Fake Trade Thread #6

[JustBuzzin]

if we were hellbent on moving melo i'd go for the houston deals
i wonder what a melo/franz deal might look like with magic - if magic feel franz/paolo are too redundant and need 3pt shooting - melo/suggs/paolo core would be fun.

Reed/Whitmore would be nice.

Reed
Miller
Whitmore
Flagg

A nice young core moving forward.

Reed is just a complete dart throw though, I don't think any team is giving up a top 10 pick in this upcoming draft for him.

I would still rather have LaMelo than that package, but if we are committed to sucking for another 3 years then sure might as well because no reason LaMelo should have to wait 8 years into his career to have a chance to play a real playoff series.

I mean we get Flagg in this scenario.

It's more about getting young talent and building.

Flagg/Miller are the cornerstones in this scenario. We have picks to make a trade down the line. That's a young exciting and potentially HEALTHY core.

[SWedd523]

For me, the primary goals for this season were to (1) keep Melo and Mark on the court and get them into a steady development program that goes through the end of the season and into the offseason, and (2) prove that we can have a competent defense while still doing step 1. Off the top of my head, I think everything else was secondary from a franchise building perspective to those two goals.

My two biggest questions marks for this season were can we keep those two guys healthy, and can we have a respectable defense if we do. If we finish the season with both of those things being accomplished, I'll feel pretty good about our trajectory as a franchise.

Right now cleaning the glass has our DRTG at 18th in the league, which is the best defense relative to the rest of the league that we've had in 7 years, so I'm feeling good about how that goal is trending. Jury is out on the injury stuff but I'm encouraged by the injury management protocols we have for Melo and Mark and I'm hopeful we can keep them healthy for the rest of the season.

Between the injuries, organizational tanking, "injury management" and zero effort to build a respectable roster around LaMelo and Mark, I have no idea how you can take anything positive away from this season other than confirmation LaMelo can score 30ppg with some semblance of talent around him.

Yeah I must be in some multiverse situation because this season has been a complete **** from the top down.

Folks already stepping down from the "all star" med team we brought in

Melo and Mark still injured, showing no real signs of on court development, Miller hurt, Mann hurt, Grant hurt.

Tiddy looking like a bust, Green looking like a bust.

Early returns on Peterson and Lee are very negative.

Pathetic effort and performances on a nightly basis. No discernable offensive system outside of "Melo please do something".


Generally speaking a pretty demoralizing first swing for the new regime.

[KembaWalker]

Randomly cherry-picking two parts of the team that haven’t been a complete dumpster fire in March and identifying those as “the primary goals” of the season and saying “job well done, everything is going just as planned” is some interesting coping

I guess Brandon Miller was always just an afterthought this season

[yosemiteben]

Randomly cherry-picking two parts of the team that haven’t been a complete dumpster fire in March and identifying those as “the primary goals” of the season and saying “job well done, everything is going just as planned” is some interesting coping

I guess Brandon Miller was always just an afterthought this season

It's not fun having you say I'm lying or just making **** up to cope, maybe try doing that less or just don't engage with me at all. Not interested in that feedback.

Seeing if we can keep Melo healthy and have a decent defense with him in my mind are the two biggest franchise priorities related to the current roster, and I think many would have agreed with that before the season began. We have dramatically different outcomes depending on those variables.

I'm very interested to hear if anyone disagrees.

[JustBuzzin]

Randomly cherry-picking two parts of the team that haven’t been a complete dumpster fire in March and identifying those as “the primary goals” of the season and saying “job well done, everything is going just as planned” is some interesting coping

I guess Brandon Miller was always just an afterthought this season

It's not fun having you say I'm lying or just making **** up to cope, maybe try doing that less or just don't engage with me at all. Not interested in that feedback.

Seeing if we can keep Melo healthy and have a decent defense with him in my mind are the two biggest franchise priorities related to the current roster, and I think many would have agreed with that before the season began. We have dramatically different outcomes depending on those variables.

I'm very interested to hear if anyone disagrees.

Bro Melo is 23. Waiting to see if he can get healthy is getting old. I don't think you realize that new ownership and new GM are not tied to Melo. They literally tried to trade Mark who was supposedly a core piece. You think Melo playing 40 games a season on a supermax is going to sit well with new ownership?

MJ gave Melo that contract he's no longer in charge. I like Melo personally he's a cool kid, but the injuries are getting old. He's no good if he's only playing half the games in a season.

I keep saying it because it's my opinion, but Melo's future could very well be determined on where we draft. If we get Flagg they are going to sell Melo low and move on imo. They clearly trying to tear this thing down and want a new centerpiece to build around.

Before you say how do I know this. I don't it's just a opinion. I seem to be right on a lot of my opinions.

1. Wanted Miller over Scoot
2. Wanted us to draft Castle who looks to be the best player in the draft so far.
3. Told everyone we should sign JJ as HC before we even interviewed him. He might be coach of the year.


I'm pretty decent at talking basketball even when I'm just talking and giving my opinion.

[yosemiteben]

Randomly cherry-picking two parts of the team that haven’t been a complete dumpster fire in March and identifying those as “the primary goals” of the season and saying “job well done, everything is going just as planned” is some interesting coping

I guess Brandon Miller was always just an afterthought this season

It's not fun having you say I'm lying or just making **** up to cope, maybe try doing that less or just don't engage with me at all. Not interested in that feedback.

Seeing if we can keep Melo healthy and have a decent defense with him in my mind are the two biggest franchise priorities related to the current roster, and I think many would have agreed with that before the season began. We have dramatically different outcomes depending on those variables.

I'm very interested to hear if anyone disagrees.

Bro Melo is 23. Waiting to see if he can get healthy is getting old. I don't think you realize that new ownership and new GM are not tied to Melo. They literally tried to trade Mark who was supposedly a core piece. You think Melo playing 40 games a season on a supermax is going to sit well with new ownership

No, which is why they hired a whole new training staff, put him on a new training regime and injury maintenance protocol, and have made it an organizational priority to keep him healthy. I do think that, in a void, they'd rather keep a potentially generational talent that is already here and fits how they want to play.

I like Melo personally he's a cool kid, but the injuries are getting old. He's no good if he's only playing half the games in a season

I agree, which is why I think this season was largely devoted to seeing whether that was possible. Melo is by far the most valuable asset this organization has, and I think they wanted to verify whether he can stay healthy under high usage with the new program they put him in.

I keep saying it because it's my opinion, but Melo's future could very well be determined on where we draft. If we get Flagg they are going to sell Melo low and move on imo.

My personal view is that would be incredibly foolish and terrible asset management.

[Liver_Pooty]

I think Lamelo would have played quite a few more games if they let him. Management is being cautious. Maybe even too overly cautious unless it’s Miles and he apparently tells them to **** off he’s playing

[JustBuzzin]

I think Lamelo would have played quite a few more games if they let him. Management is being cautious. Maybe even too overly cautious unless it’s Miles and he apparently tells them to **** off he’s playing

They were cautious with Mark and tried to trade him.

Look y'all I'm not saying trade Melo. I'm just looking at the new guys everything is pointing to a tear down imo. I'm saying if we get Flagg I'm confident and willing to put my reputation on the line saying they will trade him and hand the keys to Flagg. You can't build something from the ground up when the foundation is still in place. That's MJ foundation why build on what he already started. Not to mention that foundation is super expensive and isn't exactly reliable.

I'm just giving my opinion I know it sounds crazy, but I see the future. It's why I'm right on a lot of the crazy things that I say.

Go back and look at the people who laughed at me when I brought up the JJ Redick coaching idea. This was way before he was even on the radar as possibly being a HC.

I'm a visionary.

[Liver_Pooty]

I think Lamelo would have played quite a few more games if they let him. Management is being cautious. Maybe even too overly cautious unless it’s Miles and he apparently tells them to **** off he’s playing

They were cautious with Mark and tried to trade him.

Look y'all I'm not saying trade Melo. I'm just looking at the new guys everything is pointing to a tear down imo. I'm saying if we get Flagg I'm confident and willing to put my reputation on the line saying they will trade him and hand the keys to Flagg. You can't build something from the ground up when the foundation is still in place. That's MJ foundation why build on what he already started. Not to mention that foundation is super expensive and isn't exactly reliable.

I'm just giving my opinion I know it sounds crazy, but I see the future. It's why I'm right on a lot of the crazy things that I say.

Go back and look at the people who laughed at me when I brought up the JJ Redick coaching idea. This was way before he was even on the radar as possibly being a HC.

I'm a visionary.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I think trading an incredibly talented player away from a roster that honestly isn’t that talented is a major mistake.

[KembaWalker]

Randomly cherry-picking two parts of the team that haven’t been a complete dumpster fire in March and identifying those as “the primary goals” of the season and saying “job well done, everything is going just as planned” is some interesting coping

I guess Brandon Miller was always just an afterthought this season

It's not fun having you say I'm lying or just making **** up to cope, maybe try doing that less or just don't engage with me at all. Not interested in that feedback.

Seeing if we can keep Melo healthy and have a decent defense with him in my mind are the two biggest franchise priorities related to the current roster, and I think many would have agreed with that before the season began. We have dramatically different outcomes depending on those variables.

I'm very interested to hear if anyone disagrees.

I don’t even understand what setting LaMelos health as the primary goal of the season even means or why it would involve running some disgusting horrible offense

“Getting LaMelo through the season healthy” doesn’t even mean anything tangible. He could get through this season without another major injury and destroy his ankle 5 minutes into the season next year and put us right back into the same mess we’re always in. His ankles not just gonna magically be good again because he played 55 games this year instead of 30 or whatever. The goal should have been and should be going forward is building a functional team and offense that can survive LaMelo going down completely randomly for potentially long periods of time, because that is the situation this team has been and will be in as long as he is under contract. That should have been the goal this season, given the history, and they failed epically

Pretending like Melos health is some temporary setback that we have to just get through this season and then it’s checked off some list as a finished quest and we move on to other problems from there makes no sense

Also not sure what the relevance is of celebrating a somewhere close to (but still below) league average defense is with a roster that needs to replace 8-10 of its guys to become a functional NBA team. Good luck having that carry over somehow

[yosemiteben]

If you can't see why this team would prioritize keeping Melo healthy and putting him in a program where he's more resilient and resistant to injury, not sure there's enough shared view of reality that it's worth discussing any further.

[JustBuzzin]

Plan B should definitely be Zion. He's been balling since his return.

If we gonna gamble on Melo's health, might as well pair it with Zion health. If it fails at least we tried.

That's only if we don't get Flagg tho.

[JDR720]

Seeing if Melo can stay healthy isn't up to us, it's up to Melo. And it may not even be up to him.

He may just have bad ankles and this is going to keep happening regardless of what's done to try and prevent it.

And that's a real dilemma. Melo on his next contract, while also missing half the season every season, is a bad contract.

We've seen this with the Pelicans. It doesn't matter how talented you are if you don't play. And the new owners not having any ties to him is important. We just witnessed the Mavs chuck Luka out the window because the owners don't think he'll stay healthy/in shape. Melo is definitely not above being traded.

[KembaWalker]

If you can't see why this team would prioritize keeping Melo healthy and putting him in a program where he's more resilient and resistant to injury, not sure there's enough shared view of reality that it's worth discussing any further.

keeping people healthy is always a "priority", but claiming it as the main objective of a professional sports teams season is just goofy lol. again, it does literally nothing for us to "get LaMelo through the 24-25 season" as a goal when he could easily destroy his ankle in game 1 of next season and be out until Christmas. ****, he could re-fracture his ankle tonight despite the organizations apparent singular unified focus on his health above all else, would that make the entire season a complete failure to you?

achieving the goal of LaMelo surviving the season does literally nothing for us going forward, again this is not NBA 2k where you get through the ankle sprain mission, get a big checkmark +1000 gamercoin XP and then start tackling the next problem. i dont see why the main number 1 objective for next season wouldnt be "get LaMelo through the season" again? when is the objective going to be to build a good basketball team lol

[JMAC3]

Reed/Whitmore would be nice.

Reed
Miller
Whitmore
Flagg

A nice young core moving forward.

Reed is just a complete dart throw though, I don't think any team is giving up a top 10 pick in this upcoming draft for him.

I would still rather have LaMelo than that package, but if we are committed to sucking for another 3 years then sure might as well because no reason LaMelo should have to wait 8 years into his career to have a chance to play a real playoff series.

I mean we get Flagg in this scenario.

It's more about getting young talent and building.

Flagg/Miller are the cornerstones in this scenario. We have picks to make a trade down the line. That's a young exciting and potentially HEALTHY core.

What does landing Flagg have to do with LaMelo in this scenario? They aren't related, it is not like trading Melo improves our chances of landing Flagg. I would rather have them both. We really aren't in the situation where we should be trying to choose between talented players when we lack talent.

[Rich4114]

Absolute best time to trade your 23 year old star PG and only source of meaningful offensive output is right in the middle of a rebuild and before we've seen him play with a supporting cast, including the guys on the roster who have also been injured. And most definitely after we add the #1 pick and sure-fire star player to go alongside him. amirite?

[SWedd523]

If you can't see why this team would prioritize keeping Melo healthy and putting him in a program where he's more resilient and resistant to injury, not sure there's enough shared view of reality that it's worth discussing any further.

The team priority should not be "keeping him healthy"


That's like saying the team priority is "win games" or "develop the young players". No ****.

Regardless, I would argue that him playing injury management shenanigans is indicative of a failure to achieve that goal anyway. Even if it's BS tanking techniques, its a bad look and detrimental to the rest of the specified or implied goals for the year.

I cannot support the notion that success was achieved with Melo and Mark staying healthy if they limp to the finish line playing 63% and 48% of the season respectively

[yosemiteben]

I think we all agree that our ownership and FO needs to make a decision on whether Melo is a part of our long term picture. If he can't stay healthy, or if we can't field a competent defense with him on the floor, then I don't realistically see him as part of our long term picture.

From a raw asset management perspective, taking overt steps to prevent injury, and working with him to commit to protocols to get him stronger and to decrease injury risk, is absolutely an organizational imperative and a singularly more important objective than literally any other realistic objective this season.

[Bassman]

If Melo keeps shooting like he’s been doing (poorly), his primary value will be as an entertainer and fancy baller on a marquee team. Put him on a team like the Lakers and see how many foul calls he suddenly starts getting.

I really like the kid but between the injuries, mediocre defense and limited development, we should explore trade options in the offseason. Bridges has looked really good since he lost weight and got in gear a month or so back. His contract is pretty good, so keeping him part of a mix with Miller, hopefully Flagg or Harper, and some really good players in return for Melo would be a great place to launch from. I like the idea of Zion, or some studs from Houston’s young squad, as has been suggested in previous posts.

PS…why is Green getting so many minutes?

[JustBuzzin]

I like the idea of a trade with Portland if we can get Sharpe in a package for LaMelo.