Glad to hear you are well! We will soldier on without you a little bit longer but the site is not the same without all our eurobloggers.

That article says they tried hard to keep him.

Let’s just say that physically I’m in the best shape of my life (just like 90% of NBA players at the beginning of every single season), mentally I’m serene, but time management wise I’m just all over the place thanks to a horrific workload in the last two years.

That said, if everything goes right I hope I’ll be able to be back (or just to ride shotgun to my fellow mamma mia Max) around February-March, because I’ve so many new things to write about while waxing poetic about bad Julius blunders.

PS: I always read KB!

“It doesn’t sound like it was unforced, though, no? Didn’t management force it on him? I assume he would have gladly just kept Harden if he had his druthers. And once it was clear he “had” to trade him, the offers were naturally not going to be great, as Harden wasn’t yet, like, KG or whoever (and KG didn’t even get a particularly great haul). The market for star players sure has gone up a lot in recent years. That same Harden trade probably has a couple more firsts attached to it if it happened today.”

“He also was forced to trade Harden because ownership was in an Enron like situation with a company called Chesapeake Energy. Better ownership and a better team Doctor and we might be talking about them as a dynasty, rather than the Warriors.”

I read a bunch of articles and saw no evidence of Presti being forced to do or not do anything. Seems like it was Presti’s call. Happy to read anything anyone can provide beyond unfounded rumors and innuendo.

Here’s some representative articles I found:

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/keeping-harden-was-the-plan-but-sam-presti-and-the-thunder-had-plan-b/

https://www.si.com/nba/2012/10/28/thunder-gm-sam-presti-breaks-down-his-trade-of-james-harden-to-rockets

not sure what a Defensive Anchor Build is, it sounds very legit though…

I just want to say Presti made the Chandler trade, but had to pivot to Perkins when he failed his physical. He also was forced to Harden because ownership was in an Enron like situation with a company called Chesapeake Energy. Better ownership and a better team Doctor and we might be talking about them as a dynasty, rather than the Warriors.

I’m so used to “Markaten” that when I watch the Jazz play and the announcers call him Markannen it throws me off. I’m sure “Matheson” will be next. I love how Clyde ignores his various partner’s gently trying to correct him.

We still have 50+ tilts. I hope Cam gets another shot. He certainly can be a useful piece at the back of the rotation.

I haven’t changed any of my opinions on the subject.

1. IMO the deal for Cam (also got a 2nd rounder) was fine (assuming you were writing off Knox completely).

2. However, if you are going to give up that asset for Cam, you have to be on the same page as coach and play him. I was more than willing to grant Thibs some flexibility to work him in slowly. But all reports suggested he didn’t want him. That’s an issue.

3. During the period Cam was starting this year, imo he was outplaying RJ on both sides of the ball. He got hurt, came back, had a couple of subpar games and was sent to Siberia. There are starters on this team that have had subpar years, and ahem, subpar careers, that have been given a longer leash.

4. #3 affirms that Thibs is not a Cam fan. He had a way shorter leash with Cam than he’s had with other players. I’ll even accept that. He may see things in practice or know things I don’t know. But it clearly demonstrates Thibs was not on the same page as management.

All the above screams they mishandled the Cam deal badly and probably blew some asset value. We’ll see if they can get anything for him before determining how much value they blew.

Personally, I still think Cam has the talent to become a solid player. He’s gotten better every year. He even showed he’s capable of defending OK when he wants this year. So blowing some asset value on a player I’d like to keep developing pisses me off.

Absolutely none of that has anything to do with how I feel about the team we have now and it’s prospects going forward. I like this team.

That Mavs pick we are owed is starting to look at risk for the next draft. With Kleber out for the season, DFS out, and very little flexibility, if the Mavs keep losing it would not shock me if Cuban went into early tank mode if things don’t turn around fairly soon just to have that pick this year. If Doncic misses some games with an injury they might be the worst team in the NBA with what’s left over.