Betrayer
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Moving Thompson would be the dumbest thing this team could do. Cade is the engine that makes your offense exist. Thompson is the engine that makes your defense exist. The defensive turnaround for this team was night and day when he came into the starting lineup and his on/off stats prove it as well (on both ends). Obviously I'm in favor of moving Duren for numerous reasons, but let's ignore the money stuff and just talk about this notion that you can't have two non-shooters starting. I don't buy it. This was one of the final 8 teams standing and very close to being one of the final 4. However, you can't do it with Tobias as your starting 4 and Robinson as your starting 2. If Tobias shot 40% from three and was willing to take all the open threes they kept getting him in the playoffs then things look very different. Replace him with a competent and willing shooter (who can defend a bit) and this team is at least in the ECF against a Knicks team they dominated in the regular season. Same with Duncan. Replace him with someone who is still a solid shooter, but adds either shot creation or defense (both would be tough since that's an All-Star). I have no ideas what trades are out there to make my plan happen, but they're obviously bringing Duren back. It would be monumentally dumb for them to compound one bad move (overpaying Duren) with an even worse move (trading Ausar).
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It was never about his skill and always about his attitude and approach to the game.
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They'll say it's player coddling...sorry, "relations". We wouldn't want to upset the pampered star making 30-40 mil a year by allowing the market to set his value.
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Exactly. Pistons have all the leverage here if they let him test the market...but they won't.
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Spurs are showing their youth.
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Weaver drafted a lot of these guys. He gave up future assets to bring in Stew. He traded up for Sasser as well. They have a lot of Weaver's favorites they can dangle. Ideally, I'd love for it to be Duren, but I doubt the organization will do it.
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I'm sure it's a tough decision for him. Who does he favor? On the one hand, having a title in NYK would be huge for league $$$. On the other hand, he gave Wemby to the Euro team (Spurs) to increase the interest in that market for eventual expansion. It's basically a win/win for him.
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His FG% actually went down. He simply had more usage, taking 11.5 shots per game instead of the 7 shots he took the year before when we had Beasley and THJ chucking instead. Rebounds were flat. Assists went down. Stocks went down. Turnovers went up. So, basically JD is getting paid for usage, not improvement.
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The good news is this is just another story. I've heard reports of 36M, 37M, 40M, and now this one for 44M. This is a lot of guessing. My only hope is that it's closer to 35 than 40M. I'd obviously prefer 25-30M, where he actually belongs, but we all know that's not happening. I do love how defenders of this always justify it with, "He's only 22 so he'll get better", but nobody can offer up an answer for WHAT he'll get better at. What skill does he have that we're betting on him improving? Dunking? He's shown zero ability to be a stretch 5 and you don't suddenly learn defensive instincts and gain perimeter footspeed. I'd be more willing to bet that this season was his ceiling than that he will suddenly turn into a Embiid, Jokic, or even Gobert.
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If you're giving me other options, then yeah, I'd much rather S&T Duren for Trey Murphy.
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Three years of Turner at 28M or 5 years of Duren at 40M? I'm doing that trade just to save the franchise from the contract. "Good" or not, Turner shot 38% from three last year and that means he has an actual NBA skill. He can split time with Reed/Stew when you need more mobility in there and you don't have to promise him 30+ mpg like Duren. Getting the #10 pick in a good draft is just icing on the cake that could turn this into a much bigger win whether you keep it, package it with #21 to move up, or package it for a player trade.
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They played the Hawks, Sixers, and Cavs. That's just shooting practice. They're about to get a rude awakening against the Spurs defenders I think
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Brunson is going to find himself in a very different world going from Harden/Merrill to SA's perimeter defenders. He got off light not having to deal with Ausar in the ECF. I'm taking SA if Adam Silver hasn't already put the call in for a Knicks title. Let's see how many times we get Tony Brothers officiating.
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Exactly. Wemby forces you out of the paint. You beat Wemby with a team like the old Warriors. They weren't concerned with shot blockers when they were killing you from three point range. Problem is, it's tough to build a team like that and other teams without Steph that just fire up threes all day (Boston) have shown that the variance is high enough you can just get bounced in the 1st round.
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It's not about players not caring. When teams are tanking they're putting scrubs out there. Those player care because it's probably their only chance to show they can play and earn a contract. These aren't the stars making 10s of millions, these are the Daniss Jenkins of the world who get to play when the stars are "injured". Tanking has never been about the players. It's about the owner, the organization, and coaching staff.
