Agreed, they’re fortunate moreso than lucky. Good drafting and development pays off.

Feel like you’re vastly underrating Cousins and ignoring the fact that Davis prefers to play the 4. The pelicans had no other big men except Davis, how did they have nothing to gain exactly? Barely gave up anything and got arguably the best center in the league.

Did they really build around him? Never gave Robinson a real chance, McLemore busted, Castillo busted, let Patterson and IT go, drafted at his position in consecutive years and got rid of the coach who seemed primed to get the most out of him in Malone. Not saying Boogie is perfect but the Kings mismanaged his entire…

Devil’s Advocate: Maybe the Kings really like Buddy and his hands-on approach to the game?

Hope to sign Paul in the summer and trade Jrue and Asik for young shooters I suppose? Totally agree with you, though. Weird but exciting trade for NO.

To be honest, I wanted to put dion into the hypothetical starting lineup but I didn’t wanna force it (extremely happy for him in Miami). Admittedly, while I think Love is a better scorer, his health issues are huge and the best ability is availability and Wiggins has him beat handily in that department.

Understandable, the Wiggins as advertised coming out of the draft , as in the defensive stopper, would’ve been like a Scottie, but that’s not who he is as of yet. He’s an exciting volume scorer that’s incredibly athletic yet doesn’t rebound or play much defense.

Except Love has shown the ability to operate on his own and is a top tier rebounder and scoring big man. Not to knock Wiggins but, in the immediate, Love is and has been much better than Wiggins since the trade. Wiggins hasn’t been the defender he was projected as but I’m sure he’ll improve as he ages.

Not a reliable shooter, passer, defender or rebounder.

Not necessarily, at the time, the cavs cap situation was fine and only Kyrie was really locked up for big $. Not sure how Wiggins instead of Love would’ve went, but the Cavs had moves to make. And who knows, maybe the Love for Thompson move ends up materializing since Love would still be on the market.

That’s a stretch. I mean, yeah ideally, but a stretch still.

Except he’s nothing like Rodman. Much better offensively and not even close rebounding-wise but lazy comps are lazy so proceed.

Kristaps Porzingis*

Ehh, I think most would take Spo’s 3 over the Boston 3, but Spo is undoubtedly underrated.

Not an equivalent situation but I get your point.

Perfect except westbrook typo at the end.

Absolutely agree with the overall point, but he’s never been injured doing one of those high difficulty shots so not sure what that aside was about.

The latter, it’s much easier.

Show me where LeBron hurt you. The anti-lebron crowd is silly, constantly grasping for straws like this case. You’re mad that he wants his team to be better???

Love is averaging 21 and 11, he’s not the issue, and while I like Wiggins, his defensive prowess coming out of college has proven to be overrated and he doesn’t do much besides score with questionable efficiency. Undoubtedly I think he’ll end up better than Love, as he’s still very young.