Betrayer

I think the Orlando smoke might be real, but another interesting option is that he doesn't like the fit in Indy who already have their backcourt. There's a lot of talk that Ausar should have the ball in his hands, which is more likely in Washington who's about to trade Beal.

I'm seeing Orlando as the team. They were super high on Amen and there were rumors that they were going to try to trade up to get him. That probably fell through and they like Ausar almost as much.

So, literally all the players in the 4-8 range? OK, got it. There's also a report out there from Givony, Woo, and their "sources" that the Pistons and Mavs have discussed a deal involving #10 and Tim Hardaway Jr for Bogie and the #31 pick. Probably not the entirety of the deal, because that would be a slam dunk for Detroit, but those would be the core parts of it. I'm guessing we'd have to absorb Bertans and maybe send back someone who can rebound (Bagley or Wiseman), but that's just me extrapolating. Either way, I'm doing that deal in a heartbeat. Not only because I'd love another lottery pick, but also because I'd love to move Bogie when his value is highest (and get better defensively as a result).

Should've been more. Lied right to the Commissioner's face a few weeks before doing the exact same thing again. Weak decision made in the interest of ratings. Can't have your biggest stars miss too many games.

Vecinie has Whitmore at 3 on his board though he has him in the same tier as a few others so he still has him going to us at 5 due to Miller with Portland and Amen with Houston being better fits with those teams.

Wizards and Beal are trying to work out a trade that makes sense. He’s the only guy in the NBA with a no trade clause, so he gets all the say on where he goes.

Interesting point and it could actually matter to us. It's probably just draft week smokescreens, but there are some rumors that Whitmore could go before Miller and bump him down to us. If Whitmore goes higher and Amen falls to us I seriously hope we find a trade partner that's in love with him (for instance, Orlando) and trade down. On top of my concerns with Amen's shooting, he needs to be on-ball to do anything on offense, so I see no way we make this work with Cade, Ivey, and Amen.

100% agree that Walker is far more of the Stanley Johnson pick than Whitmore. They aren't even comparable in my opinion. As for Grant, he was a ball stopper but there are a number of factors here. First, that's what he came here to do and was asked to do. Second, who else was going to do it before Cade showed up? Third, things changed as the season went on and Troy said he asked him to play more efficiently. Fourth, Casey has never coached shot selection in his entire career. Fifth, Grant did play much more like we'd want him to play when he went to Portland with a clear pecking order. I'm not sure Grant is leaving Portland and I'm not sure I'm ready to start giving out 30M contracts for non-All-Stars on a team that only won 17 games last year. But...he does fill a huge need, would undoubtedly improve this team, and is a better option than most of free agents this year. That said, I still think Troy uses his cap space in trade rather than Free Agency.

Couple other things: Beard reporting that part of the deal was a private jet that would be made available anytime Monty needed it for his wife to fly back to Phoenix for medical reasons. Also, they set up a fund to handle any medical needs that aren't covered by insurance for her cancer treatment. Cool stuff that continues to demonstrate how they're trying to build a family oriented organization with good character and relationships. This is probably part of the "out of the box" thinking that Troy was talking about with Gores approach to landing Monty. Looks like Dan Burke ("defensive guru"), Jarrett Jack, and Mark Bryant ("big man savant") are joining the coaching roster as well. I think they were on site yesterday as well. This is shaping up to be a pretty impressive and experienced coaching staff. You don't get this kind of team if you hire Ollie. You get them because you landed Monty.

I'm with you on Hendricks being the best day 1 fit. People question the ceiling since he doesn't create, but he does the 2 things this team needs most: High level shooting around Cade and Ivey and excellent defense and rim protection. If they don't have the guts to draft him at #5 I'd love to see them move down, get some assets, and grab him at 7 or 9. He's not falling to 10. For Walker, I guess it all depends upon your belief in the shot. I don't recall the exact stat, but it's extremely rare for a guy with a 66% FT percentage to become a good three point shooter. He wasn't a good three point shooter even though they were all assisted, easy shots. He also had very bad looking misses (looking at misses rather than makes is something a lot of scouts believe in). He's afraid of contact, can't create, and can't shoot midrange either. On offense, he's a train wreck to me unless you have a ton of elite shooters around him and just need him to Draymond-lite. That's not us. We need to surround Cade and Ivey with guys who can space the floor and make their lives easier. And although his defense is versatile, it's not as good as Hendricks, so I don't see the appeal here on any front over other guys in this range.. As for Whitmore: -Super high finishing stats - 65% at the rim -Explosive leaper/athlete (40.5" vertical) to go along with strong frame. Not just trying to muscle guys (Bey, Stuckey) because he also has the athleticism to get by and go over them (Anthony Edwards, Miles Bridges). -Excellent cutter and finisher off of cuts and lobs -Explosive first step, solid handle, can create for himself and finish through contact -Great rebounder for his position -40% on Catch and Shoot threes even though he started the season slow (thumb injury to shooting hand) -Excellent in transition -Good on-ball defender with quick hands and good lateral movement to cut off drives -Potential to switch up and down on defense due to the combo of strength and athleticism -Very young - will be 18 on draft night He has some issues as well. Obviously the assist rate is a red flag and he needs to get better at his off-ball awareness on defense. Some have pointed to the new coach in Villanova and the fact that the team itself was abysmal at passing to say he's a product of their system - I'm not so sure that's the reason. However, he's super young and I only need to teach him first level reads to unleash him. At the end of the day, the ball is going to be in Cade and Ivey's hands most of the time and Whitmore is going to be a play finisher. At that he's excellent. His potential is sky high on offense and defensively he has all the tools to be lock down.

I love that. No LA. No Boston. No NY. No Lebron, Steph, or Giannis. Biggest star was not a household name. And yet, it was the most watched NBA finals in 5 years.

Cool to see all the players show up except Bogie (who I assume is overseas since he's not from here). Anyone else catch the tension in the room with Gores and Weaver when they talked about those "5 days" at Gores' house when they were hashing this out? At one point Gores said something like, "I wouldn't call it a yelling match" and later Troy said something about them having to be "refereed" for 5 days. In the end he said he respected Gores generosity and making him "think out of the box." It's interesting to see where this goes depending upon how Monty works out (or not). Usually the GM goes out and gets their guy, but in this case it's clear that Gores went out and got Monty. I'm sure Troy wanted him as well and maybe didn't believe they could get him so he fought for someone else, but in the end it sounds like Gores fought Weaver on this and was the one to make it happen. He flew Monty out to his house on his personal plane and made the pitch, not Weaver. So really, this is more the Owner's guy than the GM's, which I find interesting.

All of that stuff is fun and definitely carries you through part of July, but then it's a long 2 months of wild speculation, over-hyped workout videos, and feel-good stories about Bey's mountain hikes and Killian's reworked jumper before preseason actually starts.

There's way too much talk of the Pistons taking Jarace Walker. I'd take Hendricks, Whitmore, either Thompson, and probably a few others over him. -Not a good three point shooter - less than 35% even though most were assisted (so, they weren't difficult pull-ups) -Poor free throw shooter - 67%, and history says those guys don't become good shooters -Afraid of contact in the lane and not a good finisher unless he's open for a dunk -Terrible in the mid-range (40%) even though he took the majority (41%) of his shots from there ---30% on pull up 2s ---34% on floaters -Less switchable than Hendricks due to weaker lateral speed -Weaker shot blocker than Hendricks -Nothing special about his handle or creation -He's an undersized 5 playing the 4 with no real scoring skills (don't we have one of those already?) On the plus side: -He's a good defender -He's a good passer I honestly wonder how this kid is even being talked about before pick #10, let alone the top 5. Any Walker stans in here want to talk me off the ledge I'll be on when they pick this kid?

Great seeing Denver win it last night. Joker should've won the regular season MVP, so it was good to see him do it on the biggest stage while Embiid sits on his couch and Marc Jackson (who "forgot" to cast any MVP vote for Joker) calls the game. Also great to see KCP and Bruce Brown get rings. Those guys were pretty much the only 2 players I actually liked from those Piston teams. All hustle and effort. Perfect role players for a championship team. What a slugfest too. Felt like a Going to Work era game and I loved it.

This is the week of draft smoke and boredom while we wait for crazy season to begin next Thursday.

Who? Toronto rebuild incoming.

Would love to see a rule where the team that waived a player can't re-sign him for 12 months. Cut the shenanigans.

Where's he going to ring chase next? I'm guessing Lakers.

He has one of Whitmore's strengths as "feel for the game". I'm a fan of Whitmore, but that's literally his biggest weakness. He has "Interior Scoring" as one of Walker strengths, even though the guy shies away from contact worse than Killian. Again, one of his biggest weaknesses. I'm not sure anyone else has Amen that low (#6). I'm not sold on the Hamidou twins, but even I'm not letting Amen drop to #6.

**** isn't coming off the board until around pick #10, so he could be a target if they trade down. Still though, this team needs 2-way wings. Only one team in the bottom third of the NBA on defense has made it past the first round in the past 5 years. With Cade, Ivey, ****, and Bogey we'd be historically bad. I'd like **** off the bench as a 6th man, but I'm not spending a top 10 pick on a bench player when this team desperately needs 2-way Forward talent.

Certainly agree that you need the players and Monty's ceiling may not matter at all if Cade, Ivey, and Duren aren't "him". However, there's no better example of the importance of coaching than this postseason run by the Heat. Sure, having the talent of Doc River's Celtics team can win it for you regardless but Detroit teams will rarely (if ever) have that luxury.

He’s fine in the regular season using a system that empowers the players, but once teams start strategizing against their opponents in the playoffs he gets chewed up. If you watched the Suns get smashed out of the playoffs multiple times you saw his weaknesses on center stage. Talk to any Suns fans and they’ll say the same. Poor game management, poor play calling, poor at making adjustments. He’ll be fine to help this team take the next step because he’s basically an upgraded Casey, but his contract will outlast his usefulness and they didn’t help him out any by getting a top assistant who has exactly the same strengths and weaknesses.

Would have preferred them grabbing someone who can compliment Monty by covering up his weaknesses - discipline and X's & O's. That's definitely not Silas who's terrible at both of those things. Same as Monty. Same as Casey.

I'm fine with Whitmore or Hendricks. Probably leaning to Hendricks more now, but either would make me happy. Not sold on Hamidou Thompson, but I can see the upside. Probably too much of a project for such a high profile coach.. Walker feels like a Weaver player and that scares me. If you peel back the numbers on where and how he scored (and didn't), his offense really scares me. I don't want to draft a glue guy with the #5 pick. I also think getting Monty really opens up the possibility we trade this pick.