2025 Regular Season Thread Vol. 4

[MettaWorldPanda]

The Heat better be getting Tyus Jones in that deal

They won’t. He’s tight with Butler

[MiamiLoyal926]

The Heat better be getting Tyus Jones in that deal

That would be fun… but aren’t the Suns unable to aggregate salaries/players in this trade? It would have to technically be treated as a separate trade…. So I guess with enough creativity, it’s possible, which Andy is known to be.

[batterybro42]

This will be Ware's team at some point, guy has the look to him. I am starting to think he is going end up a 25/13-15 guy with 2 plus blocks a night and a DPOY contender. I ask again if he does in fact become that, is it going to be worth paying Bam 50+ million to try to fit into the 4 spot, or are you better off exchanging him for another max tier player in a different role?

These are the hard questions that will come to the table when talking about building a post 2026 championship contender, is Bam making 50+ million approaching age 30 worth it if you have a true 5 who is capable of playing at an all star level still on his rookie deal when that team is formed? Might be better getting a different fit than trying to shove a round peg through a square hole. Need to see Bam and Ware start 20-30 games before this can really be answered. That is what I am watching the rest of this year.

[MettaWorldPanda]

So out of the 3 picks the Suns acquired, which one do we need the most?

Nah screw those picks. Lets take PHX picks instead. They can now trade their own 2026, 2028 and maybe 2030. Those probably have swaps but they'd be better swaps than the ones they acquired. I'd try to get all 3 if not then 2 and Ryan Dunn

Yeah I hadn't realised this till I saw posts on the GB on this (and too lazy to confirm), but the Stepien Rule, they contend, only means you have to have A 1st rounder in consecutive years, not YOUR 1st rounder. I always thought it was that you had to own your own 1st round pick.

The 2025, 2027 and 2029 picks are the LEAST favourable of picks that include Cleveland's in those years.
Donovan Mitchell is 28, so will be 28/30/32
Darius Garland is 25, so will be 25/27/29
Evan Mobley is 23, so will be 23/25/27
Jarrett Allen is 26, so will be 26/28/30
That is a core that will be in their prime throughout, are currently 1st in the league at a 70 win pace. They are all signed and actually on good contracts from now till end of 2028 season.

So you can about guarantee that those picks will be 25-30th picks, and not that great, sometimes teams even prefer a 2nd round 31st pick due to how favourable negotiations are once you get out of the 1st round.

But IF the Stepien rule does work this way, the Phoenix 26 and 28 draft picks that it opens up are valuable. They are the lesser of Washington and Phoenix picks I thought I saw somewhere. If that is also true, they are basically Phoenix picks. Washington sucks and I don't see them getting out of it quickly. Then with Phoenix, you are basically betting on Jimmy and KD to be injured as 36 and 37 year olds in 2026, and 38 and 39 year olds in 2028. There is no cap room to sign anyone, no picks to draft anyone. And apron rules in place to limit exceptions.

Those two picks, one to Milwaukee for Beal, one for us, make the deal work, though the missing piece is the pick to whoever takes on Connaughton, though Milwaukee has to do that deal beforehand anyway I think, not sure.

Bucks have one 2031 2nd rd pick and another 2nd will have to come from another team that goes to Detroit or whatever team absorbing Connaughton’s salary. This will all be part of the 4/5 team deal

[MettaWorldPanda]

Can see us getting the 2025 and 2027 picks the Suns just got. Bucks probably get the 2029. The 2027 pick saves us from the dumb Rozier trade keeping there pick protected.

[DayofMourning]

Can see us getting the 2025 and 2027 picks the Suns just got. Bucks probably get the 2029. The 2027 pick saves us from the dumb Rozier trade keeping there pick protected.

Or has Riley been holding out for PHX 26 and 28???

[marson]

This will be Ware's team at some point, guy has the look to him. I am starting to think he is going end up a 25/13-15 guy with 2 plus blocks a night and a DPOY contender. I ask again if he does in fact become that, is it going to be worth paying Bam 50+ million to try to fit into the 4 spot, or are you better off exchanging him for another max tier player in a different role?

These are the hard questions that will come to the table when talking about building a post 2026 championship contender, is Bam making 50+ million approaching age 30 worth it if you have a true 5 who is capable of playing at an all star level still on his rookie deal when that team is formed? Might be better getting a different fit than trying to shove a round peg through a square hole. Need to see Bam and Ware start 20-30 games before this can really be answered. That is what I am watching the rest of this year.

I'll reserve my judgment until after next season and continue to give Edrice the benefit of the doubt regarding this regression.

[batterybro42]

Can see us getting the 2025 and 2027 picks the Suns just got. Bucks probably get the 2029. The 2027 pick saves us from the dumb Rozier trade keeping there pick protected.

The draft picks are great, I doubt we ever use them to select though. Whatever draft capital we acquire will likely be used to acquire a star via trade or SNT either next year or the following offseason. The Heat are constantly linked to trade talks when it comes to acquiring a star, the frustrating thing is that since LeBron Miami has almost been in an impossible situation to make that work. That is soon to change, Miami is entering a moment in time where they become a real destination for whales again.

I want one of

Luka
SGA
Anthony Edwards (I think he becomes available should A-ROD lose Twolves arbitration)

Luka in my opinion specifically does not play the remainder of his career with the Mavs. Right now they are the 7th seed in the West, and have Kyrie (32) and Klay at (34) as running mates along with limited flexibility to really improve the roster. That is a situation worth monitoring to the point where I would like to see Miami bring Goran in to the front office mix

[MettaWorldPanda]

I hope Middleton gets rerouted. We don’t want to see what Middleton and Duncan look like defensively. We need on ball perimeter defenders in our backcourt

[marson]

Does anyone think Rozier could be with the Heat for the rest of the season? It's essentially just 3 months of basketball if we’re a play-in team.

After that, he'd be on an expiring contract and could be traded in the offseason. So 3 more months of "SCARY TERRY"

[marson]

I hope Middleton gets rerouted. We don’t want to see what Middleton and Duncan look like defensively. We need on ball perimeter defenders in our backcourt

I'll be really upset if we somehow missed out on Bruce Brown

[DayofMourning]

Does anyone think Rozier could be with the Heat for the rest of the season? It's essentially just 3 months of basketball if we’re a play-in team.

After that, he'd be on an expiring contract and could be traded in the offseason. So 3 more months of "SCARY TERRY"

We keep playing Terry and we will keep losing. I think hes our ticket to tank without getting fined.

With Terry, we should be able to draft Flagg.

[MettaWorldPanda]

I want to see Terry and Poole together on the Wiz lol

[3ammy3uck3ts]

This will be Ware's team at some point, guy has the look to him. I am starting to think he is going end up a 25/13-15 guy with 2 plus blocks a night and a DPOY contender. I ask again if he does in fact become that, is it going to be worth paying Bam 50+ million to try to fit into the 4 spot, or are you better off exchanging him for another max tier player in a different role?

These are the hard questions that will come to the table when talking about building a post 2026 championship contender, is Bam making 50+ million approaching age 30 worth it if you have a true 5 who is capable of playing at an all star level still on his rookie deal when that team is formed? Might be better getting a different fit than trying to shove a round peg through a square hole. Need to see Bam and Ware start 20-30 games before this can really be answered. That is what I am watching the rest of this year.

You all were saying this about Jaime last year lol

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Middleton is still good, he’s a solid stop gap piece for the time being at least. Are we concerned about his play or his injury history? He just averaged 25-9-5 in their playoff series last year, he’s a big game player and does a little bit of everything

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Can see us getting the 2025 and 2027 picks the Suns just got. Bucks probably get the 2029. The 2027 pick saves us from the dumb Rozier trade keeping there pick protected.

Or has Riley been holding out for PHX 26 and 28???

Everyone thinks is their new 3 picks being moved but like you say pretty sure this opened up some of their own picks as well. Those have more value id say

[Beenie]

This will be Ware's team at some point, guy has the look to him. I am starting to think he is going end up a 25/13-15 guy with 2 plus blocks a night and a DPOY contender. I ask again if he does in fact become that, is it going to be worth paying Bam 50+ million to try to fit into the 4 spot, or are you better off exchanging him for another max tier player in a different role?

These are the hard questions that will come to the table when talking about building a post 2026 championship contender, is Bam making 50+ million approaching age 30 worth it if you have a true 5 who is capable of playing at an all star level still on his rookie deal when that team is formed? Might be better getting a different fit than trying to shove a round peg through a square hole. Need to see Bam and Ware start 20-30 games before this can really be answered. That is what I am watching the rest of this year.

Hopefully Mia has learned something from the ‘2 timeline’ experiment over these last several years.

Bam is in his prime and the team isn’t ready to compete.

Should trade him in the offseason and reload their stock of picks n assets while developing Ware and figuring out what the long term vision ought to look like.

[eddieheatfan]

Watch on YouTube

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Read on Twitter

DAWGS, don’t be prisoners of the moment

[3ammy3uck3ts]

This will be Ware's team at some point, guy has the look to him. I am starting to think he is going end up a 25/13-15 guy with 2 plus blocks a night and a DPOY contender. I ask again if he does in fact become that, is it going to be worth paying Bam 50+ million to try to fit into the 4 spot, or are you better off exchanging him for another max tier player in a different role?

These are the hard questions that will come to the table when talking about building a post 2026 championship contender, is Bam making 50+ million approaching age 30 worth it if you have a true 5 who is capable of playing at an all star level still on his rookie deal when that team is formed? Might be better getting a different fit than trying to shove a round peg through a square hole. Need to see Bam and Ware start 20-30 games before this can really be answered. That is what I am watching the rest of this year.

Hopefully Mia has learned something from the ‘2 timeline’ experiment over these last several years.

Bam is in his prime and the team isn’t ready to compete.

Should trade him in the offseason and reload their stock of picks n assets while developing Ware and figuring out what the long term vision ought to look like.

We’re getting Fox this summer and filling out the roster to contend, we’re not rebuilding, not even a soft rebuild. We’re jumping right back into it