After X years of Atlanta turning it on in the second half, I have to think that they’ll eventually do so again. They’re not a deep team, and they’ve been fully healthy (by which I mean all five starters starting the game) for, like, a single game this season. Don’t get me wrong, they’re a trainwreck in so many ways, but they just have way too much talent to be this bad.

IND (0)
NYK, MIA (-1.0)
ATL (-2.5)
WAS, CHI, TOR (-3.5)

I suppose you’d make MIA the favorite, but beyond that it’s pretty wild!

Would send RJ, Obi + 5 1st for Jaylen Brown and Udoka

I’d still want both the Cavs & Celts 1sts along with Duarte. The Cavs & Celts are currently 1st & 2nd in SRS. Those are not going to be valuable picks.

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We’re locked in with Randle for better or worse. When we were discussing the Randle paradox nobody saw him being as good as he’s been this year. He’s blowing his pandemic year out of the water right now without hitting an unsustainable number of 3s.

On the other hand, Randle is hitting his 3-10ft shots at a much higher rate (52%) than his career average (40%), however, if we replaced his current year rate with his career average rate he’d still be at exactly league average TS%. That’s a big downturn, but still higher than the year of the empty gym.

I have pretty much never been worried about his deal being an actual albatross, and nothing that he is doing this year so far is all that surprising to me. I don’t think he will ever be particularly hard to trade in a *neutral-ish* manner going forward. He’s put the empty-arena illusion nonsense to bed. While I don’t expect that a team would give up for him what Sacto gave up for Sabonis, we could definitely move him for *something.*

So this isn’t like being resigned to Amar’e’s or H20’s or Eddy’s remaining years. Randle is playing at an all-star level, and there’s probably just as much chance that he will stay at this level or even improve over the next year or two as there is that he will decline to 2021-22 level play. So in that sense, I’m in a better place than “we’re stuck with him, so might as well just hope for the best.”

yeah…I am in acceptance mode as well…just have to ride it out…

I’d like them to fire Thibs and trade Randle. I felt that way when they were three under .500, I felt that way when they were winning eight in a row and I felt that way when they were losing five in a row.

But I know it’s not going to happen, so I’ll be content enjoying Randle doing as well as he possibly can!

So I’ll just keep it as implied. If you ever think to yourself, “Would Brian like us to fire Thibs and trade Randle?,” then you know the answer is, “Yes, yes he would.” 😉