Around the League - '23-24 Season

[Q-is-here]

Adams out for the year with knee surgery. Combine that with Morant's 25-game suspension and Clarke's achilles injury and the Grizzlies will be starting the year without a few key guys.

[KG4Ever]

Adams out for the year with knee surgery. Combine that with Morant's 25-game suspension and Clarke's achilles injury and the Grizzlies will be starting the year without a few key guys.

I am starting to think that with OKC who I think will be much improved, that Memphis might not even make the playoffs this year. I think they will have to get by with Santi Aldama and Xavier Tillman who is more of a power forward at 6"7 until Clarke returns. They might even slide Jaren Jackson into the center spot at times.

I know a team with four good centers.

[Q-is-here]

Adams out for the year with knee surgery. Combine that with Morant's 25-game suspension and Clarke's achilles injury and the Grizzlies will be starting the year without a few key guys.

I am starting to think that with OKC who I think will be much improved, that Memphis might not even make the playoffs this year. I think they will have to get by with Santi Aldama and Xavier Tillman who is more of a power forward at 6"7 until Clarke returns. They might even slide Jaren Jackson into the center spot at times.

I know a team with four good centers.

I don't know....they seem to have successfully navigated injuries to key guys much better than the Wolves have in the recent past. Their depth has paid dividends thanks to some of the very guys you mention, along with Tyus Jones. Last year Brooks was the only starter on the team that played more than 70 games, yet they still won 51 games.

[KG4Ever]

Adams out for the year with knee surgery. Combine that with Morant's 25-game suspension and Clarke's achilles injury and the Grizzlies will be starting the year without a few key guys.

I am starting to think that with OKC who I think will be much improved, that Memphis might not even make the playoffs this year. I think they will have to get by with Santi Aldama and Xavier Tillman who is more of a power forward at 6"7 until Clarke returns. They might even slide Jaren Jackson into the center spot at times.

I know a team with four good centers.

I don't know....they seem to have successfully navigated injuries to key guys much better than the Wolves have in the recent past. Their depth has paid dividends thanks to some of the very guys you mention, along with Tyus Jones. Last year Brooks was the only starter on the team that played more than 70 games, yet they still won 51 games.

That is quite true so far. However, their roster seems more depleted than ever as Tyus is gone, Brooks is gone, Adams is out for season, Clarke might miss most of season. And Ja is suspended for 25 games. They still have Bane, JJJ and Marcus Smart to start the year, but after that they are quite thin. JJJ has also had some injury issues averaging 53.2 games per year. I think they have a good coach who seems to get the most out of what they have, but OKC has SGA, Giddey, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren and the draft capital to add a star at the deadline if the opportunity arises, so I think Memphis is in danger of losing their playoff spot to OKC.

[KG4Ever]

Its contract extension day around the league and I guess we'll find out if Jaden is extended today. The only player expecting a bigger deal than Jaden is Maxey, who may be getting a max deal and Philly is looking to wait until the offseason to improve flexibility. Okongwu should get a nice contract too as he is one of the more promising young bigs in the league. Rudy is eligible for a vet extension. I know that the current contract has a player option in 25-26 and I don't know if the Wolves and Rudy can extend the contract whereby Rudy waives his player option and gets a longer deal at a substantially reduced annual salary with the objective of helping the Wolves stay under the second apron starting in 25-26. Maybe the Wolves and Rudy cannot adjust the contract yet, but I am hoping Rudy is willing to decline his option and he'll resign here for long term on a much smaller annual salary to keep Wolves under apron. I am curious if Wolves and Rudy can discuss his willingness to decline option and essentially get his 25-26 salary paid plus more so that he averages around 20M over a 4 or 5 year time frame, sort of like a stretch deal (e.g. 5 years at somewhere between 100M-120M), so the Wolves can plan better how much they can afford to give Jaden and how much they will have to offer Conley and SloMo this coming off-season to keep under the projected second apron level starting in 25-26.

[KG4Ever]

Deni Avdija was extended by Wizards for 4 years at 55M. Aaron Nesmith was extended by Pacers for 3 years at 33M.

Jaden is on the clock today with a 5pm Central deadline.

[KG4Ever]

Okongwu got 4 year deal at $64M. That is a huge bargain.

[Sundog]

Couple of things:

- Bam didn’t sign his extension with Miami, decided to wait til next summer in hopes he meets the supermax criteria by then

- Knicks reportedly trying to get Embiid from the 76ers, offering Julius Randle, R.J. Barrett, Evan Fournier, Mitchell Robinson and two or three first-round picks in return

[KG4Ever]

Couple of things:

- Bam didn’t sign his extension with Miami, decided to wait til next summer in hopes he meets the supermax criteria by then

- Knicks reportedly trying to get Embiid from the 76ers, offering Julius Randle, R.J. Barrett, Evan Fournier, Mitchell Robinson and two or three first-round picks in return

That's a terrible offer for Embiid and Philly most assuredly hangs up on it. They have a few more years on Embiid's contract, Maxey, Melton who had a fantastic preseason and might break out if Harden sits and Tobias Harris, plus they either trade Harden or shed his contract and use it to sign free agents. I see no indication that Morey will trade Embiid and if they do, that signals a rebuild and they won't want any of those Knicks players and could find much better offers.

[Lipoli390]

14 NBA games played so far this season. Note that 13 of the 14 winners scored more than 100 points with Toronto the only exception. 10 of the 14 winners scored over 110 points and 8 of the 14 scored 115 points or more. Even more telling perhaps is the fact that only 2 of the 14 losing teams (Wolves and Rockets) scored less than 100 and 6 of the losing teams scored 110 of more.

Nothing new or surprising in these numbers. The NBA of today is heavily skewed towards offense. It’s a function of modern rules but also the nature of today’s talent - amazing athleticism and 3-point shooting. That’s not to say defense isn’t important. You have to score more than the other team to win and obviously defense is part of that. But the reality of today’s offensive oriented game built around space, pace, speed, athleticism and perimeter shooting just doesn’t seem conducive to an elite team whose starters include two max-salary centers with one of them as limited offensively as Rudy. The twin towers didn’t even work for Houston back in the day when the NBA rules, talent and style were oriented more towards size and defense.

The Wolves offense declined precipitously last season from the season before. On Wednesday night the Wolves defense held the Raptors under 100 points, but the Wolves still lost the game. I think the Wolves will be better offensively going forward than they were Wednesday night. But I don’t see the Wolves offense with Rudy as one of two max-salary centers reaching the level necessary to place the Wolves among the elite championship contending teams in today’s NBA. I guess I’m a broken record on that, but Wednesday night’s game and the results around the League re-fueled my frustration with where the Gobert deal has taken us.

But here’s the good news. Two years ago the Wolves won 46 games with KAT and a supporting cast of non-allstars. They won those 46 games with versions of Jaden and Ant that weren’t nearly as good as they are now and without Slo Mo. They had Vanderbilt, Beverley and Beasley who were all valuable contributors, but all three are replaceable with similar or better alternatives who do the same things they did with equal or greater impact. The Wolves still have KAT along with much-improved and still improving top tier players in Ant and Jaden - one of them an emerging star than other potentially and allstar. Naz Reid has emerged as a top-tier player with an amazingly versatile skill set. Meanwhile, TC has done a nice job of adding young talent to the organization in Miller, Minott, Garza, and NAW. They also have their 2024 first-round pick. I can see Miller starting in two years as a longer much better shooting version of Vanderbilt. If the Wolves can stay under the second apron, they’ll be able to use their MLE and BAE or leverage other assets to add a version of Malik Beasley and/or Pat Beverley.

That’s a long way of saying the Wolves have the makings of a contender, but it’s likely two years away and likely won’t include Rudy. And it might not include KAT. In the meantime, the Wolves will still be a good team and likely make the playoffs this season, but not as a top 4 seed contending for the NBA championship.