New City Champ

Agree, but to do that you've got to have a feel for the game. Some coaches, like some military commanders, have a set plan and can't improvise based on real-time conditions. With Borrego you see a guy reading the flow of the game, constantly assessing what's going on and how his team is responding. It's a big part of the value added by NBA coaches and something the Pels sorely lacked under Coach Green.

Pressure to win now for them is real.

They reportedly are very hot to land Herb or Trey.

If (big if) you accept the idea that a defensive stopper like Herb is more valuable to a contender than a rebuilder like the Pels, would you take something like:

Warriors: Herb Jones

Pels: Moses Moody, Brad Podziemski + 2026 1st?

People are way too in their feelings over this, on both sides. Some relevant variables to at least consider:

-If Queen returns to Maryland for his sophomore year and comes out in the 2026 draft, where would he have been taken?

-If the Pelicans projected that both their own and the Pacer's 2026 draft picks would be mid-first rounders, would that still have been an overpay to draft Queen?

-Reporting indicates the Hawks "couldn't believe" they were being offered an unprotected first round pick by Pels. It does not indicate if they would have accepted a protected first round pick to make the deal or what level of protection, if any, might have been acceptable to them. Unknown.

-If Queen turns out to be correct that he is going to be "better than all those guys" at the top of the 2026 draft, then why wasn't the move justified? It's a risk, but isn't it also a risk to pass on drafting him?

It almost seems like the old joke about the scientist who says "sure, it worked in the real world, but how does it work in theory?" It's a fetishizing of process over actual results. Sure, it could turn out to be the stupidest move ever. But you have no way of knowing that yet and it seems a bit silly to get worked up about it so far in advance.

Something like...

Bulls: Zion

Pels: Vucevic +Huerter + Blazer's 2026 first (protected 1-14)

Old school: Moses Malone/Wes Unseld--though a better passer.

New school: Jokic/Sengun/Sabonis--but he has to board a little better.

do any mfers ever miss in our gym? Dort is shooting 21% on the year. JFC...

It's just not accurate to say an in-season coaching change never turns things around. I can think of one glaring example off the top of my head. When Lawrence Frank replaced Byron Scott with the Nets the team immediately went on like a 12-game winning streak and made the playoffs. Other examples as well. Not sure what Grubb was thinking....

Were you giving BI 3-years/$120 million? (If he would have even taken that from the Pels. He was asking for $50 million+).

For sure a lot of the best players in the league were not taken at the top of the draft. You mention a few, but could add Booker, Mitchell, Sengun. Hell, even Steph was outside the top 5.

That said statistically you are going to do better drafting at the top and giving two potential lottery picks--which now look like high lottery picks--for one prospect is a "put it all on red" kind of move, a huge gamble. And Queen was probably my favorite player in the draft. I've been wishing for the Pels to get a Sabonis, Sengun, Jokic-type of center for years, a guy who could be a hub for the offense, pass, handle the ball, screen rebound. It's early days, but Queen looks exactly like that kind of big.

The basketball commentariat is full of smart guy, wanna be GMs who talk to analytics-obsessed front office juniors. To them Dumars is a dinosaur, an ancient meme on a desk phone, and Weaver is a dupe who overpays for players based on hunches and personal connections. They were laughing the minute those guys were hired and when they crossed the stat-geek orthodoxy about the holy valuation of future draft possibilities, their heads exploded.

The stat squeakers could be right in the end. Certainly the Pels valuation of those picks as a pair of mid-rounders already looks to be off, in part due to bad luck an in part to a failure in foresight. But the evaluations of Fears and Queen--both of whom easily could have been top-five picks in the '26 draft if they'd stayed in college--looks right. Do I wish Weaver had put some protections on that pick? I do. And he probably could have and still made the trade. But if Queen works out, if those picks shift down the board a bit, a lot of the geek squad is going to have to choke down some crow...

Dinwiddie could help in the short term, but it's always a trade off. Give Willie a vet and he's going to play him over the rookie + we've already got Murray coming back at some point. Not sure Spencer is worth it to the Pels. Club is working on two timelines, but I think you need to give priority to developing Fears.
As noted, what we really need is another big...

The root of this, of course, is the Clippers tying themselves in knots to accommodate Leonard, their "super star." I confess reading the passage below I started to wonder if the Pels made any similar contortions to try and appease Zion and his camp over the years:

"Robertson, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, wanted Leonard to be able to initially live in San Diego rather than in Los Angeles. (Leonard would commute via helicopter. He later moved to Los Angeles.) The Clippers agreed. He wanted Leonard to be able to skip some media obligations and team community events. The Clippers agreed. He wanted the team to promise to market Leonard individually. The Clippers agreed. He wanted Leonard to be able to bring some of his own people into the organization. The Clippers agreed. (A team source disputes the existence of some of these requests and the tone of some others.)

Perhaps most importantly, Robertson said there would need to be a strict protocol about how to talk about Leonard publicly -- and that was to say nothing unless absolutely necessary."