So what's the pivot? (Beal, Lavine, or smaller moves)? - Post Harden ideas and rumors

[76thBearCub]

I mean if you could get a guy like Cousins to buy in and come for cheap with no ego it would be obvious. I don't think that works for him though.

Doesn't he have like the same exact contract as Howard?

Also, I'd only take him if we were moving on from Howard. Therefore he'd have near the same mpg he did in Houston (20 mpg) and an opportunity to start some games when Embiid is sitting. I know it's not going to happen, but his skillset makes more sense than Dwight's for this team, imo.

He could possibly fill the role better but Dwight is already here so no chance. Not like a normal swap of low cost backups.

[Stanford]

Ugh just imaging Boogie coming here and spamming 3's

Hell yeah!

[76thBearCub]

Im slow tonight, i know you understand the parameters, and Cousins might be a better fit. I really like Dwight as a backup though.

[Tomjas]

Houston will probably want a pick & not just an expiring Dwight

We have more pressing needs than replacing Dwight

[VDT]

Cousins is better than Dwight and fits better in bench units.

Dwight offers defense and rebounding and even offensively he is a more efficient scorer than Cousins ever was. Neither should be allowed to create but at least Dwight is efficient. He also averages almost 3 offensive rebounds in 16 minutes which is insane. Yes he needs to reduce his turnovers a bit but he is actually as good of a back up center you can hope to get, especially given his contract.

Cousins have always been overrated, a volume scorer with middling efficiency that doesnt play defense. Now after his injuries he is a scrub that averages 10 ppg on 51% TS and still doesnt play defense. He simply doesnt do anything useful on the court.

[mithrandir17]

Didn't the Rockets say they want to get younger? Why not just trade Bradley for Cousins and then we have both Cousins and Dwight. Doc will just figure out when and how each center plays.

[stormi]

Ugh just imaging Boogie coming here and spamming 3's

Hell yeah!

Maybe I'm just a hater, but I've never felt like Boogie was a winning player, even in Sac. And that was like three major injuries ago. If he's literally free then whatever.

[76thBearCub]

Houston will probably want a pick & not just an expiring Dwight

We have more pressing needs than replacing Dwight

A pick? Lol no thanks.

Nah they won't get any compensation.

[Stanford]

Maybe you think that advanced metrics are bad at quantifying a player's true value. I'm skeptical, myself. However, I'm pretty confident that a player with a -2.76 ORPM and a -4.0 OBPM is a huge offensive negative.

[zaz102]

I'd definitely be down for Cousins if the price is right. Not going to beat a dead horse, but I think that the stretch 5 for Simmons is pretty important and I'm guessing Cousins could be realistic as a cheap option allowing you the opportunity to still acquire a 2-way player and/or shot creator.

[stormi]

Yeah, I'm not going to quantify Dwight Howard's value to a basketball court by pointing to his OPBM like I won't with Matisse Thybulle. Dwight is a victim of the calamity that is the 76ers bench, and it's not a coincidence his play tanked when Shake went down. He's essentially a rim runner at this point, he isn't here to score the basketball. Rate by rate he is an elite rebounder and that's still valuable. If we had a semi-serious bench with players that could appropriately space the floor + Shake Milton playmaking, his impact would skyrocket. He's essentially the same player as last season that got steady minutes on a championship team. It also looks like he's regular season coasting, and playing rather carefree right now and picking up fouls he doesn't need to.

Could Dwight be upgraded? Absolutely, but I'm not betting on it coming from a guy that physically cannot play defense anymore, has been a net negative for 3 straight years now, moves like a plank, shoots sub 40% from the field.

Boogie has looked cooked and been passed on at every stop of his ring chasing tour since he tried it with Golden State.

[Stanford]

Yeah, I'm not going to quantify Dwight Howard's value to a basketball court by pointing out his OPBM like I won't with Matisse Thybulle.

Okay but someone made the claim that Dwight offers more offensively than Cousins. What does Matisse have to do with anything? He's a bad offensive player too! Dwight also has a negative DBPM and DRPM. You can't say that about Matisse.

[Sixerscan]

I don't think they're gonna cut anyone until the deadline. The ability to use these guys as fillers in trades is just more valuable than some marginal upgrade at a backup spot for a few weeks.

[stormi]

I don't think anyone will say Dwight has been good this season, but I'm not taking a magnifying glass to his advanced metrics to uncover who he is. We know who Dwight Howard is and he's the same player that gave proper minutes in the WCF against Nikola Jokic just last year. When is the last time Demarcus Cousins provided anything meaningful or gave a team winning minutes? 2016? Statistically not since his achilles popped and that's been a classic kiss of death finisher to pretty much everyone not named Kevin Durant.

But for some reason this year Boogie's gotten people excited again on a junk yard assembled team boasting a 23% usage rate (similar to Tobias Harris...) and with 55% of his field goals coming from 3, as a bad shooter. I'd literally rather play Paul Reed if I was after the skillset of this phantom Demarcus.

[Stanford]

I don't think they're gonna cut anyone until the deadline. The ability to use these guys as fillers in trades is just more valuable than some marginal upgrade at a backup spot for a few weeks.

Yeah, ultimately I agree with this. And everyone seems to like having Dwight around.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I personally love what Howard does as our backup center. He may not drain open threes and well....He never has, but he's physical, gets offensive rebounds, sets good screens on offense and is an excellent roll man for lobs and such. He's also playing with a bully attitude and Philly needs this. He's like our Rick Mahorn, Tyrone Hill. Love Dwight.

[UptownPhilly]

I personally love what Howard does as our backup center. He may not drain open threes and well....He never has, but he's physical, gets offensive rebounds, sets good screens on offense and is an excellent roll man for lobs and such. He's also playing with a bully attitude and Philly needs this. He's like our Rick Mahorn, Tyrone Hill. Love Dwight.

Same. A great glue guy, veteran leader, who doesn’t disrupt the offense and plays good defense.

[Sixerscan]

I don't think they're gonna cut anyone until the deadline. The ability to use these guys as fillers in trades is just more valuable than some marginal upgrade at a backup spot for a few weeks.

Yeah, ultimately I agree with this. And everyone seems to like having Dwight around.

Yeah I'm also not sure why people are talking about cutting dwight for this when we have like 4 more useless guys than him including 2 centers

[Skates]

All Dwight has to do to be less of a negative at times is committing offensive fouls by pushing guys that he would crush simply by bodying them legally. It's those plays that he commits that don't even send a message, they aren't like Rick Mahorn style physicality, more like he just almost has fun fouling at times.

That being said, I love the effect Dwight has on the team and while we could use a real stretch 4-5 to play with or instead of him in certain matchups, I don't see why we would want Cousins. As noted we already have four centers.

If we don't pick up a stretch big by the deadline, might as well give Paul Reed the minutes over Scott who looks like his knees have left him practically immobile.

[Sixerscan]

All Dwight has to do to be less of a negative at times is committing offensive fouls by pushing guys that he would crush simply by bodying them legally. It's those plays that he commits that don't even send a message, they aren't like Rick Mahorn style physicality, more like he just almost has fun fouling at times.

That being said, I love the effect Dwight has on the team and while we could use a real stretch 4-5 to play with or instead of him in certain matchups, I don't see why we would want Cousins. As noted we already have four centers.

If we don't pick up a stretch big by the deadline, might as well give Paul Reed the minutes over Scott who looks like his knees have left him practically immobile.

That's as good a theory as any I've heard. Guy has made his money and got his ring now he just wants to elbow scrubs in the back.