Road to a Championship start here, 2022 Draft.

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NO's posted a chart showing Zion takes & makes the most difficult shots, They know BI pulls up mid range because the paint is not empty despite his elite length. I can't wait to see how effective Young will be at his size with that congestion when Zion's physicality & finess struggles with it. Which will now be worse with teams not having to worry about Allen outside his efficiency at the rim. The person making this trade is doing it based in name recognition.

The reason CJ had a better pairing with Jonas than Zion despite their combined defensive issues. It's because teams don't zone Jonas paint gravity. The reason why CJ's elite spacing has a net 0 pairing with Zion. It's because teams still opted to play off shooters with an equally poor defensive pairing.

ZIon & CJ combined net 0 rating should also factor they played heavy bench minutes together. More less be effective against starters. Doubling down on HIGHER usage & worse defense at point than CJ, further negating ZIon's value in his VOLUME efficiency. I'm sure Allen will clean it all up when he's not used to playing in congestion, where Cavs play 4 out. On the other hand, Jonas & CJ better pairing played together based in injury & against starters. Some lighter competition in ZIon rest days but still better competition than teams bench units.

I almost want this to happen. It's going to be pure entertainment on so many levels.

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Read on Twitter

Houston looking at a big money player ?.

Hypothetically Houston are willing to trade - (#3, Whitmore, Tate, Landale) for (BI)

Who would NO's prefer at C, Sarr or Clingan ? 

I have to think if Green wants to switch defend it has to be Sarr who at 18 is shooting at a 30% clip low volume which is ahead of the curve. Offensively he plays like a SF & wants to be a PF where Zion occupies the paint. I like the fit for both teams. Not to mention NO's having a hole & Sarr wanting to start, contribute, there's opportunity on a contender for him & his camp to like.

Follow up trade with Detroit - (CJ, FRP) for (Stewart, 25m cap space)

Use cap space or MLE on Tyus Jones. One of the best guards in the league at taking care of the ball who also showed in Ja's absence, he can start. Both Stewart & Jones are solid vets who can either backup or start to help Bridge the 19yo Sarr & 20yo Daniels development

#1 Sarr - Stewart - Landale
Zion - Nance - Tate
Murphy - Whitmore - Daniels
Herb - Hawkins - Daniels
FA Jones - Jose - Daniels

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If Daniels comes in shooting the ball better, I'd start him with Jones & Jose to back him up.

If Sarr is struggling with zone defenses, both Stewart & Nance can give starter minutes. Stewart the necessary add with Nance being prone to injury. Sarr, Stewart, Nance should be a solid C rotation.

Jones is not the new toy type addition but he's the best guard in the league at taking care of the ball, something NO's has struggled with. He will help the team take care of the ball & get into it's sets. He also showed in Ja's absence he's capable of starters minutes. Daniels, Jones, Jose give NO's some versatility at the position from elite defense with Daniels to stability with Jones to energy with Jose.

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Talk of Bi being traded before extensions kick in suggest the target is set to get a raise.

Murray 18m + Capela 20m = 38m for BI 33m + Daniels 6m

Atlanta reap the benefit of NO's capping themselves out on the CJ trade & extension. BI & Murray being a close value swap. Atlanta get an elite 20yo defender with potential for a declining expiring that is a stop gap option for NO's hole left by better production value. Stupid, just doesn't quite encompass it. Jonas, BI, Daniels out for Murray, Capela expiring, LMAO

I can work a better outcome trading CJ & a FRP to Detroit for Stewart & cap space. Resign Jonas so he doesn't go to LA & reduce that pick value, platoon Murphy & Daniels over CJ.

NO's basically using Daniels player value & potential to cut BI from 50m to 30m.

Want to drop that 20m. CJ & pick to Detroit for Stewart & 25m cap space. Catch this, Stewart is not gone after next season & you still have Daniels & the same financial situation with BI extended at 50m.

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I want to put some perspective on the opinions being dragged around.

Man say Daniels was unplayable in the PO's. Where CJ got hunted & destroyed as a 30m vet. His contract & reputation the only reason for him to be on court with how OKC was abusing him. To the point Green was pulling Jonas who was one of the offensive matchups. Meanwhile Utah's coach is boosting value of castaways & players NO's didn't originally want, lol.

Man say teams don't value Daniels. I say that's the reason you don't sell low. Daniels has more court value & potential to NO's than trade value. You'll end up overpaying by throwing him in.

Hawks fans referred to Herb as a 12 ppg player, lol. Trade value is based in stats/production, which is also based in usage & Daniels contributions, 12% usage 5 APG are not geared to bolstering his trade value lol.

Herb averaged 12ppg on 7 APG. I wouldn't trade him straight up for Murray who's averaging 22pts ------- on 18 APG but Murray holds more trade value because of his usage & prodiction. If Herb was not the 5th option, he'd have higher trade value. Same principle with Daniels. He's #2 in d-Lebron at 20, Daniels is already a better & more versatile defender than Murray who loses his defensive worth outside of playing point. Murray is currently better offensively which is why he was my target to replace..... CJ. Daniels gets his 3 ball to where he can punish teams for leaving him open, he makes Murray an expendable option. Murray's 30m team friendly deal will no longer seem like a bargain.

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LMAO of course you're not trading Daniels for Capela, It's a combined value deal but it will come down to that. When Capela expires next year you're effectively trading BI & Daniels for Murray so you don't have to pay 20m more for BI, which is what Capela is in this deal, 20m expiring.

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It's frustrating to me that people don't see that Young would be doubling down on CJ at an even bigger expense.

BI, Herb, 4-5 picks, lol easy no for me. I know the trade value isn't close but I wouldn't trade Herb for Young.

Talking on the Spurs board they mentioned Atlanta asked for Vessell & 5 picks which they didn't like. I'd bet a couple of those additional NO's picks is to get off of BI's contract. Trade I suggested last year to reset for Miller, looking better & better.

Catch the negative. Trae is set to get paid more than BI's 50m, he's got a year & a player option left. If he wants NO's he will most likely try to make it work & stay but you will be looking at a massive extension with an often injured Zion, role players no better than what Atlanta currently has & a one dimensional player on a massive deal the Hawks were smart enough to move on from. He's a worse defender than CJ, wrap your head around that, while trading your best playable defender for spacing.

It Trae Young though, lol

CJ 2.0 as if you didn't do enough damage trading for CJ. Funny thing is he what you thought. 42% elite spacing & a whopping net 0 paired with Zion despite playing significant bench minutes together. Maybe Zion & upgrading CJ to Young will be able to beat those bench players this time around

CJ had the worse starters pairing with Zion because of his perimeter defense. Targeting Young does nothing to improve that & at a hefty price.

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Understand once you look past the trade itself, you should realize Hawks chose rightfully to build with Murray's defense & cash in, which should tell you everything. Especially after seeing how poorly CJ's defense fit with Zion.

We'll just get a rim protector & that will solve all our defensive issues, LMAO. What ever gains you think you will get from moving Jonas, Young is a worse defender than CJ. That lack of rim protection with Jonas was in large part due to the poor perimeter defense with CJ. Just look up the rim protection in Daniels 10 starts over CJ & get back to me.

When Zion is sitting out & you are stuck with Atlanta's current situation without the #1 pick & an extended Young from a 40m price point not 30, playing no defense with Herb gone, you were warned. As you were warned about CJ, now that you're facing cap issues & a semi team blow up.

Good luck with that.

The underlying fact, both Zion & Trae need to be offensively involved to have a positive impact because of their individual defense. What happens when one takes usage from the other ? **** man. Young at 35% usage is going to reduce Zion's court value.

Zion wanting Young is like a kid wanting to jump off a balcony, at some point as the parent you have to do what's best for the kid & yourself, let them pout. If you do what's right the pouting will eventually stop.

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With Houston rumored to Durant & trading with the Nets for their draft rights.

Have to wonder about Bookers availability. Much rather pay for Booker than Young & with them signifying the rebuild, it's less likely they will value a role player like Herb over potential & picks. Whereas Hawks still want to contend.

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Houston who have been linked to trading #3 for a proven player (Durant) traded the Nets their draft rights back to land Suns draft rights. I would be shocked if Durant is not a Sun by season's start.

Question now becomes if Suns trade Durant do they look to restructure around Booker & go into a rebuild & possibly trade Booker.

If Suns want to continue to be competitive with Booker. Maybe NO's can send BI to the Suns. I assume their draft rights is a priority

Houston trade - (#3, Whitmore, Tate, Landale, Suns 4 FRP draft rights) for (Durant)

Suns trade - (Durant) for (BI, #21, FRP, Suns 4 FPR draft rights)

NO's trade - (BI, #21, FRP) for (#3, Whitmore, Tate, Landale)

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Young listing NO's as 1 of 3 preferences was my first thought when I heard Young switched his representation from Klutch. I was hoping no relation.

What's funny but not funny. The people that want Young also think CJ was good for NO's. LMAO

Back to back terrible PO performances where he claimed he didn't know the offense in his first, what was his excuse for OKC abusing him ?.

CJ's max contract & extension resulted in Jonas 15/10/2 15m let go for nothing & NO's #2, #1 BI in jury losing tradeable value with NO's cap situation not allowing them the option to retain. The asset & cap management was extremely poor.

Said it was a bad trade 3yrs ago, the only thing that's changed is time & direction. Went from the potential to adding ZIon to BI to blowing up half the team.

If I owned NO's, you trade for Young & it flops, I'd fire everyone.

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Young's best year as a player he was at 35% usage 20 FGA's

The last 2 with Murray

32% - 19 FGA's
30% - 18 FGA's

What do you think the correlation is that the best player Young has played with that caused his usage to drop resulted in the last 2yrs ?

As I said reduce either Zion's volume efficiency or Youngs volume offense & you have 2 defensive liabilities. Trae being best at 35% usage & 20 APG, does what to building around ZIon ? Take the ball out his hands while not complimenting him defensively.

An effective strategy if you want to keep ZIon healthy, not so much if you want to reach the ceiling of this team.

Want to know what else can keep Zion from getting banged up. 1 of 2 option. Offensive diversity & or a C that teams can't play off of.

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NO's poster put up these stats defensive stats for Wiseman who is being cut by Detroit.

FG% defending within 6' of the rim: 56.4%
Same as AD and Jarret Allen.
He only played 17mpg, but averaged 3.7 attempts defended. For comparison, AD and Allen play twice as much as Wiseman, and average 7.6 and 8.3 attempts defended, which is pretty much the same rate as Wiseman

FG% defending the 3: 31.6%
4th in the league for centers

Defending against isolation: .70 Points Per Possession
2nd in the league for centers

What is the difference between Allen & Wiseman defensively, Detroit & Cavs offensively.

Detroit struggles to space the floor. Allen would be going from Cavs playing 4 out to teams packing the paint for Zion

If you think you could make Allen work in a non spacing environment ...

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I saw the segment where CJ talked about it being a disrespect for a team to bring someone like Klay off the bench. I'm sure he feels the same about himself.

Jonas has more wins regular season & PO's than CJ. One was being yanked for a 3rd stringer, one had impunity no matter how he played. One wasn't allowed to finish games for his defense, one got to play regardless of his defense.

A big reason why Jonas got run defensively was the fact you traded for CJ.

Show me Jonas rim protection numbers in Daniels 10 starts in comparison ...

This is a 5 player sport that impacts individual #'s. Reason Jonas defensive rating is always better than his individual defensive rating. You compensate for him defensively on the perimeter he's a more efficient & productive player than CJ.

Jonas - Zion - BI - Herb - Daniels +20 100 mins

Nance - Zion - BI - Herb - CJ -6.5 140 mins

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Raptors might let Boucher walk also

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I know posters on a NO's board read my posts here because I've been quoted.

Their interest in Trae is mainly because he's a big name & like CJ, they like the idea of his offensive fit with ZIon. So lets break down this offensive fit.

NO's restructured CJ's offense after his first year with ZIon so he wouldn't be as high usage but more complimentary spacing, where he was an elite floor spacer this year. Young's best year of his career, he had a 35% usage rate, 10% higher than CJ is currently. His subsequent 2yrs years with another high usage player in Murray, his usage dropped to 30%, not even 25% & so did his impact because he's a defensive liability maybe even more so than CJ which is unimaginable to me, lol. If he's not producing offensively, like Zion's volume efficiency, they become negative players because of their defensive impact. Zion has to be higher usage, not less. CJ shot 42% on more than 8 APG, which was better than Young this past year, exactly what NO's envisioned him to be in trade offensively. He's not quite the PG Young is & doesn't have the court vision but CJ can create at a high level. Yet despite playing a large amount of minutes with Zion against apposing teams benches you're looking at a starters worse pairing with Zion at net zero. Even BI who NO's fans say is a bad fit had a net 3 rating with Zion playing against starters, not bench units. Not because of offense but their combined defense.

The thought process... CJ can shoot so he's a great fit. lol. Will be better with Trae, you know because CJ wasn't good offensively, oh wait I mean defensively. The stats confirm to me that Zion needs defensive compensation as much or more than spacing. This is why I targeted Murray at the deadline to replace CJ, not BI.

Murray down grades defensively from Daniels but upgrades CJ. Downgrades spacing from CJ but upgrades from Daniels... Do not give Daniels away at a low point of trade value when he's an elite versatile defender with offensive potential at 20yrs of age. He'll make any trade you do that, even worse.

Young doesn't improve CJ's shooting this past year though he may be a better floor general but it is possible he could be worse defensively which would be a disaster at an astronomical asking price. Murray is 25% usage, he's more of a PG than CJ & a defensive upgrade.... oh & nearly 15m less than Young against the cap for 4yrs where Young will be looking at an extension in 2 at a 40m starting point with NO's already facing cap issues.

Depending on what is available for BI in trade, I'd extend, dump CJ into cap space & platoon Murphy & Daniels accordingly. Maybe pickup Tyus Jones for ball security if needed.

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After drafting Risarcher, BI would have to go to a 3rd team for a better rebuilding package. Of expiring value, cap space, young players & or pick/s to make sense. Most likely why Philly is being considered.

Wouldn't surprise me to see a massive pick package for one of the Hawk guards & OO.

I'd sooner trade CJ for CP3 or cap space & a C. Platoon Murphy & Daniels, pickup Tyus Jonas for ball security.

Mavs jumped on almost everything I've suggested here. CJ for Kyrie at a basement price. Trade in for Lively in the 23 draft & salary dump of Hardaway to Detroit for cap space.

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Would have preferred to have Daniels still but I assume this was the only way you could keep Herb. Hawks get a very good & more versatile defender to pair Young with on a far better contract than Murray.

I think NO's might be doing CJ, pick to Detroit trade for Stewart & cap space.

Nance was the only big man left & he was the filler in this trade. Murray is more money than Nance & Daniels combined. So NO's need a 4/5 backup & cap space which CJ to Detroit for Stewart & cap space rectifies.

Then you can trade BI for a starting C + .

Don't hate it, don't love it. Would have been an A grade, if you found a way to retain Daniels.

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Hawks got a better more versatile defender to pair with Young. Low usage offensive player which allows Young to be high usage with elite defensive compensation. The very reason Daniels was a positive paired with Zion. At 20 he's already a better defender than Murray, it's only a question of when he won't be an offensive liability.

NO's fans think Daniels is barely worth a late first I would have replaced him with another first if that was the case. Daniels was in trade to prevent having to trade Herb.

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NO's can't rectify the centre, 4/5 backup without trade. At least one of BI or CJ has to be traded.

I don't think BI can land both a starting & backup big with Nance going out. Maybe if NO's flipped someone to a 3rd team in a multi team deal.

I think both get traded

CJ to Detroit for Stewart, cap space
CJ to Magic for WCJ, cap space
BI to Cavs for Allen
BI to Nets for Claxton, Cam Johnson.
BI to Utah for Kessler, picks

I think the decision is this, Kessler is not a starter. If NO's trade Bi for him & picks, CJ gets traded for a starter WCJ. If CJ gets traded to Detroit for a backup 4/5 Stewart, I think NO's go after Allen or Claxton to start.