Agreed. If the Lakers can get to the point in the playoffs where they can just ride those three guys 40+ a game, they will be extremely hard to beat. Getting there with all three of them healthy is not going to be the easiest thing though. A lot of teams in the West got better, it's a deeper conference than the East, how many truly bad teams are there in the West next year, the Suns? That's pretty much it, and they aren't trying to tank. I expect them to be a middle of the pack team in the regular season, and focus on keeping the minutes down for their big three.
NBA: ***Official 2019 NBA Playoffs Thread***
- Thread starter Dandy
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Agreed. If the Lakers can get to the point in the playoffs where they can just ride those three guys 40+ a game, they will be extremely hard to beat. Getting there with all three of them healthy is not going to be the easiest thing though. A lot of teams in the West got better, it's a deeper conference than the East, how many truly bad teams are there in the West next year, the Suns? That's pretty much it, and they aren't trying to tank. I expect them to be a middle of the pack team in the regular season, and focus on keeping the minutes down for their big three.
It's great for the postseason. But they have to get through an 82 game regular season slog first and that is an old, old rotation you're proposing. They can't coast, either. The West is no joke.
I wish Matt Thomas would have ended up on the Lakers. He was on their summer league team so they had to know about him. He'd be absolutely perfect for them right now.
And also, Melo was dropped by a contender a month into the season last year, Korver was out of the rotation by the end of a first round series for a contender, Dudley is not a guy in the playoff rotation for a serious contender, according to Woj Cousins isn't even getting MLE offers which tells you how teams view him right now. Iggy's a nice piece if he can play 25 or so mins a game in the postseason but he's 36 and we've seen how guys who have had multiple long playoff runs at the age can look real old real quick.
Wilson Chandler to the Nets, Emmanual Mudiay to the Jazz and Cauley-Stein to the Warriors all on min deals are real good value signings.
I think Cauley-Stein is going to flourish with the Warriors. Great fit for both sides.
The Jazz get an A+ for their offseason. All the pieces are in place for a deep postseason run.
There's still some potential value out there - Marcus Morris, Danny Green, maybe Avery Bradley, TJ McConnell, Kelly Oubre Jr. Nobody who's going to singlehandedly win a game for a team or anything, but certainly guys who can contribute for a playoff team. I'd guess that most of these guys will be off the board fairly soon after the last big domino (Kawhi) falls.
I agree, and I read that Mudiay's camp wanted him to go to Utah even in a lesser role and smaller deal because they thought so highly of how they have developed players under Snyder. That's pretty high praise for an organization.
Philly has to have interest in bringing McConnell back, right? I mean they can't be planning on going into next year with Simmons as the only pg on the roster.
As soon as Kawhi makes his decision I think we'll have another rush of decisions.
You would think so. If not him then Bradley or someone who can handle backup PG duties and some perimeter shooting. The Sixers and Pacers are going to be interesting teams to watch in the East because they're going to be running out some big lineups when pretty much everyone else is going smaller and faster.
So as of right now these are the teams I think have a shot at the title next year:
Philly
Milwaukee
Toronto (w/Kawhi)
Clippers (w/Kawhi)
Lakers
Jazz
Blazers
Rockets
Nuggets
Warriors (benefit of the doubt)
Anybody got anyone else? That's one of the biggest groups of potential title contenders in a single season this decade.
Philly
Milwaukee
Toronto (w/Kawhi)
Clippers (w/Kawhi)
Lakers
Jazz
Blazers
Rockets
Nuggets
Warriors (benefit of the doubt)
Anybody got anyone else? That's one of the biggest groups of potential title contenders in a single season this decade.
I'm sorely tempted to add the Celtics because I think the loss of Kyrie is addition by subtraction and I expect Hayward to be better after a healthy offseason. But they're going to have to prove it. For now I'd put them and OKC in the next tier along with Indiana, Brooklyn, and Miami.
I'd add Pacers at the low end. Maybe even a long shot Celtics because of how smart Stevens is.
I thought it was a logical fit too, but CW mentioned in the Cyclones Insider last night that he new Matt had a few offers and chose the Raptors. I understand why Matt would choose the Raptors since have a very good history of developing and giving player the opportunity to play.
We won't know if the Lakers were really an option with their current Kawhi holding patter. That I doubt Lebron and AD are going to be impressed signing a Euro-guard to play minutes. They are looking for older proven players like Dudley to fill out the role positions. I wouldn't be surprised to see Iggy, Kyle Korver, Melo, Rondo, JR Smith and maybe even Wade (unretiring) to fill out the roster.
