2024-25 NBA Season | Page 16 | Syracusefan.com

2024-25 NBA Season

Aside from his constant whining to the refs, Luka is generally one of my favorite players to watch in the league. And he's obviously had a lot of huge playoff performances. Having said that, I have often thought to myself, "can you really win a title playing this way?" He's better than Harden, but he does tend to play a very similar style of basketball where every possession is either him standing still not being a factor whatsoever, or it's him with the ball and 4 guys standing around waiting for him to do something. I am generally pretty skeptical that you can actually win a title doing that.

Maybe that's just how Dallas chose to build around him, similar to how Houston chose to build around Harden. But idk, I do kinda think as magical a player he is, I'd tend to bet he never wins a title. In some ways, I do think a Kyrie/Davis pairing offers more avenues to build a contender.

Entirely possible I'm way off the reservation though and I think Dallas fans are absolutely in their right to be freaking out right now. The fact that they couldn't get more picks, Knecht, etc. from the Lakers remains incredibly shocking.
See your point but I would be willing to bet that Luka gets a couple titles. The Mavs defense was 3rd in the league after the trade deadline last year, they had built a pretty solid team around Luka and I would think the Lakers will do the same moving forward. The biggest difference between Luka and Harden and there are quite a few, has to be that Luka has had so many huge moments in the playoffs where he steps up in big moments where Harden not so much and that is being nice. Harden seems to be more durable but Luka did play 100 games last year.

The Mavs had a great run last year but the Celtics were simply a better team at the end of the day
 
Is he really that much more heliocentric than Lebron was? Or Jordan?

Kyrie and Ant have both only won titles as the sidekick, not sure you can get there with the two of them trying to lead.
2 years ago Kyrie was a pariah in the league - now the Mavs are going all in with him as their leader.
 
I would say unequivocally yes. His usage rate in the playoffs has eclipsed 40% in two of his four playoff runs. Jordan's title runs he was at 35%. Lebron's has hovered around 32-33% in the playoffs since he began winning titles and has generally been around 30% when he has actually won the title.

More importantly though, it's also just the way that he's used compared to those guys. They were both used in a lot of different ways to create offense; posting up, pick and roll, off-ball screens, off-ball cuts, etc. Dallas essentially just had Luka stand off to the side completely disengaged in the offense or gave him the ball at the top of the 3 point line and asked him to go create something. Similar in a lot of ways to Giannis' initial struggles getting Milwaukee over the hump where the offense generally just resulted in him having the ball at the top of the 3 point line and running downhill against a set defense.

Again, I don't feel super strongly that I'm correct on this; more just a thought that I've had sometimes as I watch him. And again, just because that's how he's played in the past doesn't necessarily mean it's how he wants to play moving forwards.

You’re probably right; though Jordan was pushing close to 40% in a few of the playoff runs but he never got to the heights Luka did a few years ago.

But last year Luka was down to 33.4 usage in the playoffs because he had Kyrie around. If he’s gonna win a title he will need another guy around to carry some of the load.

I do hear you on how Luka was used, with both him and harden it was almost like when they weren’t in the play they were just totally out of the play to rest up. I feel like that went down a little last year with Kyrie but maybe I’m off.

So it’s probably hard for any team to win if the team is constructed in a way where one guy has to run close to a 40% usage. It’s just an indication the rest of the team is probably too limited. But I would point to the playoff run last year
 
See your point but I would be willing to bet that Luka gets a couple titles. The Mavs defense was 3rd in the league after the trade deadline last year, they had built a pretty solid team around Luka and I would think the Lakers will do the same moving forward. The biggest difference between Luka and Harden and there are quite a few, has to be that Luka has had so many huge moments in the playoffs where he steps up in big moments where Harden not so much and that is being nice. Harden seems to be more durable but Luka did play 100 games last year.

The Mavs had a great run last year but the Celtics were simply a better team at the end of the day
Very fair point.
 
This is a just demeanor ? Dude flees the cops after being pulled over ..gets his car stuck on train tracks (not a great advertisement for the 350k lambo “SUV”) .. found to possess cocaine. Intoxicated .

“Marcus Jordan was charged with possession of cocaine, a second-degree misdemeanor, and resisting an officer without violence, also a misdemeanor, according to online court records. He was arrested at 1:14 a.m. ET, booked at 6:03 a.m. and released at 11:38 a.m. on $4,000 bond.

Officers with the Maitland Police Department found Jordan's Lamborghini sport utility vehicle immobile on railroad tracks in the Orlando suburb -- with a commuter train just 10 minutes away -- because the vehicle's tires were buried in dirt and rock from being spun repeatedly, according to an arrest report.

Officers learned that Jordan had just fled from a traffic stop in a neighboring county. They asked him to get out of the vehicle after smelling alcohol and noticing his slurred speech and confusion. They found a bag in his pants of what tested positive for cocaine, the arrest report said.”
 
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Was thinking about this. If Dallas played the season out and then approached the draft lottery winner with a trade of Luka for Flagg. Does the team holding the Flagg card take it?
 
Was thinking about this. If Dallas played the season out and then approached the draft lottery winner with a trade of Luka for Flagg. Does the team holding the Flagg card take it?
I would think Luka is worth a lot more than the #1 overall pick. Issue is what team could win the #1 overall pick that Luka would definitely sign a non-super max contract with?
 
Middleton for Kuzma. Feels like a lose lose.
Bucks fans are understandably losing their minds right now given how bad Kuzma has been this season and the fact that we included the one kind of exciting young guy we have.

I'm more open to it personally. It's a massive leap of faith, but I can at least see the vision of trying to get Kuzma to buy into being more of a role player like he was early on for the Lakers. He was a promising young player at the time but has obviously gone off the rails the last couple years as Washington turned into Basketball Hell.

It also does open up cap flexibility for the Bucks to potentially make other moves, but we'll see about that.
 
I would think Luka is worth a lot more than the #1 overall pick. Issue is what team could win the #1 overall pick that Luka would definitely sign a non-super max contract with?
He’s not worth more than THIS number one pick. You’re getting a white American potential superstar as the face of your franchise on a rookie deal. That has a ton of value going in.
 
He’s not worth more than THIS number one pick. You’re getting a white American potential superstar as the face of your franchise on a rookie deal. That has a ton of value going in.
I think if you were certain Luka would sign long-term, trading Flagg for him is a very easy decision. The likelihood of Flagg being anywhere near Luka as an NBA player is slim. Not even trying to disparage Flagg but even the best NBA prospects are unlikely to turn into a top 2 or 3 NBA player.

But again, issue is if you're say the Wizards, Luka almost certainly isn't signing long-term, so you'd rather have the certainty of a locked in Flagg.
 
Why do people like Kuzma. ?
I think nearly nobody likes this trade for Milwaukee, but I was able to find one person that at least kinda does. From Zach Harper of The Athletic:

I’ve often been on the side of “Kuzma is underrated.” While he’s been a fun punchline on the internet for his fashion and self-confidence, Kuzma became a really good role player, very quickly for the Los Angeles Lakers, who he helped toward a title in 2020. Then, he got moved to the Wizards in the Russell Westbrook trade, and he just kind of toiled there while still playing mostly good basketball on a horrendous team. I’ve been banging the drum of “Kuzma could really help a contender” for a couple years now. And then, the 2024-25 season happened.

This season, Kuzma has not been the guy many of us have been defending. He has shot horribly, right down to being a 60 percent free-throw shooter out of nowhere. His production is down across the board, but more importantly, he’s seemed to stop paying attention on defense. He was never good enough to fix a bad defense, but he would at least get his portion of the job done. He’s seemed largely disinterested in really doing most things he’s supposed to as the 8-41 Wizards have greatly improved their youth movement by tanking and developing the young players on the roster.

Even recently, Kuzma had enough and said he was done trying to fit in. He was going to demand the ball more and not do what the team was trying to do. Maybe that was a ploy to get traded. If so, it worked. Congratulations! If not, he probably figured it was time to worry about his own numbers if he was going to be on the worst team in the league. What Kuzma can potentially bring to the Bucks is what they’ve been missing without a consistent third option on the floor, and his impact could even go beyond just scoring.

Kuzma won’t replace the playmaking Middleton provided when the latter was healthy, but Kuzma can really score. He can get out in transition, he’s a great option cutting toward the basket, he’s tall and athletic for the three and he can knock down a jumper. You almost have to throw out his numbers from the past couple seasons and give him a clean slate to see if a real basketball environment will give his production a massive boost — or at least boost his efficiency.

There have been a couple seasons of Kuzma hitting 36 percent from 3-point range, which is about league average. The rest of the time, he’s been in the 33-34 percent range. I’d throw out the 28 percent he’s shooting this season. If Kuzma can stretch the floor at a league-average clip and be a threat when attacking the basket, he’s a great complement to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

The key for Kuzma will come from the defensive end of the floor. We have seen him be a very good defender in the past. We have also seen him abandon that end of the floor recently. Kuzma has to dedicate himself to defense to make his impact felt and to gain the trust of Antetokounmpo and company. If he plays the way he did for the Lakers, this is a brilliant pickup. If he’s been stuck in the malaise too long, it’s going to be a rough gamble for Milwaukee.

Kuzma is signed through the 2026-27 season at a declining annual salary, so, financially, this is a very good pickup for the Bucks — as long as Kuzma ups his game.
 
I think if you were certain Luka would sign long-term, trading Flagg for him is a very easy decision. The likelihood of Flagg being anywhere near Luka as an NBA player is slim. Not even trying to disparage Flagg but even the best NBA prospects are unlikely to turn into a top 2 or 3 NBA player.

But again, issue is if you're say the Wizards, Luka almost certainly isn't signing long-term, so you'd rather have the certainty of a locked in Flagg.
Odds aren’t great he’s Luka but odds are 100% the marketing potential of Flagg is huge and he’s much cheaper
 
This is a just demeanor ? Dude flees the cops after being pulled over ..gets his car stuck on train tracks (not a great advertisement for the 350k lambo “SUV”) .. found to possess cocaine. Intoxicated .

“Marcus Jordan was charged with possession of cocaine, a second-degree misdemeanor, and resisting an officer without violence, also a misdemeanor, according to online court records. He was arrested at 1:14 a.m. ET, booked at 6:03 a.m. and released at 11:38 a.m. on $4,000 bond.

Officers with the Maitland Police Department found Jordan's Lamborghini sport utility vehicle immobile on railroad tracks in the Orlando suburb -- with a commuter train just 10 minutes away -- because the vehicle's tires were buried in dirt and rock from being spun repeatedly, according to an arrest report.

Officers learned that Jordan had just fled from a traffic stop in a neighboring county. They asked him to get out of the vehicle after smelling alcohol and noticing his slurred speech and confusion. They found a bag in his pants of what tested positive for cocaine, the arrest report said.”
 
Was thinking about this. If Dallas played the season out and then approached the draft lottery winner with a trade of Luka for Flagg. Does the team holding the Flagg card take it?

Most likely that team does take it, assuming they have the appropriate cap fillers that don't have much value.

The Mavs could have got a lot, a whole lot, if they had just done a futures trade instead of a re-tool trade. I disagree with but can partially rationalize the decision to deal Luka because of risks. The return however is unfathomable -- it was an express ticket to a rebuild.

I guess they will be able to get a fair bit of futures if they do decide to trade AD at the end of this year if it doesn't work out, but it will still be far less than they could have got if they did this with Luka now.
 
Why do people like Kuzma. ?

I don't like Kuzma (think him and Poole are grade A morons together), but Middleton appears to be not too far from washed and an injury risk Perhaps Kuzma in a lesser role in a better environment, could be a bit better. Kuzma is a little cheaper ($12M) I think, so could open up some other bench filling moves.

As for Washington I like the move for two reasons.
1) Kuzma is a moron, and I don't think having Kuzma and Poole as your 2 "usage" vets is very good for a rebuilding team.
2) They get an extra $20M of cap space in 2027... and that's probably more valuable to them then saving $13M in 2026.
 
Moves keep coming:

Butler to GSW
Ingram to Raptors (???)
Mark Williams to Lakers
Williams when he plays is a factor. IF they are all healthy at the right time and have had a chance to play together.....

LBJ as a much better version of the Draymond role could be interesting if he embraces it.
 
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Moves keep coming:

Butler to GSW
Ingram to Raptors (???)
Mark Williams to Lakers
The Williams/Knecht trade is maybe the most interesting trade of the deadline so far. So easy to see a world where it looks like an absolute heist for either side. Williams is a productive guy and is obviously very young and has a ton of tools to work with, but he can also be a bit of a mess sometimes. The instincts aren't really where you generally would want them to be as the lynchpin of a defense that's trying to win a title but when it looks right, he looks like a star in the making.
 
The Williams/Knecht trade is maybe the most interesting trade of the deadline so far. So easy to see a world where it looks like an absolute heist for either side. Williams is a productive guy and is obviously very young and has a ton of tools to work with, but he can also be a bit of a mess sometimes. The instincts aren't really where you generally would want them to be as the lynchpin of a defense that's trying to win a title but when it looks right, he looks like a star in the making.
Or he's another timelord because he cant stay on the floor. Huge risk reward for the Lakers but they needed a big for sure. I kind of got the feeling JJ may have not been in love with Knecht either from watching them a few times. JJ berated him the other night on timeout which could be nothing but maybe it isn't.
 

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