Around the NBA 8.0

[Mystical Apples]

Great topic by the way. For young core I'll assume 25 and under and contracts matter. The Warriors have the best young core but Curry is 27.

1. Jazz - Exum, Gobert, Favors, Lyles, Hood, Hayward, Burks. They're set and in a good cap situation. Gobert is a young weapon no other team can replicate or prepare for. Every non-contending franchise would take this core in a heartbeat (and even a couple contenders too).

2. Bucks: Giannis, Parker, Middleton, Henson, MCW, and Monroe. They have precocious talent everywhere with several still on cheap rookie deals. I doubt Monroe is the right fit but he can be traded.

3. T-Wolves: Kat, Wiggins, Rubio and Dieng. Kat is the wildcard but that's a lot of eggs in one basket. I'm less convinced Wiggins will reach his potential people think he has and Rubio is often hurt.

4. Orlando: Gordon, Hezonja, Payton, Oladipo, Harris, Vucevic, Fournier. I was tempted to put them third. Great nucleus but they need to package a few of these pieces into a trade. Plus they hired Scott Skiles to ruin them.

5. Detroit: KCP, Drummond, Jackson, Johnson. Drummond makes them a great young nucleus and Johnson is a promising prospect. The other guys are nice young pieces but can be replicated in free agency

Charlotte

______________________

Philly: Noel, Okafor, Covington. I considered putting them above Charlotte but their culture is horribly damaged with directionless youth and no FA will touch them. Okafor will likely be an overrated stat stuffer requiring too many roster accommodations, a passing Al. Noel is nice and they have a lot of future picks but Embiid is a lost cause. Plus Noel needs to get paid soon which will mark the unwinding of "The Process."

Boston, Portland, Sacramento. I considered these franchises but excluded them for various reasons. Culture, salary, and assets (Kings) young but unremarkable assets (Boston) and salary and overrated assets (Portland). I'm sure they wouldn't trade with Charlotte either but it's debatable

[fatlever]

Great topic by the way. For young core I'll assume 25 and under and contracts matter. The Warriors have the best young core but Curry is 27.

1. Jazz - Exum, Gobert, Favors, Lyles, Hood, Hayward, Burks. They're set and in a good cap situation. Gobert is a young weapon no other team can replicate or prepare for. Every non-contending franchise would take this core (and even a couple contenders too).

2. Bucks: Giannis, Parker, Middleton, Henson, MCW, and Monroe. They have precocious talent everywhere with several still on cheap rookie deals. I doubt Monroe is the right fit but he can be traded.

3. T-Wolves: Kat, Wiggins, Rubio and Dieng. Kat is the wildcard but that's a lot of eggs in one basket. I'm less convinced Wiggins will reach his potential people think he has and Rubio is often hurt.

4. Orlando: Gordon, Hezonja, Payton, Oladipo, Harris, Vucevic, Fournier. I was tempted to put them third. Great nucleus but they need to package a few of these pieces into a trade. Plus they hired Scott Skiles to ruin them.

5. Detroit: KCP, Drummond, Jackson, Johnson. Drummond makes them a great young nucleus and Johnson is a promising prospect. The other guys are nice young pieces but can be replicated in free agency

Charlotte

______________________

Philly: Noel, Okafor, Covington. I considered putting them above Charlotte but their culture is horribly damaged with directionless youth and no FA will touch them. Okafor will likely be an overrated stat stuffer requiring too many roster accommodations, a passing Al. Noel is nice and they have a lot of future picks but Embiid is a lost cause. Plus Noel needs to get paid soon which will mark the unwinding of "The Process."

Boston, Portland, Sacramento. I considered these franchises but excluded them for various reasons. Culture, salary, and assets (Kings) young but unremarkable assets (Boston) and salary and overrated assets (Portland). I'm sure they wouldn't trade with Charlotte either but it's debatable

No love for Lavine in that Wolves core? They also have Payne, Shabazz and Tyus as cheap guys with some upside as potential rotation players.

I'm not as high on the Bucks as most. We already know what Monroe and MCW are and they aren't really guys you can build around. They never play Henson and he is hurt alot. Giannis is really nice and Middleton is solid. Parker is the wildcard.

[yosemiteben]

Our bench is SO MUCH better than last season, it is kind of amazing and I think we are underappreciating how nice it is to have so many competent options off the bench, and that's with MKG out for the season.

Let's check in with the guys on our roster opening night last season, all of which became a necessary part of our rotation at one time or another due to injury.

Jeffery Taylor - riding the bench for Real Madrid
Gary Neal - shooting 26.7% from three off the bench for the Wiz
Bismack Biyombo - defensive numbers have dropped (more fouls, less blocks) and rocking a 39.4% FG%
Jason Maxiell - China
Jannero Pargo - retired
Noah Vonleh - 13.5 MPG, 2 pts, 2.6 boards, 26.1% FG
Brian Roberts - I think we all know the story

Last season was such a cluster.

[HornetJail]

^ Hendo (injured), PJ (lol), and Zeller (coach BRD reasons) were also on the bench to start last season.

we were definitely playing several guys that didn't belong in the NBA though.

[EwingSweatsALot]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

It was a three team with the Knicks, which semi makes sense considering we were linked to trading up with them.

Deal was:
Boston moving up to 4
Knicks moving down to 9
Hornets moving down to one of Bostons picks.

Knicks getting the other Boston first and us getting the rest of those first round picks from Boston. This last sentence is me speculating because he basically said Boston was giving up all their other picks. Never mentioned the Nets 2016 pick.

He also said the deal was basically done and we backed out at the last minute.

[yosemiteben]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

It was a three team with the Knicks, which semi makes sense considering we were linked to trading up with them.

Deal was:
Boston moving up to 4
Knicks moving down to 9
Hornets moving down to one of Bostons picks.

Knicks getting the other Boston first and us getting the rest of those first round picks from Boston. This last sentence is me speculating because he basically said Boston was giving up all their other picks. Never mentioned the Nets 2016 pick.

He also said the deal was basically done and we backed out at the last minute.

I keep losing track of BOS's picks (nice problem for them to have I guess). What would that have netted us? Three mid round firsts for the 9?

[EwingSweatsALot]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

It was a three team with the Knicks, which semi makes sense considering we were linked to trading up with them.

Deal was:
Boston moving up to 4
Knicks moving down to 9
Hornets moving down to one of Bostons picks.

Knicks getting the other Boston first and us getting the rest of those first round picks from Boston. This last sentence is me speculating because he basically said Boston was giving up all their other picks. Never mentioned the Nets 2016 pick.

He also said the deal was basically done and we backed out at the last minute.

I keep losing track of BOS's picks (nice problem for them to have I guess). What would that have netted us? Three mid round firsts for the 9?

I'm not sure. Would have been a mid round pick this past year. And then future firsts. The real prize is the Nets pick this year. It's unprotected. But no one knows if that was in the deal or not. I know people were for Kaminsky and against the trade on this board, but if that Nets pick was in it, then it was a huge mistake to not do it.

[yosemiteben]

Oh I assumed by the way you phrased it that the Nets wasn't included, but sounds like they just generically said "all their picks" without mentioning anything more specific than that.

Guess we will never actually know what happened. I don't think Simmons actually knows or he would have said it, he obviously has no qualms about putting FOs on blast.

[Mystical Apples]

I'm skeptical Lavine will ever be average and Payne is barely replacement level. Tyus has a chance to be good but history says he's more likely a career backup.

Part of what makes the Bucks young core so attractive is the contract situation of each relative to how the salary cap is changing over the next 2 years. The Bucks are locked into certainty and hold the rights to all 5 for multiple years which is fairly unique considering it's a mix of players aged 20-25. With that said it's not on average an inexperienced training wheel type group.

While those 5 players are locked into multi-year contracts the Bucks only have $2 million in additional contracts committed for next summer.

That's only $55 million with an available $25 million next summer and flexibility the year thereafter all while the core starts to enter years 22-27. Other than Utah hard to see a better mix of talent and cap certainty.

[yosemiteben]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

James Plowright ‏@JPlowright_NBA 54m54 minutes ago
Listening to the @BillSimmons pod with Michael Rapaport and just found out Hornets backed out of a 4 team draft day deal with NY, ATL & BOS

Not even a hat tip to ESAL. For shame.

[Flip Murray]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

James Plowright ‏@JPlowright_NBA 54m54 minutes ago
Listening to the @BillSimmons pod with Michael Rapaport and just found out Hornets backed out of a 4 team draft day deal with NY, ATL & BOS

Not even a hat tip to ESAL. For shame.

Definitely not as interesting from our perspective as from the Knicks, who were probably moving down to our pick. I'm assuming we were going to get the worse Boston picks we could've gotten with the later offer by the Celtics.

This is Simmons' new Harden trade. God I wish we had one of those nets' picks or a swap. Who knows how good that trade actually was. Probably much worse than advertised

[HornetJail]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

James Plowright ‏@JPlowright_NBA 54m54 minutes ago
Listening to the @BillSimmons pod with Michael Rapaport and just found out Hornets backed out of a 4 team draft day deal with NY, ATL & BOS

Not even a hat tip to ESAL. For shame.

Damn, I want to know what the offer was. My guess is that Atlanta pitched in that lotto protected 1st they got from Minnesota for Adreian Payne, but who knows

[EwingSweatsALot]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

James Plowright ‏@JPlowright_NBA 54m54 minutes ago
Listening to the @BillSimmons pod with Michael Rapaport and just found out Hornets backed out of a 4 team draft day deal with NY, ATL & BOS

Not even a hat tip to ESAL. For shame.

I didn't even hear him mention Atlanta. I was in the middle of finishing a project at work though.

[EwingSweatsALot]

Bill Simmons said on his new pod with Michael Rappaport that the deal with the Celtics wasn't a two team deal.

James Plowright ‏@JPlowright_NBA 54m54 minutes ago
Listening to the @BillSimmons pod with Michael Rapaport and just found out Hornets backed out of a 4 team draft day deal with NY, ATL & BOS

Not even a hat tip to ESAL. For shame.

Definitely not as interesting from our perspective as from the Knicks, who were probably moving down to our pick. I'm assuming we were going to get the worse Boston picks we could've gotten with the later offer by the Celtics.

This is Simmons' new Harden trade. God I wish we had one of those nets' picks or a swap. Who knows how good that trade actually was. Probably much worse than advertised

That's correct on the Knicks. They were planning on moving to 9, to take Kaminsky.

He didn't mention who would get what picks from the Celtics. Just that NYK would get one first from last year and we would get the other. And more than likely we would get the better futures.

[Flip Murray]

James Plowright ‏@JPlowright_NBA 54m54 minutes ago
Listening to the @BillSimmons pod with Michael Rapaport and just found out Hornets backed out of a 4 team draft day deal with NY, ATL & BOS

Not even a hat tip to ESAL. For shame.

Definitely not as interesting from our perspective as from the Knicks, who were probably moving down to our pick. I'm assuming we were going to get the worse Boston picks we could've gotten with the later offer by the Celtics.

This is Simmons' new Harden trade. God I wish we had one of those nets' picks or a swap. Who knows how good that trade actually was. Probably much worse than advertised

That's correct on the Knicks. They were planning on moving to 9, to take Kaminsky.

He didn't mention who would get what picks from the Celtics. Just that NYK would get one first from last year and we would get the other. And more than likely we would get the better futures.

I think i'd have done it for the Brooklyn swap in 2017 at the rate things are going for those guys right now. That's looking like a top 3 pick

[Liver_Pooty]

Cousins is an idiot.

[Diop]

love seeing Dirk winding back the clock, that awkward one legged shot is unguardable

[yosemiteben]

Nate Taylor ‏@ByNateTaylor
Pacers announce Myles Turner will be out at least 4 weeks after sustaining a chip fracture in his left thumb last night.

[predators]

Seems this time every year I am feeling jealous of a handful of other teams that have an exciting young core. If you could switch rosters with one young team which would you rather have as the Hornets roster and why?

Utah Jazz
Portland Trailblazers
Minnesota Timberwolves
Orlando Magic
Milwaukee Bucks
Philadelphia 76ers
Denver Nuggets
Detroit Pistons
Other?

for me its Utah. I totally envy a few teams and their amazing draft picks this year, Emmanual Mudiay, Kristaps Porzingis, Justice Winslow. And Andre Drummond is off the hook. But for a core roster, I think I'd be most excited to root for Utah. I love the balanced group of Dante Exum, Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood, Derrick Favors & Rudy Gobert.

Which team's young roster would you choose?

Super Jealous
----
Minnesota Timberwolves - Highest Potential
Philadelphia 76ers - So many young assets and draft picks, I'm a believer in what hinkie is doing and this is my opinion with Embiid becoming Oden 2.0.
Utah Jazz - Great job drafting, arguably better potential than Twolves.

Jealous - Could easily move up
---
Detroit Pistons- Drummond is a monster. (Flawed Monster)
Orlando Magic - I have a Hezonja man crush. Payton & Gordon are intriguing.
Milwaukee Bucks - Greek Freak & Parker = Hope. I think MCW & Henson are massively overrated though.

[fatlever]

Lance Stephenson alert coming up... Paul and Redick both out tonight and Griffin just got ejected. I want to see Lance go into crazy bad Lance mode trying to do too much.