Westbrook is pretty damn near unstoppable, he only stops himself with his dumb decision making at times.. Gregg Popovich would clean up a lot of his game and hell, westbrook may turn into the best player in the league under him.. But i think westbrook either stays in oklahoma or goes east.. I think Westbrook likes Oklahoma, he sees the situation Liliard has in Portland with his own team, westbrook is the better player and probably can do the same thing as Liliard.
Apparently the Thunder have rescinded the RFA tag from Dion Waiters. I bet he's a heat by the end of the week.
Riley wants a franchise tag in the upcoming cba where every owner gets to use it at one player and can pay that player an unlimited amount of money
Thunder getting heat for riscinding his rights this late but honestly, if there was a team interested he would have signed an offer sheet..
Would the Heat really want Dion Waiters? Apologies if I'm not in on the joke and don't recognize the sarcasm.
Heat might sign him for training camp only, but theyre on the youth movement, they have more than enough guards... Richardson, Tyler Johnson, Winslow, and Dragic are going to see 30+ minutes a game, Dion won't even be able to set foot on the floor behind that. Then again, Dion probably doesn't know who 3 of the 4 players are, will sign anyways thinking theyre a bunch of nobodies, and then realize he's the 14th guy on the roster.
The Heat can't afford Dion Waiters. He's 24 years old, can score, and had some moments in the playoffs for a team that nearly went to the finals. With all of the money that was thrown around this offseason, he will almost certainly get paid.
The allure with Dion Waiters I take it is that he's a guy that can create in isolation. Or at least try to. Typical "chucker" like dolfan32323 mentioned. That's kind of why I want to keep Rudd around. He can create.
Bummer because good beat writers in this market are few and far between, but it was only a matter of time. He absolutely deserves to be national.
Agreed. Sure he'll still have a good Heat scoop but definitely looking forward to his coverage of the league as a whole.
It's weird how on this site people generally like Skolnick but on RealGM, they hate him, they hate Windhorst, they hate Ira. lol I think Skolnick is legit, a company man just like Lebatard but still good stuff.
I stopped reading the Sun Sentinel after Skolnick left. That, and because they set up a pay wall on their web site. Well, I'll still read it on mondays during football season, but that's it.
I'm going to disagree a little bit with this. If the Boston offer is the best one Presti has on the table, he really has no choice but to take it. What else is he going to do, lose his job because he got nothing in exchange for losing two of the top ten players in the NBA? Personally, I kind of hope Sacramento and OKC trade Westbrook and Cousins to each other just to spite the rest of the NBA.
Unless this ends up being a rental situation, I really don't think it will be a "best offer on the table" situation. And if it is a rental, he won't be getting back much of a return anyway. More likely, Westbrook will let his suitors be known and Presti will have no choice but to trade him there, because no other team is going to give up any value unless they feel good about keeping him.
Derrick Rose says Golden State and the Knicks are the two superteams in the NBA.... and then everyone fell to the ground with their legs in the air like an anime laughing their asses off..
Wayne Ellington showing what he brings to the table: https://www.instagram.com/p/BIJWsSihYEQ/ His jumper is so silky smooth.
Westbrook letting suitors be known would be rather unique. Which other impending free agent has done that? How often does that scenario happen? The only semi-example I can think of is Carmelo Anthony, but he intended to sign with the team that had his Bird rights to get the maximum money. The Knicks traded for him to ensure they would be able to offer that.
I dont think anyone can tell whats on Westbrooks mind because his character is a little bit more unique than others. He seems like the kind of guy that wants his own team, i might be way off but he just seems like that. I think he loves oklahoma. I think durant gave some signs during the season what his intentions were, multiple times saying westbrook is the best player on the team. I think Presti and Westbrook will sit down and westbrook will say to him, why did you trade ibaka..? Presti will have to draw out a plan on how they will build around westbrook and that westbrook will be the centerpiece and based on that he will make his decision.
Yeah, like VL said, that was basically what happened with Dragic. You don't see it very often because you don't see situations where star players essentially make it known they're leaving very often. Westbrook may very well not tell them where he wants to go, and I think he wants to wait until the offseason anyway, but in that case you just can't give up very much to get him unless you think he gives you a shot at the title THIS YEAR. And even then I think you'd be hesitant.
Yep, you have kids. (I say in pain from having to watch too many Peppa Pigs.) (At least now mine are old enough for Teen Titans and Spongebob.) (Ugh.)
Here's the problem… we don't know Westbrook's preferences. So I'm quite reluctant to think he'll pull a "I'm Only Going There™". And frankly, if he hasn't expressed a preference, you take the best deal and stop caring because it's not your player anymore. So yeah, I'm not really seeing a convincing argument against the idea that Presti shouldn't take the Celtics' offer. It's extremely low, but other offers will be lower.
Right. If you're talking about the assumption that it's a rental with the hope that you can convince Westbrook to sign in the offseason, then sure, Presti is going to take what he can get. If that's the case, I think we're talking about low offers, though, and maybe Boston can get it done. If that's the case and you're the Heat, I wonder what you'd offer. The hope would be that living in Miami for a few months and being a part of a fist class organization would be a pretty good sell and give you even a tiny advantage on the open market. Without assurances, you certainly can't give up Winslow AND Richardson, and probably can't even give up Winslow. You don't really want to lose a player like Dragic for a rental, but the prospect of having a ton of money next offseason with other great players on the market is somewhat appealing. I would probably try and explore Dragic and TJ with any other player not named Richardson, Winslow, or Whiteside included and seeing what they think of TJ. I'd probably even be willing to add Richardson with the hope that you can convince Russ to stay. Would one of those packages be preferable to the type of package Boston would offer (probably something like Bradley and a draft pick that isn't from Brooklyn)? We'd have to see.
Well no intelligent GM is going to give up assets for a rental. Maybe if Ainge seriously thought the Celtics could beat the Cavaliers in a series, he will give up some assets for Westbrook, and then try to pick up someone else to round out the roster. Already one of their first round picks has said he is going to play in China. If Boston trades for Westbrook, and they manage to get past Cleveland, you can pretty much lock him up for 5 years after that. On paper that looks like a 5 game series in Cleveland's favor, but crazier things have happened. No one in the Cavs can guard Westbrook, even worse so him and Isaiah together..
The bad news: he is Dion Waiters. The good news: it's for $2.9mil for 1 year which actually makes him a bargain. My main point....how the hell does he beat out J-Rich, TJ, and Ellington for playing time?
In all seriousness I'm a massive Dion Waiters fanboy. I love him. I'd love for the Heat to turn him into something. Maybe the only player I've spent more time online defending is Ted Ginn. Which probably tells you something about my player evaluation skills.
