What is a crack of vacuum, Fellow thermonuclear afforts. I am at Dan
Valley coming at you with the first of two Warriors is one with two New
Year's theme pods. I'm gonna go through. I did a project where I
pulled people on every NBA team's biggest regret from the twenty twenty two calendar year,
and then we're gonna go through New Year's resolutions at some point my release
it on New Year's Day or maybe the day after since that's a since that's
a Monday, so it'll be New Year's Resolutions for twenty twenty three before we
get started, and we're going through every every NBA team here. The link
to the actual projects will be in the YouTube and podcast descriptions if you want
to read them in full, because I will try and pick up the pace
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Let's dig into this though, so I did. Every NBA team's the
biggest regret of two twenty two, and I think it's kind of important to
note that this is not meant to be a pessimistic exercise. This is I
call it the Welcome to the Season of No Regrets, a glorious time of
year in which we reflect on the past twelve months of the NBA calendar,
never once actually lamenting our fandom interest or the hours upon hours we've spent watching
this league, but we dutifully acknowledge that, yeah, things could have always
gone better for each and every team, including our favorite. Now, as
far as criteria for this goes, I didn't go with injuries, since those
are not in within a team's control. Regrets are also relative. Some teams
barely have any from which to choose, and they forced us to split hairs
and picnics and obsess over the particulars. That's perfectly fine. Other franchises,
yeah, well, there will be stronger, louder, more painful pangs of
if we only had a time machine or just flat out oh crap moments.
But many of these mistakes that I'm going to point out their mistakes right now
or regrets right now, it doesn't mean that they're irreversible. And so don't
you know, don't go through this if you don't have a thick enough skin
or you think that all these are reversible. Some of them might be irreversible.
And I also think, finally, if you prodded team executives for their
responses here, they would give you a bunch of different answers. These regrets
are not meant to reflect what the team would say, because they're going to
give you the party line instead. I informally pulled people who cover and follow
every team for their thoughts, suggestions, and confirmations with one goal in mind,
spotlighting moves or overarching themes from the year twenty twenty two, so part
of last season, part of this season that each franchise should be regretting as
of now as we enter two twenty three and the actual last final. Aside,
I did steer clear of anything that wasn't purely related to basketball. There
are a lot more important things that have happened off the court this year that
deserve focus, but they're also debatable. Those should be regrets everyone involved,
everyone related to the team should regret all the stuff that we've seen happen,
with Miles Bridges pleading no contest to a felony domestic violence charged, then the
Hornets news dumping that they were in contracts talks with him right before Christmas,
Kyrie Irving's anti Semitic propaganda, Anthony Edwards saying homophobic comments and then being fine
for such. Anything related to Robert Sarvern and the Phoenix Suns doctor Hillary Calvin
alleging that Josh Primo indecently exposed himself during their sessions. She was a former
team psychologist, and he was subsequently released. All this stuff, Boston Celtics
and Emai Adoka being suspended for having an inappropriate workplace relationship and making unwanted comments
toward a female employee. These are regrets. They should be regrets. They
just weren't the focus here, and I don't mean to downplay them. They
are inarguably regrettable, so I'm not intending to ignore marginalize them. This is
just a basketball exercise, as callous as that sounds. With that, though,
as we're already enough to a better pace, as I say that,
I'm gonna go blow through this. We start with the Atlanta Hawks. This
was interesting. The regret I have is trading Kevin Herder Sacramento, but also
letting Travish Schlank direct their entire offseason before putting into different front office leadership less
than halfway through the year. We know that now Dave McMillan's thinking about resigning
because you know, not because of what's going on. Talks he said that
maybe he's thinking about retiring after this year. I believe he was the latest
Landry Fields feels like he's already gonna make changes. It's weird to let Schlank
go three your entire offseason, spearhead, the de Jante Murray trade, your
draft, all that jazz, and then for him to sort of step down
midway through the year. If he was that close to being fired or demoted,
however you want to frame it, you probably should have made that call
sooner. I would think or not let him make such wholesale decisions. But
I think that's the easy one here. Like Kevin Herder, the Hawks are
in the bottom three of both three point percentage in a tenth rate. Kevin
Herder is a lights out shooter who was killing it for the King, shooting
over forty percent on his triples the Boston Celtics. The regret turnovers and poor
defensive rebounding to close out the twenty twenty two NBA Finals. I think that's
a no brainer here. You can't really lament William was the third injury.
I guess some people could say, could they have gotten Malcolm Brogden at last
year's trade deadline? He was battling achilles injuries all year last season, so
I can't say that. And when you look at the Celtics, they jump
out to a two to one series lead in the finals, and over the
final three games they turn the ball over more than twenty percent of their possessions,
and they allow Golden State to rebound almost thirty percent of their own missus.
And then game six, in particular, they turn the ball over on
twenty five percent just about of their offensive possessions, and then they allow Golden
State to board thirty seven point three percent of their friendly misfires. They'd like
to have those back. The Brooklyn Nets probably don't regret a whole lot right
now, but taking so long to carve out some zeblence of stability here,
it's a no brainer. I think you can equate this. They should have
fired Steve Nash sooner if you weren't going to give into Kevin Durant over the
offseason. But then fire Steve Nash seven games into the year. That's weird,
and you've been basically the best team in basketball under Jacque Vaughan. But
it's also just the extracurricular stuff taking so long to kind of draw a line
in the stand with Kyrier, not just with their response to his anti Semitic
propaganda, but also his contract talks, like that's not on. If they
didn't want to sign them, that's fine, But they let that drag out.
They let the Kevin Durant trade demands circus play out for so long you're
hedging on Steve Nass there. They let this, even the James Harden stuff
before he was traded last year. They let this team turn into a three
ring circus and then let it last for longer than it really needed to.
And that's just that's a no brainer regret there. The Hornets, I think
some people are going to point to, all, why are they still aiming
for the middle and just can't blow it up? How are you going to
blow it up with this? Seem like who has net positive trade value?
Aside from LaMelo? There's Cody Mark's not healthy, otherwise he might, but
there's PJ. Washington and Mark Williams probably has it at this point, and
maybe Kelly Bridge Junior. And that's just kind of sort of it. At
this point, the Hornets sucked right now and so they don't need to blow
it up. They're going to be organically bad. I don't understand why they
dealt out of number thirteen in the draft. That's their biggest regret. They
ended up getting a pick from that'll come from the Nuggets. That'll be worse
this year. It's gonna be way outside the lottery and then four like kind
of shitty second rounders. This isn't about them missing on jail and Derren.
Mark Williams looked pretty good lately, but like, why not take a flyer
on, you know, take Mark Williams, the guy you apparently wanted at
number thirteen, and then they could have taken a flyer on Charison or Christian
Brown. Imagine any of those guys on this team right now. The Chicago
Bulls, their biggest regret has to be whipping on the twenty twenty two NBA
trade deadline. We knew that Lonzo Ball was having the issues at that point,
but the Bulls were married to this wind now timeline at that moment,
regardless. His injury can't change that. Even Alex Caruso being banged up,
if you had the chance to flip Patrick Williams for Jeremy Grant or Harrison Barnes,
two perfect fits that were just sort of floating around on the trade market
out there, and you didn't. That's a big miss because look at just
where you're at now. Patrick Williams is kind of showing signs at both ends,
but then it's just maddingly inconsistent as stretches where you don't feel him.
And the Bulls are not better off now for keeping him, nor are they
more equipped to tear it down and start over because they kept him. Either,
they should have done something to maximized last year when they were thirteen games
over five hundred at the trade deadline, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Caros Lavert
trade. This is it's not a huge regret, and they have his expiring
contract now, but they have other contracts that thin get like Jetty Osman and
Dylan win Windler, Like you can step out of your way with money,
even Kevin Love, who really needed to to bring in a bigger ticket player.
But you gave up a first round pick. You had to keep it
this past year, and you ended up sending it out in the Donovan Mitchell
trade. But if you still had that just extra first round pick in your
chamber, you could have used it to make a trade this year. Or
does it save you a pick in the Jazz trade for Donovan Mitchell, where
maybe you're not going out as far on the commitments. I doubt it.
Maybe Danny Ainge you even insists on getting that pick as well, but I
think you'd rather have the pick at this point for the flexibility it would provide
you on the trademark. I think Carris Lavert, who's had an iffy season
and becomes definitely redundant a little bit off the bench as another ball handler when
and if Ray Rubio is healthy. The Mavericks, it's the jail, how
they handled the Dylan runs In situation and his eventual exit. I think we
can argue that most of the situation played out before twenty twenty two, because
the Mavericks didn't offer him that four year, fifty five point five million dollars
extension whatever it was leading into last season, and I'm sure they would have
offered it, or I don't know if they did. I think there's there's
complicting reports about that he wasn't going to sign it with the way he was
playing last year. I think what's more problematic is they didn't capitalize on his
value at the trade deadline, having to know he was a flight risk.
Even more so than that, like they didn't put up an aggressive enough offer
to even like maybe poach him away from the Knicks. And even if you
thought he was already gone to the Knicks, how did you not try to
find leverage to broker assign in trade he saw the Knicks were going to lengths
to create cap space. Was it just a non starter? And even if
you're going to come up with an excuse for all that, there's no defense
for just not adequately replacing him. You have Luca being overworked still even though
they tried to use me different situations. And then you Christian would okay,
you have Spencer in wity, but you already had Spencer Dimity. That wasn't
an addition. That was just him being promoted essentially because of the jail and
Brunson exit and now Kemball Walker plush Christian Wood. That's not enough at like
extra shot creation there. You couldn't even bag going on drocket. You're a
friend of Luca don Chich because you wanted him to be basically a shorter Bobon
and sit at the end of your bench. You're also not built to make
a trade now because you have to convey that pick to the Knicks. I'll
excuse not making a trade, but not just even more capably handling Brunson's exit
in general and the fallout from it. You have to regret that the Denver
Nuggets no major regrets, but I think giving the thunder a twenty twenty seven
first round pick to take on ja Michael Green, it's conditional predicted that twenty
twenty nine that has to be a regret. It wasn't in either or proposition.
It was a way of cutting their tax bill and they are comfortably in
the tax now. Also, the contagious called Polpe trade cut their tax bill,
but that was also just a really good basketball trade from them. I
know the Nuggets got the number thirty pick in last year's draft as part of
that Jamichael Green dump, But unless you're in love with Peyton Watson, I
would prefer the flexibility of being able to trade up to two first round picks
conditionally because of their commitment to Is it Orlando? I think it's Orlando because
the way they're commitment to Orlando shakes out, that would be more valuable to
them. And I think you could also say, if you want to talk
about the Monte Morris trade, there wasn't no way to figure that one out
without giving him up, because now you saddle Bones Highland with just so much.
I think those reps end up helping Bones in the long run, and
the struggles that are sort of part and parcel here, it's really just the
I'd rather have the pick. I don't care about saving billionaires money. You're
cutting their their tax bill. So even if you had your Michael Green on
the roster, you just don't have Peyton Watson at that point. It's a
body count wash and you could have waived your Michael Green. Like we're talking
about billionaires here and a championship contender who I think needs to more more optimally
use their best assets. And I don't know that they would have went out
and made this huge trade, but those picks, to have them, not
only do they cost control the assets down the players down the line, but
their assets you can move in future seasons, even if it's not this one.
It just would have been more flexibility. So not a fan of it
in hindsight. The Pistons, they're at a point in the rebuild where you
can't necessarily regret much unless you think that Jay Nivey was the wrong selection.
Just why you give him Marvin Badley three yearant eight years? I know that
he played well and developed chemistry with Kate Cunningham at the end of last year.
What was his market that you need to give him twelve point five million
bucks a pop. That's above mid level of money. Why did it have
to go out so long? He has been bad this year. He's shooting,
He's like an effective field goal percentage sub forty five on jumpers. Not
hitting his threes doesn't make sense in the dual big lineups, opponents are shooting
over seventy two percent at the rim when he's on the floor. And he
also hasn't been able to play with Kate Cunningham because Badley missed the start of
the season and came back just as Kate Cunningham suffered his his shin injury.
So that's just the deal that they should want back. It's not a moovable,
but it's at least one year too long, and it's a net negative
asset at this point. The Warriors, look, they're catching some fire right
now. Jonathan Comingka doing great things on the defensive end. Patrick Baldam Junior
and Tied Roman looked fantastic. The fact that the Warriors are dependent on guys
named Tied to Rome and Patrick Baldam Junior right now, even with step out,
is very concerning and they probably should have done a better job of I
won't say keeping veteran bench deaf because Ida Porter Junior barely played this year for
Raptors. Gary Payton the second has not even played yet for the Blazers,
and so they still would have run too issues if they kept those guys,
but they could have been more creative and how they filled out the rest of
their roster where it's you didn't have to resign Andre Goadala, you got done
to Devencenzio great ed, and then Jamichael Green hasn't worked out and you're calling
it a day. It's just we have Kamana and Wiseman and Moody and those
guys are going to step up. You trusted the youth and the unproven developmental
projects too much. I think you even trusted Jordan Poole too much. Playing
well right now, but it's had a pretty bad year overall, so I
would have liked to have seen them even make it. It wasn't assigning make
a trade James Wiseman. You should have dangled him more for bench step in
my humble opinion, someone who might be your seventh best best player, because
it's not him right now. We'll see if it pans out on the long
term, but at the moment, if you think Steph is gonna come back
and you want to make a run, Wiseman is just not valuable to you.
The Rockets no wild regrets here. If you want. Some people might
want them to have fire Steven Silas by now. I'm just maybe I just
think they took too long to, you know, uptick increase Alpert and Shane
Gun's role. They've run a lot more stuff from him through Thanksgiving, but
even so you can see dragged down by the beginning of the year. Like
his touches in the front court are down this season per game compared to last
year. His usage is down. That has more to do with probably his
shooting. He's also cut down on his turnovers, which has helped too,
So I won't read too much into that. And again they're running more stuff
from him, run even more. There shouldn't barring foul trouble, there shouldn't
be a game where he's playing under twenty five minutes, and I think it's
good that his you know, paint touches for thirty six minutes are up this
season, and like I said, they've really started to Juice's volume, juices
even more. He's your best passer right now, and I think you need
to milk that even more than you already had, and also get some guys
moving around him or too. There's like one cut on these possessions. They
have quarter one guy moving and then like the possession just dies if it doesn't
work out. So I'd like to see more of that. The Indiana Pacers
lack of clarity on the front line. I didn't want to just pick Miles
Turner, but there's a trickle down effect here. By leaving the Miles Turner
situation unsettled, you don't really know what you want out of your four spot.
So hat tip. Excuse me Rhet Bauer for chopping it up with me
about this on the side. And also, you just didn't have wings on
this roster begin with. AARONI Smith has been really nice this year. Andrew
Nemhar has been able to guard up a bunch guarded some threes, guarded some
fours two this year. I appreciate that Indiana has gotten gloriously weird at the
ford when you just look at like Benn Nick Mathren Is defended some fours this
season, But like, you want to figure this out at some point,
And so if you're gonna renegotiate and extend Miles Turner, good work your way
back from there. What do you want out of the four spot? Is
it a Jalen Smith type player? Is it someone is it someone else?
Are you going to go with more of a power wing there at the four
spot? If you're gonna have Miles Turner, I would I prefer power wing
more than Jalen Smith, to be honest with you. But what are you
gonna do with the three spot? Then? Like Bennedict math and Buddy Heal,
Christo Wart like those are all swingmen guards. To me, you have
a shaper sett He's a free agent and criminally underplayed still and there's just that
lack of clarity. It's not just about Turner, it's what do we want
out of the rest of this. It's a lack of true wing options and
then sort of a lack of an idea what you want at that second forward
spot and then also just at the center spot, because are you going to
keep Miles Turner or not. The LA Clippers, I think the biggest REGRETSS
has to be not being more innovative or experimental with their offense. And I
would just phrase that as their twenty eighth and point score possession. But they're
killing people when Kawhi Leonard is on the court with Paul George and when Kawhi
Leonard is on the court without Paul George, their top end units are title
contender material. But like the John Wall stuff just hasn't worked out. He's
not given you the same variable cadence in the half court, not getting to
the rim as much as he was at the start of the season, bailing
out a lot. I don't think you need to guarantee him minutes, even
you know he's not playing both ends of back to backs. But even beyond
that, we need to grett Reggie Jackson has been better, but you don't
need to guarantee him in its normal palace played a lot better, so he
needs to be there. But do you need coming tends already out of the
rotation? Do you need Marcus Morris and all these games, like, let's
give some jet fuel in the form of Luke Kennard his just sort of functional
shooting from me outside. And then also the rim pressure and defensive energy that
Terrence Mann is going to give you the Los Angeles Lakers. This is easy
forgetting once again that wings are valuable rotation assets or the Rob Pelinka extension,
but they're both basically the same thing. To me, it's not failure to
trade Russell Westbrook over the offseason. I don't think unless they could have had
Kyrie, that there's a trade out there that would have rescued them from where
they are this season. You can't. You know, you weren't going to
prevent any Davis from getting injured with a trade, And I think that the
roster was just so far gone. No single trade, barring one for a
superstar, was ever going to save you from the faith that you're suffering now.
And so I just focused on why didn't you even optimize what the tools
you went with? You snapped up on guys under six five basically or under
six six, soever you want to look at it. Like Lonnie Walker the
fourth has been like good fit better in the offense than I thought. He
would, but like, why did you need him if you knew? You
had to know. The Beverly trade was like in the fire, you end
up signing Dennis Shrewder, you still have Kendrick Non, you added Troy Brown
Junior wants This kind of winners is not really a wing, but at least
like SOT Accounts is one, There's him and Austin Reeves and Lebron and it's
like kind of sort of hit for this team. Why weren't they in on
Utah want a Nabby or TJ Warren? Did they? I'm sure wants Anaby
definitely would have been an option for them to TJ. Warren not want to
go there. It seems like he really wanted to go to Brooklyn. So
they needed to do more to get actual wings and to make the roster makes
sense, which is something they fail to do time and again during the Lebron
James era the Grizzlies. My regret is them not getting more of an established
veteran to diversify the front court. I, however, will not pretend that
the Grizzlies have any regrets. They would probably trash talk me into a sobbing
fetal position if I directly suggest to them that this is what they should have
done. And look, I don't blame them. They've They've had a lot
of developmental hits. Bay might be an All Star if he didn't miss over
a month with that right toe injury. Sandy Aldama is super useful and just
sort of everywhere at David Roddy is this idiosyncratic utility. You can see the
vision of Jakla Rabia and his outside values that here. Williams, who dealt
with a knee injury to start the year, has the fluidity in length to
make things happen, even if he too often plays at a speed best described
as buffering. Everything's sunky dory. But like we're talking playoff basketball. If
you want to get to lineups and you are going to with Jarren Jackson Junior
at the five and you don't have Anderson, you don't have melted anymore.
Yeah, your defense is fine, you're forcing turnovers again, but it just
feels like you need to upgrade the Aldama Roddy minutes here. Brandon Karkman.
It's even because he's been such a matchup problem against certain teams, including the
Warriors, someone like Kyle Kuzma would have been great. They should have been
in on the Jeremy Grant sweep stakes. The fact that they didn't go that
route, and they have the assets too, it's just a little bit disappointing
to me. And I get what they're doing, but I think it should
be regret Kiven, how good they are, they should approach the potential for
when now upgrades with more urgency Miami Heat. They regret inadequately replacing the PJ.
Tucker minutes. He was gone for feeling no matter what, even if
they were going to match the money. I don't think they would have,
but they could have. If they would have, I think he still would
have left. So it's not about him leaving specifically, but you did nothing
to replace him. And yes, I know you're limited in flexibility and spending
power. You brought back Kayla Martin those minutes with him at the flour been
a net neutral about They've been okay and he's been good for them, But
Jimmy Butler's had to play more four than ever. That's got to be taxing
on him. And then you're sort of trying to get by with Hayward high
Smith. We've seen the Corps of Duncan Robinson there for a bit, and
as well as rookie Nikola Yovich, and we've seen the Heat's offense and offensive
rebounding in particular suffer. Accordingly, I get Miami Soul's time to exit this
holding pattern, but like they also don't, the margin for error in the
East is not that great. They are worse, especially on offense, than
they were last year, even as they're starting to tick up at the moment,
and just skulking around the Jay Crowder roomoril doesn't count as making a move
up. Its just it doesn't like you need to strike at some point.
The Bucks, I think they needed to do more to beef up their half
court offense. I know that Chris Middleton hasn't really played this year. He
drew Holiday and Johannis had played in just five games together as we talk right
now. It's an issue. But like signing Joe Ingles was a flex when
you knew that Middleton wasn't going to be available to start the year. Because
Joe Ingles wasn't available to start the year, I don't know if that money
could have gotten you TJ. Warren, And so we're splitting hairs over well,
who was available, why not be more aggressive looking for trades at that
point? Like Jordan Clarkson would have been eminently more gettable from Utah before the
season started, and now you probably don't have the assets to get him,
and you've been linked to Jay Crowder, who unlocks lineups if you want to
play Jannis is the lone big which I guess against certain teams, but Procopus
has been so good, why would you want to do that? Meanwhile,
you're sitting twenty third and half court offense twenty six and half court offense is
the start of December. Middleton might come back, but are like full health
is not a short for this team or any other team. I think the
Ingles signing and retrospect might have been a touch too ambitious for them. I
just don't know that they had the runway to do that, and I would
like to see them linked to, like you know, step Ladder, your
way to Eric Gordon will go a long way for this team, even if
you have to give up your twenty twenty nine first would you put mar John
Bochamp on the table for certain players? I don't not Jay Crowder, would
you do for Jordan Clarkson? He's gonna be inspiring. Whould do for Eric
Gordon? Probably not, but like, why weren't you in on the Kevin
Herder So we've stay it's given that the Hawks really only got a pick for
him. Luke Nard, it seems like he would have been gettable from from
the Clippers. So I would have liked to seen the Bucks to do more
to fortify a half court offense that was already fragile dating back to last season,
the timber Wolves going all in on the Rigobert experiment. It just it
has to be this, Yes, they need more time. Towns missed most
of the preseason and training and a bunch of training camp, I believe,
and now he's out again. Riobet's missed some time too, very stop and
start nature of the Wolves season. But they gave up what's the They gave
up Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, the Andrew Ball, Almo Walker Kessler,
Jared Vanderbilt, four first round picks and one swap. Now, given Vanderbilt's
contract and how well he played that season under team control still and then that
Walker Kessler was just drafted at the time, that's really the equivalent of six
first round picks in the swap and you can argue the equivalent of seven first
round picks depending on how you feel about Malik Beasley. You don't make that
move, you don't pay that bounty unless you know this is going to work,
unless you know that Gobert is your line to title contention. He has
not been that. And it's not just the partnership with Towns. They've lost
the minutes those two share at the floor, they've gotten obliterated. When Gobert
is by himself and testing out more of his offense, it's been interesting to
watch, Like when he needs to make more complicated or intermediate decisions, it
doesn't always look pretty. He's taken more jumpers this year already than he did
all of last year. He's still hitting him at a sub thirty five percent
clip. This has not worked out. And if you wanted to test it
out, and you didn't think Jared Vanderbilt was sort of enough of a proxy,
why not go the Miles Turner out? Why not? Even like even
for Shawn Holmes would have been too low level at that. I just you
should have waded into this and not gone immediately all like Jeremy Grant even would
have made more sense. Like play him is just the with Towns and give
him a lot of the center responsibility to see how that works. It would
have cost less than what you did for Rudy Gobert, who was now on
the wrong side of thirty and just doesn't really look the same. Opponents are
shooting almost sixty percent against him at the rim. It's it's below the league
average of what opponents hit it shoot at the rim. But it's also the
worst mark Rudy Gobert's ever allowed in his career the Pelicans. This one was
tough for a team at the nev Zion last year. They don't have a
lot of regrets. I think you go back to starting Hayes in every game
of the playoffs last year against the Suns and hats hit Mason Ginsburg for really
shining a light on this for me from the in the No podcast. That's
a great podcast. Check it out. He played eighty three minutes and most
of those came alongside Jonas found Tunis, and the Pelicans were outscored by twenty
one points in seventy seven minutes with those two on the court. Why like
like like why those two were effective, especially on the offensive glass when they
played it together. They weren't good enough overall for the Pelicans to view them
as the staple in the playoffs. They were playing free of expectations, So
I get it. Some people think Zion could have gone. Imagine if he
just played Jackson Hazes eighty three minutes, like he doesn't play any other other
than those eighty three minutes, the Pelicans win that series. I'm reticent to
say yes, just because you would be throwing him in Zion and cold at
that point, but like you could have gone other routes, just you're basically
you want to found Tunas with all wings or ball handlers around him, they
might have won that series. If you also want to nitpick that it took
really Green too long to go from Garret Temple to Trey Murphy and the rotation,
that's fine, but they kind of figured that out earlier in twenty twenty
two. The Knicks, this one's easy. It's taking too long to clear
the runway and continuously confounding and obvious getting their direction. It's not the Donovan
Mitchell trade. That wasn't. Yes, you assembled all these picks to a
trade for a star and then quite really didn't trade for a star using those
picks who wanted to play for you. I understand some people want to pick
that. I won't argue. I just don't think the Knicks would have given
up that ransom. They wouldn't have been good enough to win a title and
wouldn't have had enough assets to turn around and get another star immediately. It's
okay, whether it was by choice or by force, that they didn't end
up with Donovan Mitchell. This tendency for them to sort of just fuck around
in the sub middle. I know they just wanted eight games. They followed
up with a five game losing streak. I don't care that Channel Brunson and
RJ. Barrett suffered injuries. You don't get you know, pretty much just
your defense was embarrassed by the Spurs. There have been high points. You
know, Tips has gotten away from Derek Rosen to Evan Fournier. We've seen
the defense take up generally with Quenton Grimes and Deduce McBride and Immanuel quickly being
a part of the rotation. There's still and this isn't just on Tips,
It's not just on the players. There's still just this lack of alignment within
the Knicks. We know that they have basically two separate front offices at least,
and there's a disconnect. You gave up a conditional first round pick for
Cambratis who never really was even given a shot. I'm not saying he needs
to play right now. With Obie out, I would probably look at him
more at the four whatever, but like now you're just going to accept that
as a sunk cost or remove him for pennies on the dollar if you can
even get that. Why he was a manuel quickly available at all this year
when he was playing so well defensively just because you didn't trust his offense,
But like, what were you pivoting to after that? He only recently started
playing duce Mcbrian Quentin Grimes and the quickly rumors pre date those. What is
going to go on with Obi Toppin when he's healthy Right now, it's not
an issue. Julie Rand was playing well. Topping is injured, it's going
to become an issue again. This team is so confusing, and I think
that they've made progress relative to last season, but it's not enough to say
that their vision, their long term outlook is clear because of it. Okay,
see, I think that you could maybe regret them not being able to
find like a risk made of teflon that they could rush order from Amazon or
something for Ushman Jang. That two's just had some risk issues centering the league,
and he's been really funning to watch this season to me. But really
the only regret is not surrounding Shay with more shooting. I think the Thunder
are tied for the leading crunch time and it's played. They have a losing
record in those stretches. Shay has been great, turned into All NBA campaign
even amid the cramp spacing. But the Thunder a twenty second and three point
a tenth rate and twenty and three point accuracy. Isaiah Joe and Alexei Polkashevski,
who's now going to be out for six eight weeks, are the only
players on the roster attempting at least three triples per game while also hitting them
at or above a league average clip. I want to see Shay around more
shooting. I just I want to see him. The Thunder would be they
were kind of like, you know, prowling around the play in tournament territory
right now. They might if they just had more shooting, because they tend
to overachieve defensively and figure those lineups out. And I think Jang's going to
be an excellent defender. I hope he's able to come back and look good
this season. Jay Dubb has been really good. If he's ever able to
consistently hit a three on moderate volume, that's going to be like a terrifying
player. So they could be more playworthy than they already are now. I
think if they just had more shooting around Shay the Orlando Magic, they don't
really have a regret either. I thought about it. I talked to Kobe
Price to the Orlando Sentinel about this briefly, and they could have You know,
we had the pre draft subterfuge where they made everyone think they were taking
Jabari only to pivot to Palo. Could they have done something where they were
going to pivot the chet home grin and made okay see give up an asset
to jump up a spot. We know Okaysey was willing to consolidate picks because
they did that for Rusmanjang or would Okay, so he was just taken Palo.
That's sort of the variable I can't account for here. They might have
just taken Palo bangkarro and so you can't call that a regret. I think
it's just why is Terrence Ross still on the roster. It's not failure to
get involved to Don Mitchell sweepstakes. I don't even think Terrence Ross is a
big regret. It's just he could have maybe gotten you something from a contender
at last year's deadline. I know he's a valuable locker room presence in Orlando,
but he hasn't really shot a good enough clip from three in quite some
time actually to give you any real value. And like his place in the
rotation, if you're planning on ever being at full strength again, Sucks is
injured like you have faults and cool Anthony back. It does get a little
murky, especially with Gary Harris coming back as well, and he makes more
sense for this roster at the moment. I just think that they probably should
have moved Ross at the twenty twenty two trade deadline to open up even different
types of combinations or forced themselves to acquire more complimentary shooting this past summer.
I don't want to repeat just what I said for okay see, but this
is a team that could benefit from that as well. The Philadelphia seventy Sixers.
This one had tip Brian to Porrek from Forbes and Liberty Ballers leaving Joel
Embiid in too long during their Game six win over Toronto during the playoffs.
Look, let's just set the stage here, and Bid suffers a mild concussion
and white orbital fracture against the Raptors in Game six that the Sixers were winning.
There were less than four minutes remaining. The Sixers were up by almost
thirty. Why did Doc Rivers have this men in there and he was already
banged up. Remember he then goes on to miss the first two games of
the semi finals against Miami. Philly lost both those games by a combined thirty
points while were lying too heavily on DeAndre Jordan. There were some bright Paul
Reid moments there, but they were absolutely waxed. Biad comes back isn't totally
the same the Sixers lose. I will say, we can't guarantee the Sixers
would have rewritten playoff history if him Bid never got hurt. I don't know
that they were good enough or even healthy enough to do that. But like
that's a pretty it's kind of flown under the radar. I know there's hostility
towards Doc and Philly, but it's just sort of not been written off.
But I feel like we don't talk about this enough or what would have happened
if I Bide never gets injured against the Raptors in that Game six, the
Phoenix suns. So the collapse against the Mavericks in Game seven is definitely up
here. But I had a hard time reconciling the report that there was a
COVID outbreak amid the team and that some players were sick. I want to
give the benefit of the doubt that there wasn't some sort of smoke screen,
and so I went with sort of a bigger picture item where I think it.
You know, it impacts that Game seven collapse because it can go back
to last year's trade deadline and it goes up right now. Not taking a
bigger swing on the trademarket. I know they were linked to the Kevin Durant
mill for a bit that put them in a holding pattern. They didn't spend
their tax payer mid level exception. You can argue with me that there was
no one to spend it on. Why is Jay Crowder still on your payroll?
Didn't show up, wants the extension, You won't give him one.
Fine, whatever, move him. You've now dealt with injuries to Chris Paul,
to Cam Johnson, to Cameron Payne, who was having a bass back
year, and now Devin Booker's out for four weeks. You just before I
recorded this loss to the Raptors, DeAndre at and just looked completely listless for
so much of that game. You don't have enough even at full strength.
At this point, I think you can. I think you can argue that
they need a second best player, a clear second best player. Given what's
happened. Paul's been a little bit better than probably the national perspective, it
seems to trend. But is he like this should be the second best player
on the team. And then I still think there's too much inconsistency peppered into
DeAndre Ayton's game specifically, but also Michael Bridges. So why do something,
James Jones like you don't get you Acquiring Chris Paul wasn't a risk. It
happened over the off season. Make a fucking mid season move, like a
real meaningful one, not reacquiring Tory Craig or something along those lines. Eric
Gordon. That's someone who could help them. I don't know if they're won
Eric Gordon away right now after the Devin Booker injury. But if you partner
him with the kJ Martin in that trade Kyle Kuzma, he's floating around out
there, you can try and take a bigger swing. I don't know if
Siakam will become available. I do think the Knicks Wood trade Julius Randall,
but it's probably costing you too first now rather than just expiring, so that
would be something to consider. Do something Suns. Your window to win is
still now and sitting on your ass. I know the Robert's over ownership transfer
complicates matters. It's just not an excuse. This team needed to take a
bigger swing on the trade market a while ago. The Blazers. This was
tough. Some people might regret the Gary Payton the second contract. I think
when he actually does debut, he's kind of exactly what they need. They're
having depth issues, defensive issues right now not having him as part of that.
But he's also part of the solution. So can you regret that if
you want to say that they should have blown it up over the offseason,
even further rather than pivot into the instant turnaround. That's not weird, I
understand it, But like, you can't do that while you still have Dame,
And why would you move Dame when he wants to be there. That's
just my stance. So I went with they didn't get an extra twenty and
twenty two first rounder. They had one coming from New Orleans and the CG.
McCollum Larry Nash Junior trade because of where the Pelicans ended up finishing,
that did not convey, and so what happened was they got Milwaukee's twenty twenty
five first, which they used that in the trade exception from the McCollum trade
to get Jeremy Grant. That's all fine. They didn't get a first round
pick when they moved Comington in Powell. That says a lot about how Powell
was viewed around the league, I think. But to not even get an
extra two twenty two first that could have been a valuable body in what's become
a fairly shallow rotation or just another trade asset. When you turned over so
much of your roster, we're talking about four players that teams wanted. Robert
Commington not playing much right now for the Clippers. They still extended him Bold
CG. Mccollman, Larry Nash Junior got extensions in New Orleans, and Norman
Powell is like kind of sneaky, like entering the fringes of the six Man
of the Year conversation after a really bad start just to like Keyan Johnson.
That doesn't do it for me. The Detroit second and I know the Clippers
didn't have a first to spare, but yeah, to not be able to
get an extra twenty twenty two first round or even something and just more imminent
than two on top of that two and twenty five, I think that would
have gone a longer way for them. And it's not the McCollum trade specifically
then, because you get a first round pick out of that. It's giving
up Covington and Powell, I believe without getting a first round pick back the
Sacramento Kings this one. Look, you want to focus on the Tyres Haliburton
trade, I get it. I still wouldn't have made the deal. The
Kings are in the playoff on right now, so Bonus is going to be
an all Star. You can't say that it's a regret when that was the
King's angle. They wanted another All Star and they wanted to be in the
playoff. On Fast Over a few years, we can see where both these
franchises are, where Halle is, what the Pacers are doing, what the
Kings are doing, what the Bonus is doing, all of it for now,
that can't be the regret. And just because I don't agree with the
trade doesn't mean that the Kings need to lament it at the moment. And
so I just went with you could look at the wing rotation. You want
more of a pure wing than just having Keegan Murray or there's been Kevin Hrder
and Harrison Barnes. But they've figured out a way to make it work,
generally the backup center rotation, and most recently they've had a reality check with
that given the thumb injury Sabonis is playing through, that's been an issue.
It's meant too, has probably been their best, the most consistent option.
After Sabonis, did they have to bring back Alex Lynn. I don't even
like giving him a two year dearer on the first place in twenty twenty one.
I think it was was always bizarre. They've kind of punted on Rashaun
Holmes until recently. Should they invest more and a renaissance for him, should
they try to move him? Does he still have value? But the big
meat rotation behind Sabonis is sketchy. And when you're talking about high stakes playoff
minutes or high stakes minutes, that doesn't matter. But he's also playing through
an injury, and you kind of recognize, like, oh, there's gonna
be let's say a minimum move ten to thirteen minutes a game, but he's
not on the court and you want to be able to hold up for those
as rim protection or someone who needs to like facilitate the offense the way he
does, but just was at least competent on defense and can like hit some
shots at some screens on the offensive end and not doing more. Maybe keeping
Damien Jones, who has been like non existent for the Lakers but play over
the Kings last year, that's something they maybe should have looked into. The
Spurs, this is tough. They're they're in the bottom by design. You
could say, oh, they didn't trade Josh Richardson or define Dermer Yacca Purl,
Yet that's just not a regret. Those guys aren't ruining their tank,
but it might even make more sense to resign Yaka Pearle after this season.
I think it's not bringing in a veteran floor generally after the Jean Day Murray
and Dark White trades, just to sort of help streamline the development of everyone
else. You have gained valuable intel on Kelton Johnson, who looks overstretched in
his role, but still you know what he is. Devin Vassel nice picking
role maestro now and then Trey Jones steadying hands still probably shouldn't be running the
offense as a as a starter or playing starter minutes someone else. I don't
know who it would have been, but like they had the flexibility just to
bring in oversee the kids, to provide some half court structure, consistent managing.
They don't have that right now. And I'm not saying that they need
to. Like there again, they are bad. They are organically bad.
That's what they wanted to be, and they are exploring the depths and limitations
of their roster. But you get to a point where it's like, Okay,
you kind of want to if things aren't working out for someone, it's
nice to you get to test. Jeremy sow In at at point guard units.
But like if things aren't working out, you want to take the ball
out Kelton Johnson's hands a little bit more, it gets a lot harder to
do that, and that would have been nice to see they could get just
like a veteran guy to come in and help steer the ship. The Raptors
prioritizing Project six nine over roster bounds and actual needs is definitely a regret.
They half court offense still bad, the defense lately been got awful. They've
dealt with injuries. Press to chewasn't playing out of Porter Junior isn't playing,
Fred van Fleet and Pascal Siaka miss time. But once again they are so
reliant on ISOs and then their key players O, Pascal and Fred van Fleet
all rank in the top ten of minutes per game. Scottie Barnes playing a
bunch not worried about him, hasn't been as good as last year at the
very least hasn't made leap Like why was this a team that it felt like,
Oh, they were involved tangentially in the Kevin Durant rumors, but they
were never linked to Donovan Mitchell. Too small, We're not worth it and
if okay, fine, you don't want them to go first our trade.
They were good enough last season to say, well, let's think medium sized,
Like why like Eric Gordon someone else for this team that would have made
a ton of sense. You know, I still think they should have been
involved in the Mitchell trade, not to necessarily be labor that, but like
even being on the markets of like when you've seen these lower level assets become
available where it's they weren't one of the teams that was linked to having interested
in Manual Quickly. Maybe you don't trust his offense, but his defense show
would have fit this team the way that he likes to pressure guys, just
to name one. So why like, why weren't you involved in someone who
would help you create and the half court on someone who I guess might give
you even more defensive depth with the way that you want to defend I suppose,
Or why weren't you showing more flexibility in the schemes that you're having where
you just want to play. This exhaustive style of defense is going to grade
on your players, especially when they're playing so many minutes. I really just
think that they needed to that they've they've typecast themselves too much. And that's
almost their search for versatility and positionless basketball basically is actually led them into this
very rigid state where now it's okay, well, if you don't want to
make a buy now move. I'm not saying it needs to be a first
start, medium sized guy, but if you're not willing to do that this
time, to just blow everything up and retinker around Barnes and Siakam and han
Anobi and maybe just had Anobian Barnes the Jazz, this is interesting. I
put the regret as the uninspiring loss against Dallas in the first round of the
playoffs. I get that that was the impetus for them blowing it up and
being where they are now, which is stocked with assets and also one of
the friskiest Darling teams in the league. You would have liked You've seen the
Mitchell Gobert era and just more blissfully, could they put up more perimeter defensive
resistance against Joy and Brunson's Luca don Chich missed the first two games that series,
was it? No, they didn't have Lugatil game four in that series?
That's right, so like and then to still lose, that's just a
weird way to go out, and I think that the team, unless they
won a championship, we're gonna break it up anyway. They didn't try to
make upgrades throughout the season. It very much like they were just letting the
core run its course and to see to end the way that it did just
so uninspiring, was disappointing the Wizards. I haven't as forfeiting all the levers
in the bradleybial contract. I just don't know how you get around Matt Bradleybyll
went on and talked to Gilbert Renas said he's basically dated Washington because he had
no other alternatives when it came to winning teams. So this is someone limited
caps based landscape, didn't have a ton of options. There's always options.
There could have been signing trade scenarios, but didn't have options really to sign
out right, you gave him not only the full blown Supermax, you gave
him a player option on the final year, you gave him a fifteen percent
trade kicker, and in no trade clause. You lost every single element of
that negotiation. That is unacceptable, unforgivable. You also lost the contavious called
Pope trade. Definitely lost the draft, do you even, like, do
you even know who your rookie is for this team? I like, you
can't. I'm not even gonna name him because I want to know if Washington
themselves can actually name him or be willing to name him. So like how
I just this team is baffling to me where it's Are you so content to
be worse than the middle that you're like you gave Bradley be all this money.
I get that he wanted to stay. That's cool, that's fine,
q q q q cute, but but like aim for something higher and you
didn't, like you tread water in the middle. Now you don't know what's
gonna happen with Kyle Kuzma. The rookie's name is Johnny Davis. By the
way, I can I fee any Wizards fans are in the comments? Yes,
I know who Johnny Davis is, but like, and I think people
were talking about he looked his jumper looked broken and before summer leagues that would
explain a lot. But regardless, I just the bright spot for this team
has been like Jordan Goodwin, like oh his Immergan Kyle Kuzma of course,
and christs Perzinki is being a fringe All Star, you're just word of like
floating around here in Nowheresville. And I think the Bradley Beal contract is kind
of a symptom of that. And I didn't want to focus on the Wizards
not blowing it up, because it's fine that you brought back Bradley Beal,
but you couldn't have done it under even semi favorable circumstances to yourself. Now,
even when you do decide to pivot, and they will have to pivot,
the decision is not going to be their own. The leverage is gonna
be nil. He has it all. That's my biggest regret for every team
from the twenty twenty two calendar year. If you disagree, let me know,
but be kind of about it, because we all know that I have
a very fragile ego. Please remote a subscribe or if you're consuming this,
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maybe with the chat at the one, the only the indelible can never regret
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