Game #18: Toronto Raptors 90 - Orlando Magic 83

[Zak24gege]

Watching Melo working against CHI..

[nba_4_life]

Watching Melo working against CHI..

Melo is looking good so far, san the first game.

[Jclaw]

Spurs won the trade.

I see how you missed the point. Nobody on this forum (at least, not any more) would think of suggesting San Antonio won that trade. But it's still possible to be happy for Demar that he has moments that might be fun. See the big picture.

[The Claw Reborn]

Good guy but cannot win you shit.

thats the biggest picture

Smh

[G__Deane]

Both Bucks and Lakers have won 10 straight, Clips are still hot (7-3 in last 10) although they lost tonight. The have and have-not teams are separating.

[TheWaterboy]

Good guy but cannot win you shit.

thats the biggest picture

Smh

I see this a little differently: good guy, but there's no margin for error in building a team with him in it if you want playoff success. When you assemble a team with a solid defensive identity, you can mix and match the pieces more easily to get the offense going based on what you're given. When you build a team around being able to outscore the other team, you find yourself vulnerable to match-up issues unless you have one or two transcendent defenders, or you have so much scoring that the other team has to defend one or more all-NBA scorers one-on-one.

From a roster construction point, where you actually want Derozan to land is somewhere like Houston, where the roster is built explicitly to be high-scoring with just enough defense to make it tough for the other team to outscore you. If you believe that you can have an offense based on Harden on one side of the floor, Derozan on the other, then maybe you look at plugging Derozan in instead of Westbrook, who by some accounts at least is not fitting in as well in Houston as expected. A deal based on Derozan and one of San Antonio's point guards for Westbrook and one of Houston's guard-forwards might work out well for both teams (but is highly unlikely because both teams are in the same conference, and because Houston may have concerns about San Antonio improving into a tough match-up quickly if Popovich has someone like Westbrook on his roster).

There may be one or two other winning teams for whom Derozan improves the roster construction (Philly, perhaps, where Simmons is not enough of a threat even from the midrange to draw attention from Embiid) but it's much more likely Derozan goes to a team trying to get to where we were a several years ago - winning enough to start building towards contender status.

If the Knicks weren't still in their state of Dolan Dysfunction, and if they had the assets to make the trade without losing their treasure trove of draft picks, Derozan would be an interesting get for them.

[Demographic Shift]

I see this a little differently: good guy, but there's no margin for error in building a team with him in it if you want playoff success. When you assemble a team with a solid defensive identity, you can mix and match the pieces more easily to get the offense going based on what you're given. When you build a team around being able to outscore the other team, you find yourself vulnerable to match-up issues unless you have one or two transcendent defenders, or you have so much scoring that the other team has to defend one or more all-NBA scorers one-on-one.

From a roster construction point, where you actually want Derozan to land is somewhere like Houston, where the roster is built explicitly to be high-scoring with just enough defense to make it tough for the other team to outscore you. If you believe that you can have an offense based on Harden on one side of the floor, Derozan on the other, then maybe you look at plugging Derozan in instead of Westbrook, who by some accounts at least is not fitting in as well in Houston as expected. A deal based on Derozan and one of San Antonio's point guards for Westbrook and one of Houston's guard-forwards might work out well for both teams (but is highly unlikely because both teams are in the same conference, and because Houston may have concerns about San Antonio improving into a tough match-up quickly if Popovich has someone like Westbrook on his roster).

There may be one or two other winning teams for whom Derozan improves the roster construction (Philly, perhaps, where Simmons is not enough of a threat even from the midrange to draw attention from Embiid) but it's much more likely Derozan goes to a team trying to get to where we were a several years ago - winning enough to start building towards contender status.

If the Knicks weren't still in their state of Dolan Dysfunction, and if they had the assets to make the trade without losing their treasure trove of draft picks, Derozan would be an interesting get for them.

Not sure the Knicks are the team for DD. They have a mirror image of him in RJ Barrett. A very good scorer at the 2 guard slot who can get to the rim but with a jump shot from the arc thats..well..lets say needs work.

Tough to play them together for spacing and ball handling reasons.

Portland could play him with one of Lillard or McCollum and they could close games with all 3. Orlando right now is a good fit as he is an upgrade to fournier but still doesnt fix the Magics dearth of 3 point shooters.

He won't cost to much as he has about 55to 60M in salary. An expiring, a young 7 or 8 on the depth chart rotation player and a second pick seems fair to eat that contract.

Demar will help someone this year...Just not clear who it is yet.