u/gladin77

Kobe played great for the Pacers after we traded him and and we need some more power forward depth. So I think we should try and get Kobe brown back since he’s an unrestricted free agent right now. We never gave him a lot of run while he was on our team then when he goes to a new team and gets more run he shows how good he is. We’re a younger retooling team now and not a veteran heavy team like before so this so this is the perfect type of team for Kobe to be own to showcase his talents. I’ve been a believer in Kobe brown for a long time and I think this could be a great move.

The offers we’re getting right now are horrible, it makes far more sense to re-sign Kawhi. If we re-sign Kawhi for 2 more years which is the max he is eligible for we will have him under contract for 3 years which is the same amount of time until we’ll have our picks again. It would be way better to retain Kawhi and be somewhat competitive these next 3 years until we have our picks back. That way the young guys we have can develop in a winning environment which is extremely important. When guys come into the league on a losing team it makes them pick up bad habits and it will lead to those players being worse in the long run. Then when you actually want to pivot to winning you can’t because your team has had a loser mentality for years.

Taking on $40m Brandon Ingram does nothing for us, it actually kills our cap. And the low 1st rounder they’re offering us likely won’t amount to anything either, it will be nowhere close to the 5th pick we got this year. It would be better to let Kawhi walk for nothing at the end of next year then it would be to take Toronto’s offer. So imo the best path here is to just re-sign Kawhi and make some other moves to bolster our team.

It would be one of the best moves ever and I think there’s a real shot of it happening. Ship Kawhi off for 1 year for a haul then he re-signs with us next year when he’s a free agent. He wants to be in LA and I don’t think that’s changed much, maybe 1 year is all he’d be willing to do away. Going away for 1 year to take a hit for the team to help us restock assets then come back next year. If this happens we’re a top contender.

The plan with Wagler is probably to have alternate between PG and SG in different lineups. Garland has averaged 30 minutes per season the last few seasons so in only the minutes DG isn’t on the court Wagler can get 18 minutes as backup PG. and Wagler won’t just play when DG is out, they’ll share some court time as well. Then there’s all the time Wagler will play as backup or starting SG as well depending on the lineup.

I think Wagler will honestly be phenomenal right out the gate. The only thing that could hold him back would be low minutes but with this setup he has a real shot to get a good amount of minutes. Wagler playing 30 minutes a night right at the start of the season will let everyone see how good he is and he’ll be on his way to ROTY.

He’s an elite shooter, phenomenal rebounder, high iq, great passer, decent defender, positional size. He can give you killer offence and he can also get you lots of rebounds and do the little things, his versatility here is huge and it will help him get a lot of playing time since he can do so much for us. I think people will be shocked by his output.

50 minutes till the draft and the odds have exploded in Waglers favor. Prediction markets are now saying there’s a 65% chance we go with Wagler, Mikel brown and Darius Acuff each went down to about 15%.

I’ve been rooting for Wagler this whole time and couldn’t be happier if the Clippers select him. Wagler plays the most winning basketball out of the 3 guards. Wagler is high iq, efficient, great passer, low turnovers, phenomenal rebounded at the guard position, makes the right plays basically every time, rises in the hardest moments, best defender of the 3, positional size, carries his team to wins. He just plays winning basketball and wins the possession battle for his team. Contrast that with Mikel who is inefficient, turnover prone with a horrible assist to turnover ratio and makes bad decisions. You can see Wagler plays much more winning basketball than Mikel does. Then look at Acuff who has some of the worst defense not just in this draft class but that we’ve seen from a prospect in all of history.

I don’t mean to talk down on the other guys but it’s clear Wagler plays a more winning brand of basketball. The big thing people talk about as a negative is Waglers defense but people need to understand that just means he’ll have another play style. Not everyone needs to have an athletic play style some are more about finesse and Wagler fits that mold so he’ll be fine.

We’re getting a high iq, 3 point sniper, amazing facilitator, winning player. I couldn’t be more excited. This might sound crazy but out of everyone I’ve seen come into the NBA I think Wagler has the highest chance of being the heir to Curry’s throne and I think Wagler will become the next greatest shooter in the league and the next Curry from 3 and he could become the best 3 point shooter ever. We’re getting Steph Halliburton with this pick! He shoots like curry and can facilitate like Tyrese Halliburton! I’m hyped. Only thing that could add the cherry on top is if we select Acuff at 5 then swap him to kings for 7 (Wagler) and get another 1st round pick on top of it. Anyways I’m excited for the draft, can’t wait.

I think both Wagler and Mikel want to go to the clippers really bad. LA is one of if not the top city players want to go to and on top of that Intuit is the nicest arena in the league, players would love to come here especially rookies getting their first taste of the nba. And the players actions backs up what I’m saying, with Mikel liking stuff on social media about going to the clippers and Wagler saying in an interview he cancelled other workouts after working out with the clippers and feeling he knows where he’ll land. I think even before this both these players probably started telling people they were going to the clippers and that’s what made odds of them going to the clips rise on orderbooks.

For the team itself and the front office I don’t think we’re telegraphing what we’ll pick like this, the front office is more secretive. Take all this commotion less of a sign of what we’ll pick and more a sign of how much players would love to come here, which is great.

For my guess on what will actually happen for our draft I think we take Acuff at 5 then trade him to Sacramento for pick 7(Wagler) and a future 1st. Kings want Acuff bad and they often overpay so I think people will be surprised how much we get for swapping picks.

I’m a few hours into the game playing Jedi Knight and the starting area in Satella Shan server doesn’t have many players. I heard Star Forge server is much more active is that true? I’m considering starting again on Star Forge instead of continuing on Satella Shan. I’d prefer the game world to feel very active since that’s what makes it feel like an MMO to me. How many more players would you say are on Star Forge than Satella Shan? Also do you think there’s any chance they merge the servers when 8.0 happens? Or do you see that happening sometime in the future since Broadsword runs this now?

Brunson is playing phenomenal in the finals and showing you can win with your best player being a small guard. Now everyone is saying Acuff is the next Brunson, I’m not saying I agree with that or not but leading into the draft this is the narrative and it helps us a lot. I don’t think BPA is clear between Acuff, MBJ and Wagler and I think you could make a case for picking any of those players. But with the Brunson narrative it makes people want Acuff even more, teams like the Kings already wanted Acuff really bad and now with this new narrative we can have them over a barrel and make them overpay a lot if we swap 5 for 7.

At this point I think we could get the 2028 unprotected 1st and their 34th second round pick this year if we do the swap with them, we could potentially get something even better. We could get those assets then select one of MBJ or Wagler with their 7th pick. This is all turning out amazing for us and would make the haul from the Zubac trade even more insane.

Since the Bucks are getting rid of Giannis they have no use for Turner so we could get him for cheap. I think Myles could be a great center for us and he can shoot the 3 as well as being a great paint protector. Then when Yanic is healthy we could even run double big lineups with both of them at times. A Turner/Yanic Center rotation would be super solid and I’m still very high on Yanic, his potential is through the roof. To cap off our center rotation I think it would be good if we bring Lopez back on a vet minimum, then he can give us minutes at center until Yanic returns and after Yanic returns Lopez can act as 3rd string insurance in case another one of our center’s go down. Right now we have a $9m option on Lopez which is to much imo. I also feel like teams aren’t clamoring to sign him and he’s from LA and might want to play another season, so getting him for vet minimum seems plausible.

Turner and Yanic could each play about 28 minutes per game and they could equally share the center load for us, they’d overlap during the times we run the double big lineup. Yanic is really mobile so he can play the 4 on D and Turner can play the 5. Then on offence they’d switch with Turner playing the 4 due to his shooting and Yanic would play the 5. So what do you think of us acquiring Myles Turner and running a Turner/Yanic/Lopez center rotation?

OKC only played Hart against Wemby for the first 2 minutes of the game. After that they realized hart was unplayable against Wemby and they didn’t put him in at the same time as Wemby for the rest of the game. If you can’t shoot 3s as a big then Wemby will shut you down. So it looks like we traded Zubac at the perfect time and got the most possible out of him. I bet with the Pacers seeing how Wemby destroys non shooting bigs they might regret traded for Zu. This isn’t being negative against Zu I love him but it’s just what Wemby does to any non-shooting big.

We’ve seen that the players who have the best chance at guarding Wemby are strong and mobile players. Wemby goes right through tall and weak players and immobile players. To gaurd Wemby you need to be strong and quick on your feet. This makes me even more bullish on Yanic, he has the mobility and strength to guard Wemby and he’s a 7 footer, he’s as good a Wemby stopper as any. On top of that Yanic made some 3s this past season so if he continues to work on that he’s literally the perfect type of center to go against Wemby.

There’s a lot of discussion on the pros and cons of each of these players but most people have one of them going 5th. Who do you think the clippers should take at 5, which player do you think will end up being the better one with their gameplay translating to the nba?

At the 5th or 6th pick I think the best talent available is Keaton Wagler or Kingston Flemings so I want us to take one of them.

Wagler has potential to be one of the best 3 point shooters in the league, possibly even the best and an all time shooter. On top of that he’s a great playmaker and has solid positional size at 6’6 and a long wingspan. His main negative is he isn’t athletic, however he’s very crafty so he can make up for it. I think we should take him over anyone else if we get the 5/6 pick. If you have a 6’6 guard that can make pinpoint passes and consistently make shots from the logo you’ve got something special. I think Wagler is like a Halliburton/Steph hybrid and his potential is crazy. He also has a very high iq that is very evident when he plays, he just always knows what to do. He’s a great rebounder as well which makes him a triple double threat when combined with his scoring and passing. He can do so much for our team and I feel he has the highest potential of anyone in the draft, he has potential to be the best player in the league. He would be an amazing get for us.

My 2nd choice if we land the 5/6 pick would be Flemings. He’s a terrific athlete that would be one of the fastest guards in the league, he can get downhill and attack perfectly. He has good offensive capabilities that could be developed even more and he has great defence. On top of that he’s also a great playmaker and passer with some saying he’s the best pure point guard in the draft. He really has no flaws in his game and he could be a day 1 contributor to the team. He would be a solid point guard that can be easily paired with any other guard since he can’t be hunted due to his strong defence so he’s great from a team building perspective. His combination of playmaking, speed, defense, offence and athleticism is perfect.

Who do you think we should select if the pacers pick conveys to us?

I think the obvious play here is to re-sign some players on team friendly deals, then build up their value and trade them. Outlets are reporting the market for Mathurin and Collin’s isn’t to high and $15m per year number is being floated for them. We could sign them each to 3 year $45m deals. After that we can build up specific players value early in the season with the intent of trading them at the deadline.

I believe the 2 players we should trade are Garland and Mathurin. To end the season Garland has shown he will be mercilessly attacked in important games and he just doesn’t have the defence necessary to hold opposing teams back, they score easy buckets on him. So Garland isn’t someone we’d want in important games and the playoffs. Then there is Mathurin which has major tunnel vision and hasn’t shown he can be more then a one dimensional guy.

We should play though Garland a lot to start next season, make him look as good as possible and pump up his stats then trade him for as good a return as we can get at the trade deadline. Same for Mathurin, maybe start him instead of bringing him off the bench and feed him a lot. Once he’s looking really good with improved stats we can sell him at the deadline as well and his team friendly deal will make him even more attractive to other teams. Depending on how improved these 2 look they could get us a serious return, we could even go star hunting with them and possibly trade them for a top guy.

We’re in a great position right now to turn guys into even more assets for us so let’s make the best of it.

OKC will be past the 2nd apron this off-season unless they decline Hartenstein’s team option. Many outlets anticipate they’ll decline him. We could pick him up for the $22-25m per year he is able to get on the market. This will make us trading Zubac even better since we got those assets for Zu and now have a good quality replacement for free. What do you think of us signing Ihart? What’s the most you’d want to sign him for and how good do you think he’ll be for us? How much do you think he’ll elevate our team