2022 Off-Season Thread II: Fab Four Preseason

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Diakite is listed at 6'9", 228, which seems a little short and slender for a center, in my view. Having seen him play against Atlanta for 24 minutes he seemed to be agile enough to play small forward, especially after he knocked down two 3's and a baseline jumper that was almost a 3.

Having watched Markkanen play the 3 last year I'm no longer locked into the idea that a small forward has to be 6'5" to 6'7".

One key to playing great defense is contesting 3-point shots and this guy is so long and gets off the ground so fast that he can contest three-point shots even if he is 10' away when the shooter gets into his motion. He will even block some of them.

I'm loving the idea of a front line of Allen, Mobley, and Diakite on the defensive end. No team is going to want to take it to the hole on that group and corner 3's will be tough to get off unchallenged.

Diakite gives you more rebounding and shot blocking/shot deterrence than guys like Cedi, Okoro, and LeVert.

I'm not saying he's ready now but with Mobley, Love, and Wade at the 4 I would definitely start developing Mamadi as a 3. But he'll be 26 in January so they need to work with him intensively.

 

[foucault87]

I dont think its enough to just look at a guys physical profile to characterize them by position. 6'9" 228 was LeBron at parts of his career, Thad Young, and Tmac. One of those guys was a guard half his career, the other a big man. It is a question of where Diakite likes to operate on the floor and how we can best utilize him defensively.

The guy is a plus rebounder and weakside shot blocker. Sending him to the perimeter to chase around the Kawhi's and Klay's of the world takes away what is his biggest strength. How is he running around screens? How is he shading a shifty ballhandler 1v1? Unless he can do all of that he is a small ball big in the vein of PJ Tuck or Patrick Williams rather than a perimeter defensive wing like Danny Green or Reggie Bullock.

On offense, he can space but you can do that from 1-5 so no big deal as he would never be more than the 4th option. IMO, starting 3 is not possible for Diakite. There might be situational lineups where he is the nominal 3 on defense, maybe something like a Diakite/Love/Allen frontcourt, but that should be a rarely used tool in the toolbag.

Lauri at the 3 worked because of his offensive and defensive fit. Despite his height and length, he was soft on the interior. Not a bigman level rebounder or a high level rim protector. His long arms made it hard for perimeter players to throw lazy passes and he had surprisingly solid balance for his size, which let him stick with larger perimeter guys. On offense, he is a bonafide sniper (better than Diakite by a notable margin) and had enough juice off the dribble to be a 3rd-4th option as a starter. Even if you resized him to have Diakite's height and weight, he would've been a 3 and vice versa for Diakite going to Lauri's proportions. Just totally different skillsets between the two guys.

 

[All4One1ForAll]

Mofos see a 25 year old PF/C from the G-League knock down 2 threes in a game and all of a sudden he’s the starting SF of the future lmao. Gotta love preseason.

 

[mds]

Mofos see a 25 year old PF/C from the G-League knock down 2 threes in a game and all of a sudden he’s the starting SF of the future lmao. Gotta love preseason.

Exactly.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I apologize if this has already been discussed but I was just looking at NBA.com's pre-season survey of NBA General Managers. There were some interesting results.

They have the Cavs 6th in the East behind Milwaukee, Boston, Philly, Brooklyn, and Miami. (The Cavs first two games are against Toronto and Chicago so that will be interesting).

Mobley is the player most likely to have a breakout season (21%) with Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards tied for second at 17%. Zion Williamson is close behind at 14%. No big consensus here.

The Cavaliers EASILY won the question of which team made the best off-season moves with 41%. The T-Wolves, Sixers, and Jazz were a distant second with 17% each.

Which one player acquisition will make the biggest impact? Donovan Mitchell - by a mile. Fully 59% of the GM's survey picked Mitchell. Rudy Gobert to Minnesota got 31% and nobody else got more than 7%.

The most underrated player acquisition was Boston getting Malcolm Brogden (28%). Last year the pick was Larry Nance, Jr (also 28%), but I don't think he had much if any impact on the Blazers.

The Clippers ran away with the most improved team (41%), but the Cavs were tied with the Pelicans for second with 17% each. Hey, we're the most improved team in the East. We won 44 games last year and Miami led the East with 53 wins. But the GM's still have us sixth.

Which team has the most promising young core? Cleveland, of course, at 41%, followed by the Western Conference Grizzlies at 38% and the Pistons at 10%.

A lot to like. Most improved team in the East, best young core in the East, best off-season moves, player most likely to have a breakout season, and player most likely to make the biggest impact.

Let the season begin.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

So it looks like the Pistons will cut Kemba Walker (and eat his remaining contract.)
Yeah, I know he's not what he used to be. However, he did almost average 12 points per game last season for the Knicks.
So he would be a free agent.
The question is: Would you rather have today's version of Kemba Walker, or today's version of Raul Neto?
I wouldn't count on Rubio till Christmas or later.

 

[Cavatt]

So it looks like the Pistons will cut Kemba Walker (and eat his remaining contract.)
Yeah, I know he's not what he used to be. However, he did almost average 12 points per game last season for the Knicks.
So he would be a free agent.
The question is: Would you rather have today's version of Kemba Walker, or today's version of Raul Neto?
I wouldn't count on Rubio till Christmas or later.

Neto. He's fast and pesky as a defender. Kemba can't defend anyone

 

[Prof123]

Mofos see a 25 year old PF/C from the G-League knock down 2 threes in a game and all of a sudden he’s the starting SF of the future lmao. Gotta love preseason.

Sure, I liked that those two 3-balls went in and that he had the confidence to take them. But that was about the 5th best thing I liked about him. His athleticism, defense, and energy on the boards excited me much more.

 

[foucault87]

So 538's RAPTOR model came out with league wide predicitions for standings and finals probabilities:

Everyone’s A Favorite In Our 2022-23 NBA Forecast

Our NBA model sees a wide-open 2022-23 season.

fivethirtyeight.com

They have the Cavs at 8th in the East - 44 wins, 64% chance for playoffs, 4% finals, 2% title.

Reasoning as:

The Cavaliers, like the Timberwolves, are projected to see improvement this season but not join the group of title contenders despite trading for a star (in their case, Donovan Mitchell). Some of that is because projection systems tend to bake in regression for teams that show as much year-to-year improvement as Cleveland did last season, and some of it is due to a shockingly low projection for Evan Mobley, whom RAPTOR pegs as a net-neutral this season. In the likely event (to me, at least) that Mobley’s projection ends up being too pessimistic, Cleveland’s odds will certainly improve.

 

[Peacedog]

So 538's RAPTOR model came out with league wide predicitions for standings and finals probabilities:

Everyone’s A Favorite In Our 2022-23 NBA Forecast

Our NBA model sees a wide-open 2022-23 season.

fivethirtyeight.com

They have the Cavs at 8th in the East - 44 wins, 64% chance for playoffs, 4% finals, 2% title.

Reasoning as:

They can take their dumbass Raptor model and stick it where the sun don't shine. Let the guy who developed this dopey model know that I'm willing to bet him on this 44 win prediction. And I'll be generous and offer up 2-1 odds.

Please.

 

[Dr No]

They can take their dumbass Raptor model and stick it where the sun don't shine. Let the guy who developed this dopey model know that I'm willing to bet him on this 44 win prediction. And I'll be generous and offer up 2-1 odds.

Please.

any model that has the Warriors 4th in the West and the Hawks 2nd in the East while the Bucks are 6th is a deeply flawed model

 

[cavsfever]

I read pretty much every thread , could we slow down on the Eason hall of fame introduction already , can the guy play some meaningful games, and contribute to winning basketball first…….Not to mention Eason would have most likely been included in the Mitchell trade anyway, and there no way in hell he would have stop me from making that trade……

I think the front office could have preserved Eason

It drives me nuts how people judge the FO based on “does an unpaid random basement forum poster think they personally could have done it”. The FO guys are paid MILLIONS. They are supposed to do difficult shit. We gave away one of the richest draft pick packages in all of NBA history for Mitchell, plus a good starter, plus a S&T. We traded away more draft capital than NJ did in their famous trade with Boston when Ainge was there. And you’re telling me we couldn’t have kept a late round pick had we wanted to? GTFO

 

[Cement]

 

[foucault87]

If you want to keep it open, just free up Nembhard's 2way

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

The fuck is this. Add
Diakite you fool. I'm talking about you Koby. Waive Nembhard
already you fuck. Jesus f. Christ.