re: NBA Offseason officially kicks off, Ingram’s days in NOLA coming to an end per Stein

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This shite is embarrassing for both of you.

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This.

So regarding Kessler, passive fans are only going to see the Edey highlights. Kessler did a lot of good things. 5 blocks in the game, including on Edey just before Edey recovered and dunking. Edey scored 14 points but on 12 shots. Half his points at least were not on Kessler. And if I really wanted to make excuses for him, it sure would have been nice if Flipowski helped box out on the missed free throw like he’s supposed to. Edey’s flat out bigger than him(and everyone) but Kessler banged with him and protected the rim well.

He’s getting paid $3 million this year. We could trade for Kessler and have three centers for less than $10 million total. If it’s truly anything close to one first as a cost, I just don’t see why you don’t do it.

I think anyone holding out hope for Allen is going to be disappointed. Mitchell just got a max extension, to go with Garland, and Mobley will have max extension announced any day now. There is no way they are adding BI and his extension on top of that.

I think there are 2 things at play. With Kessler, Ainge wants “at least” a 1st and the market says just a 1st. Griff may well have put in an offer of a 1st and Ainge is holding out for better and will eventually cave.

I also believe Griff is waiting for the BI trade to advance to its next step after BI and his agent try to find a trade to a place that will pay him what he thinks he’s worth. When he and his agent find out that place doesn’t exist, do they lower their demands? Someone pointed out earlier that Ingram is playing with fire if he doesn’t compromise and they are right. With the current roster it’s conceivable that Ingram doesn’t close games regularly, which would really hurt his value and make Griff’s current extension offer seem generous.

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With the current roster it’s conceivable that Ingram doesn’t close games regularly

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You're smarter than this.

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That’s not a knock on BI

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Yes it is. Stop listening to the emotional babies on this board. You think Ingram suddenly just went from clearly 1B to out of of the closing lineup because we signed a guy who plays a different position?

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That’s not a knock on BI, it says it’s a very talented roster with Murray and Zion the only 2 of the top 6 that I would say are guaranteed a spot in the finishing 5

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C’mon ATL

There’s 3 guys on this team right now you know are starting and finishing. Zion, BI and Murray.
What they decide to do with CJ/Herb/Trey is the big question. Only 1 can start and it should be Herb. And Trey should be a closer every night.

I’d prefer we go the route of small ball to close games.

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we signed a guy who plays a different position?

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Different “position”, similar role, better fit. Trey and Herb should almost certainly be in our closing lineup to stretch the floor and have length on defense. Zion is going to be in the closing lineup. Center is going to be dependent on matchup. So it could potentially be a choice between BI and CJ.

I don’t want to trade BI anymore.
I don’t care if he doesn’t sign an extension.

I want to see what a lineup of Murray/Herb/BI/Trey/Zion can do. I think it has championship potential. If Zion can simply play some Draymond tough defense against bigger guys(no not Draymond D completely, just using his strength/weight to keep big guys out the paint and block out), I think we can really make it difficult for teams to match up against us.

Teams have to have a big in the game to challenge Zion at the rim. When there isn’t one out there no one can stop him. And if the big has to guard Zion, then he isn’t at the rim to protect it when Zion blows by him. And if the other 4 guys are going to hit 3s at 40% then he has to pick his poison when Zion drives on if he wants to help protect the rim or stop the kick out for 3.

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BI has less gravity and it also gets weaker the further out on the court he is

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BI was the focus of defense. The game plan of every defense was to build a wall against Zion, and stay in BIs face and be aggressive with him.
Despite not shooting more threes, the defense always knew where BI was.
Much like Zion, once BI gets a head of steam towards the rim he’s finishing at an elite level, so the goal is to not let him get that head of steam.

No BI doesn’t have Trey or CJs gravity. But he still has more than your thinking.


And I do think we see him shoot 5-6 threes a game this year, especially if he doesn’t sign an extension. A BI that goes back to shoot 6 3s a game near 40% and attempting 25% of his shots at the rim would be able to sign a max contract next offseason.
Maybe this offseason of not getting a max extension from anyone is what he needed to make him change his shot selection and be a better player.

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This still only works if BI shoots 3s and Herb can continue to knock down a high rate of them.

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100% agree


and i've mentioned it before several times about BI and the 3. BI isn't a quick shooter at all, so even if he hits them at 40%, he has about the same gravity as Herb out there. CJ and Trey and Hawkins have quick releases, and if you want to stop them from shooting you've got to be near them when they catch it.
BI has to step into the shot for some reason, so he catches it 2' behind the 3 point line to shoot from the line.

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I think the biggest issue will be rebounding. We will give up a ton of offensive boards.

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we would if they keep their big out there. Zion is capable of blocking out anyone in the league. It's literally an effort thing.
I think the other 4 guys have long arms and can challenge rebounds from behind, something Trey and BI did a good bit this past year that was very helpful. I think if the 4 long guys make a point to team rebound and Zion blocks out, then they'll be just fine.

and the best way to get guys to stop trying to offensive rebound is to grab the board and get up the court quickly and score. I think the slowness of BI and Zion bringing the ball up is a bigger hinderance to the offensive rebounding than their size. If we aren't going to fast break then it give the offense no reason to not go try and get offensive rebounds.

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Not to mention that Zion will have to be in 100 percent peak shape to play the kind of D required.

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well, that's expected from a guy of his talent and contract.




and like i said before, i'm not asking to run this lineup for 20 minutes a game. 8-10 minutes is enough most nights, more if we are forcing the other team to match us going small ball.