CTMagicUK

I think this is incredibly harsh. I have a lot of issues outside of basketball with the Devos family but as owners from a basketball stand point I can't see where they've done much wrong. They're at worst middling ownership. They're not Robert Sarver or James Dolan.

Maybe. Rather have an unprotected 2021 pick though. That draft is way better than this one.

Just caught up with the game on the way home from a weekend away with limited internet. I think what was fun was the defense. There were possessions where we were just rotating and rotating and then contesting and it was fun to watch. And it's a glimpse at the kind of team Weltman and Hammond ultimately want us to be. Long and athletic and defensive. Iwundu, Clark, Frazier for all their limitations all embody that to some degree or another. Jumper aside Fultz looked much better this game. He got into the lane and scored or found shooters and bigs. He had a nice steal and dunk in transition. It's easy to be critical of Vuc, Augustin and Ross because they all took a lot of shots on pretty bad efficiency but they were forced to carry that load by the lack of guys around them. I do wish Vuc would have stopped jacking that top of the key 3 though, and Ross needs to stop jacking every shot he gets. They play him so tight all he needs to do is put the ball on the floor and he'll get to the rim but he's so intent on shooting the 3 and trying to draw the foul that he takes a bunch of bad shots. Augustin needed the ball out of his hands down the stretch. He's a nice backup PG who can run pick and roll and play off ball but we've been asking him to do too much for a while now. Until he improves his jumper, Fultz needs the ball in his hands while he's in the game otherwise he just clogs up the offense. Gary Clark played quite well. Blocked a couple shots. Hit some big shots. Mostly I'm surprised Boston played Tatum, Hayward and Brown all around 40 minutes considering they've got the 3 seed locked up.

We played pretty competitively tonight but we just couldn't make shots or get boards against the huge lineup of Embiid/Horford/Harris. Embiid has put up some points and had the highlight dunk but in general, minus some cheap fouls, I thought we guarded him pretty well. Gary Clarke and Wes Iwundu reverted back to their less impressive selves after how they played against Toronto. Not convinced either of those guys will be back next year. DJ was good, much better at attacking the rim after I criticised that last game.

I feel like I've said this every summer since... I can remember but we really need more shooters and more scorers this off-season.

To be fair we're missing Isaac, Gordon, Aminu and MCW from what our full strength roster would be.

Ross just got embarrassed by Thybulle.

Did I say he was better than Isaac? I'll tell you something though. He's definitely better than Isaac in a wheelchair.

Are we watching the same game? Dude is playing hard. Offensive boards. Couple of buckets. Drew an offensive foul on Embiid.

Has Terrence Ross ever seen a shot he didn't like?

Why does Vuc no longer jump at the tip off?

No AG sucks but he'd probably primarily guard Simmons who's also out so defensively it's not a huge miss like it could be. Offensively though someone has to step up and carry some of his load. Vuc has had some big games against the 76ers hopefully that can continue. We're due a decent Evan game too.

Yea I was editing my post as you replied. You're right, I got that wrong.

When we drafted him we didn't have Birch, Vuc was going into the last year of his contract and we'd just won 25 games. Birch was a camp invite who earned a contract by playing hard. Then Vuc was an all star and we made the playoffs. Things changed. I'm sure with the benefit of knowing we were going to be a playoff team and Vuc would be an all star Weltman and Hammond may very well have done something different. But they didn't know that at the time and so just took the guy they were highest on. Again, hindsight is 20/20. EDIT: I was wrong we did have Birch. I misremembered that. Though he did earn a contract with his play that year. Regardless, you don't not draft a guy because you just gave someone 3 million a season who played the same position.

Mike Schmitz, formerly of Draftexpress, has an ESPN insider article about Markelle Fultz. I can't read it because I don't have insider but just a heads up for people who do. EDIT: there's also a 12 minute YouTube video as well. Here's the link:

I've been thinking about what it would take to get me to trade AG and I honestly think it would take a godfather type deal. And that might be me over valuing him but I honestly don't care. The only team I can see going all in on AG in that scenario would be Golden State. Their championship window is pretty short with a 32 year old Steph. They've got the Minnesota top 3 protected 2021 pick, their own high lottery pick this year, Eric Paschall and the TPE which they'd need to use to acquire salary to match. If they could acquire a 15 mil ish expiring for basically nothing with the TPE then they could make a deal work for AG.

Yea it's revisionist history to say we should have selected SGA or someone like that. Bamba was considered the clear 5th pick. Several mocks had Bamba going in the top 4 and Trae falling to us (or past us). It's not like we reached on him. Hindsight is 20/20.

But you did say we were stuck with him. Which implies he has no value.

But we don't know that we trade to trade him. We don't know there were no takers. You've just assumed.

I'm aware he has a player option. And I've said previously we should hope he opts in so we get anything for him. There are, by my reckoning, about 6 teams with meaningful cap space this summer. One of those is Miami who are more than likely going to try and preserve cap space for 2021's much better free agent class. It's not going to be a great market for free agents. Evan will more than likely opt in unless his agent thinks he can get like a 4 year 60mil deal somewhere and I'm not sure I can see where that'll come from. As far as being traded to a contender. You have to match salary in a trade so what teams are willing to pay is irrelevant. They're already paying that 17mil to some combination of players now. They're not committing to him long term because he's an expiring but if they wanted to extend him at the end of the season they could go over the cap to do so (something they couldn't do if they tried to sign him as a free agent) Off the absolute top of my head (without much consideration) here are a few contenders who Fournier would probably benefit next season: Dallas, Denver, Brooklyn, maybe Utah, Philadelphia, maybe the Lakers, maybe Memphis if they're going to try to push towards being a playoff team. Whether those teams have anything to trade or any contracts to match up for Evan is another thing.

There is no way a guy averaging 17+ppg on 40% 3 point shooting with a positive assist to turnover ratio who's contract will be expiring doesn't have value. In the off-season or middle of next season. (I'd prefer he go in the off season to give us more time to mesh without him but his value might be maximised in a mid season trade) He's been bad these last two but let's not act like that means he's worthless.

Woke up to watch the game on League Pass this morning. Some thoughts: I really hope we trade Evan this off-season. I stand by a lot of what I've said defending him on here (even though it's been hard these last 2 games he's sucked) but he's just not the right player for this team. Move on. Get some assets. Wes Iwundu and Gary Clark both looked good. It's kind of a given that they'd have energy and length but it's nice to see them make shots. More of that from them would be nice. Especially if we're going to continue to miss MCW and if we're going to miss Gordon. They should both be playing for their NBA lives being free agents this summer. Guard play continues to be our biggest issue. What has happened to Markelle Fultz? Am I misremembering games in the season or has he got less athletic? He's got almost no burst. Granted it doesn't help that he can't shoot so defenses sag off him but I cant remember seeing him explode to the rim once since the restart. We should probably let Augustin walk this summer. We need guards that can shoot and in that sense he'll be a big miss but he's not equipped to play 28 mins+ on a team where he's asked to handle the ball every time up the floor. I actually like his calmness, patience and shot making but he's small, not very athletic and aging. His handle is great but not nearly great enough to break down defenses. A contender will probably snap him up anyway. Terrence Ross is a frustrating basketball player. He has all the tools to be a good defensive player and we saw in this game he can make an impact when he tries but then he also has so many lapses on that end. Offensively id like to see him pass more off screens too, he did it a couple of times in this game and it was effective. Vuc was fine, not his best game but he wasn't terrible all things considered against a tough matchup. The Raptors worked really hard to stop him getting touches in the paint. If we end up playing them in the playoffs, which isnt a given now, I'd like Cliff and his staff to come up with a couple new actions to try and get Vuc open either in the paint or attacking the basket. Aaron Gordon is our best player. Until someone else proves otherwise that's my stance so I stand by what I said after the Indiana game. If you trade him it better be for something mind blowing. One thing that stood out to me was that Toronto really do a great job of getting even their worst offensive players touches where they can succeed. OG Anonoby, RHJ, both those guys scored in that game by coming off actions that got them going to the rim against a smaller guy. It feels like we don't put some of our guys in situations like that nearly enough. Which to be fair could be a spacing issue. Because of our bad shooting teams can collapse the paint on us whereas we had to stay home on FVV, Lowry, Davis, Powell, Siakam etc and that allowed those lesser offensive guys to drive 1 on 1 (our 1 on 1 defense in these situations was hit and miss at best - Rondae Hollis Jefferson really should not be getting to the hoop in the half court against you).

Evan, DJ, Ross, Iwundu, Fultz. All very bad on both ends.