Topic: American Sports

@Th3solution more rumours link Charlotte and their vast array of picks and Portland.

Charlotte also traded for Naz Reid, so... maybe. Knueppel and Reid would sweeten any deal with picks 👀 not that they'd want to, but we could include Hauser to make up for the shooting they lose.

Portland also have picks, and Jrue Holiday, Jerami Grant, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe who aren't a bad selection to choose from, tbh. I doubt they'd trade Advjia on his cheap contract.

Charlotte can do one (politely leave 👀) if they want to include Miles Bridges, though.

There does seem to be a lot of options out there, some of which would definitely help ease the blow of losing JB.

@Ravix I get what you’re saying about JB being due for an injury. Maybe that’s why Brad is wanting to move him because, although JB’s not very old, he has a lot of miles on the tires.

@Th3solution there's so much noise around Brown being traded. But amongst that we signed Mitch 'hack a mitch' Robinson and Mike Conley 🤷‍♂️

So we improved at Center already and have a vet in Conley to bring some of the youth on, perhaps. I can still see Hauser and Brown being traded somewhere. But the fact this came oit of nowhere shows Boston don't have leaks, just other teams. So who knows who is leaking Brown stuff, but probably those interested and wanting to get a deal to happen cheaper or quicker by unsettling Brown more.

Paul George, you say? Didn't see that one coming 😅 onwards, I suppose 🤷‍♂️

Very weird saga.

I would expect the trades snd signings aren't finished, either. Welcome LeBron 😅 jk

Okay, it wasn't a bad dream, we are actually trading JB for PG. It is very confusing. I'd love to know what the actual idea behind it was. A rival team, a 36 year old on 3mil less. End of round picks.

Surely we could have got a better deal if we were doing this

@Ravix Yeah, I’m very confused as well. JB is so much more valuable than PG, even if there was some draft capital thrown in. I do think there’s some financial flexibility that Boston gains from offloading JB’s massive contract, but still… a recent finals MVP for an oft injured, notorious playoff choking old player?

One upside if we’re looking for one, is that this will really help Tatum fully be the alpha. But man… the Sixers are looking really scary on paper.

@Th3solution can't wait for Tatum to take even more egregious threes after 3 seconds of shot clock because he fancies it. Brown did this with middys, yes, but he was very efficient for the first half of last season in the mid-range and Brown's passing improved.

Obviously it will all be new. I don't want to see 40 point nights from Tatum unless we are winning by 20. As long as he has the same chemistry and trust in the players that actually helped us finish second, then all is good. But same again for the playoffs, we can't win without more size at PF and more depth at PG, and probably a starting level Center (unless Queta comes out beast mode). So it is basically where we were (plus a better back up center for defending bigs) but without a 10 year celtic who, despite some on-court brain farts and a lot of random fan hate, gave his all every night bar a few, and always beat himself up over not being better and improved year on year.

He does have some weird outlying stats where we actually play 'better' when he is off court, but he also had good box scores so it's not like he didn't contribute a lot every night. Even last season in games we definitely needed his points, there were times when we clearly played better in his bench minutes. But would we play well enough to cover the points over a game? Stats are weird, the eye test is also weird because it is conflicting. He earns his points and he defends, it is easy to see how he can dominate an opppnent by eye, but he is perhaps not a very good system defender and can go missing in that way, and he gives up turnovers which is also noticeable and you can see it coming before it happens.

So let's assume PG is injured, banned or resting. It is Tatum, Queta, White, Scheierman, Pritchard/Ron Harper Jr depending on if we want P on the bench again. If Tatum averages his ~30, 9, 6 it will be another season based on how well everyone chips in. If he averages 35, 11, 7 then he will probably be MVP, but we will also need the same level of help from the supporting cast as Brown had. And then the playoffs will still be another Womp-Womp.

Last season was super fun, though, so as long as we hold on to the players I like coming through, then we will see. Tough ask for them all to be at the same level as last year, but then one or two could progress and be better, too 🤷‍♂️

I would assume they keep Hugo and Scheierman, as they didn't want to give them up for Giannis 😅

@Th3solution erm. What is happening in Phili 😬 They are looking to get a starting line-up of:

Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown, LeBron, Embiid

By trying to get LeBron on a Veteran Minumum contract, I assume. And they signed Anfernee Simons 😭

Can you imagine? 💀 (it's a lot of ball-dominant players though, so I kind of want to see it happen to see how long until they all start fighting each other)

But if we basically let them create a super-team off the back of our own moves over the last 6 months... oof!