Solid trade. I like that by getting Burks and Noel, it gave us 2 alternatives to free agents with our cap space that will be off the books next off season, so that we can have cap flexibility again. They also address needs we have (shooting and defense).

What I don’t like is that Burks and Noel are both on the decline, getting older, injury prone, and we got VERY little back. Feel like if NY wasn’t willing to give us for than 2 second round picks in return, I would have preferred that we looked elsewhere to sin eat.

Could have done a lot worse with our cap space though (like offer a huge contract to Brunson )

Do not love the contract we gave Bagley. He’s solid on offense in doses, but not enough (especially with the lack of shooting and poor shot selection) to be worth 3 years locked in at 11 mil.

Jaden gonna be an insane force if he can improve his ball handling and pace and obviously shooting. Even if he just improves 2 of the three he could be a multiple time all star.

Duren was on a minutes restriction after only having a short practice before the game and looked like one of the most dominant players out there and he’s only 18

And I am so f***ing sick of the box score watchers that bag on Killian and don’t watch a single minute of the games. His feel for the game and passing is a thing of beauty and he’s extremely good offensively and he’s only 20. Just needs to continue improving his shot. You can’t learn what he does well with 30 years of practice.

lightskin thot rookie names

Let’s goooo

Jaden looking nice in this game

Not sure if we’ll win much this season, but holy s*** Jaden and Jalen look so good for how young they are

I get the whole tank for Wemby but the pistons lowkey would be a good fit for Cam Whitmore 👀

How you feeling about having both an overpaid Marvin Bagley and now adding James Wiseman on our roster?

The same way I felt as soon as that Bagley deal got announced: Weaver has some hits on identifying talent but ultimately should not be running a team as he has no idea how to build a team from multiple perspectives (bringing the right talent together, asset and financial management etc)

Wiseman has enough upside to where this is a good play but Weaver refusing to bring in enough shooting and hoarding big men and doing weird things with picks is what has this team's future looking more cloudy than it should right now

Real. After having some time to sit with it, I’m not quite as heated as I was yesterday about it given that while I thought Saddiq seemed like a cool guy/good guy to have in the locker room, his game has a huge amount of holes in it, he’s not super young, and he has a big contract looming. So it made a lot of sense to move on from him. Of course there’s the natural fear that we’re gonna have what happened when we gave up on KCP and Middleton and Afflalo too early, but I do think those guys showed more potential.

As for Wiseman, if we can find a way to develop him over the next year, he may end up being a much more valuable asset than Saddiq was or we could keep him as a core piece. So overall I think it makes sense if we weren’t going to be able to get much more for Saddiq than that.

If he sucks s*** though, I will start to have serious questions about Weavers ability to evaluate talent (Killian/Saddiq/Stew all having trouble showing that they are nba rotation players, and Cade/Ivey being consensus guys at their draft spots is not encouraging).

The Wiseman play in of itself no matter what happens isn't an indictment on Weaver's talent evaluation imo

Bey has flashed early and inconsistently — Bey's player archetype is one that teams won't let go of for years and years but a lot of these players don't really go anywhere and become journeymen

Even with all of Wiseman's problems so far, his upside is still significant enough to where bringing Wise in at the expense of Bey all things considered is a good play

Weaver's problems are really team building: managing assets/contracts and pulling together talent that makes sense

Bagley's time with the Pistons shows all of this:

1) Bringing in Bagley was fine — yes, he doesn't have no. 2 pick upside and I don't think he has much upside at all due to his defensive limitations BUT he has talent and teams searching for talent should be taking fliers + good roll & lob threats are something that is usually beneficial to the development of pick n roll players (Cade and anything that's good for Cade's development is good for the team's future)

2) Contract extension — This is where you can see all of Weaver's flaws.

The league does not think much of Bagley's play. Defensive limitations as a 4/5 are killer, plus he's dealt with injuries and hasn't even shown that much on offense.

Trading for Bagley did not require much.

Considering all of this, why did Weaver give Bagley so much money (12 mil a year is more than enough for rotation and even starting bigs, Zubac's current salary is a recent extension that's around 11 mil a year for example) AND so many years?

Prioritizing Bagley in this way means there's a logjam/time taken away for more promising prospects (Stew, Duren & Wise have all shown more or have way more potential)

Prioritizing Bagley in this way also limits the resources the team has to build out which is terrible considering the team still needs so much including be starved for shooting on a team with two young guard prospects.

It's even worse when you consider that Weaver limited the team's resources for building out for jamming up the position that is the easiest to find players at.

Very well written, and agree with all

Preciate it

It was really easy to key in this because my favorite podcast for league coverage and a***ysis was killing Weaver/this move the minute it was announced

Which podcast

Congrats on Wiseman and Duren. They are gonna be 2 productive bigs in their careers.

Getting Wiseman for so cheap is f***ing steal, now it's time to let Bagley go elsewhere.

Mf been pro half a decade and still only shoot with his left

Duren obvi gonna be a star

What’s your input for why you’re still high on Wiseman though?

Duren should definitely be a consistent starter already

But Wiseman has some untapped ball skills, and the way he runs the floor is unmatched. I don't think he stays long term, but I think he'll be a great asset to have in a couple years. He can rim run, block shots, and hit 3s at 7 foot plus. The Warriors were just a horrible fit for a big who hasn't played much ball

Wise had a great game

That boy motor and height is gonna get him far in this league. He's a 22-11 guy just waiting

Dunc'd On

It's not for everyone but I don't think anyone comes close in terms of comprehensive league coverage.

Every team

Mock trade deadline/off-season/rookie extension episodes

All news/injuries (also mini news catch-ups every day and they send out emails with their favorite basketball related writing multiple times a weekly)

Biweekly check ins where they hone in on a particular aspect of a team

Every trade/transaction/all off-season moves

Get deep in the weeds on cap/CBA stuff

Gamers (where they talk about particular games they watched, sometimes they'll fold these into segments of their biweekly check ins)

Every playoff game

Summer league (they actually go and try to watch as much as possible)

Some draft coverage (they spend so much time on their NBA coverage that there's no way they can do extensive draft a***ysis but they try to watch as much film as they can on the top 7 or so prospects)

stitcher.com/show/duncd-on-basketball/episode/10-in-103-eastern-conference-1-16-23-210817059

Here's part of their most recent biweekly look at the East, it's not all 15 teams because over the years they've been spending more time on each team so a lot of times they'll have to leave some for another episode. Also this the most recent one because they've been so busy with trade deadline stuff the last few weeks.

But I thought this would be a good one for you to check out because it ends with a segment on Detroit where they lock in on Ivey's play up to that point for the segment.

They went to a paid subscription model summer 2020 so btwn the level of detail and having to pay it's not for everyone like I said but I love it.

I got in at the most favorable yearly price they have right when they announced the switch to a paid subscription model so I'd say check some of the free episodes like the one I linked (one a week) and maybe try it on a monthly basis if you like it.

Also if you do like it enough to get a yearly plan I'd wait to sign up around the off-season or trade deadline where they have deals.

If you do get the full plan you'll also get access to the writing one of the people on their team does and mails out weekly, the stats he does for em and their cap sheets.

Thanks man, I’ll check it