Ainge on the phone. He says Lauri is yours only if you’ll take John Collins’ contract. Is it a deal?

Seems to me that Cam is a better corner shooter than Lauri. And we could always use this picks for something else at the deadline.

LFG!!!

I don't know if this really means anything for the team, but I was surprised to see him back in philly since it's been a year and he's in LA now. He was at that Italian place across from El Bar in their little outdoor garden. I wasn't sure it was him but then I saw his shoulder tattoo and he stood up tall as shit. Can't think of why he'd be here in humid ass june of all times, but to be fair it might not just be negotiations. He was sitting across from some absolutely beautiful bad jawns and clearly having fun even before the sun wen't down.

Just him seeing his philly mistresses? Or some wierd sign+trade brewing? Thoughts? Proof if you need it in DMs.

Background

Firstly lets get one thing out of the way

Kuzma is a bit of a clown, he loves a laugh and at various points in his career has been (fairly) criticised for drive and work ethic. I don't despute this, but I think there are some key differences between him and other socialite party animals. Most importantly, he really cares about basketball, as it was his escape from a somewhat rough upbringing in Flint.

The attitude did develope though, and getting drafted to the Lakers amplified a lot of childish traits he had at one point. Kuzma once famously said "I'd rather be talked about bad in L.A. than play in Orlando and not get talked about" which at the time exemplified a lot of the attitude he had in his younger career.

There have been other incidents back and forth with Kuzma, little jabs on twitter here and there, but for the most part he's actually been a consumate pro, usually seems happy to take and make jokes, and seemingly gets on very well with teammates and past teammates.

To top this off, given his prior comments you might have expected Kuzma to go to Washington and sulk and pout, instead, despite the inconsistencies and the Jordan Poole situation, which we won't go in to, he's generally been very drama free. As a side note, please read this hilarious Spencer Dinwiddie beef if you want a laugh.

Anyway, that's enough BS, on to basketball.

So basically, Kuzma was a childish rat when Lebron joined the Lakers, and basically transformed himself in their championship year from an inefficient one way chucker to effectively a role playing wing defender in their championship run. He was 6th in minutes on that team and he was basically only getting minutes for defence and rebounding as his offence was very inconsistent. Kuzma's commitment to becoming a good defender really stood out to me at the time because he was really bad on that side of the ball before Lebron came to town, and by the time the bubble rolled around he was taking primary defensive assignments on the wing (he wasn't anywhere near their best wing defender, but it made sense for him to soak up those assignments). There is a litany of highlights of him getting crossed up, dunked on etc but for those who watched him closely, he had a bit of an edge and the improvement across that year was seriously impressive.

So that's how he got to who he is, but what does a Kyle Kuzma look like these days on the court

Passing

The film

It may surprise some to learn that Kuzma is actually a very talented passer, he's always had a bit of a knack for this but playing on the wizards as a #1 option has lead to some actual growth in this area. Despite playing with a severe lack of talent around him. His assist % has improved every year in Washington and his TO% has fallen in that time. He's currently at a 20.7 AST% and a 11.9 TOV% both are very strong marks for a ball handling forward.

Some players take time and a lot of reps to become good passers (Tatum/PG) while there are other players who are more natural. Kuzma is the latter, he’s a natural passer who at times struggles with accuracy and IQ, those areas can be improved, vision can’t. Kuzma loves spraying the ball to shooters in transition, always kicks the ball ahead and looks for cutters in the halfcourt as well as having some very creative dump offs in his arsenal.

From a Philly perspective a ball handling forward is kind of perfect for us, as both Maxey and Embiid operate best off ball or in a 2 man game where someone can get them to their spots. Kuzma's size is also a huge advantage initiating the offence as he doesn't succumb to ball pressure easily and there are very few matchups for him at his size that can actually apply significant pressure.

He's had 6 games with 10 assists or more for the Wizards and they aren't accidents, he has genuinely good feel for the game. From watching the film he some of his mistakes with more clever passes, ie ones that potentially would work with better players, and the main passing issues are simple lack of concentration, rather than lack of vision/ability.

Scoring

The film

Kuzma is a high volume, mediocre efficiency scorer, with a deep bag of moves. He’s a smooth scorer but unfortunately he lacks some some of the precision and ugliness of efficient scorers. His biggest issues on that end are his relatively low free throw rate (had his second lowest FTR of his career) and his low volume at the rim or in the corners. He doesn’t get many easy looks and unsurprisingly this has meant his efficiency has stayed below average his whole career.

But not all hope is lost here, Kuzma is asked to create for himself more than he should be given his skillset, he’s in just the 26th percentile for isolation efficiency. However, much of this boils down to mismatch hunting. Washington have been consistently unable to force mismatches and when they do they don’t have the offensive talent to stop teams doubling and rotating. Kuzma got very few opportunities to score vs genuine mismatches in my view, and this ruined his efficiency.

On top of that, he struggles to finish through contact at the rim, despite his size and ball handling ability. He often settles for close jumpshots or hooks where he is quite adept using his body to create separation, even if they aren’t the highest % shots. When he’s tired he settles for 3s and his isolation play vs smaller defenders can also drop off. He also rarely gets easy points off cuts when off ball, although part of this is due to his teammates not being great creators.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Kuzma though, his deep bag means that in bail out situations he’s actually quite solid, and will usually be able to get an okay shot off. In my view if he can get an uptick in his corner 3pt rate, (where he has shot 42% over the last 2 years), limit isolations vs non mismatches, and be a more active roll man and cutter he could very well be an above average efficiency player. A lot of these improvements are likely to occur naturally when playing with better players.

And on the shooting, while Kuzma isn’t a knockdown shooter, there is some key distinctions that set him apart from Tobias. Firstly, he’s never been gun shy, in Tobias’ 5 full seasons with us, his above the break 3P attempt rate peaked at 23% in his first year and was below 20% every year after. In Kuzma’s entire career he’s never fell below 24% and has multiple years above 30%. Similarly in terms of overall 3p attempts Kuz sits at 9 per 100 possessions in his last five years, which is 50% higher than Tobias. Make no mistake, Kuzma will never die wondering. I’d compare Kuzma more to a Marcus Smart in this regard, he’s a solid shooter who commands the defences respect, and will punish you enough that he’ll never be zoned out like a lot of players in the playoffs.

Defence

The film

Kuzma’s defence will be hotly debated in these discussions and rightfully so. At his best he’s a light footed 6’9” flexible defender capable of taking on wings and bigger guards, while able to cover all but the biggest of centers at an adequate level. When his energy is up his rebounding is a huge strength due to his size and athleticism. However this isn’t always the case, while at washington, he’s had an inconsistent motor, and even when trying can often look a bit like a large paper bag flying around in the wind.

While Kuzma is unlikely to be an elite defender, I think his true defensive value lies somewhere in the middle of what we’ve seen for the Lakers and Washington. He has good defensive instincts, but doesn’t have the conditioning to be a dominant two way player and given the offensive load he’s been tasked with in Washington, it’s unsurprising to see his effort and concentration dip.

In a smaller role I would envision him taking some primary forward assignments, but mostly playing weakside corner where possible, he’s a good bit quicker than Tobias Harris and knows how to play that role better due to his time playing in some more aggressive schemes. He’s also a better rebounder than Tobias, especially against bigs, he actually attacks the ball in space and his height and leap make a big difference here.

The rest

So that’s who Kuz is as a basketballer, but there are some other factors that come in to play here. First of all, fit. Kuz fits our key needs - a wing who can playmake, rebound and defend. The reason we were all keen to get Jimmy is that he does a lot of these things (and more) however he’s old and expensive.

Secondly, his contract is elite. Kuz signed a 4 year 90m contract with the wizards, and it decreases each year meaning in 26/27 he’s being paid just 19m. This means that there’s a pretty good chance someone trading for him would be able to move him very easily if need be. Trading for Kuzma would leave us room to potentially explore candidates like KCP...

To top it off, Kuzma is just 28 meaning this contract is for his prime years, and remains tradeable across that period if need be. He’s also been incredibly durable across his career, never playing less than 64 games in a full year.

The price on Kuzma is still a big question mark though as no one knows what he’s worth at this stage. From assessing the reportedly interested teams, none of them could utilise Kuzma as much as us, meaning the market for him might be significantly cheaper.

Summary

So that’s pretty much it. While there are some bigger name targets floating round, I think there are some real flaws with each option

Paul George - Expensive and old. Signing PG would completely ruin our chances to build out a deep roster. Age and injury history are also a concern here. Basketball wise the fit is exceptional.

Markkanen - In terms of basketball the fit is almost too good. Stretch 4 alongside Maxey and Embiid opens up so much space. The big weakness is playmaking but with the spacing he provides it will be much easier to build around him. The real issue is the cost, with the the Bridges trade setting the market right now, it would leave us almost entirely bare of assets to improve further

Jimmy Butler - Fit is great, in many ways he’s just a superstar level Kuzma. Age, salary and cost to acquire are significant drawbacks

Kuzma has the right mix of fit, cost, salary, and would be a huge improvement from Tobias Harris mostly just due to his attitude. Kuzma has played and sacrificed on winning teams so I’m confident that contention alongside dedicated players like Joel and Tyrese would stoke that fire again.

Keen to hear people's thoughts here, Kuz hasn't been as hotly discussed as some more unrealistic targets, but for the right price, he may be exactly what we need...

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^^^Posted: ^^^06/30/2024 ^^^05:00:03 ^^^AM ^^^EDT, ^^^Update ^^^Interval: ^^^5 ^^^Minutes

Me personally, i think we could use the clippers pick to trade for Tari Eason, if houston doesn't want to trade him we can sign Naji Marshall or trade for DFS

From the Athletic

Paul George, the Warriors’ home run target for acquisition this offseason, wiped out the final year of his contract with the LA Clippers and became an unrestricted free agent, which basically cut off any realistic path for the Warriors because they don’t have the cap room to sign him as a free agent.

This came after very serious negotiations among the Warriors, George and the Clippers all the way through Saturday afternoon’s deadline for George’s contract decision and after the Warriors believed — several times — that they were on the verge of landing the 34-year-old small forward, team sources said.

The Warriors had agreed to give George a max, four-year extension upon arrival. They believed they had proposed several variations of a trade that the Clippers could and would accept. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green were 100 percent on board. George gave strong indications he wanted to join the Warriors. But the Clippers never agreed to any version of a trade, and now George is a free agent and essentially beyond the Warriors’ reach.

Can’t we just get Ingram and Lauri and skip PG

DeMar DeRozan has averaged 21.3 points, 3.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 49 games against the Celtics in his career.

Paul George averaged 20.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 29 games against the Celtics in his career.

Both DeRozan and George are 34 years old. Before giving $50+ million a year to George, the Sixers may want to keep an eye on the player with more experience playing against the NBA champions.

With PG opting out of his player option, do you think its safe to say that we might have our missing piece filled soon? With Tobi sure to be gone, this will definitely put us in a better position given our cap space.

5. Brandon Ingram

6. Jimmy Butler - Probably not getting traded.

7. Paul George

8. Kevin Durant - Probably not getting traded and old as hell… but it is Kevin friggin Durant.

9. Lauri Markannen - Not as good as PG or KD but much younger with a really small salary this year that allows the Sixers much more flexibility.

After those 5, not sure if there is a true Star that is even possible. Am I missing anyone? Other options are KCP, Zach Lavine, DeMar DeRozan, and Kyle Kuzma. In my mind, it’s Lauri, PG, or Ingram… or a Morey miracle.

Over next two seasons, WCJ is projected to make 11 million per year. He would be the perfect power forward for us. I know that we're targetting PG/Ingram and etc., but whatever option we get, we're going to need a good power forward.

On the Magic, he's been stuck on the center position, as Paolo takes his natural position away. He's a defensive dog on defense, shot 37% from 3, and is 6 foot 10. We always complain other teams have the perfect role players like Aaron Gordon, Derrick White, Naz Reid, or PJ Washington. He could be our "hidden gem"

I know he's little injury phrone, but I really do think he would be really good. I'd say Paul Reed, McCain (if necessary) and draft capital (maybe first or few seconds?) would do.