2025 NBA Trade Deadline Thread

[Redz]

Mark Williams

Rookie year = 43 games played, 19mpg
2nd year = 19 games played, 26mpg
3rd year = 22 of 47 games played this year, 25mpg

Guy has had a lot of injury issues to give up such a bounty for.

My suspicion with the amount of time he missed was that Charlotte was dramatically holding him back to help with their never ending tank objective.  At least some degree.  Still would have missed a bunch of time, but definitely could have come back sooner if the team was contending

[Vermont Green]

For the Lakers, their top 4 are fine, better than fine really:

Luka
Reaves
Hachimura
James

James has the versatility to play as a big (kind of like Tatum) but none of these guys are really a big.  Their big rotation is:

Williams
Hayes
Finney-Smith
Vanderbilt

Finney-Smith and Vanderbilt aren't really full-sized PFs, but that is all they got.  They look a lot like HOU now.  All guards and wings with a 7-footer.  At least for LAL, Hachimura and James are actual forwards, HOU plays mostly with 4 guards, no forwards.

[Who]

I saw some Hornets fans saying that Mark Williams has lost a lot of athleticism this year compared to his first 2 years. Whether that is due to his injuries or weight gain (to add more muscle, increase power) is unclear.

Hornets fans all seem to complain about his lack of toughness. He gets pushed around by physical centers. Our old assistant coach Charles Lee is his Head Coach. He was so worried about how badly Mark Williams does against physical centers that he tried to hide him on Coulibaly in order to keep him off Valanciunas in a recent game. That went badly. Coach put Mark Williams back on Valanciunas and Valanciunas cooked Mark williams. Sounds like this is a running theme with Mark Williams.

Hornets fans also saying his perimeter defense has gotten much worse this year. Like I mentioned above, his athleticism is worse this season. Mark Williams has gone from a guy who switched well onto smaller players to being afraid to go out on the floor because he keeps getting blown by. Also gives up open 3s often because he is afraid to fully close out on shooters because he gets blown by.

If it is the weight gain that has cost him some quickness, and he is already having problems matching up physically, that does not bode well for his future. Having to lose the weight to regain the quickness would make him even easier to bully.

Hornets fans saying he is not blocking shots as well this year as in his first two years. He doesn't cover ground well on help defense. He is slow on rotations. He no longer jumps well. Not confident in his legs (sounds like mental hangup from previous injury). Reluctant to jump high.

Sounds like they are talking about difference between weakside shot-blocking and meeting guys at the rim. That Mark Williams is bad at weakside shot blocking because he is slow on rotations. He is effective when the ball is in front of him because he is so huge but bad when the attack is from the side and he has to move to deal with it.

Not good reports on his defense or athleticism in only his 3rd year. Maybe they are just conditioning problems that be improved at over time but that is a long term fix ... not the short term fix LAL need to be a title contender this season.

[Roy H.]

This has been one of the craziest trade deadlines in years.  Do people think we're done with big moves, or are there more coming today?

[Birdman]

This has been one of the craziest trade deadlines in years.  Do people think we're done with big moves, or are there more coming today?

Dont think u will see a star player moved..Celtics may wait for buyout candidates

[Roy H.]

This has been one of the craziest trade deadlines in years.  Do people think we're done with big moves, or are there more coming today?

Dont think u will see a star player moved..Celtics may wait for buyout candidates

Yeah, I was unclear there.  I meant for the league, rather than just the Celts.

I agree with you on the Celtics.  For the league itself, it seems like all of the rumored big names have already been moved.  I'm wondering if we're in for a quiet deadline day, with most of the moves being salary related.  Or, are there are few more big deals out there?

[johnnygreen]

Why did New Orleans trade Ingram?

Is Dallas going to try to upgrade at SF? If there in win now mode, then PJ Washington shouldn't be your third best scorer.

[Who]

Why did New Orleans trade Ingram?

They didn't want to pay him. Ingram wanted a max contract. He wouldn't accept less than the max. New Orleans tried to talk him down from the max last summer but failed to. They said they would trade him prior to the trade deadline if he did not change his mind. Ingram did not change his mind.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

This has been one of the craziest trade deadlines in years.  Do people think we're done with big moves, or are there more coming today?

Dont think u will see a star player moved..Celtics may wait for buyout candidates

Kyle Anderson?

[Roy H.]

Why did New Orleans trade Ingram?

Money, apparently.  They don't want to pay him going forward.

I think as we look around the league, that's going to be a driver for the majority of trades going forward.  By design, the CBA is forcing teams to break up and is driving player movement.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Why did New Orleans trade Ingram?

Money, apparently.  They don't want to pay him going forward.

I think as we look around the league, that's going to be a driver for the majority of trades going forward.  By design, the CBA is forcing teams to break up and is driving player movement.

He's a SF version on Monte Ellis. He's the new Demar DeRozan. He's Tobias Harris 2.0. Good stats. Good-looking game and profile. You can almost convince yourself that with the right coach he could be a 1 or 2 on a championship team.

But ultimately not a ceiling raiser. He raises your floor by maybe 5-10 wins.

[Donoghus]

I'm old enough to remember when people were insisting Ingram was better than JB on these boards. 

(that wasn't that long ago)

[johnnygreen]

Why did New Orleans trade Ingram?

They didn't want to pay him. Ingram wanted a max contract. He wouldn't accept less than the max. New Orleans tried to talk him down from the max last summer but failed to. They said they would trade him prior to the trade deadline if he did not change his mind. Ingram did not change his mind.

That makes sense. I agree, Ingram isn't a player that I would invest a max contract in either.

[Roy H.]

I'm old enough to remember when people were insisting Ingram was better than JB on these boards. 

(that wasn't that long ago)

That was the consensus at draft time.  Only epic Celtics haters continued that position into the last two years, though.  Haha.

[Goldstar88]

Ainge please do us a favor and give us Walker Kessler

Yep, that?s definitely DA?s style.