2022-23 NBA Season Discussion

[Doctor MJ]

Seems like Brooklyn owner is putting his pride ahead of winning

Smart play for Brooklyn is just Kevin no trade is happening unless we get a mammoth haul. You can retire if you don't like it. And tell Kyrie your only chance of a max is giving us a great season. I don't see any organizational value for Brooklyn of trading Russ for Kyrie.

Probably won't work but this is rare circumstance were playing hardball with players is the correct of action.

And before you think I'm anti-player. I oppose the players draft, max salaries, rookie scale, limitations on year negotiations. I'm much more pro-player than the average guy on realgm.

I'm not going to claim I know what the "smart play" for Brooklyn is, but were I a billionaire owner, I doubt I'd take kindly to being diddled by one of my employees like this. And were I a media savvy billionaire owner, I'd see ways to leverage the hostility that will be unleashed against KD by the public if he refuses to play, to my benefit.

One of the things I'm struck by is that this really seems like a Dr. Evil-style conspiracy by KD & Kyrie to force teams to give them exactly what they want...without actually thinking through the logistics of why the plan is supposed to give them what they want.

Maybe we'll find soon enough that there was always a plan with some team (and the desperate Lakers do make sense here) all along that went into the calculus of why those two have used this off-season like they have, but when KD talks about these #1 seeds as the places he's looking to go, it raises the question of whether he's even thinking about who would be on the other side of the trade.

Hard to imagine Durant wants to go to the Suns if they have to give up Booker to get him, and hard to imagine an owner seeing anyone else on the Suns but Booker as someone who can drive excitement for the Nets. There is always the "plus all our draft picks" aspect of things, and maybe that'll do the trick, but it doesn't give the Nets their old draft picks back so they can't tank, and the Suns draft picks likely won't be of use for years.

If as an owner I don't like what I see in the best case scenario of trading you right now, why wouldn't I just wait? Fear of you refusing to play? If you do that, at least I have the satisfaction in the fact that you're ruining your legacy at the only thing you're good at in life with the last few years you have it before you swept into the dustbin of history.

Him mentioning the Heat is all the more silly. To even consider this deal, I'd imagine the Nets have to get Bam Adebayo, whose defense should be the primary reason Durant thinks he'd be a good fit for the team.

[ShotCreator]

Warming up to this Gobert move. Minnesota was a good team. Edwards and co. can easily take leaps.

Even KAT hasn’t played at the levels he did in 19-20. Ceiling could be really high on playing levels. Resilience is another thing

[Dr Positivity]

They paid way too much

[MartinToVaught]

The price is fine, draft picks are just draft picks, you're getting one of the 2 best defensive players in this generation. If the fit works out, the value is not a problem.

That's obviously a big "if" in this case though. It's a huge risk whether or not KAT and Gobert will be able to play together and IDK what the Wolves perimeter defense looks like at this point. That's the issue with the trade for me.

Draft picks are only "just draft picks" until you get an inopportune injury or two, or it turns out your players just don't fit and can't win together.

If I'm giving away that many picks with no strings attached, I'm expecting to get a player who can carry a team and take over a game offensively, and Gobert will never be that.

[parsnips33]

I don't think this moves them in front of Warriors or Clips but who knows

[Doctor MJ]

I don't think this moves them in front of Warriors or Clips but who knows

Warriors, Clippers, Nuggets, and if Suns or Lakers get KD, all those teams seem like they would be more likely to win the chip than this T-Wolves team...

but it's also one of those things where a team with KAT & Gobert on the floor together is going to be so different from we're used to, that it's hard to have any kind of precision in our uncertainty range. It'll be fascinating to see what comes.

EDIT: Forgot about Memphis.

[TheGOATRises007]

The West is loaded next season.

It's going to be a bloodbath.

If the Lakers get rid of Westbrook, they'll make the playoffs too.

[falcolombardi]

While i am intrigued by minnesota move, i wonder if losing bev is a bigger deal that we think

Beverley has been a impact metrics darling the last few years and minnesota transformation into a quality team came with him (and Dlo and edwards progress so is hard to distribute credit)

[sp6r=underrated]

Seems like Brooklyn owner is putting his pride ahead of winning

Smart play for Brooklyn is just Kevin no trade is happening unless we get a mammoth haul. You can retire if you don't like it. And tell Kyrie your only chance of a max is giving us a great season. I don't see any organizational value for Brooklyn of trading Russ for Kyrie.

Probably won't work but this is rare circumstance were playing hardball with players is the correct of action.

And before you think I'm anti-player. I oppose the players draft, max salaries, rookie scale, limitations on year negotiations. I'm much more pro-player than the average guy on realgm.

I'm not going to claim I know what the "smart play" for Brooklyn is, but were I a billionaire owner, I doubt I'd take kindly to being diddled by one of my employees like this. And were I a media savvy billionaire owner, I'd see ways to leverage the hostility that will be unleashed against KD by the public if he refuses to play, to my benefit.

One of the things I'm struck by is that this really seems like a Dr. Evil-style conspiracy by KD & Kyrie to force teams to give them exactly what they want...without actually thinking through the logistics of why the plan is supposed to give them what they want.

Maybe we'll find soon enough that there was always a plan with some team (and the desperate Lakers do make sense here) all along that went into the calculus of why those two have used this off-season like they have, but when KD talks about these #1 seeds as the places he's looking to go, it raises the question of whether he's even thinking about who would be on the other side of the trade.

Hard to imagine Durant wants to go to the Suns if they have to give up Booker to get him, and hard to imagine an owner seeing anyone else on the Suns but Booker as someone who can drive excitement for the Nets. There is always the "plus all our draft picks" aspect of things, and maybe that'll do the trick, but it doesn't give the Nets their old draft picks back so they can't tank, and the Suns draft picks likely won't be of use for years.

If as an owner I don't like what I see in the best case scenario of trading you right now, why wouldn't I just wait? Fear of you refusing to play? If you do that, at least I have the satisfaction in the fact that you're ruining your legacy at the only thing you're good at in life with the last few years you have it before you swept into the dustbin of history.

Him mentioning the Heat is all the more silly. To even consider this deal, I'd imagine the Nets have to get Bam Adebayo, whose defense should be the primary reason Durant thinks he'd be a good fit for the team.

And the NY media can be far more vicious than KD recognizes. They annihilated A-Rod's reputation in baseball, amazing player for those who don't follow. If they decide to turn on KD full blast, I could easily see the most negative narrative possible becoming KD's legacy.

[parsnips33]

I wouldn't be surprised if McLaughlin takes a much bigger role this season. They need a no-frills table setter at PG, not sure where D'Lo fits in

[parsnips33]

Smart play for Brooklyn is just Kevin no trade is happening unless we get a mammoth haul. You can retire if you don't like it. And tell Kyrie your only chance of a max is giving us a great season. I don't see any organizational value for Brooklyn of trading Russ for Kyrie.

Probably won't work but this is rare circumstance were playing hardball with players is the correct of action.

And before you think I'm anti-player. I oppose the players draft, max salaries, rookie scale, limitations on year negotiations. I'm much more pro-player than the average guy on realgm.

I'm not going to claim I know what the "smart play" for Brooklyn is, but were I a billionaire owner, I doubt I'd take kindly to being diddled by one of my employees like this. And were I a media savvy billionaire owner, I'd see ways to leverage the hostility that will be unleashed against KD by the public if he refuses to play, to my benefit.

One of the things I'm struck by is that this really seems like a Dr. Evil-style conspiracy by KD & Kyrie to force teams to give them exactly what they want...without actually thinking through the logistics of why the plan is supposed to give them what they want.

Maybe we'll find soon enough that there was always a plan with some team (and the desperate Lakers do make sense here) all along that went into the calculus of why those two have used this off-season like they have, but when KD talks about these #1 seeds as the places he's looking to go, it raises the question of whether he's even thinking about who would be on the other side of the trade.

Hard to imagine Durant wants to go to the Suns if they have to give up Booker to get him, and hard to imagine an owner seeing anyone else on the Suns but Booker as someone who can drive excitement for the Nets. There is always the "plus all our draft picks" aspect of things, and maybe that'll do the trick, but it doesn't give the Nets their old draft picks back so they can't tank, and the Suns draft picks likely won't be of use for years.

If as an owner I don't like what I see in the best case scenario of trading you right now, why wouldn't I just wait? Fear of you refusing to play? If you do that, at least I have the satisfaction in the fact that you're ruining your legacy at the only thing you're good at in life with the last few years you have it before you swept into the dustbin of history.

Him mentioning the Heat is all the more silly. To even consider this deal, I'd imagine the Nets have to get Bam Adebayo, whose defense should be the primary reason Durant thinks he'd be a good fit for the team.

And the NY media can be far more vicious than KD recognizes. They annihilated A-Rod's reputation in baseball, amazing player for those who don't follow. If they decide to turn on KD full blast, I could easily see the most negative narrative possible becoming KD's legacy.

I think the book on KD already got written when he came to Oakland. Everybody turned on him and the reputation clearly has not recovered.

Not sure KD cares about his "legacy" at this point

[sp6r=underrated]

Durant is very fortunate this man doesn't own the team:



Steinbrenner would be going nuclear if his only return on investment was the last 3 years.

[falcolombardi]

Smart play for Brooklyn is just Kevin no trade is happening unless we get a mammoth haul. You can retire if you don't like it. And tell Kyrie your only chance of a max is giving us a great season. I don't see any organizational value for Brooklyn of trading Russ for Kyrie.

Probably won't work but this is rare circumstance were playing hardball with players is the correct of action.

And before you think I'm anti-player. I oppose the players draft, max salaries, rookie scale, limitations on year negotiations. I'm much more pro-player than the average guy on realgm.

I'm not going to claim I know what the "smart play" for Brooklyn is, but were I a billionaire owner, I doubt I'd take kindly to being diddled by one of my employees like this. And were I a media savvy billionaire owner, I'd see ways to leverage the hostility that will be unleashed against KD by the public if he refuses to play, to my benefit.

One of the things I'm struck by is that this really seems like a Dr. Evil-style conspiracy by KD & Kyrie to force teams to give them exactly what they want...without actually thinking through the logistics of why the plan is supposed to give them what they want.

Maybe we'll find soon enough that there was always a plan with some team (and the desperate Lakers do make sense here) all along that went into the calculus of why those two have used this off-season like they have, but when KD talks about these #1 seeds as the places he's looking to go, it raises the question of whether he's even thinking about who would be on the other side of the trade.

Hard to imagine Durant wants to go to the Suns if they have to give up Booker to get him, and hard to imagine an owner seeing anyone else on the Suns but Booker as someone who can drive excitement for the Nets. There is always the "plus all our draft picks" aspect of things, and maybe that'll do the trick, but it doesn't give the Nets their old draft picks back so they can't tank, and the Suns draft picks likely won't be of use for years.

If as an owner I don't like what I see in the best case scenario of trading you right now, why wouldn't I just wait? Fear of you refusing to play? If you do that, at least I have the satisfaction in the fact that you're ruining your legacy at the only thing you're good at in life with the last few years you have it before you swept into the dustbin of history.

Him mentioning the Heat is all the more silly. To even consider this deal, I'd imagine the Nets have to get Bam Adebayo, whose defense should be the primary reason Durant thinks he'd be a good fit for the team.

And the NY media can be far more vicious than KD recognizes. They annihilated A-Rod's reputation in baseball, amazing player for those who don't follow. If they decide to turn on KD full blast, I could easily see the most negative narrative possible becoming KD's legacy.

That would imply new york media cares about the nets?

I thought they literally dont care about their existence and talking about the knicks continuing to be bad gave them more clicks

What was the deal with a-rod and jeter btw? Was not a-rod like tge way, way better player but new york media forced jeter as a goat tier player down everyone throats or somethingh(some baseball people tell this)

Somethingh about playing the better player out of position for jeter ego sake?

[Statlanta]

While i am intrigued by minnesota move, i wonder if losing bev is a bigger deal that we think

Beverley has been a impact metrics darling the last few years and minnesota transformation into a quality team came with him (and Dlo and edwards progress so is hard to distribute credit)

That’s the part I don’t like. If D’Lo was a better scorer the fit with the bigs wouldn’t be as pronounced but he isn’t. Beverley really stepped up in the playoffs which Russell didn’t do and people mistaked it as Beverley taking too many shots or working into Memphis gameplan.

That will be a notable loss much like Rubio

[sp6r=underrated]

I'm not going to claim I know what the "smart play" for Brooklyn is, but were I a billionaire owner, I doubt I'd take kindly to being diddled by one of my employees like this. And were I a media savvy billionaire owner, I'd see ways to leverage the hostility that will be unleashed against KD by the public if he refuses to play, to my benefit.

One of the things I'm struck by is that this really seems like a Dr. Evil-style conspiracy by KD & Kyrie to force teams to give them exactly what they want...without actually thinking through the logistics of why the plan is supposed to give them what they want.

Maybe we'll find soon enough that there was always a plan with some team (and the desperate Lakers do make sense here) all along that went into the calculus of why those two have used this off-season like they have, but when KD talks about these #1 seeds as the places he's looking to go, it raises the question of whether he's even thinking about who would be on the other side of the trade.

Hard to imagine Durant wants to go to the Suns if they have to give up Booker to get him, and hard to imagine an owner seeing anyone else on the Suns but Booker as someone who can drive excitement for the Nets. There is always the "plus all our draft picks" aspect of things, and maybe that'll do the trick, but it doesn't give the Nets their old draft picks back so they can't tank, and the Suns draft picks likely won't be of use for years.

If as an owner I don't like what I see in the best case scenario of trading you right now, why wouldn't I just wait? Fear of you refusing to play? If you do that, at least I have the satisfaction in the fact that you're ruining your legacy at the only thing you're good at in life with the last few years you have it before you swept into the dustbin of history.

Him mentioning the Heat is all the more silly. To even consider this deal, I'd imagine the Nets have to get Bam Adebayo, whose defense should be the primary reason Durant thinks he'd be a good fit for the team.

And the NY media can be far more vicious than KD recognizes. They annihilated A-Rod's reputation in baseball, amazing player for those who don't follow. If they decide to turn on KD full blast, I could easily see the most negative narrative possible becoming KD's legacy.

I think the book on KD already got written when he came to Oakland. Everybody turned on him and the reputation clearly has not recovered.

Not sure KD cares about his "legacy" at this point

I think you misread KD alot. He cares immensely what people think of him. Everyone does to some degree but he's abnormally aware.

[sp6r=underrated]

I'm not going to claim I know what the "smart play" for Brooklyn is, but were I a billionaire owner, I doubt I'd take kindly to being diddled by one of my employees like this. And were I a media savvy billionaire owner, I'd see ways to leverage the hostility that will be unleashed against KD by the public if he refuses to play, to my benefit.

One of the things I'm struck by is that this really seems like a Dr. Evil-style conspiracy by KD & Kyrie to force teams to give them exactly what they want...without actually thinking through the logistics of why the plan is supposed to give them what they want.

Maybe we'll find soon enough that there was always a plan with some team (and the desperate Lakers do make sense here) all along that went into the calculus of why those two have used this off-season like they have, but when KD talks about these #1 seeds as the places he's looking to go, it raises the question of whether he's even thinking about who would be on the other side of the trade.

Hard to imagine Durant wants to go to the Suns if they have to give up Booker to get him, and hard to imagine an owner seeing anyone else on the Suns but Booker as someone who can drive excitement for the Nets. There is always the "plus all our draft picks" aspect of things, and maybe that'll do the trick, but it doesn't give the Nets their old draft picks back so they can't tank, and the Suns draft picks likely won't be of use for years.

If as an owner I don't like what I see in the best case scenario of trading you right now, why wouldn't I just wait? Fear of you refusing to play? If you do that, at least I have the satisfaction in the fact that you're ruining your legacy at the only thing you're good at in life with the last few years you have it before you swept into the dustbin of history.

Him mentioning the Heat is all the more silly. To even consider this deal, I'd imagine the Nets have to get Bam Adebayo, whose defense should be the primary reason Durant thinks he'd be a good fit for the team.

And the NY media can be far more vicious than KD recognizes. They annihilated A-Rod's reputation in baseball, amazing player for those who don't follow. If they decide to turn on KD full blast, I could easily see the most negative narrative possible becoming KD's legacy.

That would imply new york media cares about the nets?

I thought they literally dont care about their existence and talking about the knicks continuing to be bad gave them more clicks

What was the deal with a-rod and jeter btw? Was not a-rod like tge way, way better player but new york media forced jeter as a goat tier player down everyone throats or somethingh(some baseball people tell this)

Somethingh about playing the better player out of position for jeter ego sake?

The tabloids will see killing Durant as good for business, especially if Tsai has savvy

A-Rod was far better but Jeter was the face of a team that won 4 World Series in 5 years. A-Rod's resulted in the Yankes going 5 years without the pennant/World Series.

And while both possessed movie star looks, Jeter was savvy, while A-Rod

[parsnips33]

And the NY media can be far more vicious than KD recognizes. They annihilated A-Rod's reputation in baseball, amazing player for those who don't follow. If they decide to turn on KD full blast, I could easily see the most negative narrative possible becoming KD's legacy.

I think the book on KD already got written when he came to Oakland. Everybody turned on him and the reputation clearly has not recovered.

Not sure KD cares about his "legacy" at this point

I think you misread KD alot. He cares immensely what people think of him. Everyone does to some degree but he's abnormally aware.

I just don't know that the situation can get much worse than what it's been, but who knows

[sp6r=underrated]

Strange thought: Is Ben Simmons the most likeable member of Brooklyn's Big 3?

[Doctor MJ]

I think the book on KD already got written when he came to Oakland. Everybody turned on him and the reputation clearly has not recovered.

Not sure KD cares about his "legacy" at this point

1. Oh it can get much worse. Remember that most people still thought Durant had a greater career than Curry before this year. Leaving aside how the GS chip raises Curry's stock, if you're ranking ahead of Curry in no small part because many people ended up buying into the whole "KD was the #1, Curry was the #2", you have FAR to fall.

2. To not care about legacy he'd have to stop caring what other people think. He's too insecure for that. I'm sure he's been building up plenty of mental scar tissue through these past few years to protect him from future criticism, and that was always limited by his own imagination of what was possible, and what it would feel like to go through it.

I think we need to think about how it will be if KD never does anything "all-timer worthy" again from here on out. I'm not saying I'm betting he'll do nothing of that sort of positive consequence, but just saying: This won't be a clean retirement where a guy has a wave of positivity thrown his way followed by a graceful sunset, KD's going to be getting paid more than $50 million in 2026 as a 37 year old. People are going to keep talking about him at least as long as that contract goes, and if they don't have anything positive to say...it will become vicious.

And of course, the uglier it gets, if KD continues to react as he has to negativity, the uglier KD will get.

I find it hard to sympathize when someone like KD brings social pain on themselves due to their unprofessional and unkind treatment of others, but I really do think this would be a thing where the karma is going to get him, and get him in a way that really hurts him.

(Kyrie I'm less sure what hurts him incidentally. There's a part of me that feels like Kyrie is becoming an actual cult leader before our eyes. The whole notion of a celebrity's cult following used to be playful hyperbole, but I think things have changed in the age of the social web.)

[falcolombardi]

And the NY media can be far more vicious than KD recognizes. They annihilated A-Rod's reputation in baseball, amazing player for those who don't follow. If they decide to turn on KD full blast, I could easily see the most negative narrative possible becoming KD's legacy.

That would imply new york media cares about the nets?

I thought they literally dont care about their existence and talking about the knicks continuing to be bad gave them more clicks

What was the deal with a-rod and jeter btw? Was not a-rod like tge way, way better player but new york media forced jeter as a goat tier player down everyone throats or somethingh(some baseball people tell this)

Somethingh about playing the better player out of position for jeter ego sake?

The tabloids will see killing Durant as good for business, especially if Tsai has savvy

A-Rod was far better but Jeter was the face of a team that won 4 World Series in 5 years. A-Rod's resulted in the Yankes going 5 years without the pennant/World Series.

And while both possessed movie star looks, Jeter was savvy, while A-Rod

Was jeter not just a very good player in a stacked team and a-rod a legitimate all time great?

Are we sure it was not because alex rodriguez was a dominican and jeter an american?