Dame on The Verge Of Asking Out!!!!

[NYK-Mentality85]

Dame is a fantastic individual player but he's also kind of a "me" player.

He doesn't really tie things together or keep his teammates connected the way Curry, Jokic or LeBron does. He either shoots a lot (efficiently so, to his credit) or he defers, but there's no space in-between where he contributes without shooting the ball. I don't view him as the inspirational leader type either.

He's not a 1A on a championship team in my view. He's more likely to be a second option. At 31, and with no Finals appearance on his resume, you don't trade away your entire future for that.

We absolutely need an elite shot-creator like Lillard. I just don't think he's the guy we should be aiming for considering age, timeline, cost.

This is a sound argument against trading for him.

My counter would be: Does playing with a Randle and/or another max cat under a coach like Thibs who got Randle to be less of a bully ball guy himself change things? I would hope/think so. He is a pretty high character player who hasn't played with a ton of other superstars around him per se. And the ball movement on this team was so much better than prior years.

Well, I don't view Randle as a second option either, let alone as a "superstar".

He's more in the David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson category as far as All-NBA players are concerned in my book.

Is he a good partner for Lillard? Maybe in the pick-and-pop. But Randle is lacking in scoring efficiency, and playing next to Lillard would likely put him more in a finisher role. The fit isn't bad, but I'm afraid the pairing would highlight Randle's limitations as a scorer. I do like the idea of Randle's playmaking leading to Lillard 3s, but my prediction is that teams will simply stop overreacting to Randle's ISOs (as the Hawks did) and stay home on shooters.

Randle is good but not good enough to warrant a win-now trade for an aging superstar imo.

Not comparing him to LeBron but Julius Randle is only 26 and LeBron never won his first ring until running to Wade Bosh and Ray Allen @ age 28.

Julius Randle is absolutely an NBA star in the makings and no "Lee, Boozer or Jefferson" ever averaged...

24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game with an awesome 3PT% of .411%.

[KnixinSix]

Noone is assuming anything, Kawhii's knee is about to become dust and you want that for what? 30 games a year?

Hard pass.

That's what fans were saying in 2017 about him and his knee.

The following season of 2018?

He wins a Championship with Toronto during his 1st and only season there come...

Do you know what the word degenerative means? It becomes unusable over time. Since 2017, that knee has deteriorated beyond repair.

Hard pass.

The Kawhi thread has an article stating what the condition most likely is. The tendonopithy is not likely in stage 3 which would be the degenerative phase of the condition. If load managed properly there is belief that he can still be effective. This is a question likely better and more thoroughly answered by his New York doctors who have treated him in the past. Suffice to say Kawhi on a shorter deal may be a risk Knicks feel worth taking.

[KnixinSix]

Dame is a fantastic individual player but he's also kind of a "me" player.

He doesn't really tie things together or keep his teammates connected the way Curry, Jokic or LeBron does. He either shoots a lot (efficiently so, to his credit) or he defers, but there's no space in-between where he contributes without shooting the ball. I don't view him as the inspirational leader type either.

He's not a 1A on a championship team in my view. He's more likely to be a second option. At 31, and with no Finals appearance on his resume, you don't trade away your entire future for that.

We absolutely need an elite shot-creator like Lillard. I just don't think he's the guy we should be aiming for considering age, timeline, cost.

This is a sound argument against trading for him.

My counter would be: Does playing with a Randle and/or another max cat under a coach like Thibs who got Randle to be less of a bully ball guy himself change things? I would hope/think so. He is a pretty high character player who hasn't played with a ton of other superstars around him per se. And the ball movement on this team was so much better than prior years.

Well, I don't view Randle as a second option either, let alone as a "superstar".

He's more in the David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson category as far as All-NBA players are concerned in my book.

Is he a good partner for Lillard? Maybe in the pick-and-pop. But Randle is lacking in scoring efficiency, and playing next to Lillard would likely put him more in a finisher role. The fit isn't bad, but I'm afraid the pairing would highlight Randle's limitations as a scorer. I do like the idea of Randle's playmaking leading to Lillard 3s, but my prediction is that teams will simply stop overreacting to Randle's ISOs (as the Hawks did) and stay home on shooters.

Randle is good but not good enough to warrant a win-now trade for an aging superstar imo.

We finished 4th in the East under Thibodeau... how much better is this team with Dame and Randle on it? Ok I can see us argue that's not enough but what about Dame AND another guy like Derozan even.

You have the MLE you can use to sign a pretty good role player like Burks or Rose. You keep Quickley.

The nets big 3 are much more brittle than that trio would be.

[KnixinSix]

This is a sound argument against trading for him.

My counter would be: Does playing with a Randle and/or another max cat under a coach like Thibs who got Randle to be less of a bully ball guy himself change things? I would hope/think so. He is a pretty high character player who hasn't played with a ton of other superstars around him per se. And the ball movement on this team was so much better than prior years.

Well, I don't view Randle as a second option either, let alone as a "superstar".

He's more in the David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson category as far as All-NBA players are concerned in my book.

Is he a good partner for Lillard? Maybe in the pick-and-pop. But Randle is lacking in scoring efficiency, and playing next to Lillard would likely put him more in a finisher role. The fit isn't bad, but I'm afraid the pairing would highlight Randle's limitations as a scorer. I do like the idea of Randle's playmaking leading to Lillard 3s, but my prediction is that teams will simply stop overreacting to Randle's ISOs (as the Hawks did) and stay home on shooters.

Randle is good but not good enough to warrant a win-now trade for an aging superstar imo.

Not comparing him to LeBron but Julius Randle is only 26 and LeBron never won his first ring until running to Wade Bosh and Ray Allen @ age 28.

Julius Randle is absolutely an NBA star in the makings and no "Lee, Boozer or Jefferson" ever averaged...

24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game with an awesome 3PT% of .411%.

Agreed. Lee,Boozer and Jefferson is a huge undersell of Randle unless you think last year was some random, extreme outlier (which I don't).

He isn't a top 10-15 player but if he plays like last year and maybe even continues to build and improve even just a little moving forward , he is top 25 easily in this league with his all around game.

[NYK-Mentality85]

He's an absolute BALL HOG of a trash ass non defensive playing CHUCKER and has had crap playoff shooting performances of...

1/10.
3/14.
5/21.
6/23.
4/15.
6/22.
5/18.
7/24.
5/17.
5/17.
9/30.
8/26.
5/16.
4/12.
7/21.
7/20.
7/19.
6/16.
7/18.
7/18.

Etc. Etc.

Say hello to FIVE 1st round exits lol (all his fault too).

Only 9 above .500% postseason shooting performances compared to a whooping 49 playoffs games of below .500 shooting?!?!?

31 years old and more of a chucking defensive liability then "fat Melo"?

No thnx you!

I'd rather continue developing Immanuel Quickley instead of overrated ball hog Dame.

You are either absurdly stupid, or you Dame **** your wife while you watched. Why do you hate this man so much???

And stop he has literally always played VASTLY SUPRERIOR TEAMS against some of the greatest teams ever assembled.

Sorry lol had to stop reading there.

He's been eliminated 5x in the 1st round and I'm sorry but the "Grizzlies", "Pelicans" and "Nuggets" are the complete opposite of "greatest teams ever assembled" lol.

Grizzlies = 1st round exit (4-1).
Pelicans = 1st round exit (swept 4-0).
Nuggets = 1st round exit (4-2).

What a joke post you made.

PS: He's absolute ass on Defense and one of the worst defensive Guards to ever play this game he's absolute trash on Defense (understatement).

Let me find out you EVER talked down on Julius Randle during the playoffs against ATL. Please tell me you didn't. Because I'd absolutely dig deep into you if you ever did. Say it ain't so.

[NYK-Mentality85]

Well, I don't view Randle as a second option either, let alone as a "superstar".

He's more in the David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson category as far as All-NBA players are concerned in my book.

Is he a good partner for Lillard? Maybe in the pick-and-pop. But Randle is lacking in scoring efficiency, and playing next to Lillard would likely put him more in a finisher role. The fit isn't bad, but I'm afraid the pairing would highlight Randle's limitations as a scorer. I do like the idea of Randle's playmaking leading to Lillard 3s, but my prediction is that teams will simply stop overreacting to Randle's ISOs (as the Hawks did) and stay home on shooters.

Randle is good but not good enough to warrant a win-now trade for an aging superstar imo.

Not comparing him to LeBron but Julius Randle is only 26 and LeBron never won his first ring until running to Wade Bosh and Ray Allen @ age 28.

Julius Randle is absolutely an NBA star in the makings and no "Lee, Boozer or Jefferson" ever averaged...

24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game with an awesome 3PT% of .411%.

Agreed. Lee,Boozer and Jefferson is a huge undersell of Randle unless you think last year was some random, extreme outlier (which I don't).

He isn't a top 10-15 player but if he plays like last year and maybe even continues to build and improve even just a little moving forward , he is top 25 easily in this league with his all around game.

Top 25? Dude just made the ALL-STAR TEAM.

If he continues to develop and more importantly improve he's easily a top 10 player (impact wise).

[Chanel Bomber]

This is a sound argument against trading for him.

My counter would be: Does playing with a Randle and/or another max cat under a coach like Thibs who got Randle to be less of a bully ball guy himself change things? I would hope/think so. He is a pretty high character player who hasn't played with a ton of other superstars around him per se. And the ball movement on this team was so much better than prior years.

Well, I don't view Randle as a second option either, let alone as a "superstar".

He's more in the David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson category as far as All-NBA players are concerned in my book.

Is he a good partner for Lillard? Maybe in the pick-and-pop. But Randle is lacking in scoring efficiency, and playing next to Lillard would likely put him more in a finisher role. The fit isn't bad, but I'm afraid the pairing would highlight Randle's limitations as a scorer. I do like the idea of Randle's playmaking leading to Lillard 3s, but my prediction is that teams will simply stop overreacting to Randle's ISOs (as the Hawks did) and stay home on shooters.

Randle is good but not good enough to warrant a win-now trade for an aging superstar imo.

This is the big thing for me as well. Some have made the case that we need to accelerate the timeline in order to take advantage of Randle's Bird Rights.

Randle is a #3 for me on a championship team. I'd rather let him walk than mortgage our future for the wrong opportunity because we feel like we're on a time crunch.

That has nothing to do with Dame as an individual player. I'm speaking more to the decision making paradigm that I look at this through.

Exactly.

I don't mind keeping Randle and building around our youth, as there is some generational overlap (with Julius being 26).

I don't mind trading for a 26-27 year old star to pair with Randle and who fits his timeline (ie Lavine), in a scenario where we get to keep some of our talented young players and where we don't mortgage our entire future.

I don't mind trading Randle for picks and young players and hitting the reset button.

It all depends on what's on the table and which trades are actually available.

But I'm forcefully against trading our entire future for a 31-year-old who hasn't even proven he can lead a team past the Conference Finals (at best). Whatever people think of the Melo trade, he was only 26 at the time. Lillard is half-a-decade older, with even less of a track record as a winning player.

[KnixinSix]

He's an absolute BALL HOG of a trash ass non defensive playing CHUCKER and has had crap playoff shooting performances of...

1/10.
3/14.
5/21.
6/23.
4/15.
6/22.
5/18.
7/24.
5/17.
5/17.
9/30.
8/26.
5/16.
4/12.
7/21.
7/20.
7/19.
6/16.
7/18.
7/18.

Etc. Etc.

Say hello to FIVE 1st round exits lol (all his fault too).

Only 9 above .500% postseason shooting performances compared to a whooping 49 playoffs games of below .500 shooting?!?!?

31 years old and more of a chucking defensive liability then "fat Melo"?

No thnx you!

I'd rather continue developing Immanuel Quickley instead of overrated ball hog Dame.

You are either absurdly stupid, or you Dame **** your wife while you watched. Why do you hate this man so much???

And stop he has literally always played VASTLY SUPRERIOR TEAMS against some of the greatest teams ever assembled.

Sorry lol had to stop reading there.

He's been eliminated 5x in the 1st round and I'm sorry but the "Grizzlies", "Pelicans" and "Nuggets" are the complete opposite of "greatest teams ever assembled" lol.

Grizzlies = 1st round exit (4-1).
Pelicans = 1st round exit (swept 4-0).
Nuggets = 1st round exit (4-2).

What a joke post you made.

PS: He's absolute ass on Defense and one of the worst defensive Guards to ever play this game he's absolute trash on Defense (understatement).

Let me find out you EVER talked down on Julius Randle during the playoffs against ATL. Please tell me you didn't. Because I'd absolutely dig deep into you if you ever did. Say it ain't so.

NYK, I get Dame is not a perfect player few are. But he is a top 15 guy and superstar in this league. Also Thibs got guys to buy into his system and play team defense and offense. Not saying Dame will ever be a great defender but defense is partially about effort. Thibs get EVERYONE exerting effort on the D end. Also if you notice Randle wasn't chucking nearly as he was years prior under Thibs. Efficiencies for the whole team went up. Lastly, If Dame means getting Kawhi or some other top player via FA or trade you still say no?

[KnixinSix]

Not comparing him to LeBron but Julius Randle is only 26 and LeBron never won his first ring until running to Wade Bosh and Ray Allen @ age 28.

Julius Randle is absolutely an NBA star in the makings and no "Lee, Boozer or Jefferson" ever averaged...

24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game with an awesome 3PT% of .411%.

Agreed. Lee,Boozer and Jefferson is a huge undersell of Randle unless you think last year was some random, extreme outlier (which I don't).

He isn't a top 10-15 player but if he plays like last year and maybe even continues to build and improve even just a little moving forward , he is top 25 easily in this league with his all around game.

Top 25? Dude just made the ALL-STAR TEAM.

If he continues to develop and more importantly improve he's easily a top 10 player (impact wise).

No issue with your enthusiasm for Randle. I was being a bit conservative with the ranking just to minimize disagreement. Point is unless he inexplicably regresses he is definitely a guy that can be part of a Big 3 and if he continues to improve even a solid #2 option of a big 3.

[DOT]

Well, I don't view Randle as a second option either, let alone as a "superstar".

He's more in the David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson category as far as All-NBA players are concerned in my book.

Is he a good partner for Lillard? Maybe in the pick-and-pop. But Randle is lacking in scoring efficiency, and playing next to Lillard would likely put him more in a finisher role. The fit isn't bad, but I'm afraid the pairing would highlight Randle's limitations as a scorer. I do like the idea of Randle's playmaking leading to Lillard 3s, but my prediction is that teams will simply stop overreacting to Randle's ISOs (as the Hawks did) and stay home on shooters.

Randle is good but not good enough to warrant a win-now trade for an aging superstar imo.

This is the big thing for me as well. Some have made the case that we need to accelerate the timeline in order to take advantage of Randle's Bird Rights.

Randle is a #3 for me on a championship team. I'd rather let him walk than mortgage our future for the wrong opportunity because we feel like we're on a time crunch.

That has nothing to do with Dame as an individual player. I'm speaking more to the decision making paradigm that I look at this through.

Exactly.

I don't mind keeping Randle and building around our youth, as there is some generational overlap (with Julius being 26).

I don't mind trading for a 26-27 year old star to pair with Randle and who fits his timeline (ie Lavine), in a scenario where we get to keep some of our talented young players and where we don't mortgage our entire future.

I don't mind trading Randle for picks and young players and hitting the reset button.

It all depends on what's on the table and which trades are actually available.

But I'm forcefully against trading our entire future for a 31-year-old who hasn't even proven he can lead a team past the Conference Finals (at best). Whatever people think of the Melo trade, he was only 26 at the time. Lillard is half-a-decade older, with even less of a track record as a winning player.

I kind of disagree with the lack of playoff success as a criticism

Cause, of his 8 trips to the playoffs, he ran into the Warriors 3 times, then the Spurs and Lakers both once the years they won

And you can definitely criticize him for not showing up against the Grizz in 2015 or the Pelicans in 2018 (though I'd argue LMA was more the reason they lost in 2015, but Dame wasn't great), but I can't see criticizing him for losing to the Nuggets this year when he was playing out of his mind

So I'd say most of his lack of success is bad luck in matchups, or his teammates letting him down

Still don't think we should go all in on him without another star to make a trio with Randle, but I just disagree with criticizing him for running into great teams.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

[Chanel Bomber]

Not comparing him to LeBron but Julius Randle is only 26 and LeBron never won his first ring until running to Wade Bosh and Ray Allen @ age 28.

Julius Randle is absolutely an NBA star in the makings and no "Lee, Boozer or Jefferson" ever averaged...

24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game with an awesome 3PT% of .411%.

Agreed. Lee,Boozer and Jefferson is a huge undersell of Randle unless you think last year was some random, extreme outlier (which I don't).

He isn't a top 10-15 player but if he plays like last year and maybe even continues to build and improve even just a little moving forward , he is top 25 easily in this league with his all around game.

Top 25? Dude just made the ALL-STAR TEAM.

If he continues to develop and more importantly improve he's easily a top 10 player (impact wise).

So?

Randle is an inefficient scorer. The Knicks had a losing record before the Derrick Rose trade.

Boozer was a two-time All-Star and an All-NBA player once. Same for David Lee. Was either ever a top 20 player, let alone a 10 player?

These are perception awards, which are naturally narrative-driven just as much as they're facts-driven. I'm not saying Randle didn't deserve to make one of the All-NBA teams. But a lot of it is dependent on what is happening with other players across the league, including injuries, games played because of COVID, unusual stretches of underperformance. Circumstances.

But these awards don't impact the reality on the court. Randle is nowhere near a top 10 player. I kinda bought into the Randle hype during the season of course, because I'm a fan and he did have a very good season, but now that the dust has settled, and all the stats are available, and his playoff performance is in the rearview mirror, it's pretty obvious that he's not close to a superstar.

He's simply not efficient enough as a scorer. Although I'm sure he'll come back better next year after his embarrassing performance in the first round.

[Chanel Bomber]

This is the big thing for me as well. Some have made the case that we need to accelerate the timeline in order to take advantage of Randle's Bird Rights.

Randle is a #3 for me on a championship team. I'd rather let him walk than mortgage our future for the wrong opportunity because we feel like we're on a time crunch.

That has nothing to do with Dame as an individual player. I'm speaking more to the decision making paradigm that I look at this through.

Exactly.

I don't mind keeping Randle and building around our youth, as there is some generational overlap (with Julius being 26).

I don't mind trading for a 26-27 year old star to pair with Randle and who fits his timeline (ie Lavine), in a scenario where we get to keep some of our talented young players and where we don't mortgage our entire future.

I don't mind trading Randle for picks and young players and hitting the reset button.

It all depends on what's on the table and which trades are actually available.

But I'm forcefully against trading our entire future for a 31-year-old who hasn't even proven he can lead a team past the Conference Finals (at best). Whatever people think of the Melo trade, he was only 26 at the time. Lillard is half-a-decade older, with even less of a track record as a winning player.

I kind of disagree with the lack of playoff success as a criticism

Cause, of his 8 trips to the playoffs, he ran into the Warriors 3 times, then the Spurs and Lakers both once the years they won

And you can definitely criticize him for not showing up against the Grizz in 2015 or the Pelicans in 2018 (though I'd argue LMA was more the reason they lost in 2015, but Dame wasn't great), but I can't see criticizing him for losing to the Nuggets this year when he was playing out of his mind

So I'd say most of his lack of success is bad luck in matchups, or his teammates letting him down

Still don't think we should go all in on him without another star to make a trio with Randle, but I just disagree with criticizing him for running into great teams.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

I'm not really criticizing him for his playoff failures.

I don't expect a player to be better than what he is.

My point is that he was not great enough to be the great team, instead of having to face it. Some of it has to do with circumstances, such as supporting cast, but there's a pattern of him or his team not being good enough, and I think he plays a part in this. If he actually were "best player on a title team", he shouldn't lose to a depleted Nuggets team. My issue is that he can't "leverage" the help around him the way the NBA's best players do (James, Curry, Jokic, even Trae).

My problem lies with our perception of Lillard, not Lillard the player. My concern is that we treat him like he's a 1A on a championship team like Curry when he's nowhere near that caliber in my opinion.

And let's not forget that CJ carried him in that game 7 against Denver two years ago (the only time Dame made it to the WCF).

[KnixinSix]

This is the big thing for me as well. Some have made the case that we need to accelerate the timeline in order to take advantage of Randle's Bird Rights.

Randle is a #3 for me on a championship team. I'd rather let him walk than mortgage our future for the wrong opportunity because we feel like we're on a time crunch.

That has nothing to do with Dame as an individual player. I'm speaking more to the decision making paradigm that I look at this through.

Exactly.

I don't mind keeping Randle and building around our youth, as there is some generational overlap (with Julius being 26).

I don't mind trading for a 26-27 year old star to pair with Randle and who fits his timeline (ie Lavine), in a scenario where we get to keep some of our talented young players and where we don't mortgage our entire future.

I don't mind trading Randle for picks and young players and hitting the reset button.

It all depends on what's on the table and which trades are actually available.

But I'm forcefully against trading our entire future for a 31-year-old who hasn't even proven he can lead a team past the Conference Finals (at best). Whatever people think of the Melo trade, he was only 26 at the time. Lillard is half-a-decade older, with even less of a track record as a winning player.

I kind of disagree with the lack of playoff success as a criticism

Cause, of his 8 trips to the playoffs, he ran into the Warriors 3 times, then the Spurs and Lakers both once the years they won

And you can definitely criticize him for not showing up against the Grizz in 2015 or the Pelicans in 2018 (though I'd argue LMA was more the reason they lost in 2015, but Dame wasn't great), but I can't see criticizing him for losing to the Nuggets this year when he was playing out of his mind

So I'd say most of his lack of success is bad luck in matchups, or his teammates letting him down

Still don't think we should go all in on him without another star to make a trio with Randle, but I just disagree with criticizing him for running into great teams.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

We've discussed Kawhi but how about Derozan?

Would you guys be OK with let's say:

Mitch/Pelle/Draft pick #19
Randle/Vet Min
RJ Barrett/Vet Min
Derozan/Vet Min
Dame/(MLE Rose)

That team doesn't beat a healthy Nets squad but their big 3 is brittle to say the least.

If we finished with the 4 seed this year that squad above is considerably better.

[GONYK]

Exactly.

I don't mind keeping Randle and building around our youth, as there is some generational overlap (with Julius being 26).

I don't mind trading for a 26-27 year old star to pair with Randle and who fits his timeline (ie Lavine), in a scenario where we get to keep some of our talented young players and where we don't mortgage our entire future.

I don't mind trading Randle for picks and young players and hitting the reset button.

It all depends on what's on the table and which trades are actually available.

But I'm forcefully against trading our entire future for a 31-year-old who hasn't even proven he can lead a team past the Conference Finals (at best). Whatever people think of the Melo trade, he was only 26 at the time. Lillard is half-a-decade older, with even less of a track record as a winning player.

I kind of disagree with the lack of playoff success as a criticism

Cause, of his 8 trips to the playoffs, he ran into the Warriors 3 times, then the Spurs and Lakers both once the years they won

And you can definitely criticize him for not showing up against the Grizz in 2015 or the Pelicans in 2018 (though I'd argue LMA was more the reason they lost in 2015, but Dame wasn't great), but I can't see criticizing him for losing to the Nuggets this year when he was playing out of his mind

So I'd say most of his lack of success is bad luck in matchups, or his teammates letting him down

Still don't think we should go all in on him without another star to make a trio with Randle, but I just disagree with criticizing him for running into great teams.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

We've discussed Kawhi but how about Derozan?

Would you guys be OK with let's say:

Mitch/Pelle/Draft pick #19
Randle/Vet Min
RJ Barrett/Vet Min
Derozan/Vet Min
Dame/(MLE Rose)

That team doesn't beat a healthy Nets squad but their big 3 is brittle to say the least.

If we finished with the 4 seed this year that squad above is considerably better.

We aren't keeping RJ and Mitch in a deal for Dame

[KnixinSix]

I kind of disagree with the lack of playoff success as a criticism

Cause, of his 8 trips to the playoffs, he ran into the Warriors 3 times, then the Spurs and Lakers both once the years they won

And you can definitely criticize him for not showing up against the Grizz in 2015 or the Pelicans in 2018 (though I'd argue LMA was more the reason they lost in 2015, but Dame wasn't great), but I can't see criticizing him for losing to the Nuggets this year when he was playing out of his mind

So I'd say most of his lack of success is bad luck in matchups, or his teammates letting him down

Still don't think we should go all in on him without another star to make a trio with Randle, but I just disagree with criticizing him for running into great teams.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

We've discussed Kawhi but how about Derozan?

Would you guys be OK with let's say:

Mitch/Pelle/Draft pick #19
Randle/Vet Min
RJ Barrett/Vet Min
Derozan/Vet Min
Dame/(MLE Rose)

That team doesn't beat a healthy Nets squad but their big 3 is brittle to say the least.

If we finished with the 4 seed this year that squad above is considerably better.

We aren't keeping RJ and Mitch in a deal for Dame

Depends on the draft picks given up but in this case I'm saying Obi,Quickley and 4FRPs

[GONYK]

We've discussed Kawhi but how about Derozan?

Would you guys be OK with let's say:

Mitch/Pelle/Draft pick #19
Randle/Vet Min
RJ Barrett/Vet Min
Derozan/Vet Min
Dame/(MLE Rose)

That team doesn't beat a healthy Nets squad but their big 3 is brittle to say the least.

If we finished with the 4 seed this year that squad above is considerably better.

We aren't keeping RJ and Mitch in a deal for Dame

Depends on the draft picks given up but in this case I'm saying Obi,Quickley and 4FRPs

We can discuss any number of trade scenarios that leave a roster intact enough to make the trade look good.

The ones without RJ just aren't realistic. Portland has absolutely no incentive to do the deal without him.

The only assumptions that can be made is that Randle will still be on the team. So in a vacuum, is Randle, Dame, and DD worth getting excited about?

In my opinion, not really. That's not leagues better than what Portland was putting on the floor.

[DOT]

We've discussed Kawhi but how about Derozan?

Would you guys be OK with let's say:

Mitch/Pelle/Draft pick #19
Randle/Vet Min
RJ Barrett/Vet Min
Derozan/Vet Min
Dame/(MLE Rose)

That team doesn't beat a healthy Nets squad but their big 3 is brittle to say the least.

If we finished with the 4 seed this year that squad above is considerably better.

We aren't keeping RJ and Mitch in a deal for Dame

Depends on the draft picks given up but in this case I'm saying Obi,Quickley and 4FRPs

Doesn't get it done

You need RJ, load of picks, and at least one maybe two of Quick, Mitch, and Obi.

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[NoDopeOnSundays]

We've discussed Kawhi but how about Derozan?

Would you guys be OK with let's say:

Mitch/Pelle/Draft pick #19
Randle/Vet Min
RJ Barrett/Vet Min
Derozan/Vet Min
Dame/(MLE Rose)

That team doesn't beat a healthy Nets squad but their big 3 is brittle to say the least.

If we finished with the 4 seed this year that squad above is considerably better.

We aren't keeping RJ and Mitch in a deal for Dame

Depends on the draft picks given up but in this case I'm saying Obi,Quickley and 4FRPs

What you're saying isn't at all realistic though. That type of trade gets you Jrue Holiday not Lillard.

[NYK-Mentality85]

Agreed. Lee,Boozer and Jefferson is a huge undersell of Randle unless you think last year was some random, extreme outlier (which I don't).

He isn't a top 10-15 player but if he plays like last year and maybe even continues to build and improve even just a little moving forward , he is top 25 easily in this league with his all around game.

Top 25? Dude just made the ALL-STAR TEAM.

If he continues to develop and more importantly improve he's easily a top 10 player (impact wise).

So?

Randle is an inefficient scorer. The Knicks had a losing record before the Derrick Rose trade.

Boozer was a two-time All-Star and an All-NBA player once. Same for David Lee. Was either ever a top 20 player, let alone a 10 player?

These are perception awards, which are naturally narrative-driven just as much as they're facts-driven. I'm not saying Randle didn't deserve to make one of the All-NBA teams. But a lot of it is dependent on what is happening with other players across the league, including injuries, games played because of COVID, unusual stretches of underperformance. Circumstances.

But these awards don't impact the reality on the court. Randle is nowhere near a top 10 player. I kinda bought into the Randle hype during the season of course, because I'm a fan and he did have a very good season, but now that the dust has settled, and all the stats are available, and his playoff performance is in the rearview mirror, it's pretty obvious that he's not close to a superstar.

He's simply not efficient enough as a scorer. Although I'm sure he'll come back better next year after his embarrassing performance in the first round.

Julius Randle is only 26 and is actually a very efficient scorer with a career FG% of .485%.

LeBron = FG% 50.4% (didn't win 1st ring until 28).
MJ23 = FG% of 49.7%
Julius Randle = 48.5%.
Melo = FG% of 44.7%.
Dame = FG% of 43.9%.
Westbrook = FG% of 43.7.

But yet you're talking about his "efficiency" as a scorer? That's pretty funny man.

You don't know what you're talking about, do you?

[KnixinSix]

We aren't keeping RJ and Mitch in a deal for Dame

Depends on the draft picks given up but in this case I'm saying Obi,Quickley and 4FRPs

We can discuss any number of trade scenarios that leave a roster intact enough to make the trade look good.

The ones without RJ just aren't realistic. Portland has absolutely no incentive to do the deal without him.

The only assumptions that can be made is that Randle will still be on the team. So in a vacuum, is Randle, Dame, and DD worth getting excited about?

In my opinion, not really. That's not leagues better than what Portland was putting on the floor.

You need to factor superior coaching/system in this equation is well. If Thibs got Randle to play more team oriented ball , he may get Dame doing the same. So yeah that is a better overall foundation than Portland.