Trade deadline rumours

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Bazz is what he is. He's not going to magically transform himself under a new coach. He can't defend and he can score in bunches in unique ways that don't involve volume 3pt shooting. I see no reason why a different coach with more playing time is going to magically make him a better player. Most of his problems (especially defensively) are due to athletic limitations, not due to the system we're running. At best he can fill up the score sheet and may develop into a good 3pt shooter, but that's not enough to keep him around. We can bring in a multitude of 3pt specialists who are better and cheaper than what he's gonna get on his next deal. You just won't be able to play him next to Zach on the wing defensively and Zach is a much more versatile offensive player.

Dieng while playing great has been the same defender or lack thereof since he came into the league. A new coach isn't going to magically make him a good defender. His body isn't properly built to hold his own with most bigs in the league defensively and he's been a flat out bad rim protector for 3 straight years.

If you can use those guys to upgrade, you do it. They aren't getting significantly better at their weaknesses under a different coach. Lavine, Wiggins, Towns are the only untouchables. Everyone else should be on the block to try to get better. We aren't going to be able to pay and keep a core of 4, 5, 6 guys together moving forward for 3, 4, 5+ years. You pick your big three and then do what you can to get better around them when possible.

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

Lipoli that is bs. If Milt can't figure out away to get Stephen Curry without giving up anymore drafts picks, Towns, Wiggins, or LaVine we should fire him tomorrow.

I figured it out. The trade machine said it works, so it's all settled.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ozkjbwx

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

Bazz is what he is. He's not going to magically transform himself under a new coach. He can't defend and he can score in bunches in unique ways that don't involve volume 3pt shooting. I see no reason why a different coach with more playing time is going to magically make him a better player. Most of his problems (especially defensively) are due to athletic limitations, not due to the system we're running. At best he can fill up the score sheet and may develop into a good 3pt shooter, but that's not enough to keep him around. We can bring in a multitude of 3pt specialists who are better and cheaper than what he's gonna get on his next deal. You just won't be able to play him next to Zach on the wing defensively and Zach is a much more versatile offensive player.

Dieng while playing great has been the same defender or lack thereof since he came into the league. A new coach isn't going to magically make him a good defender. His body isn't properly built to hold his own with most bigs in the league defensively and he's been a flat out bad rim protector for 3 straight years.

If you can use those guys to upgrade, you do it. They aren't getting significantly better at their weaknesses under a different coach.

While you may be right, I think it would be prudent to let the new POBO make those deals in the offseason so we can get players that fit his vision. Try to get the most you can out of Martin, Payne, Miller, and Prince. Future second round picks if need be. All should be dealt.

[Leado01]

Players don't transform under new coaches - but Bazz has developed a reputation for being a hard worker - and it's crazy to say that he will be the same player he is today in 3 years -

Time and time again we've seen players transform their game with hard work in the NBA - so saying a player is "what he is" short changes hard work. Bazz lacks some lateral speed, but there are a number of good defenders in the NBA that have learned to use sag, close out on pick up, etc. . . to become very good defenders. I think we've seen a 25-50% improvement just this year in his team defense.

[thedoper]

Steph Curry changed into an MVP and a good defender under a new coach.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Steph Curry changed into an MVP and a good defender under a new coach.

To be fair, Curry was already in year 6 of a career that saw him improve significantly in each of those seasons.
Curry was a 24 / 9 / 47% fg his last season even with Jackson and his ham-handed antics on the sidelines.

[petecorcoran [enjin:6658618]]

If I were to design my ideal roster for the NBA, it would be 5 starters to get 30+ minutes a game, 3 key reserves to get 25+ minutes (and with enough position flexibility that we only need 8 players playing), then players 9-11 with very limited minutes until we have injuries and/or foul trouble, and finally 4 low-salary bench players.

Right now, our best five for the future are probably Rubio, Lavine, Wiggins, Dieng and Towns. Then Bazz fits in the 6-8 slot somewhere. Everyone else is 9th or lower... or should be gone.

That's the issue for a new (hopefully) POBO. We either need two quality players for the 6th-8th slots, or starters if one or both of Lavine and Dieng is better suited to coming off the bench. At present, Jones and Bjelica (I remember how much Pek improved his second year over here) might be contenders in the 9th-11th slots but I have trouble picturing them as key reserves. Until we are 8 deep with quality, we are not a playoff contender.

Maybe one of the two key needs will come from the draft, but at least one free agent signing is also critical.

[thedoper]

Steph Curry changed into an MVP and a good defender under a new coach.

To be fair, Curry was already in year 6 of a career that saw him improve significantly in each of those seasons.
Curry was a 24 / 9 / 47% fg his last season even with Jackson and his ham-handed antics on the sidelines.

Yeah I wondered a bit about whether Jackson would have had the same results. But the improvements have been undeniable. Maybe it was inevitable, but now we talk about Draymond as an all star, Barnes as a Max salary 3 and d guy (no one saw this coming when he was drafted). Across the board this team took a huge leap. Even if Kerr just tweaked them there is a lot of evidence for a significant impact of coaching.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Players don't transform under new coaches - but Bazz has developed a reputation for being a hard worker - and it's crazy to say that he will be the same player he is today in 3 years -

Time and time again we've seen players transform their game with hard work in the NBA - so saying a player is "what he is" short changes hard work. Bazz lacks some lateral speed, but there are a number of good defenders in the NBA that have learned to use sag, close out on pick up, etc. . . to become very good defenders. I think we've seen a 25-50% improvement just this year in his team defense.

Bazz is still one of the worst defenders on the team. He has the second worst defensive rating to Lavine (based on the guys who play consistently) and his opponents shoot on average 4.9% better than their average against him with a whopping 7.1% better from 3 against him. Hard to call the improvement you've seen from him impactful in anyway. Lavine is actually at 1.2% for opponents shooting better against him than their average (0% difference from 3) so he comes out as a much better individual defender than Bazz.

I guess I just don't get why people want to wait and potentially pay ahead of time for what Bazz can become when he's never going to be a starter for this team except for injuries to Zach and/or Wiggins. What do you think he's going to become that's going to make him worth it to pay long-term as a player on this team? You can't play him with Zach because they both have 108+ defensive ratings and Zach is likely to see 30+ MPG's in the years to come because of how versatile he is offensively. That leaves 18 MPG's unless we bring in a defensive 2 or 3 and play Zach at PG for a decent chunk of his minutes. I just don't see a fit here with Bazz. It doesn't make sense to keep him with this team long-term because his strengths don't cover for our best player's weaknesses.

I don't get why we need to keep waiting on this team to see what they can develop into. We know the weaknesses and what we need. They've been there both last year and this year. 3pt shooting and defense. Why not get players who can fill those weaknesses instead of hoping one of the guys currently on the team becomes that guy while possibly paying that guy expecting he becomes it and he may never fill that hole? Bazz is due his extension in October next year with Dieng. Do people really believe he's going to develop into even an average defender in 1 year under a new coach, in a new system when he's still really bad this year? Why wait on future role players to develop into those role players? The league is filled with role players and there's always a decent crop available to be signed in free agency. If you can get better trading Bazz then trade him.

[bleedspeed]

WOW If this has any truth to it.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14795447/houston-rockets-utah-jazz-discuss-swap-ty-lawson-trey-burke

I wouldn't trade Andre Miller for Ty Lawson.