if Bill is talking about Lebron, the Lakers, or the Celtics assume he's completely out of his mind trying to craft a specific angle take regardless of the evidence
Also Ingram went from “we aren’t sure about his health” to “by all accounts he’s fine!” the moment that trade was announced. Granted I suppose you could argue NO doesn’t make that trade if they aren’t sure of that themselves but yeah everyone showed their ass on this one.
listened to most the pod, Russillo works great when Simmons is so off the rails that he feels obligated to reel him in so the Davis pod was good as far as I got
It's been pretty widely reported that the market was not "robust". The Celtics weren't giving up any combination of Tatum, Brown and the Memphis pick, by all accounts. Denver wasn't giving up Murray. The Knicks don't have assets the Pelicans wanted. I think his point is once you go to Ball, Ingram, #4, and 2021/22 unprotected pick, why are you giving up the stuff in 23-25? I'm essentially on Team Russillo here in terms of "yeah, they gave up more than they should have, but I don't really care because they got Davis". I don't think Bill's wrong there, though, and Zach Lowe has basically made the same point (in a nicer way) on his pod yesterday with Arnovitz (who seemingly also agreed).
The Lakers' offer 4 months ago didn't include the #4 pick, nor did it apparently include the future draft picks (at least to this degree). This is a significantly better offer, by all accounts.
It is a better offer, and I like Lonzo but I am a little confused with the narrative that New Orleans won the trade easily. There is a very real chance that Ingram never plays again, and even if he does he has done nothing in three years to show he is any good, Lonzo seems like his ceiling is glue guy/defender, the number 4 pick is gonna be Darius Garland? Who could be good, but overall they got a lot of what if's and futures.
Both teams won imo. LAL got AD. NOLA got quite a bit for a guy that was gonna walk anyways. The Pels did take a gamble on the players they got. Maybe Ball is what he is, maybe he develops more. Maybe Ingram’s blood clot issue is resolved, maybe it isn’t. Maybe they package those guy(s) with draft picks to get another player. Regardless the Pels were losing AD anyways and at the very least they got 3 1st round picks and several more pick swaps. I’m intrigued by the swaps because that’s how Boston got Tatum. The Lakers will be good for a while but no telling how good and for how long and those future picks and swaps have the potential to be really valuable...just my
The Pelicans "won the trade" because they had to trade Davis and did better that most teams do in that scenario. And, on top of what they got in terms of current assets, the potential is there for a massive win down the road in 2021-25. Maybe the Lakers build a juggernaut and those picks amount to nothing, but 7 years is a long time and they gave themselves some possibilities to do a bunch of different things. I don't think anyone is suggesting the Lakers gave up too much in the way of current assets. Ball, Ingram, Hart and #4 for Davis is a big win for them. This trade significantly hurt their chances of being able to build a consistent winner around Davis whenever LeBron leaves, though. I think that's a chance worth taking, but I think it's reasonable to ask if they had to give up all of that to get this deal done.
Listening to the Damon pod again from last year. One of the better celeb interviews he has done. Damon had some great stories.
No, he's not. If you think his argument was "the Lakers shouldn't have given up Ingram, Ball, Hart and the 4th pick for Anthony Davis," you either didn't listen to the podcast or you just wanted to think he said that.
I’m literally listen to him now. I’m at the part where he’s saying that Zion is in a better position then Tim Duncan as a rookie. A team that won 56 games.
its really really easy to take Simmons argument as that before he hedges towards the end of the Davis talk and largely concedes that if they win a title no one will care but when you spend 50 minutes spouting off and 5 minutes backtracking i don't fault people
I don’t mind trading for the pedigree guys like Chauncey Billups and Oladipo but I don’t think Josh Jackson consensus top HS recruit and a top 4 pick is a pedigree guy.
He's including the future first round picks in that. That part was stupid. It was clearly one of those things he started talking about and it was like "you probably should have said this out loud before you started speaking on a podcast thousands of people are going to listen to." But he doesn't think Ball, Ingram, Hart and #4 was too high a price for Davis. I don't even really like Simmons, and I end up defending him regularly in here because the random pods I listen to that people bitch about make me think I'm reading some kind of fan fiction. He says enough stupid shit that people don't need to make up other stuff to make him seem more stupid.
What is being discounted is the Pelicans got a lot for AD when they are going to lose him anyway and he was basically demanding a trade. The only team they really had leverage on is the Lakers because LeBron's clock is ticking and they need to win now.
He said he did the research on that point before making it so it wasn’t off the cuff. I don’t know what he thought of the Lakers pieces back in February so I can’t say if he was just predisposed to hate the trade for the Lakers. But his arguments regarding superstars was also dumb when he’s putting players like Carmelo and James Harden coming off the bench on Anthony Davis’s level.
I know he wasn't speaking off the cuff. I'm saying he should have said some of that research out loud to someone before the pod because it was stupid and someone probably would have told him that rather than him sounding stupid on the pod.
I agree that the Lakers probably put more than they had to. I honestly don’t care for any of the Lakers players. So the picks were the real prize. I just find the faux caring from Simmons to be funny. The most incompetent thing to me was not getting an agreement on the Jule 30th date.
The Lakers didn't draft anyone that could win them a championship or conceivably make an all-star team when they were in the lottery. So it goes. But they are the Lakers, so LeBron wanted to go there. Players want to play there. Lonzo might turn into a top 6-10 point guard. There are plenty of good point guards. But LeBron can bring the ball up the court in the playoffs. Brandon Ingram is very tall and who gives a shit about mid to late round picks when you are the Lakers. Allocating most available assets to acquire AD and pair him with LeBron is a good idea.
If LeBron and Davis stay healthy the pics aren’t worth much. If they don’t, the Lakers are screwed regardless of how good the pics become. Seems like a no-brainer even if the price was kinda steep. People love to rip on their signings from last summer, but they worked out perfectly in terms of increasing the value of this year’s pick and clearing the books. If they had 2-3 guys tied up on multiyear MLE-type deals suddenly they’re stuck with whatever that team would have been + Davis, if they even get him w/o the #4 pick. Simmons is just bitter that his rival team finagled two top 5-10 players in two seasons. Despite the clown show in the front office, they’ve managed to land 2 of the 4 most sought after assets out there, yet somehow Simmons has convinced himself they’re the worst-run franchise of the last decade. His take on this issue is hilariously transparent.
I mean, the lakers have been poorly run and it’s been a sideshow. Fortunately for them they’re the Lakers and in a huge market. If it wasn’t the Celtics, he’d be shitting all over them for blowing the most assets in the league and coming away with no big FAs and blowing the season.
Lakers are never screwed. If they just don't lock down the Draymond Green's of basketball into max deals.
I don't think i agree with any of this. If LeBron and Davis stay healthy, any picks they could have kept would be extremely valuable in building a roster around them (either with young talent or using those picks to trade for a veteran). If they don't stay healthy, they have no chance of success and get nothing to show for it. The signings last summer were a disaster and wasted a year of Lebron. Ultimately, it led to them missing the playoffs and getting lucky by getting the 4th pick when they were likely to pick in the 10-12 range, but I don't see how that's "working out perfectly." The Lakers were once the premier organization in the NBA and became so dysfunctional that top free agents wouldn't even meet with them in July, no top level FA was likely to sign there this summer, and they've been a laughing stock for most of this decade. From where that organization was in 2010-11 to what the rest of this decade worked out to, that's an astounding collapse. They're still the Lakers and LeBron and Davis wanted to play there despite all of that, which is great for them. That doesn't mean they're suddenly a competent organization, or haven't been a train wreck for a decade and at least in the argument for the worst run organization in the sport. That's "we're the Lakers and things tend to work out for us no matter how hard we try to fuck it up."
The Celtics collapsed last year and I've made fun of them a lot, but they signed Horford and Hayward. Those are two FAs most teams in the league aren't getting.
you think the Lakers front office is going to draft valuable players with the 28th pick? when the Lakers are in win now mode?
To draft some kind of cheap potential role player to fill a hole around LeBron and Davis? Yes, I think I'd rather have that pick than not. At the very least, I'd like the option to be able to trade it at the deadline to improve my team, which they now don't have. They got Kuzma in that range a couple years ago. We've seen contenders fill roster spots successfully with those picks for years.
Yes. Look at any contending team's roster. It will be full of players that were picked late or not at all. You need to succeed on the margins like that to become a contender. Look at the Raptors roster, Siakam was the 27th pick and Van Vleet was a UFA, you goddamn idiot
It was a masterful rebuilding job that was looking to culminate in acquiring AD. I’m not sure how seriously they considered Kawhi.
not their draft picks obviously but lowry and ibaka went 24th and green and powell went 46th. he was hurt but anunoby went 23rd damn you user bro
Claims to be a Nuggets fan, and forgot about key contributors Jokic, Torrey Craig and Monte Morris. What a simp.
Saying they were the most dysfunctional is where Bill went wrong and painted himself into a corner. The answer is the Knicks and he knows it. Phoenix would be number 2. His LA hatred gets the best of sometimes and usually at least if he has on Russillo or KOC they can keep him a little in check. As someone said, it would help if he read out loud some of those takes or ran them by someone first.
Lakers obviously are so they are knocking out a team that made it this year. My guess would be: Warriors Rockets Trailblazers Nuggets Lakers Thunder Clippers Spurs Dont see how the Pelicans are better than those teams even if they keep Holiday and get a rim protector.
You’ve forgotten the Jazz who have been really good. The Kings almost made it last year and Dallas will be much better
Yeah actually looking at all those teams it's 10x crazier than I even thought. Especially as it seems Jrue is getting shopped.