Similar to a trade I posted a month ago with just Houston & Miami. I think you can get Ware / Wiggins / 13 for just KD.
You have to make the money work. There is virtually no way for the Heat to send out 100m in salary and have a reasonable line up and bench to make it anywhere near being a competitor. Bam, KD, and Giannis are about 150m on the cap for those 3 players. Miami could trade for KD and Giannis but Bam, Herro, Wiggins would all have to be going out.
If that's true the Rockets better jump on it. I'm skeptical though. I could maybe see Ware or 13, but even then Miami may balk. If we can get both Ware and their FRP, it's an absolute no-brainer to pull the trigger right away.
I don't disagree with the idea. But generally a player will show and improve some skills that translate to that stardom. Neither Amen nor Alpi seem to have improved much, hell they've regressed .... shooting, ball handling & defensively. I think it's more likely they are what they are - role players, rather than break out stars. I'm out on "the young core", it's time to churn them for more bites at the apple.
Honestly, I don't think they want to trade Ware, you'll have to wait at least one more year, when he's an expiring RFA behind Bam - he's gonna get paid and Miami won't want to pay both.
You have to get offered a return that makes sense... I'm not opposed to trading them for the right package. I might be opposed to this front office getting to make that decision though.
The money does work. The Heat are sending out over 90 million in salary. Yes their team is top heavy with 3 max players, just like any team with 3 star players not on rookie contracts. Let’s say Heat keep Jakucionis, since you say they are overpaying. Let’s say they re-sign Fontecchio to a vet min, and Powell to a 3/60 deal. Mitchell / Smith Powell / Jakucionis Durant / Larsson / Gardner Giannis / Fontecchio Bam That’s roughly 195 million for 10 players, they have a 2nd rd pick, add a TP-MLE, and 2 vet mins, they would sitting at about 7 ish million over the LT. Fairly normal for a contending team. If they wanted to forgo the LT, they could get pretty close by passing on the TP-MLE player, perhaps giving Powell a 4 year deal at a lower number.
Of course .... but I'm not sure how these guys are valued around the league. Hell Sengun was just voted most overrated by NBA players! This isn't some fan poll or coaches' poll - it's their peers. Amen has more value right now than next offseason when he gets a new contract at a significantly higher rate. 3x,4x,5x? Can either of them bring you a top 5-7 draft pick in this draft? I kinda doubt it. 4 years in, they don't have the expected potential of a current draft pick. What's a fair return? I really don't knock the front office for the draft picks, that's more about how the lottery balls fell than anything else. Wemby, Chet, Cade, Flagg, never had a chance .... and about the development stuff, sometimes that boils down to the players just not having it. They poured 4 years of resources into Jalen Green, all reports were they had him in the gym constantly working to get better - it just didn't happen. Is that somehow different for Amen / Reed / Sengun? We hear similar things about them - just no results. Same can be said for guys taken ahead of them to some degree - Sarr, Risacher, Banchero ... Not that the front office hasn't made its share of mistakes .... and I would like to see Tilman clean house.
If it's not including a top 5-7 draft pick I'm not sure you can make the deal; as low as the odds are, there is still a better chance one of these two guys become a top 10 player (maybe not top 5) than that some random mid-first rounder does. If we're getting back a high lotto pick in this draft class I can see the argument to make that deal. I don't think it's a no-brainer (especially if it's Amen going out) but I wouldn't be throwing my phone at the wall in frustration or anything. I guess that's how most reasonable-for-both-sides trades probably feel. As far as Sengun getting voted most overrated, that was literally something like 10 guys out of 500-something players in the league who voted for him. Most players didn't participate. Wouldn't worry too much about it.
Udoka was at the Mike Epps (We Them Ones) show last night. I ran into him coming out the suite, he said whats up. Cool story bruh. He was rocking his same black on black dri fit he does on the sidelines.
I prefer my head coach with no work life balance. Thibs would still be in his office in the summer grinding tapes. Team is 1st round fodder: last year by old man Curry, this year by old man LeBron, no Luka. The staff should be grinding in the lab.
Joking/not joking for coaches in the off-season 1. It's playoffs right now, part of day should be the coaching staff gridning those tapes. What schemes and rotations are they using. What's diff between reg season and now. Do's and Don'ts, any lessons learned. Hone in on Det tapes and see how JBickerstaff is playing Ausar. 2. Tapes on the young cats on the upcoming draft. Drafting is technically a different department, but the lottery picks are going to be playing on opposing teams. Should be scouting ahead and building profiles and tendencies. 3. Ime is still a young coach, does he have an IDP (individual development plan). Do his assistants have IDPs. This is something Stone should have with them. On off-days, maybe hit up Pops for coffee. Check on Pops' health, shoot the shid on the old days, talk about Spurs and current playoffs. If Pops watched any of the Rocket's playoff games, get advice from the OG mentors. There's work to be done in the summer.
Stone: “We’re obviously not good enough and so that reflects on all of us and we all have to get better at our respective jobs. Especially given the youth of our starters in the playoffs. All 5 of those guys need to take big jumps. The good news is I feel like they did that last summer and I expect it and they’re at an age where it should happen. We have to get better. In terms of the rest of the roster, we’ll look at everything but our big focal point is those young guys really improving.” What would you add to that? Udoka: “Very similar terms and wording. We all have expectations coming into the season and they may change a little bit due to circumstances but we still had higher goals for ourselves as far as seeding and win total and playoffs. That part is a disappointment. We also had some positive expectations for guys to grow and a lot of our young core did that. You look at the negatives/positives, overall, we’re disappointed due to the ending but some good to take away from it as well.”
well at least that was the first time Rafel included himself in some sort of collective accountability for this past season. But I did not think the young core improved all that much this season, which honestly is the most disappointing thing to me. Sengun and Tari actually regressed. Ime too much of a narcissist to say anything other than “basically what Rafel said”.
While I don't necessarily agree with the premise we have the foundational pieces needed in the young core, it's their actions that make it so much worse imo. They're just trying to gas light us into believing they have a plan. If you're going to emphasize young core, please trade KD then. Or hire a coach that doesn't explicitly cater the 'offense' to KD.
I think running it back next year is the prudent move. Let the guys get another season under their belt and trade the pieces who don't work next offseason. I don't think anyone's value will go lower than it is now out of the four guys here (except maybe Bari because he looked great at the end of the year). I think trading KD (assuming he wants out) is the big move of the summer. I think in hindsight I wouldn't have made that trade but whatever, some times it just didn't work out. Bringing in KD to not compete was not the plan. They really thought it would be better. I think taking a step back is the right move. KD seems unhappy here, send him where he wants to go. I have three teams circled. I think all three of these packages are realistic after the incredible regular season KD just had. The injury in the playoff was a freak occurrence just like FVV injury. Someone in practice is a demon (guessing tate or tari) Portland - target Shaedon Sharpe or Scoot as the focal point. (Jerami Grant is the salary) GSW - target Podz and pick #11 as the focal point (Butler is the salary) Heat - target Herro and/or Ware as the focal point (if no Herro, Wiggins is the salary)
Yeah. It’s just total CYA. They jumped the gun on the re-build, and even said last year, they were moving on from that stage to competing for a championship and then to put an exclamation mark on it, traded youth and a lottery pick for KD, and extended one of the worst vet Pg’s in the league, an oft-injured Center, and an injured journeyman. They almost certainly could, at a minimum, used Dillon and the lottery pick to get a pick in this draft and that’s assuming that Jalen’s contract had negative worth at the time, which I think is also bs. It’s Bill O’Brien all over again, doubling down on stupid.
