Minnesota Sports Forum

If healthy don't sleep on Memphis.

GS
SA
LAC
Utah
MEM
Portland
Dallas
MN
OKC
HOU
NO
DEN
SAC
PHX
LAL

This list doesn't include a Russell Westbrook trade which I think they need to make and would drop them depending on what they get back, but most likely right above Sacramento.

I'm starting to have an irrational thing for Quincey Acy

Season highlights from when he was with the Knicks.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xbsM37iAyaU

He seems like at least a Dante Cunningham type with more explosive athletic ability and a much better shot. It seems his ability to shoot the ball at a decent rate isn't a fluke based on what he has shot for different spots for his career. He seems like the tough combo forward this team could really use and he and Bazz always seem to have some good battles so practice would be interesting. :)

I'm not quite sure about these rankings. How are we better than OKC? I still think we are in that 6-10 battle that happens every season. That's at best.

Edit: similar to what khans posted, but I see OKC as still the 4 or 5 in our conference with Westbrook leading.

TheFuture wrote:I'm not quite sure about these rankings. How are we better than OKC? I still think we are in that 6-10 battle that happens every season. That's at best.

Edit: similar to what khans posted, but I see OKC as still the 4 or 5 in our conference with Westbrook leading.

There's nobody left to even remotely fill KD's shoes. I just don't see the firepower on that team outside of Westbrook to be very good. They built that team around 50-60 PPG's from Westbrook and Durant and lost half that equation. Oladipo has never been even a 20 PPG guy. The only solid offense in the frontcourt is Kanter and he's a huge liability defensively. Westbrook's gonna go for 30-10-10 and they're gonna lose a lot because I don't see anyone else on that team that can help him offensively. We saw two years ago his lone man effort to carry them to the playoffs and he came up short. I don't think this team has that much more help for him. Meanwhile we were a top 5 offense to close the season and added one of the best defensive coaches in the game. We have the firepower and need to become better defensively. They're going to need to be a defensive juggernaut and hope they can muster up enough offense to steal a bunch of wins.

I bet Westbrook's not going to extend in OKC. He's gonna get traded, hopefully to the East. What's crazy is that the team that has the assets to get him . . . is Boston.

Presti's too smart to push the panic button. I'm sure he'll look to deal Westbrook, but I also think he'll be content to keep him through the season and add someone.

If traded, I sure hope it's to Boston or some other Eastern Conference team. I would think that would be Presti's preference too.

lipoli390 wrote:Presti's too smart to push the panic button. I'm sure he'll look to deal Westbrook, but I also think he'll be content to keep him through the season and add someone.

If traded, I sure hope it's to Boston or some other Eastern Conference team. I would think that would be Presti's preference too.

I mentioned in the other thread that Durant leaving might be good for OKC because instead of losing both next year for nothing, now at least they will have the option of trading Westbrook and getting something in return. Man, my buddy in Boston's already going nuts.

Westbrook is going to have some say in where he goes. And if he doesn't want to go East (he probably doesn't) he's simply not going to sign an extension which will nullify any potential move.

If they don't trade him, they are going to lose him for nothing too. I don't think they have a choice, and will have to trade him to a situation where he will agree to an extension.

lipoli390 wrote:Presti's too smart to push the panic button. I'm sure he'll look to deal Westbrook, but I also think he'll be content to keep him through the season and add someone.

If traded, I sure hope it's to Boston or some other Eastern Conference team. I would think that would be Presti's preference too.

Yeah I don't think he will panic and if he doesn't get a good offer he will probably wait. Based on their draft record picks would actually be valuable to OKC. It's not often you see a contender with so much young talent 25 and under. For example Kanter just turned 24 and is locked in on a somewhat reasonable number for a few years.

Here is another angle. OKC could end up with a bunch of cap space after this season. They could hit the reset button in a few different ways including possibly telling Russ he can get any stud FA to join him here in OKC. There are a few ways they can reload. It's gina be really interesting to see how it all plays out. Maybe they trade Russ for you players fall into the lottery and pick their next star player in the draft.