2022 Off-Season Around the League

[Coolbreeze44]

Reporting with @kendra__andrews: Golden State Warriors All-Star Andrew Wiggins has agreed to a four-year, $109 million extension, his agents Drew Morrison and Steven Heumann of CAA Sports tell ESPN. Wiggins is now tied to the Warriors for five-years, $143 million.

Solid deal for the warriors in my opinion

A slight overpay, I think, but not too far off of what his market value might have been a year from now. Good for Andrew Wiggins, and I don't mean financially. I think like most he realizes that he's most effective with Golden State in his current role as a secondary piece. I'm glad he didn't choose the path of trying to prove that he's more than what he is. I respect that.

Also, the Warriors ownership should probably get more credit that they do. There's no doubt that they are committed to winning and they're spending mightily to keep some important pieces around moving forward. That's very commendable.

SMH - But why should I be surprised? Could have been the finals MVP last year, yet he's still a secondary piece in your mind. I'm sure you think DLO deserves more than that.

Yeah, I get it.

[Duke13]

Andre Iguodala WAS a finals MVP. Both would be considered secondary players in my opinion. Good for Wiggy.

[Coolbreeze44]

Fun to watch the Lakers embarrass themselves. Might be another long year for them.

[Lipoli390]

Fun to watch the Lakers embarrass themselves. Might be another long year for them.

It was good to see both the Lakers and Sixers lose last night. I dislike the Lakers because, well, because they're the Lakers. I dislike the Sixers because I dislike Harden, Embiid and Morey. It was great to see the Celtics strip the ball from Embiid and bully him as much as he tried to bully them.

By the way, both games last night were a reminder that it's still guard and wing play that carry the day in the NBA -- perimeter shooting, ball-handling, breaking down defenses off the dribble, moving the ball, chasing down loose balls, stopping guard penetration and closing out on shooters defensively. Quickness, speed, athleticism, skill, ball-movement - this are the things that win in the NBA. We saw that last night from Tatum, Brown and Smart for Boston and from Curry, Thompson and Wiggins for the Warriors. Neither Embiid nor Anthony Davis carried the day for their respective teams.

The Wolves have Gobert - an elite big-man defender/paint protector. That's great. His presence along with KAT will automatically have us at least competing for the 7-10 spots in the standings. But anything beyond that will turn on what we see from Edwards, DLO, McDaniels, Nowell and JMac.

[Sundog]

I think the other thing I noticed about those two games was that both teams that lost only got contributions from 4-5 guys, and the teams that won got meaningful contributions from 6-8 guys. Even in these early matchups, quality depth matters.

[Q-is-here]

Whenever I watch the Celtics play I just sort of slump my shoulders and hang my head in utter humility. Tatum and Brown have turned into elite shot makers and all those guys defend like their life depends on it.

And let's be real. There is only one guy on our team that can get us into what Zach Lowe would describe as the "Inner Circle" of championship contenders and that would be Anthony Edwards. And as much as I like Ant, he's just not there yet and it's not a given he will eventually get there.

Yes, he's an elite athlete and built like a tank, but the likes of Tatum, Brown, and Curry have become shot makers from ALL distances. They get forced into a bunch of tough mid-range shots that they can all make. Ant will need to prove he can develop a touch from those in between distances because teams will increasingly guard him like they do Harden in the playoffs and he will need to be willing and able to make contested shots from all sorts of awkward distances and angles.

[Lipoli390]

Whenever I watch the Celtics play I just sort of slump my shoulders and hang my head in utter humility. Tatum and Brown have turned into elite shot makers and all those guys defend like their life depends on it.

And let's be real. There is only one guy on our team that can get us into what Zach Lowe would describe as the "Inner Circle" of championship contenders and that would be Anthony Edwards. And as much as I like Ant, he's just not there yet and it's not a given he will eventually get there.

Yes, he's an elite athlete and built like a tank, but the likes of Tatum, Brown, and Curry have become shot makers from ALL distances. They get forced into a bunch of tough mid-range shots that they can all make. Ant will need to prove he can develop a touch from those in between distances because teams will increasingly guard him like they do Harden in the playoffs and he will need to be willing and able to make contested shots from all sorts of awkward distances and angles.

I agree with you, Q. Ant is the one guy who COULD become our version of Tatum or Brown and its far from certain that he'll ever become that guy. I'd feel a lot better if we had at least one other guard or wing who could eventually play at the level of Tatum or Brown.

Another thing both games underscored last night was the value of space and pace. Both the Warriors and Celtics have great spacing and play fast. The Celtics guards/wings were better than their counterparts on the Sixers. They beat the Sixers to loose balls, beat Sixers' defenders down the court, drove past Sixers's defenders in the half-court, moved the ball quickly for good looks and hit those open looks. Stan VanGundy pointed out that the Celtics were getting easier shots because of their ball movement and spacing while the Sixers were forced to take tougher shots. It always seems like the Wolves are taking tougher shots than their opponents.

I'm not sure yet what the identity of the Wolves will be. I hope our offense evolves into something far different from what we saw in the last preseason game against the Nets. I hope shows a lot more improvement than we've seen from him in the preseason. I hope McDaniels develops into an elite two-way wing.

[Q-is-here]

The Sixers definitely have some flaws, even though they are still going to be a really good team. Just not sure how Harden and Embiid hold up over 82 games and whether Harden can be effective in a playoff environment.

Also notable is that Boston outrebounded the Sixers with Horford, Tatum, and Brown as their front line. Smart and White were their guards.

I was so wrong about Tatum...I wasn't really impressed with him as a prospect, but by Year 3 he started playing like an all-star. The good news is that Ant compares pretty favorably to Tatum and Brown when you compare all of their first two seasons. The bad news is that there is no guarantee that Ant keeps ascending. Let's hope so!

[BloopOracle]

The Sixers definitely have some flaws, even though they are still going to be a really good team. Just not sure how Harden and Embiid hold up over 82 games and whether Harden can be effective in a playoff environment.

Also notable is that Boston outrebounded the Sixers with Horford, Tatum, and Brown as their front line. Smart and White were their guards.

I was so wrong about Tatum...I wasn't really impressed with him as a prospect, but by Year 3 he started playing like an all-star. The good news is that Ant compares pretty favorably to Tatum and Brown when you compare all of their first two seasons. The bad news is that there is no guarantee that Ant keeps ascending. Let's hope so!

I think Tatum was this board's biggest miss, virtually everyone here including me had him ranked low because he was a jump shooter without 3 point range.

[Q-is-here]

The Sixers definitely have some flaws, even though they are still going to be a really good team. Just not sure how Harden and Embiid hold up over 82 games and whether Harden can be effective in a playoff environment.

Also notable is that Boston outrebounded the Sixers with Horford, Tatum, and Brown as their front line. Smart and White were their guards.

I was so wrong about Tatum...I wasn't really impressed with him as a prospect, but by Year 3 he started playing like an all-star. The good news is that Ant compares pretty favorably to Tatum and Brown when you compare all of their first two seasons. The bad news is that there is no guarantee that Ant keeps ascending. Let's hope so!

I think Tatum was this board's biggest miss, virtually everyone here including me had him ranked low because he was a jump shooter without 3 point range.

Good point. I thought the same about Ant by the way. Let's hope he keeps improving too, but he's already become a better NBA player than I projected!