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Donovan Mitchell: All-NBA BEST Team

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Grade the Trade

  • A+

    Votes: 71 25.5%
  • A

    Votes: 109 39.2%
  • B

    Votes: 60 21.6%
  • C

    Votes: 26 9.4%
  • D

    Votes: 5 1.8%
  • F

    Votes: 7 2.5%

  • Total voters
    278
So we're getting rid of one of the two backcourt guys? Because that's my point - two ball-dominant backcourt guys being your top scorers will always mean the whole will be less than the sum of your parts.

It doesn't work. Neither Mobley nor Allen will get enough touches to develop properly with our current backcourt.

If we’re thinking of championship teams, I agree. It’s tough to come up with. I guess Dumars/Thomas would be the blueprint. The game is played differently, but the identity of that team is kind of what JBB is after.

Best modern example of probably the CP3/Harden Rockets team that took the Durant Warriors to 7 games in 17-18. Capella at C similar to Allen, but no other front court player of significance. They did have Gordon who was a high touch guy as well.
 
Something that isn't brought up on the Garland and Mitchell pairing is something that I heard on a podcast about Tatum and Brown. They are both so similar that you can't run action to get a switch because if a player can guard Garland well then they can also guard Mitchell well and vise versa.

Like with Denver Joker, Murray, and Gordon/MPJ are different enough that when they run action the switches they get give their players an advantage of size or speed. Joker can handle ball and let the off ball action get the team a switch then he has two options that can give their players advantages for him to choose from. It makes it much harder to figure out who the intended target is.
 
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If we’re thinking of championship teams, I agree. It’s tough to come up with. I guess Dumars/Thomas would be the blueprint. The game is played differently, but the identity of that team is kind of what JBB is after.

Best modern example of probably the CP3/Harden Rockets team that took the Durant Warriors to 7 games in 17-18. Capella at C similar to Allen, but no other front court player of significance. They did have Gordon who was a high touch guy as well.
Prime Harden was way better than DM.
 
Prime Harden in the mid late teens was pushing ws/48 up around .250. A victim of the Warriors......as much as the Cavs. Mitchell isn't close to that guy.
 
It's kind of annoying how the guy is always creaming over the Knicks when he's supposed to be our face.
Kind of, sure.

But its the city he's from. He's allowed to like his city and the things he loved as a kid.
 
Kind of, sure.

But its the city he's from. He's allowed to like his city and the things he loved as a kid.
Yeah, but are you comfortable enough to allow him to play here in the 24-25 season knowing he could walk.
I'm not saying the Knicks could or would sign him in the summer of 2025, but if you're Gilbert can you really afford to take that chance? That's why I think this upcoming season is his final year here unless he's ready to re up a year early.
 
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If Lauri could do what he did in Utah, here we wouldn’t have traded him.



As the other guy said, if you shut down DG and DM everyone else is screwed. We rely too much on those 2 scoring 30 each.

We need a roster in which Garland and Mitchell are the catalysts not the end all.

Look at Boston with Brown and Tatum. They can win if Tatum scores 15 or 55. The offense isn’t Tatum and Brown. It’s built AROUND Tatum and Brown.

Our offense this year basically was Garland and Mitchell. If they weren’t on, we lost. Josh Hart would’ve been a perfect fit here. Alot of ppl like Struss but he’s not gonna change anything but maybe raise the teams 3pt percentage a little bit. We need a guy like Andrew Wiggins. Defender, slasher, 3 ball. Too many of our players only do one or two things good. We need to start getting guys with multiple skills. If i could get anyone from the heat it’d be Gabe Vincent not Struss.

If Koby had watched his European championship performance he should have known he was about to break out, Ainge knew which is why he wanted him so bad
 
Yeah, but are you comfortable enough to allow him to play here in the 24-25 season knowing he could walk.
I'm not saying the Knicks could or would sign him in the summer of 2025, but if your Gilbert can you really afford to take that chance? That's why I think this upcoming season is his final year here unless he's ready to re up a year early.

No I mean if he doesn't sign an extension next summer then you trade him. That's the only scenario that's realistic.

The only chance you play it out is if you get really, really, really close to a title this coming season and just say "fuck it. If he walks he walks but let's try and win it at all in this last year."
 
If Koby had watched his European championship performance he should have known he was about to break out, Ainge knew which is why he wanted him so bad

One of the things this FO has valued highest on their list in terms of prospects/players is national team experience. The idea that Koby didn’t watch his players in Euro’s is frankly stupid and not in alignment with their philosophy as an FO. Not sure how people always seem to come to these types of conclusions. It’s probably more likely the FO saw Lauri’s value at his peak and didn’t see a long term fit with Allen/Mobley.

Cavs had Allen & Mobley who are 30 mpg bigs, Love who came off a 6MOY caliber season, and Wade that the team clearly liked. Cavs didn’t have a roster that supported Lauri playing that way. Maybe if they traded Allen, but they aren’t going to do that when their goal was to form a defensive identity.

Lauri played most of his minutes at 4 with Olynyk, a C that can stretch the floor and Kessler who isn’t a stretch big but showed some flashes of being able to shoot the ball. Lauri also had more FG attempts than anyone on the Cavs outside of Mitchell. If the trade was never made, LeVert’s and Garland’s attempts would’ve been up and Mobley’s don’t really change, not leaving the same opportunities for Lauri as he got in Utah.

People want to complain about spacing and all that while ignoring that what opened up Lauri’s game was playing in a 4-out system with a big that can shoot the ball. That’s something we couldn’t recreate here with Allen and Mobley as neither can shoot. Love’s the only player that could’ve played like that with Lauri.

I’m interested to see how Lauri plays this season and if he can duplicate what he did last year while the team record improves. Teams will be more keyed in on stopping him this season, so I’m curious in I’m he can continue playing as he did this season.
 
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If Lauri could do what he did in Utah, here we wouldn’t have traded him.



As the other guy said, if you shut down DG and DM everyone else is screwed. We rely too much on those 2 scoring 30 each.

We need a roster in which Garland and Mitchell are the catalysts not the end all..

Trying not to return to Laurie all the time, but this kind of stuff drives me crazy. Of course Laurie could have done here what he did in Utah. He didn’t magically become a different person on the plane to Salt Lake. If he wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to do it that’s a problem with our organization.

With that said, totally agree with the rest of your post.
 
One of the things this FO has valued highest on their list in terms of prospects/players is national team experience. The idea that Koby didn’t watch his players in Euro’s is frankly stupid and not in alignment with their philosophy as an FO. Not sure how people always seem to come to these types of conclusions. It’s probably more likely the FO saw Lauri’s value at his peak and didn’t see a long term fit with Allen/Mobley.

Cavs had Allen & Mobley who are 30 mpg bigs, Love who came off a 6MOY caliber season, and Wade that the team clearly liked. Cavs didn’t have a roster that supported Lauri playing that way. Maybe if they traded Allen, but they aren’t going to do that when their goal was to form a defensive identity.

Lauri played most of his minutes at 4 with Olynyk, a C that can stretch the floor and Kessler who isn’t a stretch big but showed some flashes of being able to shoot the ball. Lauri also had more FG attempts than anyone on the Cavs outside of Mitchell. If the trade was never made, LeVert’s and Garland’s attempts would’ve been up and Mobley’s don’t really change, not leaving the same opportunities for Lauri as he got in Utah.

People want to complain about spacing and all that while ignoring that what opened up Lauri’s game was playing in a 4-out system with a big that can shoot the ball. That’s something we couldn’t recreate here with Allen and Mobley as neither can shoot. Love’s the only player that could’ve played like that with Lauri.

I’m interested to see how Lauri plays this season and if he can duplicate what he did last year while the team record improves. Teams will be more keyed in on stopping him this season, so I’m curious in I’m he can continue playing as he did this season.

Wait, so we couldn’t have found offensive opportunities for a top 25 player in the league because we needed to find more opportunities for Dean Wade and Caris Levert? Laurie took almost 8 three point attempts per game but he can’t play with a non-shooting center? Insanity.

if you’re saying it was impossible to unlock Laurie here you’re basically saying our coaching and organizational planning sucks.
 
One of the things this FO has valued highest on their list in terms of prospects/players is national team experience. The idea that Koby didn’t watch his players in Euro’s is frankly stupid and not in alignment with their philosophy as an FO. Not sure how people always seem to come to these types of conclusions. It’s probably more likely the FO saw Lauri’s value at his peak and didn’t see a long term fit with Allen/Mobley.

Cavs had Allen & Mobley who are 30 mpg bigs, Love who came off a 6MOY caliber season, and Wade that the team clearly liked. Cavs didn’t have a roster that supported Lauri playing that way. Maybe if they traded Allen, but they aren’t going to do that when their goal was to form a defensive identity.

Lauri played most of his minutes at 4 with Olynyk, a C that can stretch the floor and Kessler who isn’t a stretch big but showed some flashes of being able to shoot the ball. Lauri also had more FG attempts than anyone on the Cavs outside of Mitchell. If the trade was never made, LeVert’s and Garland’s attempts would’ve been up and Mobley’s don’t really change, not leaving the same opportunities for Lauri as he got in Utah.

People want to complain about spacing and all that while ignoring that what opened up Lauri’s game was playing in a 4-out system with a big that can shoot the ball. That’s something we couldn’t recreate here with Allen and Mobley as neither can shoot. Love’s the only player that could’ve played like that with Lauri.

I’m interested to see how Lauri plays this season and if he can duplicate what he did last year while the team record improves. Teams will be more keyed in on stopping him this season, so I’m curious in I’m he can continue playing as he did this season.

The post I responded too stated he couldn’t do here what he’s doing in Utah , I’m not saying Koby doesn’t watch international ball, but if he did it was quite evident he was about to have a breakout year. So if Koby watched his international performance and wasn’t impressed that’s actually more worrying then him not paying attention to international basketball.

Lauri is 10x the player Allen is, he was breaking scoring records with a terrible Finnish team, this was before the trade. If Koby valued Allen over Lauri after watching those performances he has no business managing a professional basketball team.

Thinking 2 non shooting bigs is a better fit then arguably the best shooting big man in the league is crazy

That being said I still trade for Mitchel, however I do think Lauri was under valued in that trade. He’s a top 30 player, you dont trade that with 5 draft picks, and 2 players including Sexton who’s no scrub. But Ainge is simply clearly the better GM
 
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