Mike1989

The defensive potential of the line up is really good, but unless the offense starts to catch up then well might not be a true contender. It’s critical the team becomes more balanced and offensively efficient because that’s what wins championships in the current era. If they can get the offense anywhere near the defense we’ll be a true contender.

Desmond Bane adds a proven 3pt shooter with a career average of .410, though it must be noted that he has averaged .386 over the past two seasons. Hopefully he’ll shoot nearer his average but he’ll need support from others to thrive. The offense is what is holding the team back in terms of the pace of play, ball movement (etc). So hopefully this is the first move towards helping the offense get nearer to our team’s defensive capabilities. My main concern about Bane is he’s played 68, 76, 58, 42 and 69 games. So he’s not played a full season and has missed a number of games over the past five seasons. I’m not well informed on why he’s missed games, but hopefully he won’t be missing as many games for us. I suppose this trade will come down to whether this move (and others) helps this team become a top four team in the east. If it does, the cost will not be looked upon negatively. However, if the offense continues to be inefficient and holds the team back, then it will be seen as an overpay.

It does have that Shaq era look. I think I’d have preferred them to commit to all black pin stripe, but I’m sure it will look the part when it’s worn by the players.

The ones on the right and left are excellent. I’m not sure about the middle one.

It’s going to be interesting to see if OKC and Indiana can close these series out 4-1, or whether the Wolves and Knicks can mount any kind of comeback. There’s been successful comebacks from 3-1 like Denver doing it twice during Covid and Golden State did it in the conference final and NBA finals. That said, there’s been unsuccessful ones too like Houston this year and Boston coming back from 3 nil and falling flat in game seven against Miami. I would agree that our team would benefit from reworking our roster to adopt some of the stylistic features we have seen from the likes of OKC and Indiana. However, you can say that most years because it’s a copycat league. The problem we have is our two main players and scorers - Wagner and Banchero - have similar strengths and flaws, which only become more obvious due to their supporting cast sharing similar strengths and flaws. If the team wants to build around Wagner and Banchero, then arguably they will need to consider the future of the other three starters. It’s still early days for Wagner and Banchero, both are young enough to get better and lead this team to where it wants to go. After all, it took Tatum and Brown until their 7th and 8th season to win a title, and that was after years of speculation about their ability to play together (though admittedly both shot better from behind the arc than Wagner and Banchero).

Malik Monk, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis I’m not really sure what to think of the King’s starting five. They don’t look like a contender. If anything look like a team heading towards yet another rebuild, unless this lineup does something unexpected.

I never said it was fair value. I mean, Kevin Durant cost 4 first round picks and a pick swap. Damian Lillard cost 1 first round picks and two pick swaps. So what would AD’s and Doncic’s current trade value be? AD would probably cost at least what the Bucks paid for Damian Lillard, while Doncic should cost at least what the Clippers paid for Paul George. Could the Mavs have got more? Sure they could, but they either didn’t ask or didn’t push it because they wanted AD. Again, never said it was fair value. Also, nowhere near Pelicans AD is simply not true. He’s currently 2 points per game short of his best years in New Orleans and he was the second option in LA compared to the first option in New Orleans. His other stats are fairly similar. He’s been a very good player for the Lakers, and although he had a three season stretch after their championship when he missed a fair amount of games, he’s been fairly durable for the 23/24 and 24/25 seasons. That said, the Lakers have got a gift because five years from now Doncic will still be in his prime years while AD will be nearing the end of his career. So there’s no doubt that the Lakers got a steal and I would be an annoyed Mavs fan to see Doncic go.

There’s always an argument that can be made towards a league having preferred teams. For example, they are more likely to get a 50-50 call than another team. Look at the recent Bills-Chiefs game and the so-called catch in the first half by the Chiefs player. I suspect that wouldn’t have been ruled a catch if it was a Buffalo player. So yes, some teams get preferential treatment. However, my point purely was if the league was openly biased towards them, then they wouldn’t have vetoed the CP3 trade.

CP3 was going to the Lakers in that trade. So if the league was biased towards them they would have let it go through…

In theory you get “better” offers, but what would they be? Doncic has a player option in 2026 and will want to go to a contender. So, that limits the field a little bit. There’s teams who would want him, but they need to be able to put together a package that appeals to a team wanting to “win now”. Who could offer them a player like AD? The closest would be Jimmy Butler from Miami, or perhaps Paul George from the 76ers, but he’s injured at the minute. That said, as soon as the news leaks they would have to deal with distractions like the Heat are currently experiencing with Jimmy Butler. However, the Mavs would arguably be ten times worse because we’re talking about a 25-year old MVP candidate in his prime years being traded away, rather than a player in his mid-30s who has left teams in the past due to issues. So Dallas would be hit by media scrutiny, their fans would be in uproar, and their players would be questioning the team’s direction. At least this way the deal is done and they can start to fight the fires. They can try to sell their fan base on AD being a better fit in their team, but it’s a real hard sell and I’d be furious if I was a Mavs fan.

The only defence I can come up with is that their GM (and/or ownership) wanted to get this deal done before the media caught wind of it, or another organisation leaked the information that the Mavs are wanting to trade Doncic. If that news got out, then there would be a lot of negative press heading their way and they’d be fighting battles on multiple fronts. That said, I question how this trade gets passed when other trades have included significantly more. I mean, sure, Davis is a hell of a player and the Mavericks should get better defensively, but the Lakers got prime Doncic for Davis and a first round pick. The Mavericks got fleeced, unless of course they win championships with this lineup and the Lakers win nothing.

Knicks taking heat for not doing a deal, but it might actually benefit them. I don’t see the line up - Brunson, Mitchell, Barrett (if he wasn’t traded), Randle and Robinson - competing for and wining a championship. In a sense it would be similar to us having done a deal for Mitchell. He’d be a hell of an addition, but we aren’t competing for a championship yet. At least in Cleveland he’s got a young all star backcourt partner and two young all star quality front court players. Only position missing an all star caliber talent is small forward. Worth the risk for Cleveland if it works out because they’ve got the talent to compete for the east with his addition.

The pairing should work. Towns can score heavily and has an accurate 3pt shot, while Gobert does his thing. Be interesting to see how it turns out for the Wolves having paid a heavy price for Gobert. If we got Mitchell for that deal I’d be a happy Magic fan, but in all honesty I don’t see him wanting to come here and play ball. I suspect he’ll want to go to a big market team if he leaves the small market in Utah.

Their comparison to other skinny players is somewhat flawed. Yes, players like Anthony Davis, Giannis, and Durant came into the league skinny and managed to add weight. But what do they have in common? Broad shoulders, especially Davis and Giannis. They have very broad shoulders and have the frame to add the bulk. Chet is not only skinny but has a narrow frame. He currently weighs the same as some guards. The problem he will have in adding extra weight is how much can his frame legitimately add before it has a negative effect on his body? I suspect he’ll struggle to add sufficient weight.

That’s one extreme to another comparison Zion and Chet! What you need to consider here is does Chet’s frame allow him to put on extra weight and size or is he a naturally skinny guy? Chet doesn’t have broad shoulders like Dwight Howard. His shoulders seem quite narrow and that doesn’t really allow for a great deal of weight and size to be added. Durability is a legitimate concern for someone as skinny as Chet. Plus, how is he going to handle bigger and stronger players when attacking and defending? He’s not an ideal prospect. Too risky.