Put a defensive guard with size next to Young. Like Reddish? Max? We aren't spending much money on that position, with Trae on board. The offensive gravity he brings, is going to offset the defense IMO. We'd still have Vanderbilt, that's 2 perimeter defenders to go with AD. Mitchell is of course my preferred option, but I wouldn't pass on Young for defensive reasons alone.
Garland is terrible. He sucks in the playoffs. I'm guessing he'll have a career like Trae, just playing losing basketball with some sort of good numbers. Cavs are screwed if they lose Don Reaves can only be the starting 2 if we either have a POA defender PG (Dejounte or Caruso) or start Vando. LeBron and Trae puts Reaves in a tough position because then one of the forwards need to guard the opposition best guard which is ok unless there's another superstar wing in the opponent It may happen with Don too. I'm honestly not expecting to get Don, that would be great for us.
I would give up Austin for Mitchell. I wouldn’t like it, but Austin would be the Laker that Cleveland values the most among the package they’ll get.
I’m in the camp of not getting Mitchell. Sure, Mitchell can score, have offensive outbursts… but he doesn’t play defense, is undersized, and is somewhat of a chucker. But I would understand if we did though. Name recognition, offensive creator and shotmaker, and some really sweet dunks for a 6’3” guy.
mitchell's improved as a defender in the past couple years. put it this way: people are going bananas for anthony edwards on d after he improved less than mitchell has--at least according to the stats i like best. still don't think we're getting him, but we need to offer everything.
our big offseason acquisition will be to purchase an additional 2nd round pick in order to draft Bronny James. Tempering my enthusiasm for any moves of note until they actually happen. And even then, we have to have a coach who knows what to do with what he's got.
Since there's a lot of Trae stuff here, I'll dump this info here... Buha's latest pod featured cap expert Eric Pincus (link in transaction thread). Eric had these couple notes about Trae: 1) he's not very popular with teammates (I've heard the same locally, Collins stuff made it nationally. Coaches haven't much liked him either) 2) he doesn't play off the ball (i pointed that out with the stats showing him dribbling the air out of the ball). When Murray handled the ball, Trae would go stand and sulk in the corner. No screens, no movement, just pouting. (All that's as the primary ball handler and as the #1 option... what happens as the 3rd option)
on offense here i think he'd have the ball all the time. the real issue is having both him and lebron as turnstiles on defense. i do think lebron could get young in line in terms of some winning habits, though. he's not russ--he's not an old vet with what he feels are stripes. with our trade assets, we can't get a good big AND murray, imo (we may not even have enough to get murray without getting too weak in other areas, imo). but yes, in an ideal world, atlanta keeps young, we nab murray without giving up reaves, and we find a starting caliber center. i just don't think that's likely.
You think he'll have the ball more here than he did in ATL? If so, that means Bron and AD are sitting in street clothes. Hell based on his games played, he might be sitting next to them. On a per game average he was 3rd in time of possession, 3rd in seconds per touch, 6th in dribbles per touch, and 7th in touches. Just how much did he have the ball? He was 12th in TOTAL time of possession this season. He only played 54 games. For comparison Hailburton was 11th and played 15 more games. Fox was 9th and played 20 more games. All that and he's still sulking?! It's just another red flag in a series of 1000 red flags. ATL has Murray and Johnson, he's the clear #1 over them. Here he's 3rd and there's a pretty sizable drop off in how often Johnson needs the ball vs how often Bron or AD need the ball.
Damn. Yeah he clearly didn't play well with Dejounte, really needs the ball. good take Hmmm c'mon man, LeBron ain't giving the ball. He got better on that recently but one of the main arguments against was him wanting a PG and then not letting him command, one of the reasons for the Russ fiasco
according to some (and nobody knows if this is true), lebron took over ballhandling because he didn't trust dlo. maybe he'd trust trae more with the ball. if your take is that lebron won't give up the ball, we shouldn't go after mitchell, either, btw.
He didn't, reportedly, trust DLO in the clutch. He still wants someone to help him conserve his energy for the other 3.5 quarters of the game. The take isn't about Bron, it's about Trae having usage on par to Brunson and Luka and still not being happy with it. He'd be a cancerous 3rd wheel. Mitchell is better, bigger, more involved without the ball and has a more diverse offensive game.
I certainly said it to push back on all the all of a sudden AGAIN "LeBron just wants to play LeBron ball anyway". Meaning him running everything all game. At his age. Why did he want Westbrook???? He should run it some of the game just to switch up, but he was fine all season being off ball and letting DLO and AR do their thing.
that's fine; i get it. may i introduce you to high-usage trae young? or he'd be the first wheel on offense and lebron and AD could whip him into shape on defense? he's a really good offensive player. all true. we can't get him, though. luka and ant are twice as good as either, but we can't get them right now, either.
