2025 Regular Season Thread Vol. 9

[jbsays]

And why would Suns want Herro for KD? They already have Booker and Beal. Even if Herro is better he's not enough of a game changer to justify paying 3 guys who essentially play same position that much money. Now, maybe if the Heat could pull off something like...

KD, Beal for Herro, Wiggins, Robinson (filler), Rozier (filler), and picks it may make sense for Suns.

They move KD.
They get out of Beal's deal and NTC.
Herro gives them someone who can help offensively next to Booker.
Wiggins is a competent NBA starter.
They can release Robinson and Rozier to save money.
They get picks.

Would leave the Heat with Ware, Bam, KD, Beal, and Mitchell starting lineup.

[greg4012]

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That Marcus Smart bullsh*t will forever haunt Bam

[DayofMourning]

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That Marcus Smart bullsh*t will forever haunt Bam

Great response.

Nobody should have to campaign to "experts" for their case. I wouldnt want to do that either.

Bams a great dude and Im glad he plays for us.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[VaDe255]

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Tyler should not be on this list, this is the one part where he just sucked

[contract]

The biggest FU to Butler is trading for Durant and giving him that extension. It’s going to be glorious

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

That’s not so easy to get. Plucking young stars is damn near impossible without hoarding picks for years. Let’s take advantage of Durant’s two year window with this group. It’s going to work and with old man Riley this is the path he’s going to take. It’s not a Durant build. It’s a Durant complimenting all the current pieces and bringing them over the hump. The young star will have to be lucked into during the draft but don’t sleep on Kelel Ware reaching new heights.

With this group? What group? We just won 37 games. The closest thing we have to a complimentary star player is Bam, and that's just not going to get it done. This group is not close.

Our fans seem to be addicted to insanity. Trading for Durant and extending him would be a disaster. Extending Herro will be a disaster. We need to get out from under past bad decisions, not double down on them.

[batterybro42]

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

KD is easily playing at a high level as long as he can physically run up and down the court. You are not talking about a guy he relies on his athleticism, he is as skilled a scorer of the basketball as this game has ever seen. I would feel perfectly comfortable giving KD something like a 3 year deal on the MAx

I think KD has the same amount of time left as Giannis

Let that sink in for a minute

KD is a basketball machine. As long as he can move, he'll try to play. Only problem is what durability can you expect from him at this age and his injury history? The risk of missing time or significant injury only increases when you get at this age. And as we've seen with the Suns, having KD at this age doesn't make you a contender by default.

I think it depends on how you use KD. I think there is a possibility he can miss time with certain injuries but long term I don't see an injury impacting his performance. It is not like he is Derrick Rose, or Wade or somebody like that who has to become a different player when they lose explosiveness. KD checks the box for everything our offense lacks, and is another huge key to unlocking additional growth offensively for both Bam and Herro. I would be willing to say that if you were able to add KD onto this team and keep Herro, Bam, and Ware that I would say we would be title favorites in my mind. I think he moves the needle that much specifically for this Heat team with defense they are capable of playing

[contract]

The biggest FU to Butler is trading for Durant and giving him that extension. It’s going to be glorious

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

The NBA is 3-year windows

If we have 37 year old KD, and Bam, and Tyler ... what window do we have? What exactly do you think that team is going to accomplish?

And then the year after when KD is 38, what window do we have?

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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Tyler should not be on this list, this is the one part where he just sucked

Yea I’m very curious what went into this lol

[contract]

The biggest FU to Butler is trading for Durant and giving him that extension. It’s going to be glorious

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

KD is easily playing at a high level as long as he can physically run up and down the court. You are not talking about a guy he relies on his athleticism, he is as skilled a scorer of the basketball as this game has ever seen. I would feel perfectly comfortable giving KD something like a 3 year deal on the MAx

I think KD has the same amount of time left as Giannis

Let that sink in for a minute

"Time doesn't apply to this player because he doesn't rely on athleticism".

Time applies to everybody. And it doesn't even matter if Durant could average 30 ppg until he's 100 years old. The important question is can he do it while helping his team win. He's 36 years old, and that answer is already "no".

[Hoops3355]

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This will be a hard pill for a lot of you to swallow but Edrice has become a Bosh/KG level of midrange and paint scorer efficiency wise. From 3 he’s a much better corner shooter at about 46% while Bosh was the better above the break 3 point shooter. Bams post all star break numbers shatter them all so we’ll see if he can continue to build on it.

Next season will be the best version we’ve seen.

There are gonna be ebbs and flows with distance shooting without question. But, I'm certain that Bam is more comfortable finding reliable footwork to get into rhythm shots from distance now than he was to start the season. Foundational development this season.

Really wish this season didn’t start with his worst shooting stretch of his career. Probably Olympics hangover and drama that contributed to it. I’m excited to see the continued development, I think many different players made strides in areas this season we were all looking for.

Bam is a reliable shooter

Herro tinkered his shot diet and became efficient due to it

Ware is night and day from he early season self, this summer is huge for him

Jovic found his role and became a legit contributor before the injury

We added a scrappy spark plug PG in Mitchell

A lot of good in this season of mediocrity.

Agree with all of this. Looking at the season as a whole. There's was 3 pretty clear derailments. Dru Smith -> Jimmy -> Jovic. Despite all that we made the play-in and there's a very clear path on how to taking the next step (find a 1A lol). With that said I wished we'd just been a little worse. We never take advantage of being "bad".

[contract]

Once again the Heat's front office is going to need an even dumber team to save us from our poor decision making. Hopefully some other team offers the Suns 5 first round picks for Durant so he doesn't blow up on our cap.

Being a Heat fan is living in terror of the team's next brain dead decision.

[Kobewade11]

Tyler should not be on this list, this is the one part where he just sucked

Trust me, the head coaches know more than us.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

The numbers actually say KD had a high impact on winning this year, his team is just a horrible fit between Beal and Booker. Beal really ruined that team

[greg4012]

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

The NBA is 3-year windows

If we have 37 year old KD, and Bam, and Tyler ... what window do we have? What exactly do you think that team is going to accomplish?

And then the year after when KD is 38, what window do we have?

Compete for a title for 2-3 years depending on health, progress of youth, and team building.

Then KD is off the books and we proceed from there.

Not everything needs to be part of a master 10-year plan (and realistically can't be in the modern NBA landscape).

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Tyler was the worst clutch player in the league this year. He had the 3rd most attempts and worst shooting percentage. Bam had the 8th most attempts and had the 3rd highest shooting percentage while also being one of the best clutch defenders and leading the league in steals in the clutch. Bam had 31 points in overtime this season on 65TS%, the next highest was Duncan with 8 points. Bam has a buzzer beating game winner this year (Herro also might I can’t remember).

Again, not even hating I’m overall happy with the new version of Herro this season for the most part (just wish we could get him more off ball) and no one on the roster is coming close to winning the award due to our record, I’m just curious what goes into something like that.

[greg4012]

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

That’s not so easy to get. Plucking young stars is damn near impossible without hoarding picks for years. Let’s take advantage of Durant’s two year window with this group. It’s going to work and with old man Riley this is the path he’s going to take. It’s not a Durant build. It’s a Durant complimenting all the current pieces and bringing them over the hump. The young star will have to be lucked into during the draft but don’t sleep on Kelel Ware reaching new heights.

With this group? What group? We just won 37 games. The closest thing we have to a complimentary star player is Bam, and that's just not going to get it done. This group is not close.

Our fans seem to be addicted to insanity. Trading for Durant and extending him would be a disaster. Extending Herro will be a disaster. We need to get out from under past bad decisions, not double down on them.

Checking in to say that Herro has proven to provide value under his current contract (55th highest paid player in the NBA this season). Worth keeping in mind considering how many flagged it as a disastrous mistake at the time.

I'm hesitant on the the idea of extending Herro the first second he becomes eligible (what's the point?) for his new extension. But, I do think it provides some context in a world where everyone is so anchored in their preconceived positions.

[greg4012]

And then what? You can't build around a 37 year old. And a 37 year old on a max contract that you can't build around is organizational suicide.

We need to find a star that we can build around.

KD is easily playing at a high level as long as he can physically run up and down the court. You are not talking about a guy he relies on his athleticism, he is as skilled a scorer of the basketball as this game has ever seen. I would feel perfectly comfortable giving KD something like a 3 year deal on the MAx

I think KD has the same amount of time left as Giannis

Let that sink in for a minute

"Time doesn't apply to this player because he doesn't rely on athleticism".

Time applies to everybody. And it doesn't even matter if Durant could average 30 ppg until he's 100 years old. The important question is can he do it while helping his team win. He's 36 years old, and that answer is already "no".

If he averages 30 ppg on above average NBA efficiency (which he as maintained for each season he's played in for the past decade) and a positive A/TO ratio, then the answer is unequivocally "YES"

[3ammy3uck3ts]

With KD on the court and Beal/Booker off the Suns had a +9.03 net rating.

With Beal/Booker on and KD off they had a -12.87 net rating.

If you filter it to show only games that all 3 played in with KD on and the other two off they had a +21.53 Net rating, with KD off and those two on they had a -9.74 Net rating.

The Suns were 33-29 with Durant this year, 2-18 without him. I believe they were 15-3 when KD/Booker played but Beal did not. The suns are 35-11 since Beal got there when KD/Booker play without Beal.

For VaDe, KD had a +3.1 EPM.

Fit is very important and Phoenix clearly shot themselves in the foot letting their new owner step in and call all the shots. I definitely think KD can work wonders for this group and I think KD with this group and Spo coaching will attract even more talent

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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It’s begun, stay tuned.