Around the League: 2020 Offseason

[76ciology]

Hot take: Carter-Williams was a future star robbed of his fate due to being a victim of the process (quick trade) and then bad injury lock / confidence issues.

Much like with Jrue Holiday, Hinkie should have not traded the young stud PG.

This is quite controversial..

If MCW played within his role by not taking any jumpers at all, similar to Ben. I think he can make the allstar. He’d be like baby ben simmons with all the defensive numbers, all around numbers but maybe 2-4 pts less in PPG.

Just as if Ben takes jumpers and his FG% plummets to low 40%, Ben will not look like an all NBA player or even an allstar.

[Kobblehead]

I think Carter-Williams would be another John Wall.

18-20 ppg with elite defense and elite passing.

All-NBA talent with a Finals MVP archetype if he got to the postseason and went on a big run,

[Kobblehead]

Watch on YouTube

This is future star play.

[Kobblehead]

Hot take: Carter-Williams was a future star robbed of his fate due to being a victim of the process (quick trade) and then bad injury lock / confidence issues.

Much like with Jrue Holiday, Hinkie should have not traded the young stud PG.

This is quite controversial..

If MCW played within his role by not taking any jumpers at all, similar to Ben. I think he can make the allstar. He’d be like baby ben simmons with all the defensive numbers, all around numbers but maybe 2-4 pts less in PPG.

Just as if Ben takes jumpers and his FG% plummets to low 40%, Ben will not look like an all NBA player or even an allstar.

I think Carter-Williams was better than Simmons in terms of scoring potential because Mike could score off the dribble in the halfcourt.

[76ciology]

Watch on YouTube

This is future star play.

Call me a saddist, but i love our team when we started that season.

I love how BB used ET, Thad and Hawes. He really pumped up their value.

Watching that highlight makes him look like a future allstar. But if you watch his entire game, he’s quite painful to watch.

Like I said, the key is to play smart by not exposing himself with all the bricks and TOs. If he would have done that, he might be an allstar.

[Negrodamus]

That was such a trash draft that no one wanted the top pick and the prevailing thought was that someone was going to choose Noel with a top 3 pick to have him sit all year. Why OKC wouldn't just take a risk at 12 on Giannis sight unseen is confusing to me.

The Cavs were a mess. They didnt even know who to draft until the final seconds that they panicked to draft Bennett.

Bennett at that time was an interesting prospect. I just dont know what happened to him.

He played really well in college but if you see him even on FIBA, i’ve watched him live for multiple games. He’s soooo passive and he looks lost out there.

With the OKC drafting Adams draft, i believe its because OKC can’t counter LAL’s bullyball of Gasol and Bynum back then. If im not mistaken they just lose a series where Gasol had like a put back that won the lakers the series. Then with all the talents they have, i think drafting for a more “NBA ready” guy just made more sense.

It’s probably good they didn’t get him because they would have wasted his talents by running the same Westbrook/Durant iso offense every play. They would have had 5 of the last 7 MVPs too lol.

[Kobblehead]

Watch on YouTube

This is future star play.

Call me a saddist, but i love our team when we started that season.

I love how BB used ET, Thad and Hawes. He really pumped up their value.

Watching that highlight makes him look like a future allstar. But if you watch his entire game, he’s quite painful to watch.

Like I said, the key is to play smart by not exposing himself with all the bricks and TOs. If he would have done that, he might be an allstar.

Yeah, I think a lot of the ugly with MCW was the growing pains of a young player. Had we kept him and developed him on the same trajectory he was on, there's no doubt in my mind he would have emerged as a superstar in his mid to late 20s. Or in the very least, a Jrue Holiday-like pseudo star.

The trade and subsequent injuries stopped him dead in his tracks and now he's a "would have been."

[Kobblehead]

The Cavs were a mess. They didnt even know who to draft until the final seconds that they panicked to draft Bennett.

Bennett at that time was an interesting prospect. I just dont know what happened to him.

He played really well in college but if you see him even on FIBA, i’ve watched him live for multiple games. He’s soooo passive and he looks lost out there.

Bennett was obviously an intangibles bust. Some guys just aren't built for the NBA, mentally. Some guys definitely can't handle the pressures of being a Top Pick.

Aside from that, looking back in hindsight, I'm not sure Bennett was all that optimistic a prospect to begin with.

On the surface looks like a good rebounding F that could drive offense if you run plays for him. But he was a black hole with 8% assist rate.

Defensively, he was basically strictly a post defender. He definitely was insufficient in space and on switches. And given that there are no more postup PFs in the league, there's no real value in a PF post defender that is too weak defensively to guard down and too small to play C.

[Kobblehead]

I'm kind of surprised Archie Goodwin went so late in the first round.

He wound up a bust, obviously, but on paper, he had more upside that the majority of guys taken in the first round.

A lot of teams took guys with no upside or guys with no winning traits. Several of these teams might as well have taken a chance on Goodwin's upside as a creator and hoped to land a star. Or in the very least, a productive bench scorer.

I thought he was a mess at Kentucky, but some of the guys taken in front of him...ehh, I would have rather swung on Goodwin.

There's a universe where Goodwin is still in the league as an Austin Rivers type journeyman creator that continues to get work. Probably wasn't afforded those opportunities based on his draft slot.

[HardenToSixers]

the MCW trade was a coin flip away from being Jamal Murray. the Lakers were extremely lucky they didn't cough that pick up in a premium position through those terrible bottom-feeding teams. MCW trade was absolutely brilliant.

[Kobblehead]

I don't think it was brilliant.

We hit eject on an fantastic defender/passer that could score off the dribble right when he was about to enter his prime, and perhaps, ascend into stardom.

Then we wound up sitting on an asset for several years and when the time came around to correct that mistake and land a similar player with even better upside based on his jumper (Alexander), we passed on it.

It's now 2020 and we still don't have a two-way shotcreating beast.

[76ciology]

I don't think it was brilliant.

We hit eject on an fantastic defender/passer that could score off the dribble right when he was about to enter his prime, and perhaps, ascend into stardom.

Then we wound up sitting on an asset for several years and when the time came around to correct that mistake and land a similar player with even better upside based on his jumper (Alexander), we passed on it.

It's now 2020 and we still don't have a two-way shotcreating beast.

This is so true.

[76ciology]

The Cavs were a mess. They didnt even know who to draft until the final seconds that they panicked to draft Bennett.

Bennett at that time was an interesting prospect. I just dont know what happened to him.

He played really well in college but if you see him even on FIBA, i’ve watched him live for multiple games. He’s soooo passive and he looks lost out there.

Bennett was obviously an intangibles bust. Some guys just aren't built for the NBA, mentally. Some guys definitely can't handle the pressures of being a Top Pick.

Aside from that, looking back in hindsight, I'm not sure Bennett was all that optimistic a prospect to begin with.

On the surface looks like a good rebounding F that could drive offense if you run plays for him. But he was a black hole with 8% assist rate.

Defensively, he was basically strictly a post defender. He definitely was insufficient in space and on switches. And given that there are no more postup PFs in the league, there's no real value in a PF post defender that is too weak defensively to guard down and too small to play C.

Dipo for me was the right pick at that time.

Good height to wingspan ratio, perimeter player with crazy high BPM. That for me is usually a prerequisite for a high caliber prospect in the draft.

[Kobblehead]

Yeah, Dipo seemed like such a no-brainer for Cleveland. Freaky athleticism/measurables combined with defense and shotcreation. He's like the definition of a #1 pick.

There's even a lot of on-paper stuff that suggested McCollum should have gotten consideration. The only drawbacks were his competition and his age.

[HardenToSixers]

not sure why you would penalize a brilliant move in a vacuum because of A) a pretty skeptical hypothesis on him elevating to some kind of star when he is currently a borderline productive NBA player and B) the failures of various completely separate regimes to acquire a shot creator

[Kobblehead]

What was brilliant about it? We ejected on a player trending allstar for a draft pick. What's the point of a draft pick? To land a player that hopefully one days develops into an allstar. Which is what Carter-Williams was trending towards. The move made no sense. It was just nonsense kick the can stuff.

Current Carter-Williams is a circumstantial outcome. His development was stunted by injuries and confidence issues. He was broken both mentally and physically during the peak player development window. Judge him in a vacuum, too. And he was trending allstar at the time of the trade.

[Kobblehead]

Let's not forget that Carter-Williams was out-pacing fetus-Giannis, McCollum and Oladipo. He was the best of the bunch by a comfortable margin. He was routinely outplaying the contemporary allstars in the league at the time in head-to-head matchups like John Wall, Dwayne Wade, etc so this was not a fluke.

[spikeslovechild]

What's so fantastic about Jrue Holiday?

He's essentially a perfect starter.

Defends well, scores off the dribble well, passes well, shoots off the ball well, has a great personality and no ego.

Better question, what's not fantastic about him?

1. His contract expires after next year (PO) which means he either leaves or gets a max deal. He'll be 31

2. They gave up a ton to get a very good but not great player

3. They have no assets to acquire a star player to team up with Giannis should he come available *ahem* Harden

So yeah it's really less about Jrue and more what they gave up to get him. He's very useful but noone thinks he moves the needle from pretender to contender for MIL that is the problem since after the trade they have no arrows left in their quiver

So Harden added them to his "list" but of course they now have no assets lol.

[Kobblehead]

Harden being traded to the Bucks would be hilarious because he/Giannis don't get along and James would make Giannis play like Capella....and that might be what Giannis should play like....

[Stanford]

What would a Harden to Milwaukee deal even look like?