If we re-sign Boogie and Rondo...

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Trading Boogie is a non-starter considering AD's relationship.

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It is not that Dell is willing to trade him.
It is more like when DMC will says that he wants out.

Somewhat related, but I hope frank Jackson is a lotto ticket. Like imagine this dude being 70% as productive as a lot of the rookies this year

I don't think it's black and white Trade Boogie = Good and Sign Boogie = Bad. I think the Pels can be successful going either direction as long as Cousins isn't a shell of himself, and I can even see the AD/DC path having a higher ceiling. How much would Otto Porter really have changed the Golden State series? Maybe you get to 7 games, but you still aren't beating them without some flukey luck. They have 2 MVP level players and 2 All Star level players. The only way to come close to matching that is AD/DC.

So after finally reading/listening to Dell's press conference, I was kind of curious about his response to the Boogie question:

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Last year with Jrue Holiday’s free agency, it was very clear that the team and organization wanted him back. Is that clear with DeMarcus’s free agency as well? Does his injury make you take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach?

"You know, in a perfect world we'd love to have him back. We want him back. Sometimes things happen that you can't control in free agency, In a perfect world, we’d like to have him and Rondo back. And then we also still want to add to our team. We feel like we want to build off of this season, but we want to grow. We don't want to look back, we want to keep going forward and the excitement around the city, the effort from the players and the coaches and everyone, and it just motivates you to say, ‘Hey, how high can we go?’ We’re going to maximize it. We're going to reach for it."

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Reading between the lines this is an interesting response. He avoids the "wait and see" question and does not comment on the risks with the injury at all while pivoting to a theme of regardless of Boogie we want to add to the team. He does not give any vote of confidence in Boogie's rehab either the way Gentry diplomatically says he has no doubt Boogie will be back to full health. The quote about we want to move forward, we don't want to look back is also really curious in response to the question.


I know he is in negotiation mode with free agency approaching, but he had effusive praise for Niko while providing a very guarded response about Boogie. I do not believe we are offering Boogie the full max.

Contrast his Boogie response with when he was asked about Jrue last year around the same time:

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“Jrue has been with us for four years, we love Jrue, we love his family. Obviously we’d like to have him back,” Demps said. "He’s got a tough decision to make. We’re going to let that process play out. He’s one of my favorite players. He’s a two-way player and a phenomenal person. We really enjoy having him here."

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Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I think that the FO is emboldened by the end of season success and is not planning to roll over in negotiations with Boogie.

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At one point he does say that even though there's a lot of uncertainty, he'd bet on DeMarcus.

Something else I took as strange from the presser were the comments on the tax. Basically if someone contention worthy were available they'd get that player and go into the tax. That says to me they don't consider the current roster (I assume including Cousins) contention worthy meaning they at least have something like a Niko/Moore/Solo dump planned to get under the tax if they can't add a Paul George

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Yeah, I read that later, but even in his response he just gives Boogie credit for competitive spirit and says he is going to beat this, that he is bettig on Boogie, but he does acklnowledge that "the uncertainty is the elephant in the room." It just seemed like a much weaker response than I expected and one which had to be coaxed out of him with follow-up questions since he avoided the first opportunity to address it. It was not a response that signaled we are willing to bring Boogie back at all costs (long term max).

I was going to bring up the point about the luxury tax too, but did not want my post to be too long.

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if there's a situation that puts us in a position to compete for championships, we're going to go for it. That’s been the mindset. We're not going to just spend foolishly either, you know, we're going to try to be efficient and we're going to try to maximize our financial situation. But if the situation presents itself, we want to go for it."

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I agree that it seems like he is saying that they would go into the tax if there is an opportunity to add an allstar wing type of player (PG) that allows them to compete, but that re-signing Boogie is not that situation so they are going to try to be efficient in Boogie negotiations and dumping salary.

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Signing Demarcus would be unsuccessful, imo. I love Boogie, but he's not what the team needs. We need to use our money on an athletic forward who can score and play defense.

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I'm the opposite. Boogie allows AD to not have to sit under the basket as our only serious post presence.

In the last GS series, Boogie could have handled Green, AD could have been on KD, Jrue/Rondo can handle Thompson/Curry. Not saying we win the series but we probably at least get 2.

Jrue did a damn fine job on KD but when you give up 7 inches he can pull up and shoot over you whenever he wants.

The Pels were completely ignoring Green on the perimeter. I think adding Boogie to the mix lets you put him on Green and put AD on Iggy. Boogie would ignore Green and be playing Free Safety in the paint like AD was and AD can cover enough ground to challenge Iggy's 3 while sagging off him and providing another help defender in the paint. Curry/Klay/KD get single coverage at the 3 point line but will see a double and maybe triple if they get closer than the foul line.

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Boogie would ignore Green and be playing Free Safety in the paint like AD was

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That won't work.

Davis playing free safety does work because he can stop players attacking the rim. Multiple times, he stopped 2 on 1s by himself in the half court. Cousins won't have the ability to do so.

Plus, the Warriors figured out how to beat the Pels defense that was sagging off of Green and get open looks for their best players

LINK


On top of that, I have a hard time finding a way that bringing Cousins back makes the defense better, especially v GS, during games in April/May.

You bring him back because Davis says he wants him and you're prepared to maximize him on offense and, in particular, on the offensive glass. But, chances are, he is played off the court in the spring like other less defensively flexible bigs

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They were at least doubling AD every possession. Cousins would make them pay for playing bs defense like that.

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lol. you mean the same "BS" defense the Pels were playing against the Warriors and that ATL was talking about in his post? until Davis and the rest of the Pels prove they can punish teams for sagging/doubling, teams will continue to use those tactics

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Mirotic had some off nights in the serie

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Mirotic was what he is, which is a good, not great player whose best attributes aren't going to be FG% or PPG. adding Cousins doesnt change the fact that he isn't an impact player at this level. he'll still guard and be guarded by the same guys and still be, largely, erased from the series.




now let's give your premise a little more nuance and thought. Cousins helps the offense. yes. the Warriors have some difficult choices. they certainly play their bigs more. Draymond is on AD and not able to cause havoc everywhere. that bends their defense. does it bend it enough? the Pels had what would have been the worst offense in the league over the last 2 entire seasons in this series.

Cousins helps, but the question also becomes how they use him. i am quite skeptical of this idea that both Cousins and the Pels will change their identities and just have him sit on the block- i think that would make it easier for the Warriors. or that the Pels will start crashing the offensive glass (though they should do this more even if Cousins isn't back)


and again, you simply ignore the Pels defense. even if the Pels score at a higher rate, how much are they giving up because Cousins cant defend in space?

and this, of course, is without any idea of how he looks coming off his injury. if he's much less mobile (likely), then the idea that Cousins is good enough on offense to offset his defense is much more questionable.