2022-23 Season Discussion and Speculation 4 - Trade season continues - No player trade restrictions

[Saberestar]

I think one good thing with all the injuries in addition to Mikal's breakout after struggling for awhile being the main guy is the bench will likely be a lot stronger now. Hopefully the guards come back at some point, but we can go big with Payne, Shamet, Craig, Saric and Biyombo or Landale, or small with Payne, Shamet, Lee, Craig, Saric or one of the other guys. Then we still have Ish, Lee, Okogie and the other Cs for 3rd stringers.

No way Damion Lee is out of the rotation, no matter size needed or whatever.

Monty trusts him and he is gonna play meaningful minutes at 2/3 even with a full healthy roster. He has played so far on every single game averaging over 22 mpg.

OTOH I think Okogie will be completely out of the rotation because he isn't reliable on offense.

I had Lee in the small ball backup unit. The second Lee I mentioned for 3rd string was Saben Lee. Who do you think Lee is ahead of in the 2nd unit. Shamet? I don't necessarily think Shamet is better but I do think Monty likes him as a secondary ball handler, and I don't see Lee ahead of Craig. But maybe Craig plays PF no matter what.

I think the main lineup WOULD be that small ball unit and that they should go back to Saric at backup C like in the bubble and our finals season where he was often great until the playoffs. Payne is better with him too. Which would put Lee at the 3. But we could still use some bigger lineups too depending on matchups with one of the other Cs even though neither has been consistently really good.

We likely will always have at least one injury. Payne's might be more serious and Shamet may play backup PG with Lee, Craig, Saric and Biz/Landale.

I think that Damion Lee is now ahead of Shamet on the rotation and possibly ahead of every other bench player.

[kingstyyyle]

I wonder what realistically they could even offer for the injury prone 35 year old KD.

Ayton (who the Nets didn't want) and Cam would likely be the offer.

Obviously that is not enough, unless they LOVED Ayton and felt they needed a wing shooter, but they really don't.

Now we could throw Mikal in there, but personally I wouldn't want to given he is 8 years younger than KD, obviously WAY less injury prone, and now a solid 2 way player....he is one of the best defenders, can score in multiple ways, is a great passer, etc. I've always felt he could break out and be like Paul George and I think he is getting pretty close.

And the Nets already have O'Neale and DFS, who are not as good as Bridges, but they are solid 3D guys. They have a good young cheap C.

That all being said, I am highly doubtful they trade KD, even this offseason. It is less likely than last offseason I think, and is under contract for 3 more years after this one.

He's already requested a trade once and that was before Irving left. I would be surprised if the Nets didn't trade him.

I know everyone will have wishful thinking on KD like last summer, but in the scenario that KD asks out AGAIN (50/50 at best I think), they will get a lot better offers I imagine.

KD is so old and so injury prone that I don't know why people would give up Bridges for him now. I could understand a little bit last offseason when we thought CP3 had one more year, but are we keeping CP3 and expecting him AND KD to be healthy? And Booker? They are all pretty injury prone. Then you likely lose Bridges, or at least Cam and Ayton and a bunch of picks for a KD that has a couple years left.

In 3 years, when Book has a 1 or 2 left on his supermax, if we don't have Bridges, CP3, KD, etc, or he only has Bridges, he would likely want out.

So you think they will get a lot better options despite him being "old and so injury prone"?

[TeamTragic]

I wonder what realistically they could even offer for the injury prone 35 year old KD.

Ayton (who the Nets didn't want) and Cam would likely be the offer.

Obviously that is not enough, unless they LOVED Ayton and felt they needed a wing shooter, but they really don't.

Now we could throw Mikal in there, but personally I wouldn't want to given he is 8 years younger than KD, obviously WAY less injury prone, and now a solid 2 way player....he is one of the best defenders, can score in multiple ways, is a great passer, etc. I've always felt he could break out and be like Paul George and I think he is getting pretty close.

And the Nets already have O'Neale and DFS, who are not as good as Bridges, but they are solid 3D guys. They have a good young cheap C.

That all being said, I am highly doubtful they trade KD, even this offseason. It is less likely than last offseason I think, and is under contract for 3 more years after this one.

Was it reported that they didn't like Ayton or that they just didn't want to be hard capped? Would they be hard capped if they traded for him now? I have no idea, just wondering out loud.

Also, 100% DA would veto the trade haha

It was reported they didn't want Ayton. Whether that was solely because they would be hard capped or for another reason or both is not known.

Also, KD's trade request also said "unless you get rid of the coach" and they did. And he was very happy this season, according to multiple sources, BEFORE Kyrie came back.

Raptors are enamored with Ayton whatever that means. Nets don't want Ayton because they know that as soon as they moved Kyrie they are no longer contending.

Maybe when Matt takes over and asks JJ why star players are being traded left and right he can tell them they "weren't the right fit". Kyrie was just traded to your biggest rival who embarassed you beyond belief during the playoffs.

If the SUNS don't make an all-in move by the deadline I would ask out if I was Booker. This is infuriating as a fan and I can only imagine what it feels like as the best player.

[Sunsdeuce]

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[TeamTragic]

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[Hitachi77]

Anyone thinking we should have traded Bridges and/or Cam for Kyrie is nuts, and I absolutely would have traded both and more for KD. He's injury prone AND a headcase. A double whammy ****. And he doesnt care about winning, which is evidenced by the fact that he demanded out despite the Nets looking like title favorites with him and KD in the lineup.

If the argument is the keep him from Dal, I guess, but I don't want to give up a good player to keep him from a team we might not even face in the playoffs. Plus this shakes up their chemistry.

[TeamTragic]

Anyone thinking we should have traded Bridges and/or Cam for Kyrie is nuts, and I absolutely would have traded both and more for KD. He's injury prone AND a headcase. A double whammy ****. And he doesnt care about winning, which is evidenced by the fact that he demanded out despite the Nets looking like title favorites with him and KD in the lineup.

If the argument is the keep him from Dal, I guess, but I don't want to give up a good player to keep him from a team we might not even face in the playoffs. Plus this shakes up their chemistry.

Nobody said they wanted to trade Bridges and/or CamJo for Kyrie. It would have likely been CP3/picks but per reports we don't want to trade CP3.

[sunsbum]

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I would love this just for the fact that I can watch slim cook while being wrong about flex.

[BobbieL]

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I don't believe this guy has any sources

[TeamTragic]

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I don't believe this guy has any sources

Daryl Morey follows him.

[lilfishi22]

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My typical " everyone already knows this" contribution to the discussion..........lol.

I wonder what realistically they could even offer for the injury prone 35 year old KD.

Ayton (who the Nets didn't want) and Cam would likely be the offer.

Obviously that is not enough, unless they LOVED Ayton and felt they needed a wing shooter, but they really don't.

Now we could throw Mikal in there, but personally I wouldn't want to given he is 8 years younger than KD, obviously WAY less injury prone, and now a solid 2 way player....he is one of the best defenders, can score in multiple ways, is a great passer, etc. I've always felt he could break out and be like Paul George and I think he is getting pretty close.

And the Nets already have O'Neale and DFS, who are not as good as Bridges, but they are solid 3D guys. They have a good young cheap C.

That all being said, I am highly doubtful they trade KD, even this offseason. It is less likely than last offseason I think, and is under contract for 3 more years after this one.

We include ayton we better be getting a center because there is no version of this you win a championship with biz and Landale,

Is it possible to net a reasonably decent C with our expiring contracts and a pick? The guy literally just needs to do a few things well and that's it. We don't need someone who's as well rounded as Ayton.

Could we get someone like WCJr? Richaun Holmes? Vuc? Theis? I just don't think you need to spend top dollar on a C if you already have a bunch of other really really good players.

[lilfishi22]

Also I just love how every time a trade goes down, like literally any trade, that doesn't involve the Suns, it's like the James Jones personally gift wrapped a championship to one of those teams by not being involved

SUNS ARE LOOKING TO TRADE FOR A STAR PLAYER

KD - FAIL
Kyrie - FAIL
KD - (guess)

Not every trade rumor ends up in an actual trade lol. Otherwise there would be as many trades as on the Wall street trading floor

[TeamTragic]

Also I just love how every time a trade goes down, like literally any trade, that doesn't involve the Suns, it's like the James Jones personally gift wrapped a championship to one of those teams by not being involved

SUNS ARE LOOKING TO TRADE FOR A STAR PLAYER

KD - FAIL
Kyrie - FAIL
KD - (guess)

Not every trade rumor ends up in an actual trade lol. Otherwise there would be as many trades as on the Wall street trading floor

How many more excuses before you admit that JJ has struck out on multiple star players?

[Ghost of Kleine]

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Everyone had to know that this was coming!.......................lol

[irish22022]

If we trade bridges I will be absolutely shocked. He’s on a great contract and is only getting better. But make no mistake, CP/Booker/KD is nuts. If we keep Bridges that’s gotta be the best first 4 in the league. Dario would need to step up

[lilfishi22]

I understand why the Mavericks made the trade - Luka needed help and Irving will help

But DFS and Dinwiddie were valuable rotation players. Especially against the Suns. AS for the Suns, just saw this tweet - get Booker ack, get something for Crowder, get either Payne or Shamet back in the rotation (or trade one or both) - and hit the post ASB hard. The Suns are right there. They stay healthy the rest of the year - they will be a top 4 seed.

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Not saying Dinwiddie/DFS > Kyrie in any shape of form but I think when a big name like Kyrie gets traded most people look at the positives and what the incoming star brings to the able. What they don't (want to?) talk about is the intangibles they give up. Does Kyrie's offensive make up for DFS' ability to guard multiple positions, does he play well enough off-ball with Luka's extremely ball dominant style and will he be able to stay focused on basketball without letting all the other stuff he's into become a distraction?

On the topic of playing off ball, no one comes close to Lukas level of usage except for prime Houston Harden with a 40%+ usage rate. Luka's usage is at around 38% over the past two seasons whereas neither prime Lebron nor KD have ever been higher than 34% usage. When Kyrie played with Lebron and KD, neither guys were much higher than 30% usage. It's going to be a a hella adjustment for both guys.

I think the Mavs got worse today. More so, I think if/when Luka leaves in a cpl years, we can look back on this moment as the 1 the started his departure.

That's not an unreasonable perspective. I always thought the best way to maximise an elite talent like a Luka or prime Harden is to build specifically around them. Given their limitations due to past decisions, I think they've done a good enough job of that. Getting Kyrie will obviously help them offensively but people tend to evaluate a trade solely on the "name value" of players rather than digging just one level down to recognise what those "no-name" actually bring to the table that just doesn't get talked about because obviously it's a Luka team.

But there is certainly a possibility that they are just so bad on defense that even a top 5 offense won't be enough. I also agree the big Kyrie risk is that he just pisses everyone off and in particular the star player. Like KD may never say it directly but there's just no way he's not even a little bit pissed off about Kyrie's time in Brooklyn, playing only 143 of a possible 248 games (52%) because of this, that and other thing.

One thing I will say is that while this doesn't guarantee Dallas is the best team out West, I'm more glad that the West has largely kept its parity. Dallas gets better offensively but also gets worse defensively so I think overall it's an improvement but not by much. But the fact that he didn't go to a Laker or a Clippers where he would be creating a new Big 3 with AD/Lebron or Kawhi/PG just makes things more palatable.

[lilfishi22]

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Where Flex at

[lilfishi22]

SUNS ARE LOOKING TO TRADE FOR A STAR PLAYER

KD - FAIL
Kyrie - FAIL
KD - (guess)

Not every trade rumor ends up in an actual trade lol. Otherwise there would be as many trades as on the Wall street trading floor

How many more excuses before you admit that JJ has struck out on multiple star players?

How many star player gets traded on a yearly basis? Last star player JJ traded for helped us get to the Finals and the best record in Suns history.

[TeamTragic]

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Everyone had to know that this was coming!.......................lol

[lilfishi22]

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Everyone had to know that this was coming!.......................lol

I am significantly less interested in KD than I was in the offseason, largely because of Mikal's development on offense, but I do agree the prize is KD, NOT Kyrie