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Mike1989

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Everything posted by Mike1989

  1. Mike1989

    2021 NBA Draft Thread

    In an ideal world that will be the case, but our team does have a tendency to acquire players that take those minutes away. My only concern with a front court of Isaac, Okeke and Bamba is can they keep up offensively? Their defensive potential is excellent, but the offensive end is questionable.
  2. Mike1989

    2021 NBA Draft Thread

    Not particularly fond of the Jalen Johnson pick. With how Okeke is looking and Isaac coming back, do we need to be drafting another prospect for the PF spot? If Jalen Johnson is seen as a potential all star, fair enough, but as far as I’m aware that’s not his projection. Personally I’d look at a different pick and allow Okeke and Isaac to rotate at the PF spot.
  3. Mike1989

    2021 NBA Draft Thread

    https://fansided.com/2021/03/30/nba-mock-draft-chicago-bulls-lottery-winners/amp/#click=https://t.co/PksUllGZPR This would be a horror scenario. Chicago Bulls win the lottery and jump to first overall and select Cade Cunningham. It would be like them winning the lottery and selecting Derrick Rose. We drafted third and go Jalen Green. If we pick outside the top two, he would be an excellent pick for us.
  4. Mike1989

    2021 NBA Draft Thread

    Just imagine being the team that drafted Bagley ahead of Doncic because apparently their GM didn’t like Luka’s father!
  5. Mike1989

    2020-2021 Official Magic Season Thread

    Agreed, two of the best players in that draft class went 13th and 14th - Mitchell and Adebayo. So sometimes a team can hit it lucky and find a star outside the top few picks like the Warriors did with Curry, Thompson and Green. One of the things with Mitchell at the time was his size, 6’1 for a shooting guard is undersized. He’s got point guard size with the game of a shooting guard, though he’s capable of playing the point. I believe if Mitchell was nearer 6’4 or 6’5 he would have been selected much higher. That said, if our front office does a good job they can find franchise changing and contributing talent outside those top few picks.
  6. Mike1989

    Chicago Bulls Draft Pick Watch

    If we are lucky we’ll end up with a top four pick and another pick inside the top ten. It is amazing to think that we could come away with two top prospects (eg their pick lands at 5 and ours lands 1-4). This is the type of luck teams need at times during their rebuilds. However, it could easily go the other way and their pick lands in the top four and ours falls outside the top four. In that scenario we would not be very happy. So we’ll have to hope the ping pong balls fall our way.
  7. Tanking doesn’t guarantee we’ll get better lottery odds. The first four teams have a near 50-50 chance of landing inside the top four or picking outside the top four. In fact the team that finishes with the worst record has a greater chance of picking fifth than they do picking 1-4, the teams with the second and third worst record have better odds of picking fifth or sixth, and the team with the fourth worst record has better odds of picking sixth or seventh. So tanking doesn’t guarantee a better pick due to the revamped lottery odds. For me, we would be better off letting this team continue to develop and build a positive and hardworking culture. The teams that spend the least amount of time rebuilding have a combination of finding a star (or stars) AND build the culture for success. Those teams that get stars but fail to build the culture never go anywhere (eg T-Wolves). We need to promote this play hard culture and not sit players to let the losses build up because doing so would send the wrong message and be counterproductive.
  8. Mike1989

    2020-2021 Official Magic Season Thread

    There is only one flaw with this plan, there is a near 50-50 chance of one of the teams with top four lottery odds falling outside the top five. We currently sit fourth and we have a 51.91 chance of falling to 5-8. By odds alone our most likely pick is 6th (25.74%), followed by 7th (16.74%). Now I’m not suggesting don’t tank, or play the youth and see what they’ve got. However, this isn’t the NFL where you can tank for guaranteed picks. The NBA’s draft lottery is designed to try and prevent that and does mean we have to be prepared for the possibility of being unlucky just as much as we do for being lucky.
  9. Mike1989

    2021 NBA Draft Thread

    With our clean(ish) slate approaching this rebuild our front office need to ensure they don’t make the same mistakes from recent drafts. The prime example being creating a logjam at PF and C without making further moves to solve it. For example, drafting Mo Bamba when we had an all star center in Vucevic and it was clear he was in our long term plans. We can’t afford to make mistakes like that again. In this draft I do like Moody and Green, both have the skill set and upside to become key parts of the rebuild. Suggs and Cunningham would also be very appealing players. Granted they would mean a question mark over where Fultz plays, but Suggs and Cunningham are good enough to displace Fultz as starting PG. I’m not entirely sold on the forward options, the top couple do strike me as more PF than SF which creates a conflict with Isaac and Chuma. Potentially I wouldn’t be against bringing back Porter at a reasonable cost to pair with Isaac in the front court, but we can afford to be somewhat patient in this rebuild.
  10. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Trade Ideas Thread

    The difference in the NFL with quarterbacks is that some teams stick with an average or flawed quarterback because you can win with an average or flawed quarterback with the right supporting cast. The Bucs and Ravens are prime examples of teams that won the big game thanks to an elite defense and solid enough offensive supporting cast. The Giants even won a pair of Super Bowls with Eli Manning. You can’t compensate the same way in the NBA. To win the finals a team needs at least one star if not multiple stars. Small market teams like ours are unlikely to attract those that test free agency unless we happen to have someone appealing enough to join, but we clearly don’t have that right now. We have a group who’s ceiling is the 8th seed. Grit and grind is all well and good but unless one of our young players ascends to star status, we get lucky in the draft, or land someone via a trade in a rental that decides to stay, we are unlikely to win anything under the current roster construction. Sad, but true. So that leaves us with two choices. Continue with the current roster and try to get better even though we are unlikely to do so, or blow it up and start from the ground up. Sell Vuc, Fournier etc for whatever we can get in return and build around a young core of Fultz, Isaac and Bamba. With that said I don’t see us doing that under the current front office and coaching set up. We’ll be another Charlotte type team happy to compete for a low seed.
  11. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Trade Ideas Thread

    Another factor is desire to be “the guy”. Siakam looks and sounds like someone that wants to be their main player and go to scorer. Does Isaac? I’m not convinced. In college he.could and arguably should have done more, but he didn’t look to be the number one option and go to scorer. Same here. He seems to be better suited to an important role at both ends, but from an offensive stand point I don’t think he’s shown the desire to be our go to option. Maybe that’s a lack of opportunities and not having his number called, but from my point of view Isaac seems best suited to a complementary role on the offensive end and an important and decisive role on the defensive end. There’s nothing wrong with that style of game. All we need to do is add a go to scoring option. If we added a 20+ a night guy to pair with Fournier’s near 20 a night, then having Isaac with limited scoring is not a big deal because he’ll save us points and make up for it at the other end.
  12. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Regular Season Thread

    Sometimes it comes down to how lucky you are in the draft. Some teams land those stars in the draft while others have to draft players and bet on them reaching their upside. Unfortunately post-Dwight we have had to bet on upside and to date none of our prospects have developed into stars here. Oladipo has become an all star with Indiana but neither us nor OKC believed that was happening. In a sense I am not really jealous of the teams that drafted stars above us. The ones that bug me more are when teams like Milwaukee get Giannis, Utah get Mitchell and Phoenix get Booker (etc). When teams land star talent after we've drafted it does make me question why we didn't take a punt on them or why other teams didn't do it either, but that's the beauty of the draft. It is going to be interesting to see how we move forwards as a team. Are we likely to become more than an 8th seed with this core of players? Unlikely. We'll likely need to sign or acquire someone to give us a chance of that next level and even that's not a guarantee. In someways it wouldn't surprise me if we start another rebuild in the near future or at least reboot the team.
  13. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Trade Ideas Thread

    If memory serves the only player that fell in the 2015 draft was Justise Winslow and the Celtics tried to trade up for him with Charlotte but they turned down the big offer (I bet they regret that one in hindsight!). I don't remember us being linked with Devin Booker or Myles Turner. Most mocks had us drafting Hezonja, WCS, Winslow or Mudiay. Should we in hindsight have drafted one of them instead of Hezonja? Maybe, but none of them have become franchise changing talents. In 2018 pretty much every mock had us selecting Bamba or the occasional one had us picking Collin Sexton or had Trae Young falling to us. Should we have drafted someone else? Carter Jr is average, Sexton is flawed, Knox is average and Mikal Bridges game hasn't translated as hoped. Ok Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is showing star potential with OKC (after being traded by the Clippers) but I don't think he was realistically in consideration. So in those two drafts, much like the others, we didn't get lucky and had to do our best in a difficult situation. We bet on upside and those players with tremendous upside come with the risk that they may never reach that upside. Most generally don't. Fingers crossed Isaac and Bamba can keep getting better and become big parts of this team's future but it's debatable whether they will ever reach their upside and become stars.
  14. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Trade Ideas Thread

    I’m not against trading picks, however I would only trade for a rental player if they gave us a legitimate shot at a title. For example, I am more than happy for us to take a one year rental like Toronto did (or OKC before them with Paul George) and gamble on winning a title. If it works like it did for Toronto we’ll have a banner hanging from the ceiling. Sure it would suck to see that player then walk away and sign elsewhere, but we’d have a banner and a championship. Even if we traded for someone and failed, I could understand that because at least we’ve then tried to take that step towards title contention rather than accept mediocrity. The problem with this deal is the rental we would be taking is a glue guy. I like the idea of Morris coming here but he’s not an all star that can take us from 8th seed to one of the top seeds. He’d probably help us solidify our position as the 7th or 8th seed. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think we should be sending picks for guys like Morris when we are in the position we are in. If we were one of the top seeds looking for a veteran to complete their starting unit, or wanting to boost our bench production, then fair enough I can understand taking a rental. But in our case I think we need to value the draft picks because even mid first round picks can turn into contributors.
  15. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Trade Ideas Thread

    Ntilikina would be a useful guard off the bench. He’s a good defensive player and when he’s switched on he can make plays offensively, his issue to date has been inconsistency his desire to attack. When he does it he shows why the Knicks drafted him as high as they did, but when he doesn’t want it he’s just a defensive guard that doesn’t offer much offensively or play making wise since he’s being too tentative. As for Morris, he’s a useful player but his numbers have been boosted because he’s the number one option on a bad team. Put him here and those numbers would arguably look like his career numbers. Not a bad thing especially if he can keep hitting threes at a better rate than his career average, but I wouldn’t want to be giving up too much pick wise to acquire a rental. Would this deal make us better? Of course it would, but I’m not convinced the Knicks would sell for what is on offer. They would want a first round pick to help their rebuild.
  16. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Regular Season Thread

    I suspect Vuc could be the one to make way as long as the team can be efficient with Birch and Bamba as the rotation at Center. We might even see Gordon make way at some point as well. For me Fournier could work well next to Fultz as a backcourt partnership. So I’d hold onto him for the time being.
  17. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Regular Season Thread

    There was hype and talk of a high ceiling. A lot said he was one of the best to come out of Europe. But did anyone realistically think he would take the league by storm like he has done? His numbers beat pretty much anyone’s at this point in his career. His rise has been insane and even his most avid supporters would probably say this rise has been insane and unexpected at this stage of his career. Anyway my main point is back then it would have been unlikely to have gained 100% approval of our fan base pre-draft. After his rookie season and certainly now it would but that’s using hindsight.
  18. Mike1989

    2019-2020 Official Regular Season Thread

    In hindsight knowing what we do now it is, however at the time how many people were saying Doncic will be an MVP caliber player? I don’t remember anyone pre-draft coming out with that prediction, and even if they did, I don’t think anyone expected Doncic to be this good in year two. So although it would have been great to have found a way to acquire him, I suspect a lot of that desire is based on what we’ve seen to date rather than what we knew about him before he stepped foot on an NBA court because I suspect had we given up the farm for him it might not have been universally popular at the time. Now obviously if he did for us what he’s done for Dallas then those doubters and critics would soon be on board; however, the deal was never likely when Dallas got involved. At least we are not the Sacramento Kings because they had the pick to take Doncic without giving anything up and they went for Marvin Bagley, apparently because their GM had some issue with Doncic’s father. Now that’s a real low blow for their fans because Doncic should have been the pick for them rather than Bagley who didn’t really fit what they needed.
  19. Mike1989

    2019 Offseason Thread

    Only way I see them being terrible is if LeBron and Davis get injured. Those two players, when healthy, are good enough to carry a team to .500 or better. Is Dwight a poor signing? We'll see. He's certainly well past his best. But he does fit a need for them because Davis doesn't want to play center, he wants to play power forward. So if he gets his wish, the Lakers will need someone to play center and a combination of McGee and Dwight is the best they can do with their budget.
  20. Mike1989

    2019 Offseason Thread

    Put aside the athletic debate for a minute. The real question here is does the addition of Westbrook make us a title contender, or does it merely keep us in a play off spot but not much more? For me, I suspect it would be the latter rather than the former. Ok if we are at the dance we have a chance to win, but realistically we aren't winning with the addition of Westbrook. I can see the appeal of adding Westbrook and pinning our hopes on his production combined with our lengthy defensive players and their gritty defense, but like I said, we aren't winning with that. Hell, we might even have to sacrifice some of those players to get Westbrook because in doubt they'd want Augustin, Fournier and Vuc. I could understand going for Westbrook if we were in the Clippers position. For instance we are trading for him to pair with another all star to secure their addition. However, that's not the case so while I like Westbrook, I'd prefer to see us stay out of it and let someone like Miami take him on and watch how Westbrook and Butler get on as a duo...
  21. Mike1989

    2019 Offseason Thread

    Realistically that's his selling point at the minute because the rest of his game doesn't have much going for it. He's a streaky shooter, drifts in and out of games offensively, and at times doesn't look like he has the fire at the offensive end. In two years with the Knicks he has never really been able to carve out duties as a lead guard despite opportunity to do so. Ok, if the buying price for us is nominal - fair enough. However, I don't see Ntilikina being more than a defensively minded 2-guard with limited offensive ability. Unless he finds that fire to want it offensively and starts knocking down shots consistently, but I doubt that happens and that's likely why the Knicks want to move on.
  22. Mike1989

    2019 Offseason Thread

    It makes sense for the team to try and build on their play off appearance. Sure we could try and revamp the team a little bit by moving on from Vuc to Bamba, but if holding onto Vuc and Ross gives us a chance to appear in the play offs again then that's a good thing for this team and its young players. We can always make future moves to revamp the roster as teams like the Raptors have shown, or the Pacers for that matter who have gone from a PG13 based team to an Oladipo based team. Signing Vuc and Ross makes sense unless you want to revamp the team and how it plays.
  23. Mike1989

    2019 Offseason Thread

    I'd tend to agree, but maybe he wants a move back to the east coast since that's where he's from? Or perhaps he wants to prove he can win a title outside of the Warriors? The easy route for him would have been to re-sign with the Warriors because whether he returns to KD level play or regresses, he would have three all stars alongside him and would be on one of the best teams. So had he stayed he could have taken it easy in a sense, but by going to the Nets he's going to be "the guy" again when he's back and taking on a new challenge. I can see the appeal of both options. Had I been him I would have stayed with the Warriors, but that's because I prefer Cal to NYC.
  24. Mike1989

    2019 Offseason Thread

    On the one hand I’d prefer to see him stay with the Raptors or go to the Clippers rather than going to form a big three with the Lakers, but on the other it’s a totally understandable move because it should take a lot of pressure off him. He’s struggled with injuries in recent years and sat twenty odd games this season, joining the Lakers should take the do it all burden off him (same goes with LeBron and AD), and perhaps that will help keep them fresher for the season.
  25. Mike1989

    2019 Offseason Thread

    With an owner like James Dolan I don’t blame players for wanting to stay away. Their fans are passionate and they do play in one of the great arenas in a huge market, but with the level of dysfunction they have within their front office and ownership, they aren’t really an appealing team to play for at this time. Maybe they’ll be more appealing if Dolan sells up and they get a new owner and they shake things up?
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