2025 Regular Season Thread Vol. 9

[greg4012]

The Rockets, who are likely to get eliminated in the first round, would be desperate for a scorer, while Suns would be eager to regain control of their draft pick back. KD would return to his college roots.

The other scenario is OKC could be a dark horse if it's once again the SGA show, with no one else stepping up. This could be KD’s chance to win a ring with the team that drafted him, and a two-way duo with SGA would be lethal.

Personally, I'd prefer to stick with the current core and wait for other star opportunities down the line.

Rockets would have to give up Van Vleet who’s become the leader of that young squad. Going to keep wasting years if you don’t start cashing in chips. The time to strike is now.

Playoffs result could be very telling. I'd rather tear the whole house down let's say for a Giannis and build from there compared to a 37-year-old soon to retire player.

Hope FO just wait a little bit and see other options because there would be other options in this offseason.

And you think the Giannis sweepstakes (with everyone available for trade--thus resulting in a bare bones team) are more attainable than the KD sweepstakes?

TBH I could see Houston (and a lot of other teams) flexing their full warchest of young prospects and picks for the Giannis sweepstakes.

[greg4012]

The biggest FU to Butler is trading for Durant and giving him that extension. It’s going to be glorious

Poetic

Another layer would be if KD (who has had devastating injuries in his career) were to sustain a major injury at some point after signing the extension, and Butler just basically goes on to play the same amount of games over the next couple of seasons that he always does.

If Mia were to pursue this route, it would demonstrate a logical contradiction on the part of the FO and that they aren't principled with their strategical approach.

Or that they believe the superior player is the superior player.

Sentimentality is a strong force tho

[DayofMourning]

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[marson]

Rockets would have to give up Van Vleet who’s become the leader of that young squad. Going to keep wasting years if you don’t start cashing in chips. The time to strike is now.

Playoffs result could be very telling. I'd rather tear the whole house down let's say for a Giannis and build from there compared to a 37-year-old soon to retire player.

Hope FO just wait a little bit and see other options because there would be other options in this offseason.

And you think the Giannis sweepstakes (with everyone available for trade--thus resulting in a bare bones team) are more attainable than the KD sweepstakes?

TBH I could see Houston (and a lot of other teams) flexing their full warchest of young prospects and picks for the Giannis sweepstakes.

Optionality FO got to make sure they have the ammos in place in case Giannis decides he wants to be in a warm location after spending for a long time in a very cold location, there is also significant Greek community in Miami.

We saw far crazier things happened this season, won't be surprised anymore if there are rumblings this offseason.

[greg4012]

Playoffs result could be very telling. I'd rather tear the whole house down let's say for a Giannis and build from there compared to a 37-year-old soon to retire player.

Hope FO just wait a little bit and see other options because there would be other options in this offseason.

And you think the Giannis sweepstakes (with everyone available for trade--thus resulting in a bare bones team) are more attainable than the KD sweepstakes?

TBH I could see Houston (and a lot of other teams) flexing their full warchest of young prospects and picks for the Giannis sweepstakes.

Optionality FO got to make sure they have the ammos in place in case Giannis decides he wants to be in a warm location after spending for a long time in a very cold location, there is also significant Greek community in Miami.

We saw far crazier things happened this season, won't be surprised anymore if there are rumblings this offseason.

Def agree on optionality--that's the name of the game right now along with development. Let the right amount of water (trade resources) flow to whatever opening (trade opportunity) appears.

Saving all resources for one singular hope of opening/opportunity at the expense of other potentially great moves is pretty risky (see prior Giannis sweepstakes dream). Miami is better positioned than they have been since the Jimmy trade to make a big trade.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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This will be a hard pill for a lot of you to swallow but Edrice has become a Bosh/KG level of midrange and paint scorer efficiency wise. From 3 he’s a much better corner shooter at about 46% while Bosh was the better above the break 3 point shooter. Bams post all star break numbers shatter them all so we’ll see if he can continue to build on it.

Next season will be the best version we’ve seen.

[MettaWorldPanda]

Kevin Durant is the most realistic get for what we have. Anyone else and especially Giannis will leave this team gutted and pillaged and we’ll still probably not have enough with the interested teams out there. Durant will give us a solid 2/3 window with this current core and the young players continuing to develop.

[greg4012]

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This will be a hard pill for a lot of you to swallow but Edrice has become a Bosh/KG level of midrange and paint scorer efficiency wise. From 3 he’s a much better corner shooter at about 46% while Bosh was the better above the break 3 point shooter. Bams post all star break numbers shatter them all so we’ll see if he can continue to build on it.

Next season will be the best version we’ve seen.

There are gonna be ebbs and flows with distance shooting without question. But, I'm certain that Bam is more comfortable finding reliable footwork to get into rhythm shots from distance now than he was to start the season. Foundational development this season.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Read on Twitter

This will be a hard pill for a lot of you to swallow but Edrice has become a Bosh/KG level of midrange and paint scorer efficiency wise. From 3 he’s a much better corner shooter at about 46% while Bosh was the better above the break 3 point shooter. Bams post all star break numbers shatter them all so we’ll see if he can continue to build on it.

Next season will be the best version we’ve seen.

There are gonna be ebbs and flows with distance shooting without question. But, I'm certain that Bam is more comfortable finding reliable footwork to get into rhythm shots from distance now than he was to start the season. Foundational development this season.

Really wish this season didn’t start with his worst shooting stretch of his career. Probably Olympics hangover and drama that contributed to it. I’m excited to see the continued development, I think many different players made strides in areas this season we were all looking for.

Bam is a reliable shooter

Herro tinkered his shot diet and became efficient due to it

Ware is night and day from he early season self, this summer is huge for him

Jovic found his role and became a legit contributor before the injury

We added a scrappy spark plug PG in Mitchell

A lot of good in this season of mediocrity.

[al bondiga]

The biggest FU to Butler is trading for Durant and giving him that extension. It’s going to be glorious

Poetic

Another layer would be if KD (who has had devastating injuries in his career) were to sustain a major injury at some point after signing the extension, and Butler just basically goes on to play the same amount of games over the next couple of seasons that he always does.

If Mia were to pursue this route, it would demonstrate a logical contradiction on the part of the FO and that they aren't principled with their strategical approach.

Or that they believe the superior player is the superior player.

Sentimentality is a strong force tho

why butler FU???

Nothing in it for us... The guy just became old for nba and couldn't face it... It happens all the time... Unfortunately

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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Not even hating, no one on our team will even be in the running for the award due to our record but…..how lol?

[Kobewade11]

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Getting our C of the future and moving Bam to the 4 is a big win for this franchise, positions do matter and its refreshing to actually have a size advantage. Big offseason coming for Ware

[batterybro42]

The biggest FU to Butler is trading for Durant and giving him that extension. It’s going to be glorious

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

KD is easily playing at a high level as long as he can physically run up and down the court. You are not talking about a guy he relies on his athleticism, he is as skilled a scorer of the basketball as this game has ever seen. I would feel perfectly comfortable giving KD something like a 3 year deal on the MAx

I think KD has the same amount of time left as Giannis

Let that sink in for a minute

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[batterybro42]

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This will be a hard pill for a lot of you to swallow but Edrice has become a Bosh/KG level of midrange and paint scorer efficiency wise. From 3 he’s a much better corner shooter at about 46% while Bosh was the better above the break 3 point shooter. Bams post all star break numbers shatter them all so we’ll see if he can continue to build on it.

Next season will be the best version we’ve seen.

He has played amazingly well over the last few weeks offensively. I want to see him become the aggressive player for an entire season that we all know he can be. I also would not mind seeing him return to his old role with a A tier star on this team, and seeing if Bam could get crazy efficient. I was a skeptic for a long while this year on Bam moving forward with his contract. He has proved me wrong.

[Enso]

One thing I’ll mention about Giannis

Never under estimate a Greeks love for good weather and a beach.

Our org speaks for itself but I think coming off Wisconsin winters Giannis is definitely going to be looking at a warmer destination.

[lastb1ckman]

The biggest FU to Butler is trading for Durant and giving him that extension. It’s going to be glorious

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

KD is easily playing at a high level as long as he can physically run up and down the court. You are not talking about a guy he relies on his athleticism, he is as skilled a scorer of the basketball as this game has ever seen. I would feel perfectly comfortable giving KD something like a 3 year deal on the MAx

I think KD has the same amount of time left as Giannis

Let that sink in for a minute

KD is a basketball machine. As long as he can move, he'll try to play. Only problem is what durability can you expect from him at this age and his injury history? The risk of missing time or significant injury only increases when you get at this age. And as we've seen with the Suns, having KD at this age doesn't make you a contender by default.

[jbsays]

All of KDs issues (age, injury, salary) are exactly why he might be a realistic option for the Heat. Nobody is going to give up potentially young Allstars for a 37 year old who could fall off a cliff at any time.

You could give up Bam for Giannis, but how much better are you going to be at that point? Giannis with the Bucks roster didn't get you homecourt this year. You swap Bam with Giannis and the Heat roster is no better than the Bucks. You swap Bam AND Herro for Giannis and it's not even close. Only reason an All NBA caliber player who is going to get paid by anyone would want to come to the Heat would be to play WITH Bam and Herro.

[MiamiSun]

Ware
Bam
KD
Devion

Love this 4, But curious if they are physical enough defensively. Devion and Bam are but Ware and KD are pretty skinny. We need a Steven Adams as a backup.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

KD put up 27-6-4 this year on 64 TS% while being the best defender on his team. If we could get KD and he’s able to put up even 22-6-4 on 62TS% over the next 3 seasons while being our calming factor in the clutch that would be a massive boost to the roster