buddha

yes they suck, but its FIVE players who suck!

1) its not going to happen. its just more ineptitude on behalf of the bears, specifically kevin warren. aka the ultimate grifter empty suit. he's bungled this to an amazing degree. 2) if it DID happen (which lolololololbears), its hammond, not Gary. and its literally 5 feet from chicago. this is the equivalent of building a stadium in pontiac, mi and saying "see? pontiac can support a team so can quebec."

if you have a no movement clause and then demand to be traded you can eff off.

and if he says "i'll only go to minnesota" he can sit his happy ass at home and not get paid.

Larkin would refuse to go to st louis and vancouver. st louis isnt trading thomas for larkin unless a bunch of picks or prospects come with it. which doesnt matter because larkin has an nmc. vancouver might be dumb enough to trade for larkin, but he would reject that too. minnesota makes sense if the wings accept their poo poo platter.

i dont think yzerman liked larkin taking a shot at the team last year for not adding. leadership is taking it on yourself and not making excuses or blaming others. and larkin's performance this year down the stretch was nothing to write home about. HIS team failed two years in a row, and this year yzerman got him deadline help and he and the team still cratered. i think the problems lay more with yzerman's team construction than larkin's play or leadership, but i can understand why yzerman wasnt entirely happy with larkin. but this is the reponse? leaking that you want out? i suspect the team already knew. bultman kind of alluded to that in the wwp pod today, that the league folks had an idea already. the bottom line is that we dont know what happened behind the scenes and were all speculating. i still think there is a chance larkin doesnt go anywhere and he's playing in detroit next year. probably a 25% chance. if yzerman doesnt get what he thinks is value on the trade market or if larkin vetos a trade and holds out for minnesota (who doesnt have much detroit would really want), then its quite possible larkin is back in detroit. at that point, whether he wants to be on the ice in detroit would be up to dylan larkin.

we were talking about 3 firsts for rob thomas. larkin isnt that much worse than thomas, AND there is no one available in free agency. i think this is the perfect time to trade him (other than 2 years ago).

The only way they get Murphy is if Duren is involved.

The last three of those deals are good deals for larkin, imo.

trade ideas: Kings: To DET: C Jimmy Lombardi, 2026 LAK 17th Overall, 2026 CBJ 43rd Overall, 2027 LAK 1st Round Pick, 2028 LAK 1st Round Pick Wild: To DET: C Charlie Stramel, 2027 MIN 1st Round Pick, 2028 MIN 1st Round Pick, 2029 MIN 1st Round Pick flyers: C Jack Nesbitt, C Jett Luchanko, 2026 PHI 21st Overall, 2027 TOR 1st Round Pick Lightning: C/RW Sam O’Reilly, C Ethan Czata, 2026 TBL 58th Overall, 2027 TBL 2nd Round Pick, 2028 TBL 1st Round Pick Leafs: 2026 TOR 1st Overall Cbus: C/W Kent Johnson, LD Jackson Smith, 2026 CBJ 14th Overall, 2026 STL 43rd Overall Bruins: C Fraser Minten, C William Moore, 2026 BOS 23rd Overall, 2028 FLA 1st Round Pick Panthers: C Anton Lundell, 2026 FLA 9th Overall, 2026 FLA 40th Overall from Sloth's favorite Dollar Store Yzerman Substack.

larkin also has a full no trade clause, so he can veto any trade. yzerman wont **** around. if he cant get value, he'll make him sit out. ask jonathan drouin.

without larkin the wings have almost nothing at the most important position. kasper looks more like a winger, danielson is MIA, and finnie was better on the wing. copp is old and compher is useless. im skeptical they can get a young center for larkin. draft picks, sure. but draft picks are years away. seider will be 28 by the time a draft pick from this year begins to hit jis prime.

if true, it would give them clarity on doing a new rebuild. larkin's contract has aged pretty well in the cap expansion era. its worth quite a bit, i think. do you extend debrincat? he's younger than larkin but will command $10+ on the open market. does he want to stay if theyre in another rebuild? do you trust this management group to do another rebuild? i dont.

what's the worst contract on that list? paul george? jimmy butler? sabonis? lavine? embiid?

the "watch the spurs miss open shots" theory.

brick fest. san antonio is smothering the knicks. the spurs are missing wide open jumpers and layups.

i too think this may be duren's ceiling. but he's so young, he might be able to keep his athleticism for the next 7-8 years. they are betting on improved defensive awareness with time. that is not a huge leap, imo. otoh, the foot speed is likely to never be better than it is now. he is as strong as an ox now, i cant see that getting better. its already good. he's not going to get any taller. what can he improve? a jump shot and defensive awareness. will he get there? your guess is aa good as mine, but i have a feeling were going to pay $250 million to find out.

from the athletic: "There’s a general sense around the league, as things stand today, that negotiations likely began far apart and will eventually come to a middle ground in the ballpark of a five-year, $200 million to $220 million deal — landing Duren an average annual value of $40 million to $44 million. "

That's the point though, there may not be other options. We all **** on duren but the rest of the league sees the same things. you have to find a dumb gm, a desperate gm, or a gm willing to gamble on duren's age. but again, at the end of the day were going to overpay for duren. its the easiest thing to do that wont get any backlash even if it doesnt ultimately work out. plus cade supposedly loves him and it will make cade happy. it may hamstring the pistons for years, but it wont hurt trajan's job prospects. if he trades him and it doesnt work out, then he'll get fired.

and the spurs?

all year long del tells me how much defense matters and then we get to the finals and he cant stop salivating over the knicks' offense. 🙂

spurs in 6, maybe 5.

ebuka okorie reads like a combination between danniss and sasser. destined for backup point guard duties. but hey, its the 21st pick so what do you expect?

hmmm....looking to buy a second round pick maybe?

the process involved in signing valdez was sound. it hasnt worked out yet because of the other injuries. the process in bringing in morton and paddack last year was not sound, and it resulted in them losing the division. perhaps if they had signed a bregman or a valdez-type at the beginning of last year, or traded for someone of that ilk, they would have been better? we'll never know the answer, but my overall point was that when you have a generational talent who will likely only be with you for so long, you should try to maximize that window of contention, and they failed to do that the previous two seasons, imo. i would say the same thing to the pirates with skeens.