1984Echoes

Even with that 1st most likely at the end of the round... Stevie would figure out something clever/ someone exciting he could draft...

I don't know if Tuzz would get that much buddha... But... If he got that or better as you surmise... I'd do a cart wheel.

So far.

They look a step slower tonight... Losing pucks... in fact not a whole lot of puck control in general tonight... And... At least a step slow.

I think the offers for him will be higher than we think...

Agree with all of this 100%. Especially Killian back to the bench as the #2 PG and Burks paired with Ivey instead.

Romania should assist Moldova by invading the Transdniestra and kicking out the Russians. Georgia should attack and take back their territories Abkhazia and South Ossetia.. and kick out the remaining Russian forces. Poland should attack Byelorussia and take over/ hand over the country to the duly-elected Byelorussian Government that was cheated out of their 2020 electoral victory by Lukashenko. And kick out the Russians. Yes, Finland should attack Karelia and take back the lands that they gave away to Russia after WINNING their war against them (Russians started it with a winter invasion) in 1939. Japan should forcibly take back the 4 Kuril islands that are actually Japanese, not Russian. Kaliningrad is a more difficult issue however. More heavily fortified than any other exo-territory of Russia. I'd like the Polish to kick the Russians out of Kaliningrad too... but that's a big ask...

That has to be down the road sometime... not today or anywhere in the near future. Wiseman is just too raw and inexperienced from 3 years of lack of playing time to just jump in and start at Center with Duren at PF... It's gotta be a reference to down the road or, a special situation like trying to match up with the Cavs as you say, cannot be a regular occurrence until JW gets up to speed. Which is gonna take awhile...

He has to be the backup Center for now. Just way too raw, new to the playbook, etc. Duren starts for now, with Stew at PF. What happens 10-20 games down the road... is anybody's guess IMO. But for now, I think Wiseman backs up Duren at Center.

At #6: stay or trade down. At #18: Stay.

The bolded looks like we get some compensation.

Was there some kind of issue with Wood? Coaching-wise? Because I liked Wood from that 3 and D perspective. Or was it simply a cap-crunch thing where Weaver was cornered into making a move like that in order to reset the cap, reset the talent age on the team, and he also loved Stew enough to take that type of risk for that pick/ selection? Which makes it more complicated than i originally intended... as just a cap move... Just wondering...

I thought his 3-point range/ shooting was supposed to be so much better than what we've seen. If he could raise that part of his game to an elite level (40% +/- shooting on 3's) I think he would more than justify his selection. He'll never be an elite athlete or defender... but as long as he gives his all on D and takes a jump in his shooting - no guarantees on anything except I believe he's the "committed" sort who will definitely work on these parts of his game - I can live with who he is.

I forgot what the projections are on this pick but I think in 2025 it drops to top 9 or 12 or something... We might keep our 2024 pick as this team will be trying to learn how to win games whiler getting all these kids to improve... So, if we don't convey the pick after the 2024 season (I think there's a reasonable chance it conveys in 2024 as a top-18? protected pick.. IDK... 10% + chance?), I think there's a VERY good chance that it conveys after 2025. Then freeing up any future 1sts if we needed them in any additional trade scenarios...

And the thing about these are (let me break down my "phase" 2 and 3's down a bit more): Phase 2 talent acquisition is really: 2A) Acquire talent. 2B) Develop talent. Phase 3 competitive team is really: 3A) Fit roster pieces together and trade for fits/ improvements 3B) Chase playoffs/ pennants/ championships. I think we're really in 2B phase, especially after this summer's draft, as they need to develop all of these kids. I think your concerns on construction is really 3A... in which we are almost there (or already in the case of refusing to trade Bojan or Burks because they provide not just leadership, but the skills this team is currently missing with all these young guys: shooting skills/ range). I think concerns on roster composition are still premature. But not by much. Or maybe even not really... in the sense that these kids need to show what they've got, in terms of skill on the court, and what we are still missing. And only then does Weaver have to maneuver in order to put the right guys together to round out a truly competitive team. But first... these kids still have steep learning curves in order to do that. To show what their best is, on the court, and tell management what complimentary skills are missing and are needed to round out the team. Especially: 2023 draft pick, Wiseman, Cade, Duren and Ivey. These are the key guys for us in the future (at least at this point). Short answer (to me): still too much learning to do before criticisms of construction can even begin. It's the next step, aside from development. But we still have to get through the development first. As for asset management: to me, that's water under the bridge. As far as I'm concerned, Weaver did what he needed to do in order to fix the talent deficiency, crappy vet/ crappy contract situations. When this team gets good... that's when I'll start to worry about asset/ cap management. Just my 2 cents.

That looks much better. I totally fell for the photoshop...!

Dude... None of this "Happy Holidays" BS! Call the holiday by its REAL name!!! HAPPY SPRING TRAINING OPENING DAY ladies & gents!!! (I'm just being a smartass here but... you know...)

Seriously? Is that the new base? It looks 4 times the size of the old base. I mean, I knew it was bigger, but... wow!!!

Damn!!! I typed exactly this 3 or 4 years ago on the old site. I mean, not word-for-word, but almost! Sliding scale fees. Multiple weapons increase fees. I don't think I had different fees for classes of weapons but... I like that idea!!! Annual registration requirements. Annual mental, financial (those under financial duress are liable to do...) reports. I think I had weapons crimes as mandatory 10 year federal crimes felony... but maybe that's a bit draconian? Anyways: TWO THUMBS UP for you MC!!!

So he wants to be President and is using Twitter to take over America. He's ineligible I believe...? But if he isn't ineligible... Got it. I understand this now.

Sign him up!!!

So Avila signed all sorts of superstars each year he was GM? Or was it that he signed a bunch of bottom of the barrel guys who had maybe 1 or 2 choices to sign with a team? Either Detroit or some other bottom of the barrel team? Remind me who we signed the past 6 years, on an annual basis?

I'm going to take another swipe against the "Weaver is or should be on the hot seat" takes that are floating around here... I'm going to approach this differently though because I want to make a specific comment: I believe Weaver came here to: 1) Dump all the crappy unproductive vets and the crappy contracts that constituted our team pre-Weaver. Status: I think he pretty much did that in one fell swoop. Accomplished and completed. 2) Accumulate talent. We were so deficient in talent that he pretty much had to build this area from zero. I believe we've had 100% turnover. We had no "good" vets to trade for lots of extra 1sts or for young talent, at a trade deadline or offseason. So he had to start with nothing, had nothing to trade to kick-start a talent rebuild, and in fact had negative value vets which sort of put him behind the eight-ball. Does anyone disagree with this. Status: I think we are still in this phase. I think others are disagreeing and believe we are now in a "create playoff team" phase, and are impatient that we are not. So... 3) Build a playoff-quality team. Status: Is this where we are at? Or supposed to be at, next year? This is where I take disagreement. I believe we are still in talent accumulation phase #2, not "we better make the playoffs this year" phase #3. It's why 23 y.o. good-but-not-great Bey gets traded for a huge-potential-but-has-played-close-to-nil-in-3-years lottery ticket swing in Wiseman. Other reasons: Not every prospect makes it. The expectation that we MUST be in the playoffs because Weaver must win on EVERY prospect he drafts is unrealistic. Period. It seems like perfection is demanded of Weaver and, whether he builds or really damn fine playoff team or not... I can assure you he won't be perfect in either case. Put another way... it seems like what I am seeing posted is "we had 3 1sts in 2020 so we MUST be a playoff level team." Really? What is the success/ failure rate of the 16th and 19th picks in the NBA 1st round? Isn't it pretty hit or miss? Correct me if I'm wrong. So, Weaver picked 3 useful players, no stars, in his first draft. In 2021 he selects Cade Cunningham (who misses almost all of this year due to injury, still 21). In 2022 he selects Jaden Ivey (20 y.o. at the time) and Jalen Duren (18 y.o. at the time). And we have another high draft pick this year. So now we're a playoff-level team, per your guys' expectations? I'm sorry, but... no. These are kids. We are still in the talent accumulation phase. I think everyone is completely ignoring how young this team is. If we make the playoffs in 2024 because all these kids just take off... great. But if not... I am not putting playoff expectations on these kids until they get past their learning curves. I mean, you guys go ahead and do whatever you want, which you will do anyways... but I think your expectations are just a bit too premature. And demanding that Weaver gets fired next year if he doesn't make the playoffs still strikes me as beyond ridiculous.

+1. To reiterate: I hope he sticks.

Which doesn't bother me at all. Fix all our Broken Players (pitchers and bats). Fix all the weaknesses in our draft and development system. Show progress again, on the field, at a high rate... And then I'll worry about who we are able to bring on to the team from outside to put us over the top...