NBA 2014 Off-Season Thread

Convo_sl said:

It's essentially the year that will determine if the Sixers had the right plan in place. Think about it, Noel is back this year after sitting all of last year so he's a rookie this year.. Embiid out all of this season and Saric is overseas for 2 years. Next year they will get another lottery pick, possibly again the following year. 2017 Season, Will be the first season that Noel, Carter Williams, Embiid and Saric actually play together in a NBA game. Add the next 2 years lottery picks to that equation and we should have a decent team by 2018. Assuming these players stay on the sixers and are healthy.

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You need pretty much every single thing to go your way for the next 4 years, but it's something I guess

Bulls are supposedly back in the Love race at this point, although for them to get him you basically be having to give the Twolves Gibson, Butler, their pick of McDermott or Mirotic, and a first round pick. I don't know, might be worth it to see Love in a Bulls uniform and not a Cavs one.

A Noah/Love front court would be impressive especially with Gasol coming off the bench. I kind of hope that happens just to see how good it would be, even with a gimp Rose.

Ambiturner_sl said:

You need pretty much every single thing to go your way for the next 4 years, but it's something I guess

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Or for everything to go against everyone else. Philly is well prepared for the NBA doomsday scenario.

Lasch_sl said:

Or for everything to go against everyone else. Philly is well prepared for the NBA doomsday scenario.

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We aren't in a bad situation. We have plenty of options that's for sure. I don't think everything has to go our way, I don't expect it to. Carter Williams aside, what are the odds Noel, Embiid and Saric all panning out? I hope they do, that's a big team and Noel and Embiid working under the net will give teams fits with their size and athleticism. Plus we will likely have 3-5 more first rounders in the next 2 years. 2 of them probably being top 10 picks.. who knows how it will all look down the line. But, we are putting ourselves in a situation where the odds are in our favor. Not to mention, we have a ton of money. The issue is, we don't have a good enough team(yet) to attract the best players via free agency. The plan definitely puts us in the best position long term.

My guess is Gasol will be fine coming off the bench because he'll be on a winning team that isn't floating trade rumors 24/7. Winning cures all.

Convo_sl said:

We aren't in a bad situation. We have plenty of options that's for sure. I don't think everything has to go our way, I don't expect it to. Carter Williams aside, what are the odds Noel, Embiid and Saric all panning out? I hope they do, that's a big team and Noel and Embiid working under the net will give teams fits with their size and athleticism. Plus we will likely have 3-5 more first rounders in the next 2 years. 2 of them probably being top 10 picks.. who knows how it will all look down the line. But, we are putting ourselves in a situation where the odds are in our favor. Not to mention, we have a ton of money. The issue is, we don't have a good enough team(yet) to attract the best players via free agency. The plan definitely puts us in the best position long term.

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For them to be legit contenders you need to get high lottery picks, have all, or at least most, pan out, and have no big unforseen problems in the next 4 years. That's putting a lot on chance for something that may or may not happen 4 years from now.

Ambiturner_sl said:

For them to be legit contenders you need to get high lottery picks, have all, or at least most, pan out, and have no big unforseen problems in the next 4 years. That's putting a lot on chance for something that may or may not happen 4 years from now.

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Look at the Cavs. We've had really high picks (a lot of #1's) over the past few years. Things were supposed to have come together by now but if it wasn't for Lebron coming back, we'd be looking at another losing season with no real hope for the playoffs. Growing through the Draft is possible but it's a very slow and painful process and it's easy for things to get screwed up.

Ambiturner_sl said:

For them to be legit contenders you need to get high lottery picks, have all, or at least most, pan out, and have no big unforseen problems in the next 4 years. That's putting a lot on chance for something that may or may not happen 4 years from now.

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There really isn't an alternative. It's that route or be a middle of the pact team. We are going the lottery route at least another year.

Angelwatch_sl said:

Look at the Cavs. We've had really high picks (a lot of #1's) over the past few years. Things were supposed to have come together by now but if it wasn't for Lebron coming back, we'd be looking at another losing season with no real hope for the playoffs. Growing through the Draft is possible but it's a very slow and painful process and it's easy for things to get screwed up.

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No doubt it's a risk. We made it even more risky by drafting hurt players 2 years in a row. I said it before, but had they not gotten hurt before the draft Noel and Embiid were going to go number 1 overall. Saric would have went under 10 if he didn't sign a 2 year deal in Europe lol. Lots of unknowns but as much as the losing sucks, I'm excited about the future and getting to see all these guys slowly get on the court together. If it works, we will have an insanely young and talented team. Not to mention the new twin towers duo. Hopefully we find a good SG in the lottery next year...

Angelwatch_sl said:

Look at the Cavs. We've had really high picks (a lot of #1's) over the past few years. Things were supposed to have come together by now but if it wasn't for Lebron coming back, we'd be looking at another losing season with no real hope for the playoffs. Growing through the Draft is possible but it's a very slow and painful process and it's easy for things to get screwed up.

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The Cavs are an inept organization. Managed to completely fuck up almost every single pick.

With the exception of Bennett to an extent, the Cavs picks weren't "bad" so much as they were safe.

Kyrie and Tristan Thompsan were both safe picks in a pretty weak draft. I think Kyrie has the potential to be a great player now that he has some quality around him for the first time in his career and Thompsan is solid if nothing else.

I think Waiters was a "safe" pick. In hindsight, there may have been better options at #4 but at the time he looked safe and could fulfill a role they wanted. The big problem with Waiters is that, apparently, he doesn't get along with Kyrie and he hates the idea of coming off of the bench. I think he's a solid player but he's got issues but hindsight is 20/20. And on draft day, you have no idea that a potential pick is going to have personality issues years that don't show up for years.

Antohony Bennett was a surprising move but, again, it was a very shallow draft and Noel Nerlens was a proven injury risk. So the Cavs went "safe" and that fell apart last season. It sounds like he's in shape now and playing a lot better during the Summer League. With that being said, I'll agree that he was a "bad" pick.

Wiggins was the safest bet after Embiid hurt himself (again). I liked Parker too but he made it clear he didn't want to play for the Cavs (and I think that giving any potential #1 pick that much leverage is a mistake and I also wonder what he's thinking now that the Cavs became a contender, literally, over night) so they went with Wiggins who was a safe pick but also one worthy of being #1.

So like I said, I don't think that our picks were "bad" so much as they were "safe." And I'll admit that sometimes a safe pick is a bad pick (i.e. Bennett).

Slaythe_sl said:

I believe the Wolves would probably ask for both and what you state is where the Bulls would stand firm. I honestly like this deal better than anyone out there as long as the chosen player is Mirotic. Without him I'd rather have Wiggins.

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I think it is probably the best deal for both teams. Especially from Flip's point of view. It puts some young talent on the wolves and gives them a couple of solid to good players right now in Butler and Gibson. I think the latter is pretty attractive to Flip. For the Bulls it is a great move because it puts them in top two position in the East right away and Love would most likely commit long term considering the Bulls were on his shortlist alongside Golden State before this whole Cavs situation came about. Being a long time Bulls fan though I'm not exactly hopeful on it actually happening. We just don't get top of the top free agents/trades here especially with an apathetic Rose talking about how he isn't payed to recruit.

Cav's aren't even going to work-out. I'm willing to bet they trade Kyrie after this year for a more passive point guard to dish out to lebron/wiggins/whoever