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No, he won’t be Giannis, but he could well be a baggage free version of Harden.
You can almost always count on Legacy draftees hitting a higher outcome than draftees without a father who played in the league.
Giannis is a great player, but the last several all-in buys that I can remember have not worked out well. The Suns all-in was a catastrophic failure and the Nets all-in wasn't far behind. Same could be said of Clippers trade considering they single-handed gave the Thunder and incredible future and the George trade never got them past the second round and the Thunder are primed to win the le if they win one more game against the Nuggets. , the Bucks went all-in on Lillard and see what happened. We'll see about the Timberwolves all-in moves.
If Giannis tears an achilles, the Spurs are screwed for years having given up all their assets and you know Wemby leaves after that. Even if Harper turns out to suck, the Spurs can still have other avenues to compete, but if they trade for Giannis and he gets injured, they are toast.
No, he won’t be Giannis, but he could well be a baggage free version of Harden.
You can almost always count on Legacy draftees hitting a higher outcome than draftees without a father who played in the league.
Actually, Drumpf did a number on ducks.
This is really simple, y'all. Just look at the roster construction of Denver and OKC. Which do you think is superior? I'm firmly aboard Team Harper.
Neither has 2 of the top 5 players in the nba on the same team…
Counterpoint: both play 3 guard lineups in the playoffs and OKC has 0 rotation players in 6'7-6'11 range. 8 guards and 2 bigs.
Also:
Hmmmmm….. Giannis wasn’t supposed to be giannis in nba evaluators minds! You can’t convince me on what he won’t be but you can make a case for who/what he currently is.
Damn I forgot about that lineup of ours! Good find….. history/information is a mf’er!!!! None of them were considered shooters either!Counterpoint: both play 3 guard lineups in the playoffs and OKC has 0 rotation players in 6'7-6'11 range. 8 guards and 2 bigs.
Also:
That is my concern that Giannis is due to for an ACL tear or Achilles tear due to his style of play and his age. If he was 27 instead of 30 going on to 31 I would do this trade in a heartbeat.
The problem is that this is not just Harper v. Giannis. This is Harper and all of our draft capital for the next five years v. Giannis. The Bucks want a king's ransom and will probably get it. If it was just a straight up No. 2 pick v. Giannis, the argument for Giannis would be much stronger. But trading for Giannis is a franchise bet that if the Spurs lose, they will also lose Wemby and will be back to a rebuild.
Cautionary Tales: Suns, Nets, Bucks (they are forced to trade Giannis b/c of Lillard injury).
Also, remember that Lakers got Luka on a discount. They don't have to pay him the supermax. The Spurs would be on the hook for the Giannis supermax if they trade for him. A supermaxed player over 30? Not too excited about that.
Worth noting the Spurs didn't exactly excel with that lineup. There is a reason we let Georgie go for the rights to Kawhi.
Harper, Castle, and Fox are not quite comparable to the three guard rotation on the Thunder since the Thunder have better shooters on that team. But those three are quite the playmakers and Fox is not a terrible shooter and if Harper and Castle can develop three point accuracy, then our three guard lineup would be better than OKC's. Also, we can get away with a 3 guard lineup because Castle and Harper are tall guards with length and strength. No question Castle can guard most 3s. And if Sochan ever develops a three, he can guard the best player on any team except the elite centers.
SGA: 24% 3PT in these playoffs, 37% regular season.
Williams: 26%, 36%.
Dort: 28%, 41%.
Caruso: 42%, 35%.
Chet: 35%, 38%.
Harteinstein: non-shooter.
Obviously they're shooting below their regular season level, but they're on the verge of WCF even with poor shooting.
Those are their 6 main players.
Wallace, Wiggins and Joe are shooting great, 7th-9th mpg.
Most players slowly improve 3 point percentages over 3-5 year stretch until in their prime around 24. Won’t be surprised to see Castle and Harper around 35-38 percentage or higher in 5 years. Fox hasn’t improved as much as he needed to still around 33-34. Difference is dude makes the clutch threes. Dude has to be 40 plus percentage in crunch time.
I mean I’m not too concerned with OKC tbh. Everyone is saying how great their roster is and it might be the best roster in the league but it isn’t some unbeatable roster. I think Boston would’ve beaten them with a healthy Tatum. I think if MPJ could just make literally any shot then Denver would’ve beaten beat them and it’s going to be interesting to see if they can beat Minn.Counterpoint: both play 3 guard lineups in the playoffs and OKC has 0 rotation players in 6'7-6'11 range. 8 guards and 2 bigs.
Also:
I’m not against a 3 guard line up, however finding a 3 guard line up that has won a championship is very hard to do. I can’t really think of a team that did so.
Boston runs a 3 guard roster; white, brown, Holliday
I’m not sure why I thought Al was their starter last year. I stand corrected. One team in NBA history
I've noticed a strong overlapping in the Venn Diagram of folks who want Yanni and those who think Sochan is a high end core piece.
I really like Giannis, one of my favorite non-Spurs, but I'll pass on the enormous price tag to acquire him.
TEAM HARPER
This! Let Houston sell their farm for the next three years. With Irving's age and AD's health Dallas is soon going to be Cooper Flagg and the scrubs, Houston will have mortgaged their future for a few years of Giannis (who will probably get injured), we know what a joke the Pelicans are, and the Grizzles are one more finger gun away from irrelevancy. If we play our cards right we can run our division for the next decade plus.
Totally different era tho
I've thought long and hard if I would trade for Giannis and I think I'd do it, if it doesn't cost us Castle. I recognize that Harper has the potential to surpass Stephon, maybe it's even (very) like he will, but in my mind a core of Wemby, Giannis, Fox, Castle could be enough to win a le relatively early in Wemby's career, which might be crucial in a later decision if or if not Vic will sign an extension with the Spurs. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but this is where I'm at.
I'm probably 75-25% in favor of picking and keeping Harper.
I'd like some of the Giannis fans to make an in-depth post about how would they build the roster around him and Wemby.
My best offer would be:
Castle or Harper, not both. Including both would be too crippling for our roster.
Devin
Keldon
Jeremy
'25 #14
'27 ATL
'29 SAS
And a bunch of SRPs because Bucks have just 2 between now and 2032.
Post-trade rotation:
Fox/?
Castle/?
Barnes/Champagnie
Giannis/?
Wemby/?
Around $8M cap space left and MLE available.
Wesley, Branham still on the roster, $9.6M combined.
Leftover FRPs:
'26 SAS/ATL
'28 SAS/BOS
'30 SAS/DAL/MIN
'31 SAS/SAC
With '31 being the only tradeable FRP outright since '25, '27, '29 would be gone.
With backup PG, backup C and one more 3-D perimeter player needed.
I sincerely hope that we do not mortgage our future picks and flexibility for the Greek Freak. Sure, he's a tremendous talent, etc.
There's no scenario that I can imagine that the Spurs want to hand the keys to someone other than Wemby. Giannis would make things awkward in that regard.
Also, that praying post-game crap drives me nuts. Giannis seems like a culture unto himself. Spurs have the most curated culture in the league. I just don't see it.
What about possibly trading Fox/Castle/Keldon (plus a couple picks, say 2025 #14 + SA28 w/BOS swap) to the Bucks for Giannis? Since the Bucks don't control their own draft picks for the next 7 years they wouldn't be interested in tearing everything down. This would allow the Spurs to field a Harper/Vassell/Barnes/Giannis/Wemby lineup, which should have sufficient shooting and allows Harper to play to his strengths.
I would be shocked if this actually happened because it would totally be against the Spurs MO, giving up on Fox and Castle so soon after acquiring them, but when a top 3 player becomes available strange things can happen. It's at least an interesting idea.
I know how we view Devin/Keldon here, but most of the league would look at that as a strong offer for Giannis. I also probably prefer to stand pat, but this trade puts us in champion competing mode next year.
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