Everything Masai Ujiri

[Nilanka]

I see that a lot of fans on this site have faith in the Sixers and Celtics competing in the immediate future. They have some great parts but neither team has been able to put it together consistently yet. Embiid could be injury plagued for his entire career, or Kyrie and Hayward may never fully recover from their injuries. There's a lot that goes into a stable roster which can continually compete year after year, so I wouldn't take things like their health for granted. I remember there were a lot of people talking about the Bucks as the team that would challenge Cav's and jump ahead of Toronto in the standings, but look at them now.

Yeah, I'm not too worried about those teams. If the Cavs have a mental edge over us, we seem to have a slight edge over Boston.

[MixxAOR]

I see that a lot of fans on this site have faith in the Sixers and Celtics competing in the immediate future. They have some great parts but neither team has been able to put it together consistently yet. Embiid could be injury plagued for his entire career, or Kyrie and Hayward may never fully recover from their injuries. There's a lot that goes into a stable roster which can continually compete year after year, so I wouldn't take things like their health for granted. I remember there were a lot of people talking about the Bucks as the team that would challenge Cav's and jump ahead of Toronto in the standings, but look at them now.

That's actually fair. We have to consider them and be prepared still though. healthy dose of respect I guess.

[Axel]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about those teams. If the Cavs have a mental edge over us, we seem to have a slight edge over Boston.

Disagree about Boston. Irving and Hayward are established, but Tatum and Brown are high end picks with great potential. This team (with Brad Stevens) could be scary good.

Philly has more mismatched pieces but Boston looks like a legit scary good team over the coming years.

[Nilanka]

Disagree about Boston. Irving and Hayward are established, but Tatum and Brown are high end picks with great potential. This team (with Brad Stevens) could be scary good.

Philly has more mismatched pieces but Boston looks like a legit scary good team over the coming years.

I guess the question is: Do you see a prime Boston squad being a bigger obstacle than the last 3 years of Cavs? For me, the answer is no.

[Axel]

I guess the question is: Do you see a prime Boston squad being a bigger obstacle than the last 3 years of Cavs? For me, the answer is no.

This year no. Next year, probably not, but much closer. By year 3 - all bets are off. They may not have LeBron but they have tons of two-way players and a brilliant coach. They could be a legit dynasty much like the Spurs with Duncan/Parker/Manu and Pop.

[Maury]

This year no. Next year, probably not, but much closer. By year 3 - all bets are off. They may not have LeBron but they have tons of two-way players and a brilliant coach. They could be a legit dynasty much like the Spurs with Duncan/Parker/Manu and Pop.

It’ll be fun beating them then.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Disagree about Boston. Irving and Hayward are established, but Tatum and Brown are high end picks with great potential. This team (with Brad Stevens) could be scary good.

Philly has more mismatched pieces but Boston looks like a legit scary good team over the coming years.

Agreed. Been trying to say this for a while, but people seem convinced that we're somehow much better than them in the short and long-term.

[JawsGT]

The emergence of Rozier, Brown and Tatum has been something else. Add a healthy Kyrie and Hayward, plus Horford and that is a solid 6 players right there. Plus they have some other interesting pieces and enough assets to consolidate for a superstar. Imagine if they were able to land Kawhi and aldridge. Kyrie, Brown, Kawhi, Aldridge, horford....scary. Not enough ball to go around? Would you trade Rozier, Hayward and Tatum + picks and filler for Kawhi and Aldridge? Might be good for both teams if indeed Kawhi is disgruntled and not at all difficult money wise.

[Jclaw]

It's not really "news" but Woj offers a few more concrete details on our star crossed effort to draft Giannis. Btw, kind of surprised the everything Masai thread has only 8 pages but then again, Masai never leaks...

https://twitter.com/wojespn?lang=en

[Primer]

Yeah, Hawks are a tough comparison. Worst fan base in the league. Not sure why that franchise hasn't been moved to Seattle yet.

Atlanta is a massive TV market, much bigger than Seattle. Most Hawks fans don't live close enough to go to games. The people who live in the city are mostly transient and have no allegiance to Atlanta sports. That said, if they got a flashy exciting player people would go to games. They're in full on tank mode to try and get that player.

[Scraptor]

I'd put money on tanking Toronto having better attendance than 60 win Atlanta.

Yeah, Hawks are a tough comparison. Worst fan base in the league. Not sure why that franchise hasn't been moved to Seattle yet.

The point was that you can believe your business case of 50-wins is going to hold until it doesn't.

I think it's really important to consider what would happen if DeMar and Kyle decide to leave, and we get nothing, the way Horford/Millsap did.

[Primer]

Yeah, Hawks are a tough comparison. Worst fan base in the league. Not sure why that franchise hasn't been moved to Seattle yet.

The point was that you can believe your business case of 50-wins is going to hold until it doesn't.

I think it's really important to consider what would happen if DeMar and Kyle decide to leave, and we get nothing, the way Horford/Millsap did.

Good thing neither can leave unless we trade them.

[Hotshot]

Good thing neither can leave unless we trade them.

Best deals are at the trade deadline when teams are desperate to improve and will more likely be willing to give up picks for a player with issues. That's how we got Ibaka & Lowry.

[Primer]

Yeah, Hawks are a tough comparison. Worst fan base in the league. Not sure why that franchise hasn't been moved to Seattle yet.

Best deals are at the trade deadline when teams are desperate to improve and will more likely be willing to give up picks for a player with issues. That's how we got Ibaka & Lowry.

I don't think ownership would let us dump those guys mid season if we're a top 5 team, except Ibaka, I think we could deal him whenever. The optics are much better doing it in the offseason.

[JawsGT]

I don't think ownership would let us dump those guys mid season if we're a top 5 team, except Ibaka, I think we could deal him whenever. The optics are much better doing it in the offseason.

I agree, but lets say they go with your plan and are able to move Demar this offseason. At that point, you are basically conceding to rebuild anyways. Even if the team is performing well during the season, everyone knows they aren't gonna challenge the Celts, Sixers and LBJ, so you go ahead and gauge interest in Lowry and JV and even Ibaka during the season and move them if a decent deal is available. I'd get behind that plan. Even if a Deamr trade somehow had a Rudy Gay trade type effect, I'd still roll with trying to deal Lowry and JV during the season unless that Demar trade somehow returned a prospect that just blew up during the season and looks to have top 10 player potential.

Actually, now that Casey is gone, I'm expecting all of Demar, Lowry and JV to be traded by next seasons deadline, if the right deals are there. And those deals are like the ones you said, prospects, picks and bad contracts. We wouldn't necessarily be tanking but we might be able to restock the draft cupboards with mid to late lotto picks and late 1st rounders.