Does Lauri Get Traded?

[Handlogten's Heros]

I think the veil has been lifted. Just as Hardy played Keyonte because "it's time", he will play Cody instead of Bazley because it is already time. Even if he doesn't think it's time, I wouldn't necessarily see Hardy as a guy who can win with a skeleton crew. I think the reasons we "overachieved" was more so a result of having tons of veteran players/depth versus Hardy magic.

Right now, I'd say we'd be a favorite to be bottom 5. "Bad" things can happen to anyone, but can also happen to us. If we're not bottom 5, I'd say we'd have really good fortune with multiple others being unfortunate.

I mean the veil was lifted in 22 too… that’s what happens at the end of the season. Most coaches aren’t going to do that all year without some serious pressure and maybe we see that… or maybe we hear about “no free minutes” in training camp again.

 

[sip]

Lauri is better than the best player on all of those teams. Sexton is better than most as well.

That is debatable. Lauri is great but LaMelo and Scottie Barnes are more desirable for me because they can do so much more with the ball in their hands. The same goes for the Cade Cunningham I saw the second half of last year and I expect him to be even better this year. With the hornets and raptors I don't think it is particularly close when you take into account that they are in the east as well.

Hornets-
C- Mark Williams, Nick Richards
Pf- Grant Williams, Salaun
Sf- Bridges, Cody Martin
Sg- Miller, Josh Green
Pg- LaMelo, Micic

They are still a little thin up front but the trio of LaMelo, Miller and Bridges is nasty.

Raptors-
C-Poeltl, Olynyk
Pf- Barnes, Vezenkov
Sf- Dick, Ochai
Sg- Barrett, Brown
Pg- Quickley, Mitchell

That is a solid team right that is going to get after it defensively.

 

[Elizah Huge]

That is debatable. Lauri is great but LaMelo and Scottie Barnes are more desirable for me because they can do so much more with the ball in their hands. The same goes for the Cade Cunningham I saw the second half of last year and I expect him to be even better this year. With the hornets and raptors I don't think it is particularly close when you take into account that they are in the east as well.

Hornets-
C- Mark Williams, Nick Richards
Pf- Grant Williams, Salaun
Sf- Bridges, Cody Martin
Sg- Miller, Josh Green
Pg- LaMelo, Micic

They are still a little thin up front but the trio of LaMelo, Miller and Bridges is nasty.

Raptors-
C-Poeltl, Olynyk
Pf- Barnes, Vezenkov
Sf- Dick, Ochai
Sg- Barrett, Brown
Pg- Quickley, Mitchell

That is a solid team right that is going to get after it defensively.

I seriously stopped reading after the first two sentences.

 

[Elizah Huge]

LaMelo, Cade, and Barnes do not affect winning more than Lauri does. What are we doing here?

 

[sip]

The Bulls lost DeRozan and Caruso in exchange for Giddey. They owe their first top-10 protected. They will be trashy trash.

It's important to give perspective on this board. DeRozan and Caruso are essentially being replaced by the return of Lavine and Patrick Williams plus their injuries enabled the emergence of Ayo so it is more so adding those 2 plus Giddey for those guys. I don't expect them to be good but I don't think they will be trashy trash.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Also with injuries... Its not that you are painting a picture that we will have no injuries and everyone else will stay healthy... its that several teams are one injury away from being bad. One of them sustains and injury and they move below us if we have normal health luck. I think we are clearly better the Pistons, Wiz, Nets... One team is more injured and one team is worse than expected and now you are sitting around 6... unless you were the injured team imo.

 

[sip]

LaMelo, Cade, and Barnes do not affect winning more than Lauri does. What are we doing here?

I look forward to revisiting this conversation midseason.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

It's important to give perspective on this board. DeRozan and Caruso are essentially being replaced by the return of Lavine and Patrick Williams plus their injuries enabled the emergence of Ayo so it is more so adding those 2 plus Giddey for those guys. I don't expect them to be good but I don't think they will be trashy trash.

A disgruntled Lavine who has his own injury concerns and Pat who has a hard time staying healthy and is not in the same world as Caruso as it comes to helping teams win. Demar is VERY healthy and a league leader in minutes. That is a giant hole. Drummond was also very good for them. We will see but they project to be hot trash.

 

[KqWIN]

Taylor specifically has a chance to be solid more than Scoot/Sharpe because of his role and being solid at the things he does and not moving outside of that role. Blazers are the biggest swing team for me. Deni is good but I’m projecting they make a trade. If they don’t then they are better than us.

Eubanks may not be regular rotation or a small part of it but if Walker or Collins gets hurt he is reliable depth. That’s why I named him. This isn’t the magnitude of 2022, but it is a similar theme “we will be awful… oh wait we actually are half decent because a few things went the right way that we couldn’t have seen… oh **** we need to tank really hard now.” Same thing in 23… different magnitude of course.

I'm just saying that if you count the players on the same team with the same generousity as you did with UTA, that number is wayyy higher than 7. I don't think a team like POR is clearly better than us, but I can't say they are clearly worse than us. The biggest case for the Jazz is that they have Lauri and Sexton, but those guys don't exactly have the cleanest bill of health in the past and are certainly aren't exempt from divine intervention. The more concentrated your talent it is, the more likely it is to go wayward. The only teams I can say with clear confidence are worse than us are Wiz/Nets. Maybe you want the numbers even more in our favor, I get that. But comparing this team to 22 or 23 is just not accurate.

I mean the veil was lifted in 22 too… that’s what happens at the end of the season. Most coaches aren’t going to do that all year without some serious pressure and maybe we see that… or maybe we hear about “no free minutes” in training camp again.

Hard disagree on this one. The 22 team was littered with vets and the team also started off 10-3. It's a completely different situation this time around for this reason.....the amount of vets is strikingly low. It's way different taking away minutes from an actual vet than someone like Bazley. I agree would be hard to take minutes from guys like JC and JC for Hardy. The difference is that there are way less of those guys on this year's roster than before.

 

[sip]

A disgruntled Lavine who has his own injury concerns and Pat who has a hard time staying healthy and is not in the same world as Caruso as it comes to helping teams win. Demar is VERY healthy and a league leader in minutes. That is a giant hole. Drummond was also very good for them. We will see but they project to be hot trash.

We will see. The injury issues are valid but they are also in the east. The west could just destroy us while these east teams are likely to pick up some home court wins against the other lower east teams.

 

[sip]

Stay healthy and I’d be shocked if we weren’t. Lauri/Sexton provides a great offensive base to build some wins… Walker provides a defensive floor. One or two young players play well and the rotation is pretty solid.

Lauri/Walker/Sexton with rotation vets Clarkson/Collins/Eubanks and if Key/Taylor aren’t horrific you have 7 solid rotation pieces. If we have a legit injury we could let go of the rope.

Now do that same breakdown for the other teams and you will get the same result. Particularly the Blazers, Raptors, Hornets and Pistons.

 

[TheStormofWar]

I feel like it’s 2022 all over again. People are seriously underestimating the talent we have on the team currently. Not world beaters but much better than the trashy trash teams in the East who we will be playing.

I think this is the main reason why Lauri needs to be dealt when it's practical. This half-in/half-out methodology is doing nothing for our long term prospects. OKC and Philly have demonstrated the best model that teams in our market size can follow to build something sustainable. Hitting on another Don right when we need him was a brilliant stroke of luck when we drafted him. I wouldn't count on that happening again.