I've been saying this for awhile. Thibs mortaged their future for a playoff spot and no chance to win. They had tremendous upside and now it's gone.

Felicio contract isn't horrible, $8 million is cheap by today's standards and no he isn't a D leaguer. Was our best rebounder and great at boxing out, runs the floor well for his size and is a good finisher. Still young and can improve.

Butler ok off the ball, but his shooting is erratic. Also has a tendency to pout or get lost if he doesn't dominate the ball.

What upside did they have with Dunn, Rubio, lavine and their draft pick that they don't have now? They still have KAT and added an all NBA level player and an all star in Teague. They still have room to move. Their players need to start winning to gain experience and confidence especially in the playoffs. Your a bulls fan, you have proven through your posts you don't think much of butler and the team but you're clearly in a small minority.

Not real excited about the rubio/Teague thing as a wolves fan but I don't understand how you don't love the Butler move

It has nothing to do with Butler. He's a good player, but in that awkward spot of being top 15-20 with no chance to move any higher. Will get paid like a #1 guy and he's not.

Agree on Rubio, but to just assume Lavine, Dunn and Markkanen will all be terrible is lol.

If the Wolves actually had a shot to win then the Butler trade is great. Sadly they don't, so I'd rather have the lottery tickets to go along with a very young KAT and Wiggs.

Issue is if you have decent players the odds of you hitting the high lottery are very small and with Kat and cast they were shooting for the low playoffs or just out of the playoffs and in the lottery zone which is tough to be in. The play is either to be really good or really bad, they're still not really good but they could be close and to get really bad with Kat on the team is going to be difficult if he stays good.

Even if butler gets paid like a number one and is a number two guy I'm not sure it really matters. Kat and Wiggins if they keep them both will be on second contract max deals which are still very team favorable. Butler as a 15-20 guy and your second best player is a favorable situation especially when Kat has MVP/top 3 equity up the wazoo.

Do you expect the wolves to some how get pippen level player or something from the draft? I don't think the wolves have some history of great drafting, they have two good picks in KG and KAt and one was a shoe in for top pick.

Dunn was trash, maybe it was the system and his rookie year or maybe he just sucks. Will see soon. Lavine is decent but is a huge dog to be an all star. Can't help that a guy who is so reliant on his athleticism just blew up his knee. Lauri could be good but I think butler was worth the risk especially when you guys shipped the sixteenth pick back anyways.

lol @ responding to Floyd seriously.

Teague thing is fine. It's less than $20M for two years and then it's a player option for the third. Worst case he's on the team until his 31/32 season as the 4th best player on the team. Much better than signing Lowry to 5 years or whatever.

I don't get how a player like Patty Mills is worth half of Jrue? If you were to switch them, how many more wins per season do they lose?

They forgot to replace Ainge's Fisher-Price phone with a real phone before he made those calls. Danny just victim of circumstance and his staff not being able to replace his play phone before he phoned Indy.

I suspect Ainge offered every player on his team and 20 1st round picks over the next forty years.

The logic that NBA teams need to be tanking if they do not have an elite roster to try to win a championship with an elite roster might make sense from a game theory perspective but makes for a horrible league.

Also if your team is in the "good but not warriors-level great" category other quality players will be more likely to join up to form a superteam/contender

I'm not saying anyone is kicking the door down to play in Minnesota or Houston next season, but if they win a bunch of games and get knocked out in the WCF it's probably easier to get over the hump by convincing someone to hop on the bandwagon than binking on lottery picks 6 years in a row.

This is ****ing insane. Also, the score of the next ASG is going to be West 318, East minus-26.

Lol at Butler being a "top 15-20 guy".

I am drinking the Dipo koolaid as well and think he's the chalk "most improved player" bet.

Can you elaborate on Aaron Gordon, though? I'm finding it difficult looking for a team where you could slot him and see the potential/promise.

Galloway to piston for 3/21m. No options in deal all guaranteed

Weird part about it is a KCP max puts them over the apron so they can't match a max offer. Must have trade ready or know market isn't close to a max for KCP.

Bucks are like 600k into lux tax after Snell deal and without Sterling Brown.

Makes me think they also have a way to unload salary.

Everything Assani says makes sense but I can't get past the notion that Dipo is kind of a loser. 3rd team in 3 years has to indicate something.

Rubio would have been a perfect player in the 1990s. No shot, strong defender.

Saying PG's like Teague are a dime a dozen really underrates him and this Teague hate really has no basis in reality. Some of you seemingly just don't want players to ever dribble I guess.

He creates offense well for both himself and teammates and does it while keeping turnovers down and shooting efficiently. Also gets to line a lot while shooting like 85% from the line.

He's not a superstar. He's a league average starting PG who is gonna be the 4th or 5th best player on the team on a reasonable short term contract that captures the entire prime of his career.

Patty Mills is a better shooter and that's precisely it. Teague is better at literally everything else. I'm not sure why you all think it's such a crime that a PG "needs to have the ball in his hands"

Swap Teague with Mills and Minnesota still has a lot of trouble creating offense and are decently worse imo .

LBJ
KD
Curry
Kawai
Harden
CP3
AD
Giannis
Westbrook
Irving
Wall
Cousins
KAT
Jokic

You taking him over any of these 14?

Easily taking butler over Kyrie

Irving and Cousins for sure. Probably Wall. KAT and Jokic last year but those two will pass him eventually. Could be this year could be the year after.

"Worst case scenario 15"=/="15-20 guy"

The last 5 are all at least debatable

Kyrie is a top 5 asset tho

Twelve years lying dormant; Floyd has awoken.

Ainge top 5 GM