An abbreviated regular season if the season is restarted wouldn’t do teams like the Warriors much good, Anthony Slater of The Athletic argues. It would be easier for the teams currently owning a playoff berth to play some tuneup games while ending the season for the 14 lottery-bound teams. That would allow their front offices to focus on their roster remakes and players to work on their games, Slater adds.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- The Timberwolves will undoubtedly want to re-sign restricted free agent Malik Beasley, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Beasley averaged 20.7 PPG and 5.1 RPG while shooting 42.6% from long range in 14 starts since being acquired from the Nuggets. Beasley’s price tag has risen, with Krawczynski speculating that his original projection of four years and $48MM is probably not high enough. There aren’t many teams with significant cap room but the Knicks could make a run at him, he adds.
- While the Timberwolves’ defense has suffered by trading Robert Covington to the Rockets, they got a much-needed infusion of offensive talent with the additions of D’Angelo Russell, Beasley and Juan Hernangomez in the four-team deal, Krawczynski writes in a separate story. They now have a point guard in Russell that can score and pass as well as any they’ve ever had, a shooting guard in Beasley who can score in bunches and a solid rotation player in Hernangomez.
- Several members of the Mavericks’ front office and scouting staff believed Luka Doncic would have been viewed as the undisputed top prospect in the 2018 draft if he had played in the United States or attended the pre-draft workouts, according to an in-depth piece from Tim Cato and Sam Amick of The Athletic. GM Donnie Nelson was completely sold on Doncic and owner Mark Cuban wasn’t going to pass him up, since he ignored Nelson’s advice on Giannis Antetokounmpo five years earlier. The Mavs’ front office was confident Doncic wouldn’t be drafted earlier than third overall, allowing them to arrange a trade with the Hawks to move up and nab the eventual Rookie of the Year.
And the Timberpuppies still SUCK as much as they have since their 1989 inception.
Maybe, too soon to say, but at least D’lo, Beasly & Juancho for RoCo is a massive improvement, so hopefully once KAT is healthy & all play together for a while I think they will improve quite a bit.
Dallas were very smart getting Luka, & that goes to show the ineptitude of NBA scouts, why on earth does anyone have to play in the USA to be considered a top prospect?
Can’t they travel abroad, or have representatives there, of even watch some games in YouTube??? Seriously it is outrageous how they have historically undervalued euro players like Jokic #41 & he is easily a top 7 player in the league!
Can’t they
Nice move by the Wolves but what I’m wondering right now is why would the Nuggets give up on Malik Beasley before a playoff run? Is there an issue there? Just because he’s expiring contract isn’t he a nice piece off the bench for them? Pretty good player. I guess they get a first round pick for all those expiring contracts but it’s Houston-maybe mid-20s? Puzzling? I see the wolves end of it, getting a nice player and the Nets first-round pick will be not too bad.
How can they suck with two max players? I keep hearing Towns is top 10 player. How can they not make playoffs every year with all that “talent?”
MAYBE towns it but just because you have a Max player does not make that player a top player in the league.
There are plenty of guys out there with max contracts that are not too league talents
Yes agree on the wolves. But it all hinges on re-signing Beasley. If he walks it was really Covington for D’Angelo Russell, which is not a bad trade-off but Beasley next season would be awesome.
Healthy Towns next year and some luck in the draft ( which is the biggest problem since the NBA has made sure the puppies almost always go backwards in the stupid lottery) ( rigged cough cough) and I could see a playoff team next year.