simple as "he's great, you have to give up more to get him" and I've struggled to explain this to people on the regular. There are numerous factors, the 2 most important of which to teams are chemistry and the salary cap. As currently constructed, the Jazz are 4 players short for next season and are already slighting in to the LT. Utah doesn't want to take back a max contract for Gobert but instead wants a few contracts to spread out their salary to minimize or eliminate their LT impact. If Utah believes they can package 16 and their pick to move up and they believe that player and the wing Atlanta includes will be upgrades to what they have, they'll accept the downgrade from Gobert to Clint. The problem that Utah is going to face is the impact drop off of Gobert to any shlub center they can sign is so great, they have to get back a center with a reasonable drop off in return. That is a very limited set of centers in the league. It has to be a top 15 center or the gap would be too large to make up as currently constructed and top 15 centers are rarely available to trade. Clint is one of the few available players who would meet that criteria and be better than neutral value. No criticizing the lecture, you flicked the tiger. If you were here longer, you'd know it was a bad idea.

I just can't with Hollinger. For "salary match" yes you'd need those players. Unless of course the deal is set in principal today but consummated after the dead period in July. Right now Clint + Bogi + pick works for salary matching. After July 1 so does Clint and Huerter. There is no universe where they are including picks on top of Jalen Johnson. Half the teams in the league came sniffing around on Johnson during summer league last year asking for him to be included in deals.....Just such lazy writing.

I've been following the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial and its really struck me how she promised donations and got away with not following through. Good on Knox for giving back to those that helped him along. Its a nice story, and reminds us there's more to being an athlete, a star, a politician than just getting fame and fortune. Its what you do with it that spells out who you are.

How about something positive for a change? After months of construction, Tampa Catholic faculty and donors were able to tour their basketball cathedral this week. The Kevin Knox II Field House, named after the NBA free agent who starred for the Crusaders, is a $6-million project that includes a new gymnasium, state-of-the-art fitness center, Hall of Fame Pavilion, Champions Hall, coaching suites, video scoreboard, men’s and women’s locker rooms, bleachers and concessions. 13 hours ago – via Prime Time Preps Philanthropy, Kevin Knox, Atlanta Hawks It was paid for in part by a $2 million donation from Knox II, along with contributions from other donors. The lobby includes murals that pay homage to Knox II and the student section, known as the Green Locos. The court will be dedicated in today’s ceremony to longtime basketball coach Don Dziagwa, who also serves as the school’s athletic director. 13 hours ago – via Prime Time Preps Philanthropy, Kevin Knox, Atlanta Hawks

Real footage, Hawksquawk annual 5v5 tourney.

Half court....hell I might even have to go quarter court these days....but sure.

Point well taken but JJ is about as close to can't miss as you can get at 20.