Who is the Most Overrated Team in the East ..aka.. Why Boston Sux.

[JamesNaismith]

Or the fact the greatest team in the league and possibly in history is the luckiest one of them all. Curry went 7th behind Johnny Flynn, Thompson 15, Green 30. I'm sure they envisioned all of this back in 2012 #pinkfont

Funny FACT but GSW tanked to get the pick that was Steph Curry fyi.

[JimiCliff]

Well I just like the odds more of finding a franchise level talent in the top end of the draft versus finding a MVP caliber player in his 3rd year coming off the bench in a trade is all.

I like those odds better as well. However, you pay for those better odds by having to watch terrible, playoff-less basketball for years.

[JamesNaismith]

I like those odds better as well. However, you pay for those better odds by having to watch terrible, playoff-less basketball for years.

Fair enough but it's a price I'd be willing to pay versus holding my breathe for a trade like Harden to HOU which I'm not even sure I can think of another trade that resembles it EVER.

[KeonClark]

Lebron James
Giannis
Kawhi
Durant
Curry
Harden
Westbrook

That to me is the list of franchise guys that are right now capable of being an alpha on a contender (unless its a super deep team with 4 top 30 guys in a rare instance), the last 2 are debatable.

Of those 7, how many were can't miss generational guys BEFORE entering the league? Lebron and Durant. That's it. 2 out of 7. The other 5 were drafted later, or drafted top 5 but still weren't expected to be there, took an unexpected leap. That should sum up this exact science of "tank for elite talent"

[JimiCliff]

Fair enough but it's a price I'd be willing to pay versus holding my breathe for a trade like Harden to HOU which I'm not even sure I can think of another trade that resembles it ever.

That's fair. My point is that if when people bring up the treadmill, they generally overlook that it can yield a Harden-to-Houston like scenario. Even if it's unlikely, it's part of the equation that should be acknowledged.

[golden]

But, we're accruing assets. For eg, travel with this roster back in time, and an offer of CJ Miles, Powell, OG, Poeltl, and picks beats Houston's offer for Harden.

James Harden, one of the NBA's most explosive scorers, could have been a Toronto Raptor had the Raptors parted with a valuable long-term piece to the puzzle.

According to Chris Broussard and Bill Simmons, both of ESPN, inside sources believe general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder Sam Presti was shopping Harden and immediately called the Raptors and inquired about the availability of rookie center Jonas Valanciunas.

The deal would have been centered around Valanciunas, an expiring Jose Calderon and likely Terrence Ross or DeMar DeRozan.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...ed-the-trigger

[JamesNaismith]

Lebron James
Giannis
Kawhi
Durant
Curry
Harden
Westbrook

That to me is the list of franchise guys that are right now capable of being an alpha on a contender (unless its a super deep team with 4 top 30 guys in a rare instance), the last 2 are debatable.

Of those 7, how many were can't miss generational guys BEFORE entering the league? Lebron and Durant. That's it. 2 out of 7. The other 5 were drafted later, or drafted top 5 but still weren't expected to be there, took an unexpected leap. That should sum up this exact science of "tank for elite talent"

You're blurring the lines by adding "generational" into the conversation.

5 of those 7 guys were taken in the top 7 of the draft, 4 in the top 4.

By all accounts the bottom 7 of the draft consists of very bad teams, most of whom are either just straight trash or quite intentionally tanked. Of course every few years or so there is a very good player that slips completely under the radar that is an anomily (as we're praying OG can somewhat be).

Again the ratio though favored tanking teams as that's 70+% of those names were acquired by being in the top end of the draft. Not exactly the strongest case for your argument lol no offense. The only reason why Kawhi and Giannis didn't go high is both had incredibly uncommon developmental improvements, one guy was playing as a C in college (KL) and the other was barely a blip in Europe and incredibly that sad irony only our GM seemed to realize the potential of.

But again this only helps the argument of tanking to find elite talent because for the most part, that's how it happens.

[JamesNaismith]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...ed-the-trigger

Yup such a dagger to the heart that we didn't make that happen or we could also look at it like we had the chance to draft Kawhi instead of JV as well or had we not traded our pick for Kyle we'd have Giannis right now lol but whatever.

Imagining Powell, DD, Kawhi, OG and Giannis right now as our core....tattoo tear lol

[Scraptor]

Yup such a dagger to the heart that we didn't make that happen or we could also look at it like we had the chance to draft Kawhi instead of JV as well or had we not traded our pick for Kyle we'd have Giannis right now lol but whatever.

Imagining Powell, DD, Kawhi, OG and Giannis right now as our core....tattoo tear lol

If we're drafting Kawhi now too then let's add Jokic or Capela over Bruno and trade both 9/27 picksto move up two picks to 7 to get Murray.

Murray
DD
Kawhi
Giannis
Jokic

with OG and Powell off the bench, that's like a 10 championship team. Maybe only 8 with Casey in charge.

[Demographic Shift]

We have NO chance at the NBA finals as currently constructed.

That’s a bit of premature prognostication.

It’s the first week of November but

The Cavs look to have gotten old right in front of our eyes. It happens and Father Time is undefeated.
The Wizards are good but not that good regardless of how much hot air comes from the “look at us...please!!! twins” Beal and Wall.
Same for the Chowderheads...
The Bucks are a one man show and unless they trade for Bledsoe are still a couple more players away.

The Raps can very conceivably get to the NBA finals if this pattern continues,albeit it’s only 8 games in, but these teams and their prospects aren’t exactly the four horseman of the apocalypse bearing down on you.

As for winning in the Finals...along with 29 other teams I agree that the F22’s don’t have much of a chance against the Warriors... yet 3 games ago the Raps had em by 5 with the ball with under two to play.

If it was as easy to assemble a young, fast, dynamically athletic offensive and defensive team as you hint at by accepting the luxury tax and trading an established marquee player or two to a bad team for those high draft picks ..there would be at least 5 teams within reach of the Warriors. It doesn’t look that way.

[tDotted]

If we're drafting Kawhi now too then let's add Jokic or Capela over Bruno and trade both 9/27 picksto move up two picks to 7 to get Murray.

Murray
DD
Kawhi
Giannis
Jokic

with OG and Powell off the bench, that's like a 10 championship team. Maybe only 8 with Casey in charge.

I guess I'll be the a hole today and point out that players don't develop linearly or the same in different situations.

Again you're not listening.

I have already accepted that the team is not going in EITHER direction. We are not tanking, we will not be making moves to pay tax through the nose to try and load up.

So within the constraints that MLSE has opposed (be good but not great, tax avoidance, etc) I look for moves we can make to get better. It's not that hard to understand mate.

I don't see how trading for Covington doesn't get you back into the tax again. He's a relatively young hot commodity who'll be getting a paycheck larger than JV.

[Jclaw]

Hmmmm. Thought this was the game that was going to put Boston in perspective. Then they came back to beat okc

[Scraptor]

I guess I'll be the a hole today and point out that players don't develop linearly or the same in different situations.

If you couldn't grasp the hyperbole of that post I'm not sure what to tell you.

Anyways, Kyrie Irving is a dumbass but is demonstrating why superstar talent matters in the NBA.

[tDotted]

If you couldn't grasp the hyperbole of that post I'm not sure what to tell you.

Your post gave me a solid chuckle if that's what you're wondering

[planetmars]

If we're drafting Kawhi now too then let's add Jokic or Capela over Bruno and trade both 9/27 picksto move up two picks to 7 to get Murray.

Murray
DD
Kawhi
Giannis
Jokic

with OG and Powell off the bench, that's like a 10 championship team. Maybe only 8 with Casey in charge.

The original timeline adjustment was Bryan doing the Harden deal. So that would keep the Lowry pick (as we wouldn't have traded Houston for him). So at this point we'd have Harden and DD but no Lowry or JV (they wanted JV/, Calderon and say Ross).

Assuming no big butterfly effect here, then we'd still pick Giannis with our 2013 pick (which we now get to use). Since we had no Jose we wouldn't be able to get Gay.. which means no Vasquez.. which means no Powell.

But in 2014 let's take Jokic instead of Bruno for shits and giggles. Masai got his Giannis and didn't need to get an inferior version of him. Also since we had no need for a SF in free agency in 2015, let's use that money to chase a PF. I'd go after Millsap and hope the extra money we throw at him has him leaving Atlanta.

At this point our starting line up would look like:

Harden
DD
Giannis
Millsap
Jokic

That's a pretty good team right there. Might even beat GSW.