Unless some rule has changed these draft picks do not count towards the 24-25 roster since they aren’t signed until the new fiscal year begins on 7-1.
Two biggest takeaways from last night is 1) the organization wants players ready to contribute immediately and have strong work ethic and 2) they are committed to building around Ball.
I missed the draft yesterday and so much happened
Im so confused and im very mad we didnt take ace bailey but lemme tell yall liam mcneely is the real deal
I try not to post emotionally so I wanted to give myself the night to process all that’s happened, but I woke up feeling about like I did when I went to bed. I’m just not on board with the Kon pick. While I can kinda see what people see in him, at the end of the day we took a guy who’s probably guaranteed to be solid, but who’s likely equally guaranteed to never be spectacular, and it’s just hard to get excited about that, especially given his draft position and who we passed on to take him.
The other part about last night that bugs me is that thanks to the Lakers, we were basically forced to give up on a young center, who IMO, still had the potential to develop into a really good player. It’s just not the way I had hoped I would feel the day after the draft, but then again, I’m not sure why I expected to feel any different.
I’m hanging on to the hope that with all these picks we’re acquiring, one day my phone is going to start blowing up with alerts that we’ve just traded 10 1sts to the Bucks for Giannis.
Miles would be perfect for them. They owe the hornets anyway
Rui, knecht, Lakers 2030 or 31 for miles and 34
Be still my beating heart.
If the hornets could do that lakers trade and also add Fleming to fill in for the departure of Bridges…man. I’d give this draft an A
I assume from the language here that we are in on him, but we’re not looking to overpay and if he’s not a Hornet long term, that’s on him/his representation wanting more than we are willing to give up based on health and lack of any long-term evaluation.
I wonder if Minnesota has an appetite to shake some things up minorly.
Out: gobert + 4m in filler
In: miles and nurk and a first and a couple 2nds
Hornets get a center and someone who plays regularly
Wolves can then try to package randall, connelly or mcd with some draft stock and find a difference maker
I’d talk to Cleveland to see if they want Nurk for Allen. They need a little nasty on that team and he digs for that bill.
Allen would cost a whole lot more draft capital, no?
Also, the east is wide open for Cleveland. I could see them adding not a salary cap/hold serve move
If I were Cleveland I would go all in
Out: garland and Allen, 30+32 1sts unprotected, 31 swap
In: melo and nurkic, 2 2nds
We just made two moves to make a strong commitment to LaMelo (and Miller), I don’t think we will be listening to offers for LaMelo in the next year or two.
Not necessarily for Nurk in/Allen out. CLE had one big problem in the playoffs narratively - they had too much nice and not enough mean. Nurk really does fit that mold and Allen is the one piece they can part with by several accounts. Garland and Allen are in that “can live without” so I agree on the “Out” you propose, just not with the “In” with us as recipients.
Note that CLE are tax payers and above the second apron. Per Keith Smith
Cleveland will join this group by virtue of acquiring De’Andre Hunter at the trade deadline, along with extensions kicking in for Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, with a bump up to the 30% max salary for the latter. The Cavs have never shied away from paying for a contender, so they’ll likely end up even deeper into the tax after re-signing a couple of key free agents too.
So I could see them wanting to shave any amount of tax if it’s not directly leading them to the ECF. Note, they are projected today to be 30m above the tax but with a 98m tax bill. I don’t think Nurk’s $600k savings would do much, but if we gave them Nurk + Okogie for Allen + Okoro (as two separate transactions), that’s $4m is salary and likely $12m in tax savings (Edit: correction, just reading that their tax bill is a 6-fold hit - so $4m is more like a real value of $28m).
Having wasted all those words, I would not want us to do that as I don’t know it pays off for us that well.
While I do think we’re committed to Melo and Miller for this year and the draft stated that, I do think that the message from the presser yesterday was clearly a needed change to culture and approach to winning. That’s not to say it directly questions Melo or MIller, but I do think that after this year if things are not working, Melo gets traded.
Melo is obviously an amazing basketball player, but, outside of health, what’s the next step for him to play winning basketball at a consistently high level? That’s as much about making your team better as it is being individually effective. Obviously, the guy can make plays and is special in finding players open. But he needs to play basketball that is effective for the whole team and doesn’t require magic tricks to get the job done. We need to play a style of basketball that allows for easy plays and building rhythm and momentum. Otherwise, we’re going to keep rotating guys in and out that never really develop because the offense doesn’t lend itself way to building confidence in knowing your spots and the plays.
So, it would not surprise me if the FO looks at this year as the make or break year for Melo, and, assuming he’s healthy, try to trade him for a piece that is more reliable, for lack of a better word, to build an offense around.
I agree with all of this. It just makes the timeline of a trade including him this off-season to CLE very unlikely. And for me, Garland is not worth the (more than Melo) money.
This. 
this. I think LaMelo, Miles too, has until the All Star break.
Yeah I could see that. Because all the guys we drafted could fit onto any roster. I’d love to see miles gone at the minimum, but his 25m salary is going to be a big problem. And Melo can’t stay healthy long enough to get the return we need. Which is a bummer and feels like a lose-lose.
Welp Cleveland wanted a ball just not ours
But the point above held, they wanted to unload Okoro. Now let’s see if Allen is next on deck to either bring in more aggressive big or just cut tax bills.
It’s such a catch 22 for them. The east is literally sitting there for the taking.
Do we ever get this kind of love? It is the doof KOC but still
