2024-2025 Around the NBA Thread

[Phrazbit]

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[Chaplin]

True, but so far they are more right than wrong.

Considering how hard it is to get a championship, the odds were always in their favor for it to turn out negative.

 

[Ronin]

Shams Charania

@ShamsCharania


Former No. 3 pick Jahlil Okafor has agreed to a training camp deal with the Indiana Pacers, agent Daniel Hazan of Hazan Sports Management told @TheAthletic. Okafor, first team All-Rookie with 76ers, last played in NBA in 2021 and is working toward comeback with the East finalist

 

[Mainstreet]

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania


Former No. 3 pick Jahlil Okafor has agreed to a training camp deal with the Indiana Pacers, agent Daniel Hazan of Hazan Sports Management told @TheAthletic. Okafor, first team All-Rookie with 76ers, last played in NBA in 2021 and is working toward comeback with the East finalist

The Suns traded Jahlil Okafor for 33-year-old David Stockon, so there.

I’m not sure what gives, but the Suns are probably playing chess while I play checkers.

 

[Mainstreet]

Two candidates have emerged to replace Adrian Wojnarowski at ESPN: Shams Charania and Jeff Passan.

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[SirStefan32]

The Suns traded Jahlil Okafor for 33-year-old David Stockon, so there.

I’m not sure what gives, but the Suns are probably playing chess while I play checkers.

My guess it that the proper etiquette is to trade or release a G-League player if they have an opportunity to get into a better situation.

 

[Phrazbit]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this Wolves/Knicks trade, it's one of the most interesting transactions in a long time.

Two, star caliber bigs, around the same age, both with kinda up and down careers, swapped for each other, by two teams who both think they're title contenders.

Minnesota, breaking up their most successful team ever, and trading a #1 pick they drafted and who never asked out of that hellscape of a franchise, for a dude who has a real checkered history and who's team played better after he went down, I know, their record didn't improve but their starting front became far more imposing, the lack of depth was an issue though, they traded a lot to get OG and OG promptly got hurt.

Then you've got the Knicks, I don't think they valued Randle much, the fans were certainly over him, but DeVincenzo was their best shooter... Towns is a really good shooter, so he fills some of that void. But this team was looking like a defensive dynamo, a bunch of hustle guys, who play smart basketball and fight for each possession, and if there is a "star" who is the antithesis of that play style, it's Towns. He and Thibs didn't exactly click either during their previous stint.

A real wacky trade.

I feel pretty strong that the Wolves got worse, but their motivation was different, Towns is going to be making 60 mil in a couple years and they wanted out of that deal, but if this goes badly for them it will make keeping Edwards happy difficult "Hey! You almost made the finals, but being good is expensive, sorry! Want to re-up with our cheap franchise?!"

The Knicks though, this could be an all time Dolan KNICKS style move, chasing the flash and the name instead of being patient and letting this thing they're building marinate.

The timing of the deal is strange as well. Right before training camp? I know we've seen some moves made late in the off season before, but it's usually a trade that had been festering for a while, some disgruntled star, this was out of the blue. Maybe Mitchell Robinson's injury problems are a lot worse than they're letting on and they were looking at starting the season without a center at all.

EDIT: Final thought. The potential downside for the Knicks is really bad. If Towns doesn't work there, they won't have a way out. He will be what Zach Lavine is for the Bulls, this unmoveable albatross who has finally made it clear how empty his contributions are, they will have to ride that dead contract into the ground. They've got this scrappy group of talented players, they had a fair amount of flexibility to add or alter that group, but now with Towns, that is out the window, they're locked into this roster for the next several years.

Also, the Wolves might just not care about playing Randle much, I certainly don't see him closing games, maybe they look to move him ASAP, giving Naz Reid and McDaniels those Towns minutes, along with Devincenzo as another wing shooter and defender, there are some scary looks they can throw out there. I think Randle is an awful awful awful fit there, but they have some good replacements already on the roster.