u/Ocelot859

Something not many are talking about...

It's a damn miracle we even got that pick back to begin with.

Kevin Pritchard pulled that trade off 5 days before Haliburton tore his Achilles.

He doesn't make that trade out of some foresight, you rarely see trades in the playoffs (let alone the fucking Finals), and that trade is no longer coming back for cheap or probably at all "after" Haliburton gets a torn Achilles. I always looked at that pick as a damn magical bonus token. Sure, we didn't get to extremely maximize it's value now, but we absolutely needed it to get Zubac in the first place. The value of the pick skyrocketed after we already were going to be a bottom team (due to an extra litany of injuries) and started tanking after the trade to increase our odds of conveying the pick to a top 4. They way I see it, we massively lucked out to have that pick to begin with and losing increased it's value to make that Zubac trade happen. Mathurin is a microwave bench score who would've cost way too much and never really fit our system.

So to me, I now see that trade as Mathurin + I-Jax + 5th overall pick (a guard we weren't going to use anyways) + 2029 1st rounder ... for arguably a top 5-7 "true center" in the league (our only real need as a team) + Kobe Brown + $25-28+ million a year in cap space saved on Mathurin. I'd honestly still take that trade, sure the 5th overall pick conveying in hindsight would've knocked off that 2029 1st rounder, but yeah I mean there are so few stud true top centers in this league.

I also think people are really underestimating how fucking good Zubac has quietly become (he was 28 barely a month ago btw) in the shadows of the Clippers the last 4 years. His mid-range and touch is SEVERELY underrated as well, it's just been low volume because of the Clippers slow as ever living fuck half-court style of ball his entire tenure. People are almost talking like him getting "more" space to play with is a bad thing and yeah I'm not seeing it that way at all. Go back and watch what we can do from 15-18+ feet out.

NBA has to do something. This is getting beyond silly.

Can somebody help me with signing up?

[Game Recognize Game] Myles Turner reveals Giannis Antetokounmpo and other Bucks players showed up late for practices, film sessions, and even flights: “Giannis is going to show up whenever he wants.”

It's a miracle we even had that pick to begin with... how I see that trade.