Who's the next Harden? (Raptors related

[Chr1s1anL]

I'm getting really tired of people saying they don't want certain superstar level players. Stop being ridiculous.

Defensive comes first at that 4 spot. JV/Love front court? Casey might have stroke.


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[Letter N]

I'm getting really tired of people saying they don't want certain superstar level players. Stop being ridiculous.

30/18? pshhh, let's see him make a proper rotation before we invest in the game's best stretch 4. Cause everyone knows there's no way to compensate for 1 weak defensive position on the court, especially when it's as vital as the PF position.

[imanshumpert]

Defensive comes first at that 4 spot. JV/Love front court? Casey might have stroke.


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JV has the potential to become an excellent post defender and rim protector in the Marc Gasol build. Not gonna block shots left and right, but will do a great job of protecting the paint.

Love is underrated as a defender. He's not great, but he's at least average defensively at his position. His ability to DOMINATE the glass makes him above average because the opponent doesn't get 2nd chance points.

Not to mention that Love is an elite and efficient scorer, and probably the best passing bigman in the league.

[ceez]

Love doesn't fit the type of bigs we're bring in. You know ones that can actually play D.


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he's no worse than project pat and his rebounding is elite sooooo

[enlightenment]

he's no worse than project pat and his rebounding is elite sooooo

Ppat is a great defender.

[Chr1s1anL]

he's no worse than project pat and his rebounding is elite sooooo

Pat is a good defender first of all and 2Pat doesn't play 32+ mins a game. Do you guys not remember how bad JV/Barny front court was defensively? Yes, Barny is the superior defender between him and Love. Look at the bigs Masai is bringing around JV AJ, PP, TH, Bebe and even Bruno. All are plus defender or project to be plus defenders.


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[mcHAPPY]

What I'm wondering with Kawhi is if he's like Harden where he's currently a 60 TS% 3rd/4th banana, but if you give him a bigger role can he reach the all-star/superstar tier? That's what I'm wondering.

Leonard is never leaving San Antonio.

not trying to be difficult, I just think that is fact.

Pop absolutely loves him.

[planetmars]

Harden was on a rookie deal playing as a sixth man on a small market team that already gave out 2 max contracts. So finding another Harden will be difficult.

You have to look at rookie scale contracts that you think will turn into superstars. Bradley Beal comes to mind. Washington already gave a max to Wall.. would Beal be worth the max? I don't see superstar though when I think of him.

Leonard was mentioned but Spurs can resign him pretty easily.

Lillard might get max and Portland will probably resign him.

Barnes is one of those guys that might need a different environment to succeed.. but I don't see anything special yet.

Drummond but he's going to be resigned or else the Pistons are stupid.

Greak Freek might be a star.. but Milwaukee will never give him up.

Oladipo is another guy I like, but Orlando will keep him.

Bennett is underrated and I think he can flourish.. Maybe if Cleveland ends up getting Hayward and they have 2 max contracts they'd have to give him up when his contract is up for renewal?

After that we are really looking at the 2014 draft ... and its too early to start moving those players around.


From a Veteran point of view.. the guy I really like is Horford, but he's a free agent in 2016. We won't have cap space by then unfortunately.

[ceez]

Ppat is a great defender.

vs slow small forwards, sure

vs anyone else, not really

[The_Warlord]

Hey guys, 1st Post!

Not really the next Harden in the sense of an underpaid young guy, but how about Josh Smith? Before you hurl, think about his fit on this squad, his past performance when engaged and the lessons learnt from playing in an ugly situation in the D.. It can't be argued that he has all-star calibre skill/athleticism.

Lowry was once looked at the same way and look at him now. There are potential parallels if he plays within himself and is able to repair his image throughout the league. Take a look at this article for an un-biased look at what he can provide a team:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...-of-josh-smith

They're looking to get out of his contract, giving up our trash expirings for the 13.5M over 3 years remaining seems fair.

Novak, Hayes and Hansbrough for Josh Smith gives us (with minutes played at each position assuming 2Pat and Greivis re-sign):

Lowry 32 - GV 16
Demar 20 - Ross 6 - Lou 22
Ross - 26 - Demar - 17 Smith - 5
Smith - 32 - PP - 16
JV - 30 - Amir - 18

Bruno, Bebe, Nando, Fields

Is this squad a contender? Is J Smoove salvageable?

[Mindlessness]

Harden was on a rookie deal playing as a sixth man on a small market team that already gave out 2 max contracts. So finding another Harden will be difficult.

You have to look at rookie scale contracts that you think will turn into superstars. Bradley Beal comes to mind. Washington already gave a max to Wall.. would Beal be worth the max? I don't see superstar though when I think of him.

Leonard was mentioned but Spurs can resign him pretty easily.

Lillard might get max and Portland will probably resign him.

Barnes is one of those guys that might need a different environment to succeed.. but I don't see anything special yet.

Drummond but he's going to be resigned or else the Pistons are stupid.

Greak Freek might be a star.. but Milwaukee will never give him up.

Oladipo is another guy I like, but Orlando will keep him.

Bennett is underrated and I think he can flourish.. Maybe if Cleveland ends up getting Hayward and they have 2 max contracts they'd have to give him up when his contract is up for renewal?

After that we are really looking at the 2014 draft ... and its too early to start moving those players around.


From a Veteran point of view.. the guy I really like is Horford, but he's a free agent in 2016. We won't have cap space by then unfortunately.

Have to remember, how many people thought that OKC was gonna give up on Harden? Very few, there may be circumstances where the players you named above do make them available.

[enlightenment]

Hey guys, 1st Post!

Not really the next Harden in the sense of an underpaid young guy, but how about Josh Smith? Before you hurl, think about his fit on this squad, his past performance when engaged and the lessons learnt from playing in an ugly situation in the D.. It can't be argued that he has all-star calibre skill/athleticism.

Lowry was once looked at the same way and look at him now. There are potential parallels if he plays within himself and is able to repair his image throughout the league. Take a look at this article for an un-biased look at what he can provide a team:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...-of-josh-smith

They're looking to get out of his contract, giving up our trash expirings for the 13.5M over 3 years remaining seems fair.

Novak, Hayes and Hansbrough for Josh Smith gives us (with minutes played at each position assuming 2Pat and Greivis re-sign):

Lowry 32 - GV 16
Demar 20 - Ross 6 - Lou 22
Ross - 26 - Demar - 17 Smith - 5
Smith - 32 - PP - 16
JV - 30 - Amir - 18

Bruno, Bebe, Nando, Fields

Is this squad a contender? Is J Smoove salvageable?

J. Smith had one of the worst 3pt shooting seasons in NBA history, yet kept on deciding to chuck 3s. He clearly has no offensive discipline, and will ruin our chemistry and foundational structure. 26% 3pt shooter, still took 3.4 3FGA (265 total shots)

This is much worse than Rudy Gay could dream of. Rudy fit better on this team than Smith would.

[e_wheazhy_]

K.L. is a Spurs for life and nothing going anywhere.

No 😉 KL is a raptor for life 😚😍👍 don't you read twitter? 😄😉😃😀😄😜

[The_Warlord]

J. Smith had one of the worst 3pt shooting seasons in NBA history, yet kept on deciding to chuck 3s. He clearly has no offensive discipline, and will ruin our chemistry and foundational structure. 26% 3pt shooter, still took 3.4 3FGA (265 total shots)

This is much worse than Rudy Gay could dream of. Rudy fit better on this team than Smith would.

That's fair, he is a terrible 3pt shooter, but he's shown a willingness to not shoot 3's since in the 2009-10 season he only attempted 7 altogether!

We have to make it very clear that we're trading for him to play the role of a big. He brings elite athleticism, is an underrated passer, great defender and fills a huge need of this team; can slide over to guard the big 3's of the league when required. We'd have a stopper for Lebron, Melo, Joe Johnson, Jabari Parker etc.

He was doomed to fail from the beginning when brought into that Pistons situation and now can be had for basically nothing. What will we do with the cap space next year? Kevin Love is a pipe dream and a weak defender.. if J Smoove buys in and that's a huge IF.. I see the raps as a top 5 offense/defense team. Potentially a contender starting next year without giving away any meaningful assets today.

[Mediumcore]

I think that's the next step for this team. Let's be real we're not getting Durant here. What we need to do is pull what Houston did and get a star in here before he fully exposes himself as a superstar.

So who is there in the league that could potentially be that, and their team might not be willing to fork over a max contract for?

Kawhi Leonard could potentially be that guy, although the spurs probably will match anything. Can anyone think of others?

We have the cap space in 2015 free agency, we have desireable trade assets, I think we can pull this off it's just that Masai needs to find that guy

I like Leonard, but I think he is a role player, a great one, but still a role player that can't put a team on his back and win a game. If you're asking who is next to blow up then Love shouldn't even be in the conversation.

My best comparison to what happened when Harden was given the reigns to his own team would probably be Dion Waiters. Give hime 20 inefficient shots a game and get out of his way.

Guys I think could be the next big thing are:

Tony Wrotten Jr. - who was dicing up the Raptors defence whenever he played us. Needs to work on his shot a lot more
Quincy Miller - He's a project, but since we're talking about sleepers...
MCW - Word is already out on him, but let's see how losing impacts his game
Isaah Thomas - Had a pretty good season and surpisingly efficient, 18.8%
Reggie Jackson - No way OKC can match a big offer for him.