I'm not 100% sure we have seen this kind of movement in one six hour time frame before but man where there ever a lot of trades. Some teams got a whole lot better some didn't improve much if at all and a couple probably took some backward steps and then there are the Knicks. God would I love to get some kind of post from Rimfire after all of these years.
Anyway there is just so much going on around the league that its hard to pick winners and losers yet. Believe it or not I am not saying the Brooklyn was a winner. I really truly liked the team they had last year and they needed to make some additions but I think adding both KD who won't play this year and Irving who I think is overrated (except obviously when we play him). If they could have just added KD then next year they might be great but this is going to change their dynamics and adding DeAndre Jordan is going to take Jarrett Allen off of the floor a lot unless they play him at the four. I mean I could be totally wrong here but I'm curious what happens this season with the team out there.
Utah had an impressive day. For a small market they were very active and probably made their franchise significantly better. I'm curious as to why Portland didn't try and go after Bojan.
The Wizards have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they do not know what they are doing. They have traded away Oto Porter Jr., Kelly Oubrie and Austin Rivers and all they have to show for it is a top 36 protected second round pick.
Now let's talk about the Pacers.
So far out goes Bogdanovic, Collison, Young and I'm almost 100% certain Joseph
In comes Warren, Brogdon, Lamb and Bitadze (so far) plus we are working on an extension for Sumners.
What started out as a great fear of bringing in Rubio (not that I hate Rubio but he is another older pg who would have just been a place holder) has turned into the shocking and I do mean shocking signing of restricted free agent Malcolm Brogdon. Do we know when that first round pick we traded for him is and are there any protections on it? We then picked up Lamb who while maybe not the star we all wanted he might be a good reserve wing who we need.
So let me just get this out of the way right up front.
I was wrong. I was dead wrong about how I thought this off season would go and I have never been more happy to be wrong in my life.
I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were going to pull the "if only vic were healthy we were a top three seed" and come back with both everybody other than maybe CoJo or DC and then bring in another bum on 2 year deal.
Fortunately KP and company played me and I fell hook line and sinker for it. His draft day statements about building through hitting a home run in the draft and then all of the lowered expectation talks on both the star and local radio had me convinced that what I thought I knew I knew. I didn't know.
Now look before you all go patting yourselves on the back there are a couple of things to say here. One last summer was still a **** sandwhich but ultimately it didn't hurt this summer as much as I thought it might. Two while I like Brogdon a lot and Warren & Lamb for that matter, it still is not the killer signing that we could have made with all of this money or big time trade. But don't get me wrong it still good and I'm not complaining, far from it, in fact I'm pretty much thrilled considering where my expectations were.
But and here is the rub for some of you, what we are going to be doing is taking a step back a little and we all need to just embrace it and learn to go with it. That's right I'm saying I don't think we will have the record next season we have had the two previous seasons but in the long term we will be better because of it. You won a lot of games over the past two seasons because DC, CoJo, Thad & Bogey were all veteran players who played with grit and veteran savvy. That will not be here with this group. Thad really was one of the better defenders at his position in the NBA and could guard LeBron & Giannis as well as anyone, so that is going to be missed.
However what that group did was max itself out and honestly when real teams kicked it up a notch they could not run with them. This team will not have the savvy or the defense or the intangibles that the previous team had. But what it will have is youth, athleticism, shooting and growth potential.
In fact I actually wrote about this very thing right after the season and to say that I am stunned the Pacers went this route would be an understatement.
https://www.pacersdigest.com/forum/t...e-go-from-here
But I don't want it to be said that I am shifting things, I am freely admitting that I was wrong about this off season and my thoughts on the team have done a 180 in less than the first four hours of the free agent period.
I truly feel we are now actually building towards something instead of being maxed out and just doing the same old same old.
Here is the odd thing for me. If we do this right and I'm still very hesitant about this but I feel better now than I did earlier today, there is a possibility that Domas & Myles might work together vs certain teams. There are some teams it just won't work but there are some it will. We now have enough shooters once Vic is back that the floor spacing might actually work. Defense will still be something to watch but hey if we can outscore them every game that is more important in todays NBA.
Unless we make another move it looks like Leaf or Johnson will get quality minutes at the backup 4 spot. Secretly I want it to be Alize but T.J. needs to sink or swim this year. I know it was just one game but damn did he look great in that Atlanta game. Yes I know it was a blowoff game for us but they were trying to win and he was going vs their starting unit and he was tearing them up.
Aaron Holdiay, love ya buddy but you are now the third guard. Not a bad position to be in but I have a feeling he is going to want more so this might be a season where he is shopped around and if that is the case I am okay with it. Brogdon has the height and had the experience to make that starting job his. On the other hand if we can convince Aaron to embrace that role he could really be a Vinnie Johnson for us.
At first I thought that they said we got Jeremy Linn and I nearly died, I was getting ready to text vnzla a photo of homer simpsons butt. But then I realized it was Lamb and got a lot happier. He' not a sexy signing per se but he will be effective. He would have been the best backup wing player we had last year and I suspect he will still hold that role this year. He's still youngish and I don't think he will grow or go down right away. So if he can give us double digits off of the bench then we should be good with it.
Overall today was a good day. We didn't get any Jimmy Butlers or Kevin Durrants but we took a step in the direction of actually setting up to be better when Victor returns. Sadly he will return just before Durrant returns but we will jump off that bridge when we get to it.
Last season's off season was an F, I'm sorry but it was.
This season's off season so far is a Solid B+, only losing a future # 1 pick keeps me from calling it an A.
But hey the off season is just beginning so let's see what else happens.
So with all of that in mind
P.S. Oh I forgot to say one of the great things about getting Brogdon is that I believe this hurts Milwaukee this season. So getting him is great, hurting a division rival and best team in league (by record) is even better.
Anyway there is just so much going on around the league that its hard to pick winners and losers yet. Believe it or not I am not saying the Brooklyn was a winner. I really truly liked the team they had last year and they needed to make some additions but I think adding both KD who won't play this year and Irving who I think is overrated (except obviously when we play him). If they could have just added KD then next year they might be great but this is going to change their dynamics and adding DeAndre Jordan is going to take Jarrett Allen off of the floor a lot unless they play him at the four. I mean I could be totally wrong here but I'm curious what happens this season with the team out there.
Utah had an impressive day. For a small market they were very active and probably made their franchise significantly better. I'm curious as to why Portland didn't try and go after Bojan.
The Wizards have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they do not know what they are doing. They have traded away Oto Porter Jr., Kelly Oubrie and Austin Rivers and all they have to show for it is a top 36 protected second round pick.
Now let's talk about the Pacers.
So far out goes Bogdanovic, Collison, Young and I'm almost 100% certain Joseph
In comes Warren, Brogdon, Lamb and Bitadze (so far) plus we are working on an extension for Sumners.
What started out as a great fear of bringing in Rubio (not that I hate Rubio but he is another older pg who would have just been a place holder) has turned into the shocking and I do mean shocking signing of restricted free agent Malcolm Brogdon. Do we know when that first round pick we traded for him is and are there any protections on it? We then picked up Lamb who while maybe not the star we all wanted he might be a good reserve wing who we need.
So let me just get this out of the way right up front.
I was wrong. I was dead wrong about how I thought this off season would go and I have never been more happy to be wrong in my life.
I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were going to pull the "if only vic were healthy we were a top three seed" and come back with both everybody other than maybe CoJo or DC and then bring in another bum on 2 year deal.
Fortunately KP and company played me and I fell hook line and sinker for it. His draft day statements about building through hitting a home run in the draft and then all of the lowered expectation talks on both the star and local radio had me convinced that what I thought I knew I knew. I didn't know.
Now look before you all go patting yourselves on the back there are a couple of things to say here. One last summer was still a **** sandwhich but ultimately it didn't hurt this summer as much as I thought it might. Two while I like Brogdon a lot and Warren & Lamb for that matter, it still is not the killer signing that we could have made with all of this money or big time trade. But don't get me wrong it still good and I'm not complaining, far from it, in fact I'm pretty much thrilled considering where my expectations were.
But and here is the rub for some of you, what we are going to be doing is taking a step back a little and we all need to just embrace it and learn to go with it. That's right I'm saying I don't think we will have the record next season we have had the two previous seasons but in the long term we will be better because of it. You won a lot of games over the past two seasons because DC, CoJo, Thad & Bogey were all veteran players who played with grit and veteran savvy. That will not be here with this group. Thad really was one of the better defenders at his position in the NBA and could guard LeBron & Giannis as well as anyone, so that is going to be missed.
However what that group did was max itself out and honestly when real teams kicked it up a notch they could not run with them. This team will not have the savvy or the defense or the intangibles that the previous team had. But what it will have is youth, athleticism, shooting and growth potential.
In fact I actually wrote about this very thing right after the season and to say that I am stunned the Pacers went this route would be an understatement.
https://www.pacersdigest.com/forum/t...e-go-from-here
But I don't want it to be said that I am shifting things, I am freely admitting that I was wrong about this off season and my thoughts on the team have done a 180 in less than the first four hours of the free agent period.
I truly feel we are now actually building towards something instead of being maxed out and just doing the same old same old.
Here is the odd thing for me. If we do this right and I'm still very hesitant about this but I feel better now than I did earlier today, there is a possibility that Domas & Myles might work together vs certain teams. There are some teams it just won't work but there are some it will. We now have enough shooters once Vic is back that the floor spacing might actually work. Defense will still be something to watch but hey if we can outscore them every game that is more important in todays NBA.
Unless we make another move it looks like Leaf or Johnson will get quality minutes at the backup 4 spot. Secretly I want it to be Alize but T.J. needs to sink or swim this year. I know it was just one game but damn did he look great in that Atlanta game. Yes I know it was a blowoff game for us but they were trying to win and he was going vs their starting unit and he was tearing them up.
Aaron Holdiay, love ya buddy but you are now the third guard. Not a bad position to be in but I have a feeling he is going to want more so this might be a season where he is shopped around and if that is the case I am okay with it. Brogdon has the height and had the experience to make that starting job his. On the other hand if we can convince Aaron to embrace that role he could really be a Vinnie Johnson for us.
At first I thought that they said we got Jeremy Linn and I nearly died, I was getting ready to text vnzla a photo of homer simpsons butt. But then I realized it was Lamb and got a lot happier. He' not a sexy signing per se but he will be effective. He would have been the best backup wing player we had last year and I suspect he will still hold that role this year. He's still youngish and I don't think he will grow or go down right away. So if he can give us double digits off of the bench then we should be good with it.
Overall today was a good day. We didn't get any Jimmy Butlers or Kevin Durrants but we took a step in the direction of actually setting up to be better when Victor returns. Sadly he will return just before Durrant returns but we will jump off that bridge when we get to it.
Last season's off season was an F, I'm sorry but it was.
This season's off season so far is a Solid B+, only losing a future # 1 pick keeps me from calling it an A.
But hey the off season is just beginning so let's see what else happens.
So with all of that in mind
P.S. Oh I forgot to say one of the great things about getting Brogdon is that I believe this hurts Milwaukee this season. So getting him is great, hurting a division rival and best team in league (by record) is even better.
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