Tech_Quest8

1 | 3 hours ago

Just noticed this:

Al Horford 2007 draft class (won us a championship)

Jeff Green 2007 draft class (he was out the year we went to the ecf in 7 games, he didn’t play due to heart surgery)

Mike Conley 2007 draft class ???

Kevin Durant…….

CarBallAlex

4 | 7 hours ago

Kawhi signed a 2 year $115M extension, meaning he’s off the table for expiring money by summer of 2028, further limiting any team’s options to offload $30M+ in expiring money.

As it stands:

2027: Curry, Butler, Kawhi, LaVine ($48M), MPJ ($40M), Poole ($34M), Herro ($30M)

2028: Jokic (player option), Anthony Davis (player option), Giannis (player option), KAT (player option), Paul George (player option), Siakam, Sabonis ($48M), Durant ($46M, player option), Morant ($44M), Zion ($44M), Garland ($44M), Kyrie ($42M, player option), Ingram ($41M, player option), Gobert ($38M, player option), Holiday ($37M, player option), Jerami Grant ($36M, player option), Jalen Green $36M, player option), Randle ($35M, player option), Dejounte Murray ($30M, player option)

Anyone less than this, and it gets really tricky to a team blowing it up to take $60M of salary (Jokic or Curry are the white whales) if they want expiring contracts and are blowing it up. Half of these guys are not “we’re blowing it up” players, they’re win now players. It’s basically LaVine or Sabonis (no star wants to be traded to Sacramento), Morant, Zion/Poole/DJM (no star wants to go to New Orleans to play with Murphy), Garland or Ingram (Clippers are a mess and aren’t in the market to acquire stars), Jerami Grant (Memphis is rebuilding, not in the market for stars), Herro (Milwaukee rebuilding, not in the market for stars)

It’s basically the Brooklyn boys, Butler and Paul George that aren’t win now players that a team blowing it up would actually want. Brooklyn can offload a lot of salary and pivot to put something together, and Butler going out means Curry stays.

So unless Butler gets moved for a star to give Curry help, we can make the best offer if a team wants cap immediate cap space, picks, and to bottom out while doing right and sending their star to a contender.

It’s a list to keep an eye on as guys sign extensions rather than be dangled as an expiring contract, especially with expansion coming up in 2028 and teams restructure

SquimJim

2 | 7 hours ago

The other player I’m watching is Brandon Miller. We could keep him and George while staying under the 2nd apron, but such a trade would have to happen at the trade deadline

I think we could be one of a few teams willing to give him the 25% max and I’m not sure the Hornets would

TatumBrownWhite

1 | an hour ago

I think Miller is going to get extended within the next 2-3 weeks

ShampooMonK

1 | 3 hours ago

CarBallAlex did an excellent job at breaking down what it would cost for Curry in another DDT a while back and other suitors that would be interested in going after Curry and he mentioned teams like Hornet/Clippers, although after the recent debacle and fiasco with LAC, I have no idea if Curry wants to spend his twilight years there.

I think if we can swing a deal for Curry while being able to provide an competitive offer for Brandon Miller, that makes us a very competent team. Having a team with Curry and Brandon Miller + Tatum would be an excellent 3PT shooting versatile big 3 that can cover all weaknesses.

And if we look at 2028, the only ones that can be somewhat interesting is Jokic, Giannis, Durant, Siakam, and ironically Paul George, (although if we keep him he’s definitely not opting out unless we offer him an reasonable extension.) All in all, the 2028 draft class besides Jokic/Giannis*/Durant is meh. I would love to have an reunion with Jrue Holiday albeit at a cheaper cost controlled contract assuming he wants to play for a championship; but at this point in time I just don’t see much options available assuming Jokic genuinely wants to stay in Denver and finish his career there.

-

Luka Dončić also has a player option in 2028-2029. I’m not counting him out as Kessler could really end up being the nail in the coffin for over-committing to a center that cannot remain healthy.

To this day, I have no clue if Luka Doncic being traded to the Lakers was always set in stone or struggling hard to avoid being a conspiracy theorist - was it destiny or to be fated eventually? I just have no idea how the hell Nico genuinely traded Luka for AD of all people citing health and conditioning concerns his main focus and you choose to trade for the one player who’s nickname at times is Anthony Day-To-Day-Davis.

A duo of Luka and Tatum probably would be just as dominant as Giannis and think it would’ve off-set a lot of issues in our offense. While Luka isn’t the best defender, when he’s engaged, he’s a solid post and somewhat manageable defender at recovering when beat. I also think our team would’ve been the best option at hiding him. Oh well, he’s probably sipping the Lakers koolaid and won’t be leaving anytime soon.

Sorry I’m ranting lol.

Fuckblackhorses

3 | 8 hours ago

Pretty random but raptor fans on Reddit going back to worshipping the ground kawaii walks on again after he did them so dirty is funny to me. Dude bailed on their championship team to make money under the table then went back like nothing happened lol

Your__Pal

3 | 14 hours ago

There is a Duren for Turner framework being discussed right now.

Tough situation for the Pistons, they seem like an obvious team for decline.

Fuckblackhorses

2 | 8 hours ago

Duren is fools gold, he did the pistons a favor turning down those massive offers. Would’ve basically handcuffed that roster for cades prime

King_Of_Pants

1 | 2 hours ago

Yeah it really stands out when you watch his highlights.

Every single highlight is a dunk. He doesn’t post up, he doesn’t shoot, he doesn’t handle the ball. If he can’t dunk, he can’t impact the game. Take away those dunks and he doesn’t have anything else to contribute.

He’s like Dwight Howard, but nowhere near the defensive presence, and he’s even more limited in his post-up game.

He’s a good player, but you can’t afford to pay him because you typically need to save that money for playmaking and shot creation.

Look at DeAndre Jordan for example. He made All-NBA, was given big contracts, and people spent his entire career wondering why he was getting paid so much.

AWalker17

4 | 14 hours ago

That might not be too bad of a situation for them basketball-wise. Cade needs more spacing and the Pistons as currently constructed would be committing Cade to playing his entire career with 2 non-shooters on the floor with him (Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren). If they can get KPJ or Jacquez in the trade too, that would give them an extra ball handler next to Cade.

SquimJim

3 | 14 hours ago

I think Turner fits them better tbh. You can’t have Thompson and a non-shooting big in the starting lineup. That’s a death sentence for your offense. If they are choosing to keep Thompson, then trading Duren for a floor spacing big makes sense. Cade, Joe, Thompson, Collins, and Turner has a lot of defense, size, and shooting around Cade. Pretty cheap at all positions too

TatumBrownWhite

2 | 11 hours ago

I think Turner fits them better tbh.

I think you could say that for a lot of teams with Turner as he’s one of the rare stretch+anchor big combos in the league, but I know u/TreyAdell has written a lot about how stretch bigs are overrated. I disagree, but I guess Turner is kind of the bar for that in terms of if he’s sought after by playoff teams instead of a traditional big (Detroit, Toronto? etc.)

Off topic, but I’ve been thinking about comps for Duren as he’s an unusual player and the best I could come up with is Amar’e. He’s both a good player who can score (his on/offs wasn’t affected by Cade) but is also much, much better when paired with the generational PG.

CarBallAlex

7 | 17 hours ago

My post yesterday about efficiency got me thinking about Tatum’s ceiling

Last season in a small sample, in the games he shot above average efficiency

Warriors - 24 points (⁷⁄₁₅), 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 turnovers

Thunder - 19 points (⁵⁄₁₂), 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 turnovers

Hornets - 32 points (¹²⁄₂₃), 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 0 turnovers

Bucks - 23 points (⁸⁄₁₆), 11 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 turnovers

Raptors - 23 points (⁷⁄₁₅), 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 turnovers

Hornets - 23 points (⁸⁄₁₅), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers

Every one of these games he shot 42%+ from 3 except the Toronto game he was ²⁄₆.

All his bad efficiency games he shot under 31% from 3 except Dallas he was ³⁄₈

If you average these out, it’s 24/9/6 with 3 turnovers and around ⁷⁄₁₆ or ⁸⁄₁₆ from the field. If you bump the shot attempts up to around 20, that’s 9.⁷⁹⁄₂₀. About 2 more shots made is let’s call it 4.5 points.

28.5/9/6 would be pretty close to what Giannis did last season (27.⁶⁄₉.⁸⁄₅.4 with 3.2 turnovers) and although he only played 36 games, the advanced numbers say he was making a similar impact to SGA and Wemby.

Tatum’s inefficiency is a product of his 3 point shooting. That’s not to say he shouldn’t take the shots, but I think for him to reach that conversation of best in the world, he’s got to find the shots that he’s more efficient at. When you’re splitting hairs about who is the most valuable, guys are just too efficient like SGA, Jokic, Giannis

These are of course his best games, and he’s not going to have 82 of these types of games, but if he can manage that for 45-50 games instead of the 33 he had in 2024-25, I think it will make a difference.

Unfortunately, this is probably Tatum’s best time to win an MVP and he’s going to be competing with Victor “wow look how good he is already at this age and coming off a finals appearance” Wembanyama and Luka “LeBron left so now I have to do everything myself even more than I already was” Doncic working against him, while recovering from the Achilles.

If Tatum takes 20 shots per game which I think he will, and finds a better balance of the 3 point shooting because it will help his efficiency (which half the nerds who vote on the award will just use box score metrics without having watched any games), and he carries this roster to a 1 seed when your competition is teams like New York, Philadelphia and Miami after coming back from an Achilles, I think he’ll get a lot of praise for putting up those stats and being on a winning team.

It’s a long shot for sure, but this is Tatum’s chance to win an MVP. After this, the Celtics will hopefully get him some more help and it’s going to be harder to get all the credit. Just based on the surrounding factors, it’s now or probably never.

celtic92034543

4 | 14 hours ago

I’ve actually kind of gone the other way and come around more and more to his 3 point shooting, even the side step ones that everyone sees coming a mile away. I used to see it as the one ‘annoyance’ that we just live with because the guy does literally everything else, but the more I thought about it, the more I think he probably takes the right amount. Just using the shooting percentage becomes actually quite misleading, because it doesn’t factor in:

how often he gets fouled, which is not a throwaway

how often we get offensive rebounds off the misses (especially if he takes it when the big is switched on him and now the opposing teams best rebounder is at the 3 point line instead of the basket)

how many of these are at or close to 911 situations where the shot becomes the best look we’re going to get anyways

the shot opens up his own driving game and spaces the floor (otherwise people would play him the say way they play Giannis/Paolo/Barnes)

in pick and roll situations it prevents bigs from just playing drop or a soft hedge

Tatum is far from an elite 3 point shooter off this shot, but he hits them at more than enough clip that the defense still has to honor it. I think this is the biggest difference. If he was Paolo or Scottie Barnes, the shot would drive me insane, but Tatum hits them enough that when you factor in everything else, it becomes more and more of a necessary shot.

Are there still going to be times where it drives us up the wall when he takes it? Yeah…there fucking is. But some of it unavoidable. He has to take a certain amount of these shots, even if numbers wise it says to take them less.

I also look at it from the POV that we are one of the top teams when it comes to analytic driven basketball ever since Joe took over, and he’s not dialed it back one bit. If anything, he’s empowered Tatum to take it more.

CarBallAlex

3 | 14 hours ago

I agree, Tatum is good at recognizing when to just shoot it because of the high chance of a rebound and you make good points. But I just wish he’d shoot closer to 7-8 per game instead of 10 if he is ever going to win an MVP award. The voters just look at box scores too much and the efficiency is why he’s considered in that next tier below the best players. At his best, when he’s been on a hot streak, he’s been an MVP front runner. He was early in 22-23 with Giannis, and was in early 2024-25 with Jokic and AD. Then he goes cold, falls out of the race, and people make up their minds.

I’d rather the Celtics win games and play the right way than chase awards, but he won’t win an MVP playing the style he does. Shai is insanely efficient because he foul baits and shoots a ton of FT’s and is an excellent FT shooter and in turn makes his drives easier because he’s impossible to touch or get in his space, so his TS% is always going to be through the roof. When that’s what you’re competing with, you can’t just be a high volume 3P shooter. The last MVP winner to take more than 6 3’s per game was Harden in 2018 where he averaged 30 (scoring champ), 9 assists (top 5 in the league) and his team won 65 games (only team to win 60+).

Tatum I don’t think will ever reach that kind of facilitating, and for him to be a scoring champ he’d have to be insanely efficient and lead the Celtics to the 1 seed, which was kind of my original point.

Tatum will be in contention for an MVP if he averages like 28/9/6 with 60% TS and the Celtics win 60+ games. For the highest volume 3P shooters that average a lot of points (Curry, Doncic, Mitchell, Maxey, Edwards), all these guys had 60%+ true shooting except Maxey. It’s simply not passable to be in conversations with SGA, Jokic, Wemby and Giannis if you aren’t efficient.

SquimJim

3 | 15 hours ago

Yea, he’s going to need to increase his efficiency if he wants MVP. The top guys are just so efficient and that gap has been too wide for him in the past. The volume/counting stats will be there and our team knows how to get regular season wins, but efficiency and impact metrics aren’t there.

TatumBrownWhite

2 | 14 hours ago

but efficiency and impact metrics aren’t there.

That’s going to be the case for pretty much everybody bar SGA and Jokic though, and those 2 guys aren’t likely to win more MVPs due to voter fatigue. Wemby won’t reach their efficiency but he’s also having GOAT level defensive impact. He just feels like the likely winner to me.

I put Tatum in the second category of 4 in terms of likelihood based on stats + regular season wins along with Brunson, Cade, and Luka.

SquimJim

2 | 14 hours ago

I wouldn’t necessarily count out Giannis yet either. For him it’s about staying healthy and being off the Bucks who were going nowhere. I could see him re-entering these types of conversations.

I could see voter fatigue being an issue for SGA/Jokic, but Tatum would still have to clearly delineate himself from that crew of next ups

xLNBx

5 | a day ago

FAO Mod Team. I posted something 8 days ago. Status is still “waiting for moderator approval”. Can someone please check it out in case it slipped through the cracks? Thanks.

xskarma

3 | 13 hours ago

FYI, I checked, and I can only speak for myself, but I saw the post and figured it was just a cheap AI graphic posted for engagement bait, which we get somewhat regularly. I left it cause automod had done it’s job, from what I could tell. Sorry if that was not the case. If you post it again I will approve it.

xLNBx

2 | 12 hours ago

Ok, thanks for looking into this. I understand why the settings are there, no problem. I will post again, maybe will include a little bit more context, so it does’t look click-baity, which it was not :)

Tatum-Better

2 | 19 hours ago

my stuff does the same thing anytime i post on here, it just disappears in the void and never actually gets shown in the sub

nibbinoo8

3 | 16 hours ago

same. i have to complain and then a mod says to post it again and they will approve it. only sub on reddit i have this problem with.

xLNBx

2 | 15 hours ago

Likely auto-mod settings due to a fair bit of spam. That’s ok and understood, but someone needs to also be on top of this.

From Posting Rules: “Spam Filter: Reddit has a really sensitive spam filter, so if you post something and it doesn’t show up, message the mods and we will look into it. If we choose not to release the post, we’ll explain why.”

Daily Discussion Thread - September 22, 2026