Exactly. You simply cannot tear this team apart when you have a coach that handicaps the players.
Lavine is taller but basically worse than Donovan at everything. Very similar players.
Its interesting but I'm not sure why they would have interest. Their core of 4 with giddey sga chet and J will is pretty stable. You want a 3nd guy with that like OG not mitchell
SGA, Mitchell, and Giddy is a hell of a group. Add in Chet and the rest of the young stable of dudes and that is all of a sudden a deep playoff contender for many years. SGA pairs nicely with Michell as he negates Mitchell's positional height disadvantage. Giddey helps them both out by carrying out the primary ballhandler duties.
Sga and Mitchell are redundant tho. They are basically doing the same thing on the court
I would have thought this trade more possible before OKC came out of the gate looking as good as they have. They look ready to make some noise pretty dang fast. I also don’t think Mitchell plays like they want to play. The ball & man movement in OKC is not what DM does and when they want a guy to just go get a bucket, SGA already does it better then Mitchell. I don’t know why they would risk messing up the good thing they have going by bringing in Mitchell and taking on his big salary.
There certainly is overlap. And SGA is better at most every aspect than Mitchell is where there is overlapping skills. That said, there are a lot of pairings in the NBA with significant skill overlap.
Yeah, I fear you are right. They made so much sense just a few months ago. And I, personally, like their assets a heck of a lot more than the other possible suitors.
Our guard spot isn’t the problem. The players we need to look at trading are either Allen or Mobley. Two 7 footers that cannot create their own offense inside (except for put backs and lob dunks) is what’s holding this team back. Our big men go outside running this pick and roll bullshit but neither of them are a threat to keep the defense honest with the ability to the hit a 15 footer least of all a three pointer. Can’t win when your big men are shooting 28% from 15 feet and out and can’t put pressure on the interior defense with any kind of low post moves!
Jerami Grant frustrates me. On paper he is perfect as the 5th starter between our guards and bigs as a defensive 3/4 who can shoot and be a tertiary creator. He is actually solidly efficient on high volume.
He'd help us for sure - if he could be added without moving one of our "core 4". But I see no way it could happen. Grant is a guy that pairs well alongside Allen and Mobley, but take either of them out of the equation and you have no physical presence. Allen & Grant, or Mobley & Grant, get abused pretty hard on defense, especially when you consider who our other 3 starters are. Portland is flush with guards so they wouldn't be interested in moving Grant to gain DM or DG. And then there is that salary - no way we are taking on 5 years/160 million. We have no draft picks to sweeten the deal so it has to be a players for players swap. It just won't add up.