2017-18 NBA Thread

[33anda3rd]

Not sure where you go from here if you're Toronto. They're in the tax, they have a lot of high-dollar contracts and the DeRozan one might be the only tradeable of them.

They can keep the whole thing. VanVleet has Early Bird rights and they can carve out like a 8-9 million exception for him, then just run the whole thing back and hope that they've learned some kind of lesson in yet another loss to LeBron.

Or they could try to break it apart, but jeez how do you do that? Who's taking on Norm Powell, who is basically a 10th Man making $10MM/year? Would you take on Kyle Lowry, perhaps the most boring/mediocre Star Point Guard in the league, at $64MM for the next two years? Or Ibaka at $45MM for the next two? Even if they did find a trade partner for Lowry, they'd then have a team of DeRozan/JoVal/VanVleet/Anunoby/Ibaka at the core, and that's probably a team that hovers between the lottery and the 8 seed, even in the East since the East teams have been racking up lottery picks the last few years.

I'd also assume Casey, who should be a Coach Of The Year candidate, will be on the hot seat.

[wart57]

My Suns get the number one pick for the first time in their history...

People are going crazy here in Phx...

[33anda3rd]

Hopefully for those Phoenix fans they'll take Doncic.

[thrill]

I really want Doncic but have nothing to base this on other than what I've read. Ayton being an Arizona guy makes a tenuous connection, but I just don't think you hire Kokoskov, have the opportunity to draft one of his protegees, and then don't. It's gotta be Luka, right?

[33anda3rd]

There are a handful of reasons I like Doncic. Mostly it's talent, though. I watched a few Eurobasket games on a web feed last summer and as a teenager against some NBA competition he didn't just hang in, or play well, he excelled. He's also been playing pro for two seasons with Real Madrid, is used to the travel, the pro grind. He slowed down a bit this season. He played a full season last year, then Eurobasket all summer, and was tired. Real sat him for several weeks, he rested up, came back and dominated again. It's a pick and roll league, and Doncic already excels in the pick and roll. He regularly gets a lot of free throw attempts driving off the high pick--a great sign of aggressiveness. He averaged 5 boards/game playing about 25 minutes/game as a PG. I like him a lot.

The Bulls are sitting at 7 and I assume they'll have their pick of Wendell Carter or Michael Porter, and I'm hoping that, realizing they're probably not competing for a ring in 2019, they take a shot on the massive upside of Porter. It's the kind of move Sacramento made last year taking Harry Giles later in the first round, Giles was projected at the top of the draft but injury caused him to drop and he's a nice high-ceiling piece the Kings have stashed.

[cardsfansince82]

I'd be a little surprised if both of them are still on the board at 7.

[33anda3rd]

Most of what I'm reading puts Doncic, Ayton, Bagley, Jaren Jackson, Bamba into a pretty solid top-5. Would be surprised to see anyone knock one of them out based on what I'm reading, but Trae Young could do it if a GM thinks he's Curry Lite.

After that there's a bucket with Young, Porter, Carter, Sexton and the two Bridges (Mikal from Villanova, Miles from Mich St.)

[thrill]

The Bulls are sitting at 7 and I assume they'll have their pick of Wendell Carter or Michael Porter, and I'm hoping that, realizing they're probably not competing for a ring in 2019, they take a shot on the massive upside of Porter.

Me too. Nothing will slow their rebuild down quicker than solid but not spectacular high floor guys. Gamble on upside. If they find a Taj Gibson-like contributor or even a Jo Noah-like contributor, Lauri & Dunn take another step, Lavine stays healthy and all of a sudden you're an 5-8 seed with zero chance to compete against Boston for like 10 years.

[wart57]

The buzz here is for Ayton - he even said in an interview he would love to play for the Suns and play with Booker - he said it would be like Shaq and Kobi 2.0.....

[33anda3rd]

I think we can take part of what Ayton's saying with a grain of salt. Any player in the top tier is going to stake their claim to being the #1 pick. Unless your name is Ball and your dad is angling for you to go only to the Lakers. Plenty more money in being the #1 than the #2. Michael Porter told the media yesterday that he's the best player in the draft. I like Ayton's confidence but I don't know that I'd rush to compare myself to Shaq or Devin Booker to Kobe.