TreyMachine

Honestly, we have enough pics. Trade some of them and get him on this team. Fultz and a first. Something tells me they will want, and get, more than that.

Hear me out - we have the salary cap and the young assets, and we just need 1-2 years for AB to get up to speed while competing with a PG right now. I think we make a run at Chris Paul, whom is the veteran locker room presence that elevates everyone else's game when on the floor.

If Fultz is really damaged goods at this point, I do expect us to trade for a PG unless we really think Anthony Black / Cole Anthony are the solution as a starting PG on a team that wants to make a playoff run (maybe they want to give Black more time before giving up assets).

Jett Howard not being our preferred player is a bit concerning, but he's also 19 and was seen as a little more of a project. We knew he needed to get better on defense, which is a critical staple of this team. So it might be one of those "we need an NBA-ready player" right now rather than to give our raw higher-ceiling player minutes - since our goal is now to win rather than to just develop players.

Honestly, can't complain other than our defensive focus and rebounding whenever we went up. Paolo was an All-Star in this game with Wagner going out 5 minutes in. We shot incredibly with no buisness being in the game other than that. I'm sad we lost, but it would have been a miracle if we did with all the players we were missing.

We need better boxing out regardless of win or lose. Sabonis is killing us on the boards and WCJ and Goga aren't making a dent.

Goga shooting a 3P shot in 2OT with 1 minute left is not the shot we want to be shooting...

PAOLOOOOOO!!!

Franz went down and went all "The 6th Man" through Astol projection or something. Ridiculous

We're not taking good shots. We are just getting everything to fall with a bad rotation in the game right now with Black/Okeke/Schofield/G-leaguer/M Wagner. That's not a rotation you assume will take you +10 in 4 minutes

ITS A CHUMA 3 POINT PARTY (3P: 5-5 - last 12 points of 4th quarter on 4 straight possessions)

it's going to be really weird calling it anything but the Amway Center. I personally just wish we could always call it the O-rena and just be done with it. Capitalism sucks lol

Luka is signed for the next 5 seasons at an absurd max rate. There's no way the Mavs are just letting him walk. We'd have to do something like Franz Wagner, AB/Suggs, and 4 1st's to get Luka. Is that too steep a price? I don't know - but I think maybe? I also would think he wants to go to a bigger market. Why Orlando outside of a young, promising core and Mose?

The issue is that any shooter we bring in has to also be willing to play defense at a high level - and if you're a great shooter with elite defense, you're normally an all-star type player. I think a long catch-and-shoot PG is what our team needs to stretch the floor and most compliment Paolo/Franz. I don't know who that is in the league, but it's certainly not Fultz (unfortunately) or AB. Cole is actually not terrible in this role but it feels like he more needs the ball in his hands to be successful.

Jonathan Isaac being back in is a great boost to the defensive strength of that second unit. Wagner/Isaac have been playing great together with Cole and Ingles. Hopefully this sparks our resurgence to the best second unit in the league again.

I agree with CT on all these and will continue to preach - we're drafting good players, creating culture, and then signing them to long term deals to generally stay within the cap. We're not going to take a big swing on a free agent that puts us at the cap with a need to extend Paolo to a max in 2 years to send us way over the cap cliff. We're a small market team and we want a championship, but we're not going to put ourselves in cap jeopardy by signing someone to a deal just to make a splash. But if we do... it's definitely going to be before we sign Franz / Suggs to deals.

It's a small sample size, but I do feel like Jonathan Isaac is a valuable part of our team that we need. One could argue he could / should start on other units if he could stay healthy. Luckily, I see us signing him again to a more friendly team contract. He's an injury risk and even if he gets a slightly bigger offer from someone else, he's super close with his home church here, is originally from FL, and isn't entirely about the money (and frankly probably prefers to live in a red state). These games he's missed I think we're just being overly cautious with, knowing the long-term goal is to have him healthy all season and especially in the playoffs.

I know that for a while many of us felt we could maybe trade for Luka Doncic, but I just don't see that happening anymore. He doesn't fit with the defense-first mentality, would cost far too much of our depth, and would completely change the make-up of our team and locker room (including the growth of Paolo / Franz / Suggs / Anthony as our leaders). I think this is our team and will be for the foreseeable future. It's a great team and one that should be competing as a top 4 team in the East for years to come until the cap forces us to make trades that hinders our depth.

You guys haven't learned anything - we care A TON about culture and organic growth. Unless it's an absolute home run that we can't ignore, we care about how the guys in the locker room will feel and I don't think would make trades like this is NBA 2K. I think we have the assets for flexibility's sake in the future, and we're winning partially because we have the 2nd deepest bench in the league. The guy we trade for has to fit both our vision and our culture. Someone like Zach Lavine isn't that guy, and frankly there are maybe only 2 handfuls of guys who would fit that. My Point: we're not trading for anyone this year unless it's trading someone away at the end of our bench for a 2nd rounder (a la Chuma).

I think the best part about this team is that we don't rely on two or three guys who NEED to go off for us to win. We have about 7 of those guys who can lead the team in points and we're unselfish enough to let guys cook who are feeling it. The best part of our team isn't our talent but our CULTURE. Kudos to Weltman and Mosley for that aspect of our team that they've nailed.

My hope is this only deepens the chip on our shoulder and the animosity we feel for the Celtics. Both can be used to carry us more during the season and the latter when we inevitably play them in the playoffs.

My gut says the Bulls wanted to screw us after how bad we have destroyed them in that trade these last 3 years. No reason for them to get destroyed this bad.

I've never been so invested in a Raptors vs Nets game before.

That's one athletic family.

I love it! Odds have gone up dramatically. We were at Vegas expected to be one of the worst teams in the league with +34000 odds. The multiplier was big enough to take a flyer if I felt we took all the right steps forward. I'll be happy if we win just generally, but I think we - like the young Magic of '95 - will need a bit more seasoning before we take the title.