Nets Going Forward: Planning for Next Season

[ProspectPark]

^^ @7Foot definitely we should draft Patrick Williams but I think we can do alot better than Avery Bradley for our MLE. Bradley is almost cooked and he can't get minutes in the playoffs. He's a vet minimum guy at this point.

He can’t get minutes in the playoffs because he opted out.

lmaooo no wonder I didn't know, just always see he gets no minutes on the box score. But even still, he's over the hill at this point. I'll do it on vet min but I think we can get some1 better for the MLE

I thought he was cooked too but he was actually pretty good this year. Who knows maybe it was a fluke.

Patrick Williams though! Phoenix has the 10th pick and from what I’ve read, they’re not interested in bringing in any more young players. They want a vet.

A trade with them gets us Williams for the next 4-7 years. The question is what are we willing to give up?

[DarkXaero]

With Houston getting gentleman swept by the Lakers, you gotta wonder what's next for this team with their payroll.

Read on Twitter

?s=20

If there are big changes in Houston this offseason (Morey + MDA leaving), I wonder if they become sellers. If they do, it can be great for us, they have a bunch of players we can use (along the rest of the NBA lol).

I've been keeping this one in my head for awhile, but who's to say they don't totally blow it up and deal Harden?

I hate him as a #1 in the playoffs, he just fades into oblivion too often, but as a #2, or better yet, #3? LOVE him.

And he's an underrated defender. He's not a stopper or anything like that, but he is a solid, slightly above average defender and he has a game that is and will continue to age well, he's still going to be a stud for 2+ seasons and probably will have a gradual multi-season wind down, not a sudden drop off a cliff.

He did great as #1 in the playoffs this year. Obviously his team got destroyed, but its not on him. In the past though, yeah, that criticism has been very valid, but I think this year he stepped up.

I honestly believe Harden would be the best player on this team if we got him. He's easily better than Kyrie, and I think he'll be better than post achilles KD. Just like Giannis, I would gut the entire roster for him if he somehow becomes available. People will cry about fit, and "too much offense, no defense", but KD, Harden, and Kyrie would be a dynasty.

On a more realistic note, I would love to have Covington and/or PJ Tucker here. I would take House as well but not after this bubble incident

[ProspectPark]

^^ @7Foot definitely we should draft Patrick Williams but I think we can do alot better than Avery Bradley for our MLE. Bradley is almost cooked and he can't get minutes in the playoffs. He's a vet minimum guy at this point.

And my guess is Williams goes top 15, possibly top 10, meaning have to trade up.

Marks has some tough decisions. Phoenix apparently is looking to trade their #10 pick, but it will probably cost one our core players.

Patrick Williams on a rookie contract for the next 4 years could ne franchise altering for us.

[Papi_swav]

He can’t get minutes in the playoffs because he opted out.

lmaooo no wonder I didn't know, just always see he gets no minutes on the box score. But even still, he's over the hill at this point. I'll do it on vet min but I think we can get some1 better for the MLE

I thought he was cooked too but he was actually pretty good this year. Who knows maybe it was a fluke.

Patrick Williams though! Phoenix has the 10th pick and from what I’ve read, they’re not interested in bringing in any more young players. They want a vet.

A trade with them gets us Williams for the next 4-7 years. The question is what are we willing to give up?

Dinwiddie/ Temple/ Musa for Rubio and #10. Maybe we add our #19 but I'm hoping not. We can probably do a 3 team trade to send Rubio elsewhere but he's not a bad fit here. He can play some defense and pass and his shot as come along a little bit.

[vincecarter4pres]

^^ @7Foot definitely we should draft Patrick Williams but I think we can do alot better than Avery Bradley for our MLE. Bradley is almost cooked and he can't get minutes in the playoffs. He's a vet minimum guy at this point.

And my guess is Williams goes top 15, possibly top 10, meaning have to trade up.

Marks has some tough decisions. Phoenix apparently is looking to trade their #10 pick, but it will probably cost one our core players.

Patrick Williams on a rookie contract for the next 4 years could ne franchise altering for us.

I know people keep bringing up Oubre and I'd be fine with him, but I still love the idea of something like Dinwiddie/19 for Rubio/10. Not sure Phoenix loves it, but to me Rubio is such a fit here. You can start him next to Irving in the backcourt and Rubio can guard 1-3 no problem, has improved his 3 and will setup Kyrie and KD wonderfully, and can run the 2nd unit.

You get a guy like Jeff Green or Marcus Morris with the MLE or Vet Min, or make another trade for a guy like Ross to put at the 3, and LeVert, Harris, and Allen are your main bench guys, with Williams and Crawford sprinkled in with regular, but limited minutes.

[ProspectPark]

lmaooo no wonder I didn't know, just always see he gets no minutes on the box score. But even still, he's over the hill at this point. I'll do it on vet min but I think we can get some1 better for the MLE

I thought he was cooked too but he was actually pretty good this year. Who knows maybe it was a fluke.

Patrick Williams though! Phoenix has the 10th pick and from what I’ve read, they’re not interested in bringing in any more young players. They want a vet.

A trade with them gets us Williams for the next 4-7 years. The question is what are we willing to give up?

Dinwiddie/ Temple/ Musa for Rubio and #10. Maybe we add our #19 but I'm hoping not. We can probably do a 3 team trade to send Rubio elsewhere but he's not a bad fit here. He can play some defense and pass and his shot as come along a little bit.

I think Rubio is part of their core. They want Dinwiddie for sure though. What about Dinwiddie, and Prince for Oubre and their #10?

That gives us #10 to draft Patrick Williams, and our 19 to draft another player. Oubre off the bench backing up KD isn’t bad.

[vincecarter4pres]

With Houston getting gentleman swept by the Lakers, you gotta wonder what's next for this team with their payroll.

Read on Twitter

?s=20

If there are big changes in Houston this offseason (Morey + MDA leaving), I wonder if they become sellers. If they do, it can be great for us, they have a bunch of players we can use (along the rest of the NBA lol).

I've been keeping this one in my head for awhile, but who's to say they don't totally blow it up and deal Harden?

I hate him as a #1 in the playoffs, he just fades into oblivion too often, but as a #2, or better yet, #3? LOVE him.

And he's an underrated defender. He's not a stopper or anything like that, but he is a solid, slightly above average defender and he has a game that is and will continue to age well, he's still going to be a stud for 2+ seasons and probably will have a gradual multi-season wind down, not a sudden drop off a cliff.

He did great as #1 in the playoffs this year. Obviously his team got destroyed, but its not on him. In the past though, yeah, that criticism has been very valid, but I think this year he stepped up.

I honestly believe Harden would be the best player on this team if we got him. He's easily better than Kyrie, and I think he'll be better than post achilles KD. Just like Giannis, I would gut the entire roster for him if he somehow becomes available. People will cry about fit, and "too much offense, no defense", but KD, Harden, and Kyrie would be a dynasty.

On a more realistic note, I would love to have Covington and/or PJ Tucker here. I would take House as well but not after this bubble incident

Harden could be just as realistic as Giannis tbh. All those picks they sent out to OKC for Westbrook have some weird but decent protections on them that make it unlikely they'll pull a full Billy King, but they'll probably lose 1 good pick to them over the next 5 years no matter what, so they don't have extreme motivation to stay late lotto/1st round exit good simply to save face.

I doubt Harden asks out, but their options to improve are limited, and so even with the inner-homerism their owner and basketball executives will naturally have, they might just make the decision to start over.

[ProspectPark]

And my guess is Williams goes top 15, possibly top 10, meaning have to trade up.

Marks has some tough decisions. Phoenix apparently is looking to trade their #10 pick, but it will probably cost one our core players.

Patrick Williams on a rookie contract for the next 4 years could ne franchise altering for us.

I know people keep bringing up Oubre and I'd be fine with him, but I still love the idea of something like Dinwiddie/19 for Rubio/10. Not sure Phoenix loves it, but to me Rubio is such a fit here. You can start him next to Irving in the backcourt and Rubio can guard 1-3 no problem, has improved his 3 and will setup Kyrie and KD wonderfully, and can run the 2nd unit.

You get a guy like Jeff Green or Marcus Morris with the MLE or Vet Min, or make another trade for a guy like Ross to put at the 3, and LeVert, Harris, and Allen are your main bench guys, with Williams and Crawford sprinkled in with regular, but limited minutes.

Yea I think Rubio is part of their core. They probably want Dinwiddie to backup Rubio or start when Rubio is out.

Marcus Morris will get $12-15 million. He’s a black hole but teams know how valuable 3&D wings are.

[vincecarter4pres]

I thought he was cooked too but he was actually pretty good this year. Who knows maybe it was a fluke.

Patrick Williams though! Phoenix has the 10th pick and from what I’ve read, they’re not interested in bringing in any more young players. They want a vet.

A trade with them gets us Williams for the next 4-7 years. The question is what are we willing to give up?

Dinwiddie/ Temple/ Musa for Rubio and #10. Maybe we add our #19 but I'm hoping not. We can probably do a 3 team trade to send Rubio elsewhere but he's not a bad fit here. He can play some defense and pass and his shot as come along a little bit.

I think Rubio is part of their core. They want Dinwiddie for sure though. What about Dinwiddie, and Prince for Oubre and their #10?

That gives us #10 to draft Patrick Williams, and our 19 to draft another player. Oubre off the bench backing up KD isn’t bad.

Prefer Rubio as well, but Oubre would be fine with me.

And although Oubre probably doesn't have a ton of value, he's surely not negative. I think you'd be looking at Dinwiddie and the 19, with maybe Rodions thrown in and Musa to match salary.

There's no way they're taking Prince on for no reason. I'm not even going to call him an awful contract, cause his deal is too short and he has a chance to rebound his play, but he's certainly a slight negative and there's no reason they'll want to eat into their cap space for a guy like him. Not even attaching the 19, Dinwiddie doesn't have that type of value on an expiring to combine Prince with him in a move like this.

But I can see some real merit behind Dinwiddie/Rodi/19 for Oubre/10.

[vincecarter4pres]

Marks has some tough decisions. Phoenix apparently is looking to trade their #10 pick, but it will probably cost one our core players.

Patrick Williams on a rookie contract for the next 4 years could ne franchise altering for us.

I know people keep bringing up Oubre and I'd be fine with him, but I still love the idea of something like Dinwiddie/19 for Rubio/10. Not sure Phoenix loves it, but to me Rubio is such a fit here. You can start him next to Irving in the backcourt and Rubio can guard 1-3 no problem, has improved his 3 and will setup Kyrie and KD wonderfully, and can run the 2nd unit.

You get a guy like Jeff Green or Marcus Morris with the MLE or Vet Min, or make another trade for a guy like Ross to put at the 3, and LeVert, Harris, and Allen are your main bench guys, with Williams and Crawford sprinkled in with regular, but limited minutes.

Yea I think Rubio is part of their core. They probably want Dinwiddie to backup Rubio or start when Rubio is out.

Marcus Morris will get $12-15 million. He’s a black hole but teams know how valuable 3&D wings are.

I don't think Morris gets that much with all the uncertainty on the cap for the next 1 to 3 seasons. In this climate I think his max is $20 million over 2, but most likely it's full MLE from a non-tax team, or he takes his pick of contenders on the Taxpayer's MLE, which essentially works out to about $11-12 mil total over 2 years.

[Packers+NetsWIN]

Dinwiddie/ Temple/ Musa for Rubio and #10. Maybe we add our #19 but I'm hoping not. We can probably do a 3 team trade to send Rubio elsewhere but he's not a bad fit here. He can play some defense and pass and his shot as come along a little bit.

I think Rubio is part of their core. They want Dinwiddie for sure though. What about Dinwiddie, and Prince for Oubre and their #10?

That gives us #10 to draft Patrick Williams, and our 19 to draft another player. Oubre off the bench backing up KD isn’t bad.

Prefer Rubio as well, but Oubre would be fine with me.

And although Oubre probably doesn't have a ton of value, he's surely not negative. I think you'd be looking at Dinwiddie and the 19, with maybe Rodions thrown in and Musa to match salary.

There's no way they're taking Prince on for no reason. I'm not even going to call him an awful contract, cause his deal is too short and he has a chance to rebound his play, but he's certainly a slight negative and there's no reason they'll want to eat into their cap space for a guy like him. Not even attaching the 19, Dinwiddie doesn't have that type of value on an expiring to combine Prince with him in a move like this.

But I can see some real merit behind Dinwiddie/Rodi/19 for Oubre/10.

I'm alright with Oubre on the Nets. How about this trade:

Nets receive: Kelly Oubre Jr., Cameron Johnson, and Elie Okobo.

Suns receive: Spencer Dinwiddie, Taurean Prince, Džanan Musa, and Brooklyn's 2nd round pick in 2020 draft (#55 overall). Also willing to throw in a lottery protected 1st round pick in the 2021 draft if necessary to complete the deal.

As much as I don't want to watch Dinwiddie in another uniform next season, unless he experiences an injury he will decline his player option after this upcoming season and I anticipate he will sign a lucrative contract (at least 20M per year). That is a lot too pay in combination with Irving at the point guard spot. It also allows LeVert to be the main ball handler for the second unit which he should thrive in. LeVert is also already locked up for the next 3 years. Furthermore, the Nets are able to get out of Prince's contract while finding a younger, better shooting, and cheaper who is already looked up in Cameron Johnson. The late second round pick in a weak draft is nothing to fret over. And Musa, as much as I have been rooting for him since he first was drafted by the Nets, has not shown much progress in the chances he has received and ultimately I think it's time to move on. He unfortunately wouldn't be getting much playing time on this roster anyways. The Suns may find a role for him.

At least we get some value in return for him, in this case a point guard prospect in Okobo who the Nets were rumored to be interested in the draft 2 years ago. He is a cost controlled, young player with potential at the point guard position. Cameron Johnson would be great in this offense as he is an elite shooter from his college days and last year with the Suns. And again, he is a young, cost controlled player who showed promise on defense in his first season. Lastly, Kelly Oubre is a talented scorer who can help take some of the relief off of KD and Kyrie. He is also an expiring contract so next off-season, if the Nets decide to keep him they will have his bird rights and if they decide against it, they let him walk and clear up value cap space since the Nets will be operating near/over the luxury tax.

Add this trade with the following off-season moves:
1.) Resign Joe Harris for 12-15M per year
+Management has already made it clear that Joe Harris is their #1 off-season priority
2.) Resign Tyler Johnson use MLE
+Johnson played very well in the bubble and we know Marks admires his game after signing him for the bubble and offering him a large contract four years ago.
3.) Resign Jamal Crawford and Chris Chiozza to minimum deals
+Rumors are Nets are interested in resigning Crawford and he was be a good veteran addition to the team. Chiozza was solid in the bubble and is a decent option as an emergency point guard option.
4.) Decline Garrett Temple's team option
+Temple only shot 32.9% from three in his first season with the Nets. He is also the second oldest player on the squad after Crawford. Is the poor shooting a sign of regression given his age?
5.) Use the 19th pick in the NBA draft on Desmond Bane, G/F, TCU
+Bane seems like a great fit to fill out the roster around ball handlers Irving, Durant, and LeVert as he is a good defender and shooter. He was a 43.3% three point shooter in his four years of college. Key phrases in his scouting report were "runs the floor well and plays extremely hard", "an intelligent offensive player", and "allowed 0.54 points per one-on-one possession [88th percentile] as he is tough at the point of attack".
https://www.nba.com/draft/2020/prospects/desmond-bane#/

Nets 2020-2021 roster:
Kyrie Irving/Caris LeVert/Chris Chiozza
Joe Harris/Tyler Johnson/Jamal Crawford
Kelly Oubre Jr./Desmond Bane/T. Luwawu-Cabarrot
Kevin Durant/Cameron Johnson/Rodions Kurucs
DeAndre Jordan/Jarret Allen/Nicolas Claxton

Irving and Durant will carry the starters with Harris's elite shooting spreading the floor, Oubre helping in the scoring department if KD and Irving are injured or resting, and Jordan patrolling the pain. On the second unit, LeVert is surrounded by 3 great shooters in the Johnsons and Bane. And Allen can patrol the pain on the 2nd unit. Lastly, the third unit has some leadership in Crawford and young prospects in Kurucs and Claxton. I think the off-season moves I laid out does a good job of keeping the team competitive while at the same time keeping the luxury tax in mind. Let me know your thoughts.

[Papi_swav]

Dinwiddie/ Temple/ Musa for Rubio and #10. Maybe we add our #19 but I'm hoping not. We can probably do a 3 team trade to send Rubio elsewhere but he's not a bad fit here. He can play some defense and pass and his shot as come along a little bit.

I think Rubio is part of their core. They want Dinwiddie for sure though. What about Dinwiddie, and Prince for Oubre and their #10?

That gives us #10 to draft Patrick Williams, and our 19 to draft another player. Oubre off the bench backing up KD isn’t bad.

Prefer Rubio as well, but Oubre would be fine with me.

And although Oubre probably doesn't have a ton of value, he's surely not negative. I think you'd be looking at Dinwiddie and the 19, with maybe Rodions thrown in and Musa to match salary.

There's no way they're taking Prince on for no reason. I'm not even going to call him an awful contract, cause his deal is too short and he has a chance to rebound his play, but he's certainly a slight negative and there's no reason they'll want to eat into their cap space for a guy like him. Not even attaching the 19, Dinwiddie doesn't have that type of value on an expiring to combine Prince with him in a move like this.

But I can see some real merit behind Dinwiddie/Rodi/19 for Oubre/10.

Prince is not as bad as u make it seem bro. He's only making just under 14M and his contract is short. He'll give you 10-13 point per game and he can knock the 3 down, he has length too. He does have some value, he can be moved. I don't think teams will look at him as a horrible contract. Suns have some cap space and they also aren't high on many free agents list. Prince is a slight overpay, but they will have to overpay guys alot to join them. They'll have to give a guy like Morris 15M plus maybe.

[vincecarter4pres]

I think Rubio is part of their core. They want Dinwiddie for sure though. What about Dinwiddie, and Prince for Oubre and their #10?

That gives us #10 to draft Patrick Williams, and our 19 to draft another player. Oubre off the bench backing up KD isn’t bad.

Prefer Rubio as well, but Oubre would be fine with me.

And although Oubre probably doesn't have a ton of value, he's surely not negative. I think you'd be looking at Dinwiddie and the 19, with maybe Rodions thrown in and Musa to match salary.

There's no way they're taking Prince on for no reason. I'm not even going to call him an awful contract, cause his deal is too short and he has a chance to rebound his play, but he's certainly a slight negative and there's no reason they'll want to eat into their cap space for a guy like him. Not even attaching the 19, Dinwiddie doesn't have that type of value on an expiring to combine Prince with him in a move like this.

But I can see some real merit behind Dinwiddie/Rodi/19 for Oubre/10.

Prince is not as bad as u make it seem bro. He's only making just under 14M and his contract is short. He'll give you 10-13 point per game and he can knock the 3 down, he has length too. He does have some value, he can be moved. I don't think teams will look at him as a horrible contract. Suns have some cap space and they also aren't high on many free agents list. Prince is a slight overpay, but they will have to overpay guys alot to join them. They'll have to give a guy like Morris 15M plus maybe.

Bro, I literally just said I wouldn't call him an awful contract because his deal is so short(and not a ton of money per) and he can bounce back.

But he's never been actually good yet and is undeniably coming off a terrible year here. There surely might be teams to look at him and say they'd take a flyer on him, either sending an expiring for him(doesn't help us unless it's a good player we want for one year), or would trade their underperforming player, or guy whose maybe run his course there and they want to cut some salary(their guy is either signed for an additional year, or maybe making around $15-19 a year for the same time frame).

But to think he has legit positive value, or that you can add him onto Dinwiddie without even attaching the 19th pick and get back not only an upgrade at his position, but a top 10 pick is, to be frank, delusional.

Phoenix certainly wouldn't do Oubre for Prince on it's own and probably would scoff at it even with the 19 attached.

Like Oubre is everything you hope Prince could become, coming from Atlanta, before he had a massive regression year, even with every ounce of context included, and you want them to trade that player here without the 19 and then send the 10 for Dinwiddie while absorbing like $10 mill of salary when they want to be free agent players?

I'd take Morris at $15 mill over trading for Prince at $13, 12 times out of 9.

I'm not even hating, or exaggerating. The fact is, Prince was a mediocre young player with obvious flaws on Atlanta, who came here and regressed to a bad player when overextended, instead of the hope of becoming a good starting level guy. He isn't some awful, league worst contract and he certainly could bounce back and maybe get better then he was prior to last season, but let's not fool ourselves, he's not someone teams are targeting, he doesn't have positive value, likely not even neutral and teams are not going to eat into their cap space to acquire him just to hope and re-sign an expiring Dinwiddie while giving up their lottery pick, without us even including out late teen's pick.

[Hello Brooklyn]

My thing is I feel like,"core group", is being overused and overstated in conversation about this team. It's our core cause it's all Marks had to work with. This isn't like when KD joined GSW. This is LeBron joining LAL. Or LeBron and Bosh joining Miami. If you can keep some good young guys like Chalmers, Beasley and Haslem in Miami, or Kuzma in LAL(and what should have been Zubac) and add a superstar, or keep even one more young guy and still add a star like Jrue, you do it.

Kyrie and KD definitely have good relationships with Caris/Spencer and it probably played a role in them coming here.

Lets not act like that doesn't matter. We need good chemistry.

KD also had a good prior relationship with Taurean Prince, but you wouldn't keep Prince around just for that reason when he's useless on the court, while making $12 mill/yr. They understand its a business, and don't let sentimentality rule over what they want on the court. CP3 and Melo are BFFs, yet it didn't amount to anything in Houston.

Prince sucks lol. Not the best comparison.

Also when did I say keep them for "just that reason." I think the core group is also very talented as is. And has good chemistry.

Why blow it up without even seeing it first?

[Hello Brooklyn]

I still contend that the Taurean Prince hate is overblown on here. He will be solid next season with less usage and more catch and shoot opportunities.

He will be a great player under the right system.

[Hello Brooklyn]

My thing is I feel like,"core group", is being overused and overstated in conversation about this team. It's our core cause it's all Marks had to work with. This isn't like when KD joined GSW. This is LeBron joining LAL. Or LeBron and Bosh joining Miami. If you can keep some good young guys like Chalmers, Beasley and Haslem in Miami, or Kuzma in LAL(and what should have been Zubac) and add a superstar, or keep even one more young guy and still add a star like Jrue, you do it.

Kyrie and KD definitely have good relationships with Caris/Spencer and it probably played a role in them coming here.

Lets not act like that doesn't matter. We need good chemistry.

True, but Kyrie has a great relationship with Tatum and that didn’t keep him in Boston.

No ones saying its the cure all. But why mess with what seems to be a good thing?

[Hello Brooklyn]

We can add defenders/dogs through Free Agency, the draft or minor trades.

I just don't see the need to trade our core group of players.

You can't just assume we won't fit well together before these guys have even had a chance to play together.

I see your point, and here's my counterpoint.

We have 12 guys under contract currently, before you count Joe Harris, Tyler Johnson, or the rumored free agent signings of Allonzo Trier and Jamal Crawford. None of those guys are plus defenders.

We also haven't accounted for our first and second round picks so we're already way over the roster limit of 15. We could decline the team options for TLC and Temple, but those are already two of our four best defenders.

So IF you solve the roster crunch, you can bring in hustle guys at the end of our bench. The problem then is, unless we trade out some of the redundant players, the new FA signings will not have chance to make an impact. The 10th and 11th men in our rotation aren't going to drastically improve our defense, and Steve Nash is not going to have DeAndre and Spencer in suits all season long so we can improve our D with a couple of guys we picked up off the waiver wire. All signs point to trades, and our front office and new coach sound like they are ready to pull the trigger to shape this very talented team into a true contender.

Make no mistake, even the teams you see playing now are going to retool and improve themselves before next season. It would be foolish to think that we can rest on our laurels. We haven't seen this entire roster play together, so if we make a trade we'll never know if we could have clicked and all of a sudden Prince becomes the next Scottie Pippen. But I think the opportunity cost of waiting is too large when we have finite window in which to contend. It doesn't take a whole day to recognize sunshine.

I never said we shouldn't make trades or keep roster as is. I'm just saying we should keep Kyrie/KD/Levert/Dinwiddie.

[DarkXaero]

Kyrie and KD definitely have good relationships with Caris/Spencer and it probably played a role in them coming here.

Lets not act like that doesn't matter. We need good chemistry.

KD also had a good prior relationship with Taurean Prince, but you wouldn't keep Prince around just for that reason when he's useless on the court, while making $12 mill/yr. They understand its a business, and don't let sentimentality rule over what they want on the court. CP3 and Melo are BFFs, yet it didn't amount to anything in Houston.

Prince sucks lol. Not the best comparison.

Also when did I say keep them for "just that reason." I think the core group is also very talented as is. And has good chemistry.

Why blow it up without even seeing it first?

Lol I know Prince sucks, which is why I brought him up, he was being paraded as a friend of KD when we traded for him. The core group has talent for sure, the chemistry is yet to be seen as they haven't played together. All of us identify the weakness in this roster (defense), and there's a redundancy of having too many playmakers. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when the four primary guys need the ball in their hands, it can become an issue, especially when you have a major deficiency (defense). That has been the majority of the premise for this thread.

[Hello Brooklyn]

With Houston getting gentleman swept by the Lakers, you gotta wonder what's next for this team with their payroll.

Read on Twitter

?s=20

If there are big changes in Houston this offseason (Morey + MDA leaving), I wonder if they become sellers. If they do, it can be great for us, they have a bunch of players we can use (along the rest of the NBA lol).

Houston has a lot of great pieces.

I would love either PJ Tucker or Covington on this team. I would even take House.

[Hello Brooklyn]

KD also had a good prior relationship with Taurean Prince, but you wouldn't keep Prince around just for that reason when he's useless on the court, while making $12 mill/yr. They understand its a business, and don't let sentimentality rule over what they want on the court. CP3 and Melo are BFFs, yet it didn't amount to anything in Houston.

Prince sucks lol. Not the best comparison.

Also when did I say keep them for "just that reason." I think the core group is also very talented as is. And has good chemistry.

Why blow it up without even seeing it first?

Lol I know Prince sucks, which is why I brought him up, he was being paraded as a friend of KD when we traded for him. The core group has talent for sure, the chemistry is yet to be seen as they haven't played together. All of us identify the weakness in this roster (defense), and there's a redundancy of having too many playmakers. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when the four primary guys need the ball in their hands, it can become an issue, especially when you have a major deficiency (defense). That has been the majority of the premise for this thread.

I still think Levert, Dinwiddie can be good defenders in the right system and when they don't have to carry the load offensively.

They certainly have the size and ability to do it. And I would love to see some 3 guard lineups with switchable defenders next year.