I don’t really see the fits with Phoenix or Dallas. It sounds great, but there is only one ball and I don’t see Booker, and especially don’t see Doncic sacrificing to the degree they’d need to to make it work. Golden State would make sense, they have some players they could ship out to make it work and you know Steph would accomodate him if it meant a 5th ring. Houston would be great, Butler as a veteran presence with that young team and a great coach in Udoka. I’d also like to see the Thunder make a run at him, they have enough of everything to make a deal, even if they aren’t on his wish list.
You can’t win a title with Butler as your franchise player, but he’d be a great #2 or #3 on a championship roster.
I don’t think it’s a great fit.
They have selfless young players who have given up their stats for team success so I’d wait for more natural growth to occur before adding the finishing piece to it.
Jimmy is great, but he’ll crack the sads as soon as those younger players get their pay and he doesn’t. Just like the Minnesota and Philadelphia situations. Even though I agreed with him, this time it’s different. He’s 35 years old and past his prime. He’s not ready to take on lesser roles. It’s not in his mindset to do so.
I think the Clippers is the best spot for him. He’ll be on ‘Kawhi’s pay level’ and he can be the Jimmy he wants to be and fit in with the rest of that team.
I don’t think a trade will happen though. I think Golden State will pass on all trade options during the season. And with all the apron hard caps, it’s increasingly hard to get trades through that include a $50mil contract with a player option next year (which he is stupid not to pick up).
Philadelphia have a 30% win rate and are 2 and a half wins out of an 8th seed, 6 wins from a playoff seed and 4 wins in front of the worst team.
Next year’s pick is top 6 protected, and they 6th worst in the league without even trying. And there’s still Portland, Detroit, Brooklyn and Chicago ahead of them that would be more willing to tank for better picks.
I suspect they’ll try and keep afloat for the next few weeks. They can probably go 5-2 across that period. That’ll probably get them into a play-in spot. Then work their way through the tougher January schedule and still remain close to a playoff spot.
Yesterday between Chicago and Charlotte, they missed a total of 75 three point shots. An NBA record.
A day later, Golden State and Dallas play and they hit a combined 48 three point shots. An NBA record.
Not everyone has great three point shooters. Would love to see the worse teams take the ball to the basket more often.
They’ll still lose games because they just simply won’t be able to keep pace with teams who hit 3s pretty well and I’m sure they’ll give up leads pretty quickly from time to time too. But it may help games having a bit more interest than just a 3 point shooting line.
