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Kizz Fastfists wrote:

jake_swivel wrote:Clippers will be good next year. At least not bottoming out. Feel free to trade it away, Sam. You have my blessing.

Isn't that what happened in the Denver trade? The worst 2024 pick, very easily LAC, for a future top 5 protected pick from Denver. If you were going to rate the picks OKC has for 2024 how would you expect them to go? Houston-Utah-OKC-LAC? OKC-LAC-Utah-HOU? Rating the Houston pick last would indicate you think there is a strong chance they finish with a pick that does not convey. Utah has a chance to finish with a top 10 pick, again, that wouldn't convey. OKC and LAC could be considered their best picks just because they are guaranteed to be theirs, except the one they send to Denver.

You’re not wrong. By the way, I hadn’t realized that Indiana ended up with that pick until earlier this week.

I mostly was saying that I expect there to be at least two poor draft picks this year including the okc pick. I’m not heavily invested in keeping them. I was holding out hope LA would be stuck having to build around just Kawhi and PG. No need to be overly stingy.

jake_swivel wrote:

Devilanche wrote:Not really . 50% chance of keeping their pick even as the worst team and their GM can better sell winning post all stars break as the team finding their groove and getting better .

If I’m a rockets fan, I have very, very low confidence that any of their young prospects are franchise carrying guys. Moving on with what they have is a dubious decision. There isn’t a single thing I’d feel confident about as a rocket fan, from the owner, to the gm, to the flandering coach, to their goober players. It’s question marks right down the line.

Green can still carry a franchise in ways that Lavine can. Not too sure how Amen will develop .

Both Eason and jabari should be solid rotational pieces. Sengun could be a bench big if he doesn’t develop his defence.

Of course they need development and right fit for the respective role so it might not be immediate .

jake_swivel wrote:

Kizz Fastfists wrote:

jake_swivel wrote:Clippers will be good next year. At least not bottoming out. Feel free to trade it away, Sam. You have my blessing.

Isn't that what happened in the Denver trade? The worst 2024 pick, very easily LAC, for a future top 5 protected pick from Denver. If you were going to rate the picks OKC has for 2024 how would you expect them to go? Houston-Utah-OKC-LAC? OKC-LAC-Utah-HOU? Rating the Houston pick last would indicate you think there is a strong chance they finish with a pick that does not convey. Utah has a chance to finish with a top 10 pick, again, that wouldn't convey. OKC and LAC could be considered their best picks just because they are guaranteed to be theirs, except the one they send to Denver.

You’re not wrong. By the way, I hadn’t realized that Indiana ended up with that pick until earlier this week.

I mostly was saying that I expect there to be at least two poor draft picks this year including the okc pick. I’m not heavily invested in keeping them. I was holding out hope LA would be stuck having to build around just Kawhi and PG. No need to be overly stingy.

We know Presti doesn't want to go into the draft without a pick. Trading half of his guaranteed picks I don't see him moving another until draft season when he knows what he has and who he wants, assuming the Houston pick conveys in the top 10. If OKC ended up with something like 8 and 20, with Utah keeping their pick, I could see Presti using 8 and 20 to move to 5 or 6 to get the guy he wants. I have no idea at this point what that draft class looks like.

LAC has no incentive to anything other than be aggressive and keep going for it. I was surprised to see Houston give them Martin Jr. However, it is still possible for OKC to be better than LAC this year. Russ' shooting with the Clippers was a massive fluke. How many games will they get of PG13 and Kawhi? 50-55 each? It is not a young team so the 33+ players continuing to drop off should be expected. The Clippers had a worse win differential than the Thunder last year. It isn't hard to see LAC drop below the play-in line even with their aggressive off-season given the age and injury history of their roster. Because the NBA draft lottery loves to do crazy things it would be fitting to see LAC end up with the #1 pick, going to OKC, with Utah jumping from 11th to 2nd and Houston being slated for 3rd and dropping to 5th. It wouldn't be the first time a pick LAC traded end up winning the lottery and the last time it was with the worst lottery odds of the draft and the pick ended up being Kyrie.

I really do feel like Sam is intent on waiting and seeing if any trades pop up or if he can make a deadline move and just let Chet play out his rookie season while waiting for the Houston pick. Part of me thinks he wants to take a big next year if Houston's pick is decent so he can spread out the contracts and time line. Get a defensive big on a rookie contract that can be paid cheap for a few years and then revisit later. He is going to have to resign some guys down the line and I think he wants rookie contracts around the good pieces.

The Servant wrote:I really do feel like Sam is intent on waiting and seeing if any trades pop up or if he can make a deadline move and just let Chet play out his rookie season while waiting for the Houston pick. Part of me thinks he wants to take a big next year if Houston's pick is decent so he can spread out the contracts and time line. Get a defensive big on a rookie contract that can be paid cheap for a few years and then revisit later. He is going to have to resign some guys down the line and I think he wants rookie contracts around the good pieces.

Waiting on Houston picks that potentially will never come? Right now I'd lean in the direction that OKC only has one pick in the 2024 draft either their own or LAC and that pick could be in the 18+. You really believe that Presti is throwing away a season in hopes that he gets a top 10 pick in 2024? How does throwing away a season have any impact on that pick? If Presti would have added a solid big, even on an overpaid 2 year deal, it would have had minimal long-term cap impact and would not have prevented adding a big in the 2024 draft if OKC gets lucky with the Houston pick and one of the three bigs projected to be worth a top 12 pick are there.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to overpay a shot-term stop gap and then if the Houston pick doesn't convey you have the choice to trade up with your other assets or be patient having a player in position that doesn't leave you in desperate need to fill a hole after your team gets destroyed in the first round of the playoffs, or play-in, from lack of legitimate big men again? This off-season only makes sense if you expect no impact from Chet. If you expect Chet to give you the same impact Jalen did last year then this is a playoff team. That is without factoring in Cason or Micic. Instead you take Dipo's contract instead of using that $9M on a proven big like Mason Plumlee or someone that can give you legitimate center minutes. Would Plumlee be ideal? No, but he'd be solid for 20 minutes a night in a year where center is a glaring hole of uncertainty.

The offseason isn’t over.

I believe the houston pick will convey. They added enough not to put them in the basement.

Kind of move I want Presti to make...fine with giving up 4 SRPs for that. Upside is just too good.

Dadouv47 wrote:

Read on Twitter

Kind of move I want Presti to make...fine with giving up 4 SRPs for that. Upside is just too good.

Creative trade. 3 lowish(?) SRP for 2 potential swap and a prospect.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:

The Servant wrote:I really do feel like Sam is intent on waiting and seeing if any trades pop up or if he can make a deadline move and just let Chet play out his rookie season while waiting for the Houston pick. Part of me thinks he wants to take a big next year if Houston's pick is decent so he can spread out the contracts and time line. Get a defensive big on a rookie contract that can be paid cheap for a few years and then revisit later. He is going to have to resign some guys down the line and I think he wants rookie contracts around the good pieces.

Waiting on Houston picks that potentially will never come? Right now I'd lean in the direction that OKC only has one pick in the 2024 draft either their own or LAC and that pick could be in the 18+. You really believe that Presti is throwing away a season in hopes that he gets a top 10 pick in 2024? How does throwing away a season have any impact on that pick? If Presti would have added a solid big, even on an overpaid 2 year deal, it would have had minimal long-term cap impact and would not have prevented adding a big in the 2024 draft if OKC gets lucky with the Houston pick and one of the three bigs projected to be worth a top 12 pick are there.

Even if Houston is having the worst record in the league next year, it's a coinflip wheather we get the pick or not. I doubt Houston will have the worst record, so it's probable that the odds are even better.

Devilanche wrote:

Dadouv47 wrote:

Read on Twitter

Kind of move I want Presti to make...fine with giving up 4 SRPs for that. Upside is just too good.

Creative trade. 3 lowish(?) SRP for 2 potential swap and a prospect.

Suns just did a similar trade with magic for their 2026 first pick swap instead.

Got to feel like Presti just doesn’t value such swap given we have quite a fair bit of seconds to make it work.

Devilanche wrote:Suns just did a similar trade with magic for their 2026 first pick swap instead.

Got to feel like Presti just doesn’t value such swap given we have quite a fair bit of seconds to make it work.

I wonder if the value of the picks in this kind of trade will go up closer to the draft when teams will be able to replace outgoing players headed to free agency.

jake_swivel wrote:

Devilanche wrote:Suns just did a similar trade with magic for their 2026 first pick swap instead.

Got to feel like Presti just doesn’t value such swap given we have quite a fair bit of seconds to make it work.

I wonder if the value of the picks in this kind of trade will go up closer to the draft when teams will be able to replace outgoing players headed to free agency.

If you talking about the second , it might but I don’t think suns will be holding to most of them come draft time.

If you talking about the first , totally no clue what will happen .