[OhCanada-Participant]

Gettin pretty spooky out in Cleveland with Garland, Mobley, Allen and now Mitchell.

Looks like the deals for Markannen, Sexton, Agbaji three 1st round picks and two pick swaps. Pretty decent haul and still leaves Cleveland with a very dangerous team and a good amount of young talent to develop. NBA is shaping up real nice going forward.

[canadabasketballisrisingParticipant]

Not to mention Lavert- an elite 6th man, and several nice role players like Rubio. Okoro, Osman, and Love.
On paper, this is a top 5 team in the NBA If everyone is healthy.

Garland- allstar/ Rubio likely the best backup pg
Mitchell- allstar/ Lavert- top 3 6th man
Okoro- solid 3 and d/ osman- solid role player
Mobley- young potential franchise player/ Love- one of the best back up bigs and team vet with rubio and lopez
Allen- defensive young allstar/ robin lopez- solid back up big

The core is all young.

[HitsterParticipant]

Ainge has got a good haul of picks anfd two good young players in Markkanen and Sexton so Utah are in full rebuild. I was slightly surperised K-Love wasn’t used in the deal given he has a huge expiring contract so I assume Ainge was keen on Markkanen.

The Cavs moving Markkanen gives them potential room to resign LaVert too.

[HitsterParticipant]

Utah are now triple handed in next year’s draft they owe their 2024 pick to OKC but it is protected 1 to 10, same protection in 2025 and 1 to 8 protection in 2026. They will be at least double handed in 2025 draft possibly triple handed and then triple handed in 2027 and 2029 drafts. By 27 and 29 they may well have a very good roster in place so will have picks to add depth or pull off a huge trade if a star becomes available.

I’m going to throw in will the Knicks make some desperate move for a top level talent as they missed out on Mitchell?

[OhCanada-Participant]

I’m actually happy for the Knicks. They didn’t give in to Danny Ainge’s demands and get ripped off. Its okay for Cleveland to give up four 1st round picks (including Agbaji) and decent young talent in Markannen and Sexton because they have enough around Mitchell to make it work. If New York had no picks and gave up rights to swap for 6 or 7 years with Randle, Brunson and Mitchell…thats not gonna work.

[HitsterParticipant]

Utah thought Knicks had tapped up Mitchell I heard plus Ainge knew Dolan is desperate for a star so played hard ball. I’m not too worried about the picks Cavs have given up as Garland will be there until potentially 2028, Allen a minimum of 2026 and Mobley until 2029 or 30 regardless of what Mitchell does in 3 years time.

Jalen has had one good full season and one excellent play off run but I didn’t see him and Mitchell being as good a duo as he and Donic would have been. The Knicks own all their own picks and have 4 additional picks due over the next 3 or so drafts so still have a lot of fire power to make a trade.or two down the line.

Utah also have began to build a young core Sexton, Markkanen, Kessler,Agbaji and we assume that high draft picks will be added over next couple of years.

[HitsterParticipant]

I’ll be interested to see how much Utah play Conley, Bojan and even Clarkson next season if they are still on the roster. They have added some young players in there who we assume will form their core over thenext few seasons. Do they look to totally tank or if they played the current roster maybe be a 35 win team and further down the lottery.

Then if we assume Bojan, Clarkson and Conley have gone by 2023/24 just go with the young core and potebtially tank more and get the high picks then.

Do they go all out to win Victor or Scoot stakes or play the season game by game and wait for offers to come in for the vets. They will have huge draft options going forward but is it all about Victor or Scoot next summer?

[r377Participant]

Interesting to see if Mitchell and Garland can co-exist.

On paper looks good, hoping the youngsters can develop chemistry and not but heads. Prob need another solid veteran or two.

[HitsterParticipant]

Cleveland interestingly got their young core into the starting ranks ASAP and kept hold of all their “key” young talent in the trade. They do have a good number of veterans on the bench K-Love, Rubio, Lopez to back up their go to bench guys LaVert and Osman who are mid to late 20’s so IMO they have a very good mix.

Mitchell and Conley worked pretty well together so I think him and Garland can and that duo has good ball carrying options although Darius I’d assume will be the main guy with the ball and Mitchell will help spread play. Also with Rubio back you have another very good ball carrier so the coaching staff can always have a recognised PG on court or spread the play to go small ball or even go with 3 frontcourters when they used Mobley as a shield ro the smaller backcourt.

[canadabasketballisrisingParticipant]

I think SGA will end up going to the knicks for a combination of 5 of the knicks picks and a salary filler.
Being 24 isn’t out of OKC’s plans- but it;s going to be 3-4 years until they are competitive so gaining even more picks might be more ideal for them.

[HitsterParticipant]

With Chet out for the season and if SGA plays a near full season and gets an all star nod I agree the Knicks might make a plunge for him. If Thunder end up high in the lottery again and with Chet to debut too they might decide to cash in on SGA whilst his value is high especially if the Knicks make a stupidly high offer.

[OhCanada-Participant]

Well SGA is signed for 5 years but in reality he only has his max value for about 2 and a half years so question is does OKC plan on stringing anything together in the next three seasons that would make him wanna stay. Answer is probably no, he most likely tries out free agency when his contract is up. Might as well get another six 1st round picks or whatever it is and go all in on collecting assets.

[HitsterParticipant]

SGA has had a couple of good seasons in OKC but as been injury hit so a lot depends on how well he does and how the team develops. With Chet out they are not likely to be above 30 wins unless SGA has a mega season or the young talent really kicks on. Giddey, Dort, Krejci, Mann, Dieng, Maldon, Pokuševski and co may be the long term core with Jalen Williams and of course Chet plus a couple of other draft picks from this year.

So if they get another likely high pick next year then I could see them looking at offers for SGA if his stock was high and the team still struggled. If they did kick on and got over 30 wins then there is a good case for keeping SGA and seeing what the side is like when Chet is fit. But Presti is smart enough to cash in if a huge offer for SGA came in.

The Knicks won’t have FA cap space and I can just see them going blindly in for a good player who they think is/will be a superstar and getting stung in a trade.

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

I’m still not sure if this puts Cleveland in the upper echelon of eastern conference teams. They still badly need wings and shooting. I think eventually it is likely that a Jarrett Allen trade might need to happen to balance out their roster.

[HitsterParticipant]

The team has a lot of upside but teams like Boston’s best players are still young, Raptors has Barnes’ upside to factor in, Hawks are a young team too, as long as Giannis is with Bucks they are top tier so even if other teams age out the Cavs will have a lot of stiff competition. Also other rebuilding teams will become factors too.

I think they go with the current roster this season and if things aren’t quite there come next spring they have the K-Love expiring deal they could flip for a comlimentary player or players from a team looking to tank.

[r377Participant]

LOve, Rubio and LeVert all injury prone. I doubt they will play 150 games combined (ave 50 each)

[HitsterParticipant]

The key with Love, Rubio and co would be keeping them sound for the play offs when the roster would likely be the starters plus 3 or 4 vets.

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