2025-2026: Around the League

[GelbeWand09]

Jalen Johnson became the Point Forward people thought Paolo gonna be.
It's kinda depressing that our 2 max forwards are being caught up or jumped left and right by there age peers while a bunch of them even got cheaper contracts.
Gonna be hard to be a true contender when we doesn't even have a top 25 player in the leaque.

[GelbeWand09]

About Reaves (or Deni, Pritchard, Markannen, Giddey & Co rise). He is just another example that NBA is now dominated by elite skill players and less by freak athletes. The best are now the insanely skilled high IQ players and the few freak athletes (Giannis, Ant, Wemby) with skills. Doncic, Joker, SGA, Cade, Halliburton, Sengun, Brunson, Tatum, Durant, Curry...
That's a long time trend many still hasnt catched up with when you see the reactions about Reaves in the past.
You seen it here already when we were rumored to sign Ingles after his rookie contract and most of the forum went riot. Guy would have been our most impactful player in the Vuc era.
Same reason why I never believed Paolo or Franz become top 10 players.
Today you have to be either insanely skilled or a skilled freak athlete to be a top 10 player. Our forwards are neither.

[RookieStar]

About Reaves (or Deni, Pritchard, Markannen, Giddey & Co rise). He is just another example that NBA is now dominated by elite skill players and less by freak athletes. The best are now the insanely skilled high IQ players and the few freak athletes (Giannis, Ant, Wemby) with skills. Doncic, Joker, SGA, Cade, Halliburton, Sengun, Brunson, Tatum, Durant, Curry...
That's a long time trend many still hasnt catched up with when you see the reactions about Reaves in the past.
You seen it here already when we were rumored to sign Ingles after his rookie contract and most of the forum went riot. Guy would have been our most impactful player in the Vuc era.
Same reason why I never believed Paolo or Franz become top 10 players.
Today you have to be either insanely skilled or a skilled freak athlete to be a top 10 player. Our forwards are neither.

Ummm in what universe are we calling Franz and Paolo as freak athletes?

Also... Franz is by definition a very skilled player. Cerebral. Tools consist of Euro steps, perfect cuts, middies amd etc etc

[RookieStar]

If I'm MIL, I'm sending Giannis somewhere where you don't have to see him 4+ times a year...good news is that some of the top teams in the West might consider it an arms race that they can't afford to lose to their neighbor and rival (HOU, SAS, OKC). All 3 are stacked with young assets and picks they've been waiting to drop a bomb with.

They just can't make it NY...what would be the rebuild-oriented package be? (I don't see Bridges + being attractive enough to talk about).

I'm not promoting it, but if Paolo entered the equation, they'd have to consider it this summer.

Do we really have to trade Paolo? No, in my opinion. We can put up a great package even without Paolo and Franz. But first of all, Giannis needs to ask out. And second of all, he will be open to Orlando. None of those two happened yet. So we are staying with Paolo

There is no way we are getting Giannis without parting with one of them. It would be a serious consideration if possible because with Giannis replacing either one we are easy winning the east, and perhaps a threat to OKC.

As long as GA is available during PO time without injuries, id agree.

[GelbeWand09]

About Reaves (or Deni, Pritchard, Markannen, Giddey & Co rise). He is just another example that NBA is now dominated by elite skill players and less by freak athletes. The best are now the insanely skilled high IQ players and the few freak athletes (Giannis, Ant, Wemby) with skills. Doncic, Joker, SGA, Cade, Halliburton, Sengun, Brunson, Tatum, Durant, Curry...
That's a long time trend many still hasnt catched up with when you see the reactions about Reaves in the past.
You seen it here already when we were rumored to sign Ingles after his rookie contract and most of the forum went riot. Guy would have been our most impactful player in the Vuc era.
Same reason why I never believed Paolo or Franz become top 10 players.
Today you have to be either insanely skilled or a skilled freak athlete to be a top 10 player. Our forwards are neither.

Ummm in what universe are we calling Franz and Paolo as freak athletes?

Also... Franz is by definition a very skilled player. Cerebral. Tools consist of Euro steps, perfect cuts, middies amd etc etc

I wrote the opposite. Both are not freak athletes. Franz is very skilled and is one of those skill player examples but at the same time he is not a insanely skilled player. His name i mentioned only at the bottom when it comes to potentially top 10 players and for that level he is not skilled enough. He cant really shoot outside of his floater range. His passing is good but not spectacular. Ballhandling is good for his size but far worse than Doncic's as example for a guy around his size. On many nights he is a one way scorer. The guys i named are just much more well rounded skillwise.

[basketballRob]

About Reaves (or Deni, Pritchard, Markannen, Giddey & Co rise). He is just another example that NBA is now dominated by elite skill players and less by freak athletes. The best are now the insanely skilled high IQ players and the few freak athletes (Giannis, Ant, Wemby) with skills. Doncic, Joker, SGA, Cade, Halliburton, Sengun, Brunson, Tatum, Durant, Curry...
That's a long time trend many still hasnt catched up with when you see the reactions about Reaves in the past.
You seen it here already when we were rumored to sign Ingles after his rookie contract and most of the forum went riot. Guy would have been our most impactful player in the Vuc era.
Same reason why I never believed Paolo or Franz become top 10 players.
Today you have to be either insanely skilled or a skilled freak athlete to be a top 10 player. Our forwards are neither.

This seems like an overreaction. Bane has actually had a better career and has been better than Reaves in every season so far in their careers. Reaves has been better for 20 games this season.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

[Skybox]

I like Reaves a lot...would you trade Paolo or Franz for him?

of course not...not even close

[drsd]

I like Reaves a lot...would you trade Paolo or Franz for him?

of course not...not even close

Relative to price-point, I wouldn't even trade Bane.

[Skybox]

I like Reaves a lot...would you trade Paolo or Franz for him?

of course not...not even close

Relative to price-point, I wouldn't even trade Bane.

I think Bane is overpaid (in this era of Aprons especially). He's great but years of $40m+ is a LOT...I'm okay with it because he's overpaid and overpaid FOR - in the same way that Rashard Lewis was at the time.

I think Reaves has comparable value to Bane, maybe Bane a little more for his defense and intensity...but they're in the same tier, imo, Suggs too. Depending on what Reaves signs for, his relative value will shift around...Suggs' descending deal is a BIG plus that I didn't really appreciate at the time.

I guess a takeaway might be that there are a LOT of really good high-profile players around that would be in a scrap to be considered ORL's 3rd or even 4th most valuable player...and likely significantly older than #1 and #2. That's a really good thing.

[GelbeWand09]

About Reaves (or Deni, Pritchard, Markannen, Giddey & Co rise). He is just another example that NBA is now dominated by elite skill players and less by freak athletes. The best are now the insanely skilled high IQ players and the few freak athletes (Giannis, Ant, Wemby) with skills. Doncic, Joker, SGA, Cade, Halliburton, Sengun, Brunson, Tatum, Durant, Curry...
That's a long time trend many still hasnt catched up with when you see the reactions about Reaves in the past.
You seen it here already when we were rumored to sign Ingles after his rookie contract and most of the forum went riot. Guy would have been our most impactful player in the Vuc era.
Same reason why I never believed Paolo or Franz become top 10 players.
Today you have to be either insanely skilled or a skilled freak athlete to be a top 10 player. Our forwards are neither.

This seems like an overreaction. Bane has actually had a better career and has been better than Reaves in every season so far in their careers.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

??? It seems more like you are reading what you want to read, rather than what I actually wrote. I havent wrote anything about Bane. I havent put Reaves in any Superstar tier or anything. Its about the rise of highly skilled players in general who arent great athletes. That skill is more important over the last years. Reaves is just another example. Reaves is a fantastic offensive player not just since 20 games. He is very good at everything on offense like i wrote before the 20 games already. He was a better and more complete offensive player than Bane before those games already. He just wasnt as featured as he is now because he always had super high usage high level playmakers in front of him with similar skillset. But he always had the full package. He always had great shooting, great driving skills, great ballhandling, very good passing/vision & super high FTr. He is a more skilled 3 level scorer on offense than any of our players because all of them have glaring weaknesses.
This doesnt mean that he is a Superstar or 1st option in the playoffs. His defense is too bad and he can be dominated physically like against OKC or in the Playoffs so far. He is a (fringe) Allstar level player but no allnba player because even with elite skills you still need physicality/strength (like Jokic, Doncic, Cade, Sengun, Brunson...) and he is to frail.

You have the next example in this rookie class already. Knueppel scores 18ppg with a .610TS% so far. Just a well rounded very skilled player.

[Skybox]

Mavs found a real one in Ryan Nembhard...undrafted on a two way. Probably could have gotten him if Suggs got on the phone to big brother. He's no star, but we weren't looking for one...just high BBIQ, give us a few quality mpg directing bench offense with efficiency.

Would have been a better move than Tyus...I liked the Tyus get and I understand it's gutsy to bet on a rookie but money's tight and Tyus' $7m means he just won't be sticking around - whether we want him or not.

I know he's a shrimp, but so's Tyus...on that note, in Jase's brief appearance, you could see the wingspan that will, hopefully, allow him to hold his own defensively.

[drsd]

I think Reaves has comparable value to Bane, .....

And Reaves will so be a Mr max man. In that, Bane is a "steal".

Not sure where the Lakers go after James exits, as I struggle to see a team built around Dončić and Reaves within a title.

But LA being LA, they will steal someone.

[RookieStar]

We made some ground... couldnt believe it. MIA lost to SAC? Are the Kings finally clicking?

GSW with their load management lineup beat the Cavs? What the...