2014 NBA Draft Thread

[The Young One]

Looks like Lavine is the workout warrior of this years draft

 

[Mexi]

Lakers maybe

 

[elcheato]

Lakers maybe

 

[Mexi]

Aaron gordon wants to be a laker
I dont know if theyll take him though

 

[elcheato]

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Anyone saw Chad Ford's Tier rankings? Only Blake Griffin, John Wall, and Anthony Davis have gotten Tier 1 rankings since 2009.

Wiggins, Embiid, and Parker all received a Tier 1 ranking this season. That's laughable to me.

 

[elcheato]

Embiid is tier 1

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Embiid is tier 1

If healthy, I could agree you can argue that.

You'd have to have a hell of an argument to convince me Wiggins is, and Parker is sure as hell not.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

The only way nola could cope with not having that lottery pick was to convince himself that this draft class is garbage haha

 

[jonathanlambert33]

I've stated my stance on the trade on more than one occasion. My thoughts on this draft have been the same since even before the trade, and has jack shit to do with my team. And what have I said that you would specifically disagree with? I'd really appreciate it if you would stop putting words in my mouth as well, not once have I ever said this draft was garbage. Last years draft was garbage, this one isn't.

 

[bosoxlover12]

Id take Trey/Noel and McBuckets/Stauskas over Jrue

 

[jonathanlambert33]

That's fine. I wouldn't, and people disagree.

Who's McBuckets? McDermott?

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Though I will say you could very well be the only person in this country that would take Burke and McDermott/Stauskas over Jrue. But I don't expect any less.

 

[bosoxlover12]

On a team that won't make the playoffs? Give me the younger guys. Having Jrue and other players like him ensure a 8-14 seeded finish almost every year

 

[jonathanlambert33]

There's so much stupid in that post that I don't even know where to start...

But like I said, I don't expect any less. Shouldn't you be creating a completely unrealistic trade proposal?

 

[bosoxlover12]

You traded for a somewhat expensive PG, and overpayed for a SF, who you soon learned can't play SF, but is a SG. You already invested a lot of money in a SG who isn't good anymore really, and has almost no trade value.

You no longer have cap room to sign a star player, which seems like the only way to win in this league. You need more than a young Anthony Davis to win.

A salary capped team in a small market that isn't that good, with a below average HC, isn't desirable to FAs either. Y'all are stuck in a period of mediocrity, unless Davis becomes Durant/Lebron.

It would have been better to commit to the rebuild, rather than scrap it after you got the perfect piece for rebuilding. So no, it's not stupid. It's why I don't really care if Kevin Love comes to Boston. I would be amped if he did, but the C's suck, and Love won't help anything really. I can understand wanting to get good players on your team, but I wouldn't have done it if I were NOLA

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Anyways, regarding Burke and Holiday. You would take Burke, who is not only undersized but also lacks the NBA level athleticism he needs over Jrue Holiday, who has great size for his position and good enough athleticism because Burke is two years younger? If I didn't know better I would think you're under the assumption that Jrue isn't no spring chicken. Hell, if we had this conversation four days ago we would be talking about a 23 year old PG who's already represented his squad in an All-Star game.

and the "having Jrue and guys like him ensure a 8-14 seeded finish every year" comment? Good lord heaven almighty. I often wonder if you're just a really bad troll or if you're just that uninformed, and honestly I go back and forth a good bit. It very well may be both. We're talking about a team with a 21 year old Anthony Davis, 24 year old Jrue Holiday, 24 year old Tyreke Evans, and 26 year old Ryan Anderson. History would indicate none of those guys have even reached their prime yet. Infact, I don't even need history to tell me that because I can see the improvement from month to month or year from year with my own eyes. Probably not this season, but by 2016 at the very latest Anthony Davis will be a top 3 player in this league (if not the best player), barring injury of course. We've seen where having one of those guys gets you, and you're adding Jrue, Reke, Ryno and whoever else they add during the next two summers to that. When those guys hit their strides that is MUCH better than a "8-14 seeded finish every year."

No doubt about that.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

You traded for a somewhat expensive PG, and overpayed for a SF, who you soon learned can't play SF, but is a SG. You already invested a lot of money in a SG who isn't good anymore really, and has almost no trade value.

You no longer have cap room to sign a star player, which seems like the only way to win in this league. You need more than a young Anthony Davis to win.

A salary capped team in a small market that isn't that good, with a below average HC, isn't desirable to FAs either. Y'all are stuck in a period of mediocrity, unless Davis becomes Durant/Lebron.

It would have been better to commit to the rebuild, rather than scrap it after you got the perfect piece for rebuilding. So no, it's not stupid. It's why I don't really care if Kevin Love comes to Boston. I would be amped if he did, but the C's suck, and Love won't help anything really. I can understand wanting to get good players on your team, but I wouldn't have done it if I were NOLA

Traded for a "somewhat expensive PG." What does that even mean? For as long as I can remember the NBA is a league where you have to pay a premium for good PG's. Even the average ones get good money I'd say.

Overpaid for a SF, who you found out couldn't play SF. If they brought him in with the intent of being their SF, don't you think they would have actually made him their starting SF instead of the steaming pile of garbage that is Al-Farouq Aminu? Secondly, why would you ever believe they brought him in with the intent of him being their SF of the future when it's a known fact that they've been trying to move Eric Gordon for the better part of 2.5 years? It was never a question that as soon as Gordon is gone, whether that would have been sooner or later, that Tyreke would step into the starting role as the SG, not the SF. And even if your statement was true, who gives a crap? So it took them basically half of a season into a 4 year deal to figure out that Tyreke excels as a SG, not as a SF. Like I said, it was never in question where he would be playing once Gordon is gone.

I am totally with you about overpaying for Gordon. The guy is, in my opinion, garbage. It's truly amazing when you see the difference the way the team performs when he is on the court vs when he is off the court. With that said though, you are wrong about the Pelicans being cash strapped to add to this team. They have options, ways to get his cap off the books, or atleast most of the cap. He does not have that much trade value, but that is not to say there is a zero percent chance he gets moved this offseaso or next. It's still a possibility, I would not be shocked if he were not a part of the roster come October. But back to the options they have. They can use something that is called the "stretch provision" and stretch the remaining $30.4M he has on his contract over the next 5 seasons, and they can do that now if they wanted to. Though that wouldn't be the smart thing to do. Or they can wait until after next season, and stretch the remaining $15.5M he would have over 3 seasons. If a trade is not completed this offseason, then you go into this coming season hoping he plays well and is healthy enough that he gets noticed. Maybe that way you move him in a similar fashion to the way Toronto did with Rudy Gay who had a similar contract (one guaranteed year, one player option). If you can't move him by next seasons deadline, then you hope he opts out of the last year of his deal. Which like I've said, it isn't as absurd as you all believe it to be. It that does not happen, you use the stretch provision and stretch his money over three seasons and his 2015-2016 cap number plummets from $15.5M to $5.17M.

But it goes even further than that, you have more options. Possibly better options. If the Pels wanted to rid themselves of Gordon right now and take an even lesser cap hit they can use something that is referred to as "the right of set-off." If Gordon wants out bad enough, and the Pelicans want him out bad enough, the two sides can agree to a buy out. He gets $20M and gains his freedom. This is when the "right of set-off" comes into play. Gordon passes through waivers and nobody picks up him and that deal. Once he goes unclaimed, he would have to sign a deal worth more than the vet minimum for the Pelicans to use this provision. Lets say someone offers him a 2 year 10M dollar deal. Pelicans buy him out for $20M, which would make his cap hit $10.4M this season and $10.8M next season. Now since he got picked up, you take an additional $2M off that because of the "right of set-off." His cap hit is now $8.4M and $8.8M. You can keep that entire $8.4M on the books this season, then stretch that final $8.8M over three years like I stated earlier. Reducing his cap hit to about $2.9M in 2015. Which would give the Pelicans about $23M that summer.

Depending on what the Pelicans do this summer, they have every opportunity to go into the summer of 2015 with the ability to offer a max contract. They could hypothetically even go into this free agency period with a little more than $12M in cap depending on what they do with Gordon. I'd personally just hold off on doing anything like that now though, and I'd expect Dell to do the same. But in no way are they cash strapped like you believe them to be. There are options out there that still allow them to add more pieces to the guys they already have.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

Nola just ends arguments by posting things that nobody wants to read haha

 

[jonathanlambert33]

If somebody is going to say something that's untrue then what am I supposed to do? Just ignore it and let people think that's the actual truth? That's not productive.