Is it worth the anguish, as a casual but lifelong Sixers fan, of imagining the what-if of Jayson Tatum every time I see Markelle Fultz or even read his name? Or would the Celtics would have taken Tatum if they had stayed at #1?

Nope, because that’s the price of the Process strategy. Sometimes you get a Simmons, sometimes you get a Fultz. Tatum would have likely torn his taint or had some other kind of injury if drafted by the Sixers. Butterfly effect, ya know?

It's Thanksgiving and the Memphis Grizzlies are the kings of the Western Conference.

I love the NBA

So, KD and those Warriors hey guys. Surprised not a single post here yet about it. With a healthy Curry it's still Golden State's title to lose, but at least it might make this year a little more interesting.

I have not watched a full Warriors game since Steph got hurt so I don't know if I have caught them at their worst. That being said, the Warriors sans Steph look way too much like the KD/Russ Thunder for my liking.

Not so fast hehe

I doubt Korver for Fultz will happen but I'm going to send prayers up anyways.

Korver to the Jazz for Alec Burks and second round picks in 2020 and 2021, per Woj.

Only problem I have with getting Burks is that he will probably win us a few more games this season. Other than that, good trade, especially for Burks who I believe is a FA after this season? Good opportunity for him to prove he can stay healthy and regain his early-career form, where it looked like he was on the verge of being a solid NBA starter.

Holy shit the Suns are terrible. Outside of Booker I don’t know if you could put together a worse team with so many decent draft picks. He’s got to be considering firing his agent right now.

Hasn't Ayton been good? I've only seen a couple games, but I thought he looked great for a 20 yr old.

Now, outside of those two, yeah - doesn't look pretty.

Ayton has looked really good for the most part (1-4 shooting vs the Clippers a bit of an anomaly). I still think if the draft is tomorrow I'm taking Doncic #1, though.

Huh, yeah. He was such a nonfactor in the game I was semi-watching last night I honestly forgot he existed. Go figure.

And yeah he might be a good center, but given where the league is going there’s no way they shouldn’t have gone with Doncic.

Is there some reason why Toronto is being coached by a Vegas magician tonight?

Was there something going on with honoring Craig Sager last night because I was wondering the same thing when I saw Luke Waltons suit jacket.

Might have been. I was flipping between football and the Warriors game so I didn't closely watch what anyone else was wearing.

Is it wrong to think that the Hoiberg firing is a bit unfair? It feels like the Bulls had three rebuilding restarts over his three plus seasons.

Cavs fans,

Outback Jesus is coming home!

Milwaukee Bucks trading Matthew Dellavedova back to Cleveland Cavaliers

Happy he'll get minutes again in Cleveland - he looked like a shell of his former self playing for our national team earlier in the year. Hoping he can play himself into some form.

I'm all in on this season again

Interesting times in Chicago.

It must suck to work PR and man social media for a shitty sports franchise. The Cavs just tweeted out 105.4 PPG at the Q this season!!!

That puts them at 28th.

From the information I've read, I'm totally on the side of Coach Boylen at this point. To complain less than a week in that practices are too tough when you're 6-22 is crazy. The Bulls traded away their best locker room vets and don't have much to show for it.

Also, they're complaining about 2 hour practices? Do they have another job to get to? I honestly thought most pro practices were at least 2 hours along with some combination of a lifting session, shooting drills, other skill improvement drills, or conditioning.

Hopefully, the front office takes steps to get the right players on the team to correct this noise with the young players, but seeing who's in the front office, I don't have much trust that it'll happen.

2 hour practice of suicide sprints after b2b games is probably way out of the norm. Not saying you coddle the guys or that Boylin is particularly wrong. Just a questionable call.

I mean I guess. I have seen that roster and I don't know if 4 hour practices will help them get better if the goal of practice is to "shock and awe". Also, is it really a good idea to have guys with the injury histories of Zach Lavine, Kris Dunn, Bobby Portis and Lauri Markkanen grinding in practice during a four games in seven days stretch though?

Not sure why they brought in Thibs Light when they could have just kept the Original Thibs and his players and been a better team.

I personally gravitate towards Boylen's point of view for similar reasons that I did Butler re: Minny, but realistically in Boylen's case it's just a sign of the times - players earn too much and are far more important than coaches (for reasons outside of Ws and Ls, even - marketing, bums on seats, etc.) in today's NBA. Hell, yesterday's too, but the gap is widening if anything.

John Paxson has been in charge of the Bulls front office for 15 years?! Really?:eek:

Yeah, agree with the sign of the times...players complain and the coaching staff pays. And yes, a questionable call for a hard practice after a back to back. But it is his call to make. To consider a revolt after less than a week with a new coach is a bit extreme. They need some veteran leadership to help in those situations.

There had to be a change in the way the team was playing and Hoiberg wasn't the agent of that change. Boylen appears to be a definite move to the other side of the intensity spectrum, which could be good to help instill some toughness and a work ethic into the young players.

Bulls' Zach LaVine had one-on-one meeting with coach

This article leaves me with so many questions. Boylen comes across as a fake tough guy IMO.

Or they need to rid themselves of what appear to be a number of cancers that remain on the roster.

Did the Suns really just deal a good asset and somebody who was in a decent amount of demand for Austin Rivers and a couple of end of bench guys? What am I missing?

Orrrrr ... not?

"Three-team trade off after miscommunication on which Brooks was heading to Suns"
Trevor Ariza trade to Washington Wizards from Phoenix Suns

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. You had to figure they were getting at least one young player, right?

Not sure the trade they ended up with is much better. Oubre is a poor fit for their roster and they can move him, but he can't be packaged with another player now. He's also a restricted free agent at the end of the year.

I feel like a trade like this should have been the floor for what they could have gotten for Ariza. And there's always a chance a contender would have panicked closer to the deadline and tossed a 2nd in for a similar deal.

This trade comes down to what they can flip Oubre for.

I just hope the Suns don't get their arena deal and move here.

Maybe the Lakers would've panicked a.k.a. LeBron would've pushed to include a young guy for Ariza if they lose 3 straight in like January, but I don't think Trevor Ariza on a $15m deal for one year is that easy to find a fit for, especially if you don't want to take on a multi year bad contract (and given Sarver's history...)

Any contender is probably over the cap, and won't have many players in that 12-15m range needed to make it work that aren't rotation pieces & a marginal difference from Ariza.

Did you include the part where the Suns are waiving Rivers?

LeBron consoling/coaching his son after a tough game was great. He did a great job of fathering.

Oubre looked pretty good for the Suns last night. It was odd seeing a bench wing defend on this team :D

While the 4-game winning streak is a little more fool's gold than not, it's clear that Ariza didn't want to be here and was mailing it in. These young guys they are playing now are giving some effort (plus it doesn't hurt to have Booker back).

I was reading about Fultz's injury and it's actually the same injury a kid on my son's baseball team went through last spring and summer. It took around 3 months and several doctors to finally get a diagnosis and rehab plan. Rehab ended up being the easiest part of the whole ordeal and he was 100% within a couple of months.

It's strange to see Fultz go through the same struggles. The kid in this case only ended up getting an accurate diagnosis because of family connections to the Mariners and he was able to see their team doc.

Remember way back when there was debate about whether Doncic or Trae Young would be the better player?

Was there? Was that before Big 12 play last season?

Speaking of debates, is it possible that the John Wall contract is worse than the Chris Paul contract? The Rockets had to know that they were probably going to get two good years max out of Paul, last year and this one. Wall possibly being done before he even entered the extension? Hoo boy.

Yes, after the Atlanta/Dallas trade. I think Trae Young develops into a good offensive player, but he is quite possibly the worst defensive guard in recent NBA history. Overall though, Young's ceiling is probably right around the level Doncic is playing at right now as a 19 year old.

The Wall contract is the worst in the NBA IMO. It's quite possible the Wizards got better today with Wall being ruled out for the rest of the season. The guy gives zero fucks on the court right now and is in desperate need of a change of scenery.

I was never high on Young. The defensive flaws were obvious to me just due to his slight frame. Doncic has been great. One thing I don't have a feel for is his ceiling. The old man in me rejects the next Lebron James labels that I have seen recently. I do give credit for the attempt of a comparison that cross racial lines though;)

I dunno - Young might eventually be as good a scorer as Doncic is right now, but he's never going to have the all around offensive game. Let alone the fact that Young is always going to be a significant minus on defense.

I said exactly this a few days ago to a buddy of mine. The only thing Young has shown me so far that he does amazing well is be inefficient on the court, which is not surprising based on how he played in college. Unless he dramatically decreases the turnovers and either starts hitting shots at a decent clip or takes less of them, it's hard to see his ceiling being more than either a stats guy on a bad team, or maybe a Patty Mills type of bench sparkplug on a winning team.

Doncic is incredibly polished which should surprise nobody - I'm still surprised he didn't go #1, let alone that the Hawks moved him for Young, which looked bad at the time and will only look worse as Doncic continues to improve. Suns are probably happy with Ayton, but in today's NBA it still belies belief that 3 team's GMs passed up a guy with his skillset and resume, especially when the role of bigs in the league today is largely to set screens and catch lob passes.

There's a 500 pound gorilla that hovers around that deal IMO.

A socio-political 500 pound gorilla that I (sincerely) hesitate to even refer to.

But if you look at the Hawks marketing scheme around the arena refurb, it seems pretty obvious to me.

Young was a very good shooter who could see the floor and made good passes. At Oklahoma, his teammates stopped making shots and he pressed even more. He was never great on defense. I don't think he even tried hard unless there was a premier match up with a point guard. Haven't seen him play much in Atlanta, but he's probably still not playing D and his shot's not falling like it was when he was climbing up the draft charts last year. He is setting up his teammates. If his shot starts falling consistently, that part of his game will shine even more.

The only comparison I've seen with Doncic and LeBron was their ability to read a play and make the unexpected pass to get their teammates open. Outside of that, not sure I see it right now. Love Doncic's game and thought he should've been no lower than the #3 pick, but he was not a sure thing. He had the experience to adjust to the NBA game quicker than Young.