NBA Season 2021-22

[Kernewek]

Curious to see what happens with Ayton this offseason. He's definitely not going back to Phoenix.

Sarver needs to go.

Ayton should go to Spurs though.

Sarver may need to go but not because he doesn't want to give Ayton a Max deal.  Ayton is worth a Jaylen Brown level deal not Max.

In the abstract, perhaps.  But, he's "worth" what the market says he is, and is there any doubt he'll at least get the four-year max?

With the limited cap space this year, I do think there’s doubt.  My guess is Portland will do it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come in under a max deal.

Please let's keep the young, talented big man away from Portland.

Disagree - I bet Ayton would be great for the former Red Claws.

[Moranis]

Draft lotto is tonight.  I know we have other more important things to think about, but any preference on a team winning.  Personally, I'd like to see the Cavs move into the top 4, both for geographical reasons and also because they had such a nice season only to lose the play ins and not make it into the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind the Clippers moving up for similar reasons. 

[Kernewek]

Draft lotto is tonight.  I know we have other more important things to think about, but any preference on a team winning.  Personally, I'd like to see the Cavs move into the top 4, both for geographical reasons and also because they had such a nice season only to lose the play ins and not make it into the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind the Clippers moving up for similar reasons.

Love to see the Kings win it but I have zero faith in that organisation not to screw it up and remain horrible. Ranadivé might have kept the team in Sacramento but he's done an awful job with it since.

[slamtheking]

Draft lotto is tonight.  I know we have other more important things to think about, but any preference on a team winning.  Personally, I'd like to see the Cavs move into the top 4, both for geographical reasons and also because they had such a nice season only to lose the play ins and not make it into the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind the Clippers moving up for similar reasons.

Cleveland is one of the last team I want to win it.  they've won it enough -- Daugherty, Lebron, Kyrie, Wiggins.  same for the following teams:
- Houston - Sampson, Olajuwon, Ming
- Orlando - Shaq, Webber, Howard
- SAS - Robinson, Duncan
- LAC - Manning, Olawakandi and perennially living in the lottery for so many years.  they're also no longer the ugly-stepsister to the Lakers now that they can land top FAs/players looking to get to LA
- Lakers - Magic, Worthy and they're the Lakers so they're scum
- Charlotte - technically not the same as the original franchise but they did get Larry Johnson in that city
- Portland - Bowie, Oden
- Washington - Wall
- Detroit - Cunningham
- NY - Ewing

Only teams in the lottery that haven't won it yet are Sac, OKC and Indy.  I guess I'd prefer Sac since they've been a picture of futility since the 2002 playoff screw job and didn't go blatantly tanking like OKC (and OKC did get to draft Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka and Green and couldn't make that work so too bad for them).

[Redz]

Draft lotto is tonight.  I know we have other more important things to think about, but any preference on a team winning.  Personally, I'd like to see the Cavs move into the top 4, both for geographical reasons and also because they had such a nice season only to lose the play ins and not make it into the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind the Clippers moving up for similar reasons.

Cleveland is one of the last team I want to win it.  they've won it enough -- Daugherty, Lebron, Kyrie, Wiggins.  same for the following teams:
- Houston - Sampson, Olajuwon, Ming
- Orlando - Shaq, Webber, Howard
- SAS - Robinson, Duncan
- LAC - Manning, Olawakandi and perennially living in the lottery for so many years.  they're also no longer the ugly-stepsister to the Lakers now that they can land top FAs/players looking to get to LA
- Lakers - Magic, Worthy and they're the Lakers so they're scum
- Charlotte - technically not the same as the original franchise but they did get Larry Johnson in that city
- Portland - Bowie, Oden
- Washington - Wall
- Detroit - Cunningham
- NY - Ewing

Only teams in the lottery that haven't won it yet are Sac, OKC and Indy.  I guess I'd prefer Sac since they've been a picture of futility since the 2002 playoff screw job and didn't go blatantly tanking like OKC (and OKC did get to draft Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka and Green and couldn't make that work so too bad for them).

Wouldn't mind seeing the Lakers pick win it, since they don't own it, and that would sting worse!

[liam]

What are the chances that we win the lotto?


 

[bdm860]

Draft lotto is tonight.  I know we have other more important things to think about, but any preference on a team winning.  Personally, I'd like to see the Cavs move into the top 4, both for geographical reasons and also because they had such a nice season only to lose the play ins and not make it into the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind the Clippers moving up for similar reasons.

I wouldn't mind rewarding a team like Cleveland for a nice season with a lotto win, except for all the lotto luck they've had over the last ~20 years, so they're definitely near the bottom of teams I'd like to see win.

Personally, I hate rewarding front office incompetence, cheap ownership, tanking (though half a season is fine, full or multiple season tank jobs are worse), perpetual losers, and/or teams playing on easy mode as marquee free agent destinations, so that eliminates most of the teams.

I'd prefer Portland, Indiana, San Antonio to win.  These are teams that usually don't stay bad for long and I think will make the most of a good pick.  Of the 3, I'd probably prefer Indiana since they've gone the longest without some lotto luck (and I've always felt they were a similar well-run franchise like the Spurs, just without the luck).

[Who]

I saw this on the RealGM forums, Luke Doncic

(1) outscored Devin Booker 218-164
(2) outrebounded DeAndre Ayton 69-57
(3) outassisted CP3 49-40
(4) outstole Mikal Bridges 15-9

How awesome is that. Wow.

[Who]

"You're going to look at the teams with cap space. Let's say for example Oklahoma City, a San Antonio, Portland. Teams that can create enough cap space to go out and sign him. But also the discussions of a sign-and-trade...

"If Phoenix decides they want to get assets back for Deandre Ayton. They don't want to match an offer sheet and either decide to pay him that max, or allow him to leave for nothing, which I think is what they won't do. There will be a lot of conversations around the league.

"Deandre Ayton is going to get a max contract in the marketplace somewhere. Phoenix really has to look at the allocation financially of how they want to distribute salaries.

Man, I would love to see San Antonio sign Ayton. Give them a young big with potential to develop. Someone those little guys on the perimeter can play off of.

Someone to start building something around rather than what they are doing right now which is throwing paint at the wall and hoping it becomes a picture at some point.

Edit: Ayton would also be really good for Portland. Help put them back on path for title contention. Lillard, Ayton, Anfernee Simmons, a lotto pick. That could become a very good team in the West as soon as next season.

Still have some holes to fill at forward to become a legit title contender but that is a great starting point, restart, for the Blazers with Lillard. They could actually get that team back on track and win with Lillard instead of having a full rebuild without Lillard.

[liam]

I saw this on the RealGM forums, Luke Doncic

(1) outscored Devin Booker 218-164
(2) outrebounded DeAndre Ayton 69-57
(3) outassisted CP3 49-40
(4) outstole Mikal Bridges 15-9

How awesome is that. Wow.

Luka is scary good. I can't believe how many teams passed on him. I was amazed on draft night. I thiought he was a generational talent then. It was like passing on LeBron.

[Roy H.]

Draft lotto is tonight.  I know we have other more important things to think about, but any preference on a team winning.  Personally, I'd like to see the Cavs move into the top 4, both for geographical reasons and also because they had such a nice season only to lose the play ins and not make it into the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind the Clippers moving up for similar reasons.

I'd enjoy the schadenfreude among Lakers fans if their pick landed #1 and went to New Orleans, I suppose.  Otherwise, I guess OKC, perhaps San Antonio, Cleveland or Charlotte.

[Celtics2021]

Draft lotto is tonight.  I know we have other more important things to think about, but any preference on a team winning.  Personally, I'd like to see the Cavs move into the top 4, both for geographical reasons and also because they had such a nice season only to lose the play ins and not make it into the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind the Clippers moving up for similar reasons.

The Clippers pick goes to OKC, so they can jump in the lottery but they won’t reap the rewards.

[nickagneta]

I am surprised so many feel so good about Ayton's game. I haven't really seen much growth in his game and have watched him go into turtle mode way too many times in playoff games to be willing to throw max money at the guy.

Also, he has missed 72 of 308 regular season games. That's an availability of only 3 out of 4 games. Not very good.

Now Timelord's availability is even worse, but TL is making just $12 million per over the next 4 years and I like his game more and feel he is still growing as a player. Ayton gives me the impression he has plateaued.

[nebist]

I am surprised so many feel so good about Ayton's game. I haven't really seen much growth in his game and have watched him go into turtle mode way too many times in playoff games to be willing to throw max money at the guy.

Also, he has missed 72 of 308 regular season games. That's an availability of only 3 out of 4 games. Not very good.

Now Timelord's availability is even worse, but TL is making just $12 million per over the next 4 years and I like his game more and feel he is still growing as a player. Ayton gives me the impression he has plateaued.

Ayton's issues strike me as mental/approach issues, which would scare me a great deal from investing huge money and resources into him. Skill and talent-wise, there is a lot there. His touch is ridiculous. He's huge but also mobile. His game has (mostly) translated to the playoffs very well in that he's not the kind of big that can be easily played off the floor with 5-out lineups. He just seems to be missing something fundamental in terms of physicality, aggression, maturity, etc. Hard to pinpoint it exactly. To conclude, someone is going to invest a lot in him and hope he can be a top 2 player on a contender, but I wouldn't want it to be my team.

[Celtics2021]

I am surprised so many feel so good about Ayton's game. I haven't really seen much growth in his game and have watched him go into turtle mode way too many times in playoff games to be willing to throw max money at the guy.

Also, he has missed 72 of 308 regular season games. That's an availability of only 3 out of 4 games. Not very good.

Now Timelord's availability is even worse, but TL is making just $12 million per over the next 4 years and I like his game more and feel he is still growing as a player. Ayton gives me the impression he has plateaued.

I wouldn’t be so quick to judge Ayton as having plateaued.  He would be far from the first player who had a disappointing fourth year after having a contentious and unsuccessful extension negotiation the prior summer.  As examples we’ve seen closely, both Marcus and Rozier come quickly to mind.  One resigned, one didn’t, but both took major step forwards in their new deals after having had a rough fourth year.