I don’t think any of us is saying Mitch is a star, Z-Man. I think many of us think if he’s developed right, he can be a good center, like the 18M centers (eg. Myles Turner or Clint Capela). That’s a good player to have, isn’t it?

As improved as Mitch is defensively, is this version of him worth $18 million in the modern NBA? Turner has a much more versatile and consistent offensive game, and Danny Ainge wouldn’t take him basically for free in a Hayward sign-and-trade. Capela has gone off in this recent stretch of games in a way that suggests the platonic ideal of Mitch — or, at least, a version of Mitch who gets featured in the pick-and-roll much more often than the actual Mitch — and I’m still not sure how many teams in the league would want to take on that contract. Unless a guy is a Gobert-level game changer of a defender — which Mitch can be, but isn’t right now, especially night to night — there’s just a limit on how much the league currently values centers who are limited on offense. Mitch is a fantastic player to have on his current contract, and would be great to still have if his next contract was in, say, the $10-14 million range. Once it starts creeping above that, though, he’s a guy you can’t move as well as someone whose deal makes it harder to acquire other players to place around him.

All of which is me saying that I’ve gone from wanting to tear out what’s left of my hair if the team were to trade Mitch, to being at peace with the idea depending on the circumstances and return.

I disagree on this,,,barring injury, teams will wind up being who they are. Put differently, where do you predict they will end up in terms of draft ranking? I said 12-15. Would you bet outside that range? If you had to bet outside it, would you take the over or under?

I agree that they are almost certainly not finishing in the bottom six teams in the league, so sure, 12-15 isn’t unreasonable. The issue is that if we assume that they’re still really the .570 winning team they were last year, playing the remaining 51 games at a .570 pace would leave them at 37-35 at season’s end. Maybe they’re better than a .570 team, in which case they’ll be fine. What if they’re slightly worse, though?

But yes, the important thing is that they are almost certainly not as bad as they have looked so far.

that’s why a 3 year deal for cp3 wouldn’t be all that crazy.. if he can avoid injury…

Lebron is shooting a career high 41% from three this year on a career high 6.8 attempts per game.

DRed: Want to feel old-it was the David Lee draft

The fact DLee went and won a chip without me is still so hard….

I only know this because I looked it up when we played the Clips but Lou Williams was the same draft year.

He is incredible though.

Want to feel old-it was the David Lee draft