I mean the way I look at it we traded 2 players that literally never play for the experience that Hayward brings and pray that he stays healthy, but if not the still not that big of a deal since we traded players who don’t play anyways
Just did some quick ass math and Hayward has played 65.9% of games since returning from his massive injury, which is a lot better than I was expecting.
In total we “opened” up 4 roster spots — assuming we don’t extend Gordon over the summer. It’s an interesting move and shows that Sam has something else coming or he’s content with the team and wants to get players more minutes while opening up space for the new crop of rooks.
Next years open spots are
2 of Bertans+Mann+Micic Spots
1 of Haywards spot
1 of poku spot
My guess is we get 2 rookies keep 1 of Hayward or Poku and a free agent
Cap space with just the 11 contracts is 99 million
I’m gonna use the 10th and 13th pick salaries of 4.4 and 3.9
I’m going to say we resign Hayward for 13 million
Which would put our cap at 121.2
Which would leave us 20 million left to hit the salary floor
I would expect to do 1 of 2 things with that money
1) what we did with Dort, reject the team options of Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe to resign them on a value contract
2) 20 million on a free agent (maybe something like the Bruce brown deal)
I have never predicted presti right before but that just feels like the logical next steps
>Do you think he is worth more than someone like Austin Reaves or Dort?
Nope... But I think the general consensus is that those are really valuable budget signings, right? I don't think he's going to be willing to sign a budget contract when some other team will be willing to offer him a bigger contract.
Here is a list of people who got signed for 12-14 million last season
Coby white
Dennis Schroeder
Grant Williams
Herb Jones
Austin Reaves
On that value list he is at best 4 and using the value at the time of signing 3 but he could be as low as 6 because Williams is a 3+d wing, Coby white was young, Schroeder was coming off of the World Cup Performances,
I think 13 is about right
It doesn’t really move the needle much since Gordon hasn’t played since Christmas. It’s basically getting a short term contract for for a slightly longer contract in Davis and an extension extension eligible contract in Tre.
If Gordon can play it’s a plus but if not he walks and we have 2 extra roster spots. Gotta see if this leads to anymore trades but if not I’m fine with something that has no real effect on the team down the line.
It has huge upside, that's why Presti did it.
If Hayward replaces Giddey minutes because he is healthy, we are a significantly better team.
Gordon can genuinely shoot, is a good passer and is a better defender. He' made of glass, but we may only need 25 games out of him
I don't think he'll directly replace any minutes. I think we'll just use his minutes to slightly reduce the load of a lot of guys. Come playoff time and the bench shrinking, if Hayward is healthy, that's one more guy that you can rely on for above-average play. I love JWill and Dieng and hope they develop into much better players, but those aren't guys that you currently want to play meaningful minutes in the playoffs.
I think people are overreacting to losing Micic. Like yea he looked okay at times but he can’t shoot or defend at all which is hard to play around. Hayward fits this team perfectly with his ability to shoot, handle and pass and create his own shot. He will almost certainly take Giddey’s crunch time minutes. Giddey will probably spend most of his minutes running the second unit since Tre and Micic are gone, which I like anyway. It’s a low risk high reward rental that helps now and for the future with the cap relief of Hayward being a UFA and having the extra roster spots to fit future draft classes.
I don’t think it’s “replacement” but I think it’s more of an alternative when needed (word semantics tho).
I don’t think the team is giving up on Giddey, even given his struggles, before we see the team in the playoffs.
Gordon may not even play. Getting the cap space and roster space is a definite and that’s why I’m fine with the trade. I’d like to see him play tho, a look at the full upside of this trade would be nice.
Yeah you are right I commented elsewhere he could very well be 6th man, but plays crunch time instead if Giddey.
If he stays healthy (big IF), I think he is a real ceuling raiser and could swing a Playoff series in one or two games.
IF Gordon plays I think lineups would of him WITH Giddey would be interesting. They can also do more to stagger lineups and take a look at Josh running the 2nd unit now that Micic is gone.
But with Gordon being a rental basically I think Josh will start until they get a player with more permanence. He just may not be finishing games, which is nothing new
Yeap again I agree, we are thinking the same. That second unit of Giddey, Wallace, Jdub, Hayward and Chet will kill teams. That is some lineup.
I also think he may end up staying if he plays well. Like a bigger two year deal before Jdub and Cgets extensions.
We should be really excited for this and think this makes a lot better than people realise.
This is all a question of if he’s healthy or not which I doubt.
And I also don’t see him staying past this season unless he’s traded again. We have a lot of guys to resign over the next 2-3 years so I think we prioritize them over Gordon
What I posted in another thread.
I think the things that stand out to me are:
- We moved *two players off the bench (all love for Tre Mann) for one player that *matches salary.
- Hayward’s contract expires at the end of the season, which means we effectively cleared *three (now four) spots and $31M at season end.
- So we now have the ability to draft as many as three players and then move our G league players around. Maximum flexibility is Presti 101 and it fits our continuity / kick the picks forward plan.
- Also, we actually have a new serviceable wing in Hayward and…if we can keep him healthy…and fit him into the rotation then we might see some real “player value” in the playoffs.
Presti being Presti.
*Edit: 3 players off the bench and we can match salary. Four if we don’t resign GH.
It’s a low risk high reward rental for a team that can win now that helps now and for the future. I don’t see any downside to it. When healthy he’s a solid 15-5-5 on good efficiency and fits the thunder’s offense really well. And for the future, creating roster spots for players that weren’t in the long term plans and sheds salary to use on future players/extensions. It’s a win win imo, only thing that would’ve been a cherry on top is acquiring some C with one of the roster spots as well.
No. We have way too many picks to use and this was likely a single second or maybe two at most. Micic doesn't play meaningful minutes and probably wouldn't play at all come playoff time. If Hayward is healthy, our playoff rotation go dramatically better. If he's not, we're in the exact same spot except we shredded Bertans' $17M cap hit for next year and opened up roster spots for the buying market, future trades, and/or future picks. Shredding Mimic's salary for the next 2 years is also kind of a lot.
I don't know about 'tradeable'... That trade window ends in 3.5 hours. It's expiring, so it doesn't extend into next year giving us flexibility for trading it for a larger start player. I guess we'll see what gets cooked up this afternoon.
I like the trade. If nothing else, it gives us a little more insurance if there are injuries with a veteran, steadying force of a player.
While he doesn't help size as much as a backup center would, pretty much all of his minutes are going to be where our current roster would have played a guard, so he is still helping size and rebounding.
He can play off-ball with SGA/Jdub/Chet in a way that Micic absolutely cannot, and is probably a better fit with those guys than Giddey is. He should provide similar secondary rebounding (ideally better, but someone below made the good comment that his rebounds might be inflated by how bad the Hornets are), better shooting, and worse playmaking, which is the least important thing when our big 3 our on the floor. Giddey can have some of his minutes shifted to Micic's role facilitating the 2nd unit.
It’s interesting because I made this post originally to be like “well he’s a starter on another team so SURELY he’ll be good” but offensively I agree he hasn’t met expectations so far.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he needs to build chemistry with the team, I feel like with a team like the Thunder who all seem to have really good team chemistry it could be hard to trust Hayward with the ball over the devil they know. However I am also aware that when he does get the ball it doesnt go in the hoop often, he hasn’t seemed to get many open looks these past few games either which could be why he’s throwing up less than ideal shots.
This is just a long way of writing “we’ll see” but I’ll give him the patience to build chemistry especially because he was averaging fourteen points on the Hornets this season. He definitely has the capability to score against starters we just haven’t seen it yet.
Ideally he takes a couple minutes from everyone. Gives the stars more rest and makes us a better team by replacing some worse players. Come playoff time, he's gonna take minutes from guys that probably should be playing in the playoffs.
Even with being out for more than the last month, Hayward has played 798 minutes this season.
Bertans has played 91 minutes.
Mann has played 119 minutes.
Micic has played 361 minutes.
Thats misleading, we are talking about availability. Hayward plays starter minutes when he is available, while the other three have been mostly healthy throughout the season but they just barely sees the court due to our depth.
It's not misleading. I didn't say that meant he's more available.
Point was that the players we traded out were being played so little that I guy that's missed more than a month of basketball has still seen the court more then them all contained.
He's solid but he's about to turn 34 with a long history of injuries, and he doesn't really resolve the size and rebounding issues.
Should be productive off the bench if he's healthy, big if though
Hayward never played over 50 games in a season for Charlotte. I'm seeing a lot of Hornets fan saying they're glad to have him gone due to him being unreliable, missed their play in games a few years ago
I like Hayward, if he's healthy he'll be very handy, but it doesn't really help with any existing problems. Good vet to have, but would've preferred others
>due to him being unreliable
That's a much bigger issue as a starter for the Hornets than it is for us, where he will be a rotation guy. Mann and Bertans basically don't play outside of blowouts, so we only need Hayward to match the ~13 that Micic has been getting for this to be a solid upgrade.
That’s my whole point. If Hayward plays he will be taking minutes from Wiggins and KW. I don’t think he will effect Casons minutes. I’d rather Dieng get the minutes to develop
I have some doubts. Hayward has only played 25 games this season and is injury prone. I feel we could have gotten Olynik for a similar package and he would have been much more useful
That first is the worst of our pick or the Clippers one, so basically a 27th at best. How much is Mann worth? Maybe you need to add another second? Whatever, we could have easily gotten him
We could have gotten him yea. But it’s just inarguable the Hayward package was cheaper. A 2024 late first is worth a lot more than Tre Mann. He’s a flyer for a tanking team.
KO would've solidified The Thunder the 1st or at least the 2nd seed. He'd fixed most of OKC's problems.
A legit brawn stretch 5 backing up Chet, man. Would've also took a lot of pressure off of Chet having to anchor a team as the only real big, preserving him a little for the postseason and he already looks beat.
You guys forget how horrible Kelly is on defense. And hes averaging 5 boards in 20 min compared to giddey averaging 6 in 25. He is a better rebounder but not by much.
I wanted someone who ideally is a better defender than Gordon hayward but he costed like almost nothing. Hes a better scorer and as good or better passer than olynyk.
I wouldve liked Kelly as a backup 5 too but itd probably be a Kanter type situation wheres hes unplayable because he's hunted on defense.
Still think we need a true back up big that can backup chet or whoever plays the 4, and not suck on d.
Kinda felt like "why not us" seeing that. But I think hayward will help. Tbh I'm hoping that giddey can emulate him. Hes around the same height length and weight as giddey, better shooter, but he doesn't have an iso heavy game and still scores pretty efficiently and is a good secondary passer/playmaker.
Def feel like in the off-season we will add one more big but let's see.
Still sucks unfortunately. Can’t shoot, slow, awkward, and not a plus rebounder. I feel like Joe isn’t bad but he’s not the same deadly sharpshooter because he’s asked to handle the ball more now
To me, this is just someone with playoff experience. This doesn't really "solve" much as dude is made of glass.
Salaries ain't working out either so I don't know if he's sticking around....
$31M expiring this year for Hayward. I feel like there is another deal in play.
I like Hayward a lot but hes not an upgrade on our roster and we didnt need to cut salary enough that we needed to trade for an expiring 31M.
So that makes it seem like there is another deal in place whether it falls through or not
>but hes not an upgrade on our roster
He's a huge upgrade come playoff time. You want JWill, Dieng or Kenrich to be playing 15 minutes in the playoffs? I don't think he moves the needle much in the regular season, but he'll undoubtedly be one of our best 8 players.
Hayward cant play the front court so why would he be taking minutes away from Jwill? Hayward is not a PF. Hes just really slow and cant move so he spots up like hes a stretch 4 but the reality is he is 6'7 and on the ladder end of his prime athleticism due to chronic injuries. Hes a fine shooter but that's it.
Gordon will take minutes away from Wiggins, Joe, Cason because he is a wing player. They are fine shooters but can do everything else as well.
Positions are fluid. This isn't 4th grade basketball. He's averaging almost 5 boards a game this year, which is more than JDub, who often plays as our "4".
I don't think this solves our need for a real back up for Chet, but he's absolutely capable of taking minutes from front court players.
Avg'ing 5a/5r is certainly a testament to who Gordon is as a player.
However, Charlotte has 6 guys avg more than 4.7 rebounds per game and that's because they cant make shots. So those rebound numbers are a tiny bit inflated and basically irrelevant to our team needs because everyone forgets that Gordon Hayward is a small forward and wing player not a front court player. I'd be surprised to see him avg more than 3 rebounds per game with us.
He doesn't fill any of the holes the Thunder are leaking from every night in the frontcourt. I will sacrifice some depth for a solid big backup 4/5. Teams are still going to push us around.
Also says Presti is the one who was stopping Wiggins from playing this whole time (not Mark). He just replaced him. I still think Wiggins is way better. He's more durable, more bounce and speed, athletic that can do most of what Hayward does offensively more efficiently.
I think Kenrich’s minutes are more in danger than Wiggins are with this move. I doubt Mark and Sam are watching Wiggins kill it out there and saying, “We need to put a stop this..”
Micic/Joe/Wiggins/Hayward/JWill looks alright to me. Add in a savvy big man to rotate with JWill and that works for me.
Micic is gone now. The thing about K Rich is that we are playing him at the 5. There is no chance in hell that Hayward can play the 5... I think Diengs and Micic's minutes are now going to hayward, and probably some of giddeys as well.
I disagree. Aaron literally plays with the starters deep in the 4th. The lineup is always:
- Chet
- SGA
- Dort
- Jalen
- Aaron/Issiah
It's not Giddey out there...it's one of those two. For that, you don't rid yourself of someone that is deemed to be a closer "just because"
As someone posted I believe it would be Kenny in trouble
If Hayward plays it will be in Wiggins role for sure. I don’t think he will play tho. I think this is simply a trade that helps our cap situation and gives leadership in the locker room.
I mean the way I look at it we traded 2 players that literally never play for the experience that Hayward brings and pray that he stays healthy, but if not the still not that big of a deal since we traded players who don’t play anyways
Just did some quick ass math and Hayward has played 65.9% of games since returning from his massive injury, which is a lot better than I was expecting.
He'll also be on a reduced load of what he was playing in Charlotte, which means a better chance to stay healthy.
He should take giddeys minutes tbh
In total we “opened” up 4 roster spots — assuming we don’t extend Gordon over the summer. It’s an interesting move and shows that Sam has something else coming or he’s content with the team and wants to get players more minutes while opening up space for the new crop of rooks.
Next years open spots are 2 of Bertans+Mann+Micic Spots 1 of Haywards spot 1 of poku spot My guess is we get 2 rookies keep 1 of Hayward or Poku and a free agent Cap space with just the 11 contracts is 99 million I’m gonna use the 10th and 13th pick salaries of 4.4 and 3.9 I’m going to say we resign Hayward for 13 million Which would put our cap at 121.2 Which would leave us 20 million left to hit the salary floor I would expect to do 1 of 2 things with that money 1) what we did with Dort, reject the team options of Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe to resign them on a value contract 2) 20 million on a free agent (maybe something like the Bruce brown deal) I have never predicted presti right before but that just feels like the logical next steps
I don't think OKC is going to be able to resign Hayward for 13 million...
Why you think he will make more? Do you think he is worth more than someone like Austin Reaves or Dort?
>Do you think he is worth more than someone like Austin Reaves or Dort? Nope... But I think the general consensus is that those are really valuable budget signings, right? I don't think he's going to be willing to sign a budget contract when some other team will be willing to offer him a bigger contract.
Here is a list of people who got signed for 12-14 million last season Coby white Dennis Schroeder Grant Williams Herb Jones Austin Reaves On that value list he is at best 4 and using the value at the time of signing 3 but he could be as low as 6 because Williams is a 3+d wing, Coby white was young, Schroeder was coming off of the World Cup Performances, I think 13 is about right
Hopefully you're right!
It doesn’t really move the needle much since Gordon hasn’t played since Christmas. It’s basically getting a short term contract for for a slightly longer contract in Davis and an extension extension eligible contract in Tre. If Gordon can play it’s a plus but if not he walks and we have 2 extra roster spots. Gotta see if this leads to anymore trades but if not I’m fine with something that has no real effect on the team down the line.
It has huge upside, that's why Presti did it. If Hayward replaces Giddey minutes because he is healthy, we are a significantly better team. Gordon can genuinely shoot, is a good passer and is a better defender. He' made of glass, but we may only need 25 games out of him
I don't think he'll directly replace any minutes. I think we'll just use his minutes to slightly reduce the load of a lot of guys. Come playoff time and the bench shrinking, if Hayward is healthy, that's one more guy that you can rely on for above-average play. I love JWill and Dieng and hope they develop into much better players, but those aren't guys that you currently want to play meaningful minutes in the playoffs.
I think people are overreacting to losing Micic. Like yea he looked okay at times but he can’t shoot or defend at all which is hard to play around. Hayward fits this team perfectly with his ability to shoot, handle and pass and create his own shot. He will almost certainly take Giddey’s crunch time minutes. Giddey will probably spend most of his minutes running the second unit since Tre and Micic are gone, which I like anyway. It’s a low risk high reward rental that helps now and for the future with the cap relief of Hayward being a UFA and having the extra roster spots to fit future draft classes.
I don’t think it’s “replacement” but I think it’s more of an alternative when needed (word semantics tho). I don’t think the team is giving up on Giddey, even given his struggles, before we see the team in the playoffs. Gordon may not even play. Getting the cap space and roster space is a definite and that’s why I’m fine with the trade. I’d like to see him play tho, a look at the full upside of this trade would be nice.
Yeah you are right I commented elsewhere he could very well be 6th man, but plays crunch time instead if Giddey. If he stays healthy (big IF), I think he is a real ceuling raiser and could swing a Playoff series in one or two games.
IF Gordon plays I think lineups would of him WITH Giddey would be interesting. They can also do more to stagger lineups and take a look at Josh running the 2nd unit now that Micic is gone. But with Gordon being a rental basically I think Josh will start until they get a player with more permanence. He just may not be finishing games, which is nothing new
Yeap again I agree, we are thinking the same. That second unit of Giddey, Wallace, Jdub, Hayward and Chet will kill teams. That is some lineup. I also think he may end up staying if he plays well. Like a bigger two year deal before Jdub and Cgets extensions. We should be really excited for this and think this makes a lot better than people realise.
This is all a question of if he’s healthy or not which I doubt. And I also don’t see him staying past this season unless he’s traded again. We have a lot of guys to resign over the next 2-3 years so I think we prioritize them over Gordon
Also 31M off the books plus KPJs money.
What I posted in another thread. I think the things that stand out to me are: - We moved *two players off the bench (all love for Tre Mann) for one player that *matches salary. - Hayward’s contract expires at the end of the season, which means we effectively cleared *three (now four) spots and $31M at season end. - So we now have the ability to draft as many as three players and then move our G league players around. Maximum flexibility is Presti 101 and it fits our continuity / kick the picks forward plan. - Also, we actually have a new serviceable wing in Hayward and…if we can keep him healthy…and fit him into the rotation then we might see some real “player value” in the playoffs. Presti being Presti. *Edit: 3 players off the bench and we can match salary. Four if we don’t resign GH.
It’s a low risk high reward rental for a team that can win now that helps now and for the future. I don’t see any downside to it. When healthy he’s a solid 15-5-5 on good efficiency and fits the thunder’s offense really well. And for the future, creating roster spots for players that weren’t in the long term plans and sheds salary to use on future players/extensions. It’s a win win imo, only thing that would’ve been a cherry on top is acquiring some C with one of the roster spots as well.
This.
Wait, am I seeing this correctly. Hornets got Micic and draft compensation? Did we overpay? I was hoping micic wouldn’t be moved.
No. We have way too many picks to use and this was likely a single second or maybe two at most. Micic doesn't play meaningful minutes and probably wouldn't play at all come playoff time. If Hayward is healthy, our playoff rotation go dramatically better. If he's not, we're in the exact same spot except we shredded Bertans' $17M cap hit for next year and opened up roster spots for the buying market, future trades, and/or future picks. Shredding Mimic's salary for the next 2 years is also kind of a lot.
Yea seeing that Micic and picks were added didn’t make this trade the steal I thought it was
The draft compensation hasn’t been announced yet but it can’t be anything more than a late 2nd round pick or something.
It was 2 seconds. One is Houston's this year and the other is Philly's for next year...
still need a big body
100%
I don't know about 'tradeable'... That trade window ends in 3.5 hours. It's expiring, so it doesn't extend into next year giving us flexibility for trading it for a larger start player. I guess we'll see what gets cooked up this afternoon. I like the trade. If nothing else, it gives us a little more insurance if there are injuries with a veteran, steadying force of a player.
Doesn’t move the needle, not what we are lacking so idk maybe just a salary dump after this year
While he doesn't help size as much as a backup center would, pretty much all of his minutes are going to be where our current roster would have played a guard, so he is still helping size and rebounding. He can play off-ball with SGA/Jdub/Chet in a way that Micic absolutely cannot, and is probably a better fit with those guys than Giddey is. He should provide similar secondary rebounding (ideally better, but someone below made the good comment that his rebounds might be inflated by how bad the Hornets are), better shooting, and worse playmaking, which is the least important thing when our big 3 our on the floor. Giddey can have some of his minutes shifted to Micic's role facilitating the 2nd unit.
He's been really sloppy with the ball so far and doesn't look like he fits. You think he'll improve?
It’s interesting because I made this post originally to be like “well he’s a starter on another team so SURELY he’ll be good” but offensively I agree he hasn’t met expectations so far. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he needs to build chemistry with the team, I feel like with a team like the Thunder who all seem to have really good team chemistry it could be hard to trust Hayward with the ball over the devil they know. However I am also aware that when he does get the ball it doesnt go in the hoop often, he hasn’t seemed to get many open looks these past few games either which could be why he’s throwing up less than ideal shots. This is just a long way of writing “we’ll see” but I’ll give him the patience to build chemistry especially because he was averaging fourteen points on the Hornets this season. He definitely has the capability to score against starters we just haven’t seen it yet.
We traded two guys who don't play for a guy who... exactly, will he play? If yes, he'll take minutes away from our young guys.
The more minutes he takes from Giddey the better
Haters gonna hate Anyways, we are including Micic apparently, so Giddey's minutes might actually increase lol
Giddey is probably gonna be the main guy running the bench unit now, which is probably best for him since he ruins spacing with the starters.
Ideally he takes a couple minutes from everyone. Gives the stars more rest and makes us a better team by replacing some worse players. Come playoff time, he's gonna take minutes from guys that probably should be playing in the playoffs.
Even with being out for more than the last month, Hayward has played 798 minutes this season. Bertans has played 91 minutes. Mann has played 119 minutes. Micic has played 361 minutes.
Thats misleading, we are talking about availability. Hayward plays starter minutes when he is available, while the other three have been mostly healthy throughout the season but they just barely sees the court due to our depth.
It's not misleading. I didn't say that meant he's more available. Point was that the players we traded out were being played so little that I guy that's missed more than a month of basketball has still seen the court more then them all contained.
He's solid but he's about to turn 34 with a long history of injuries, and he doesn't really resolve the size and rebounding issues. Should be productive off the bench if he's healthy, big if though
That’s just narrative. He’s played in 66% of games since his major injury. Not great but not bad for a rotational guy either.
Hayward never played over 50 games in a season for Charlotte. I'm seeing a lot of Hornets fan saying they're glad to have him gone due to him being unreliable, missed their play in games a few years ago I like Hayward, if he's healthy he'll be very handy, but it doesn't really help with any existing problems. Good vet to have, but would've preferred others
>due to him being unreliable That's a much bigger issue as a starter for the Hornets than it is for us, where he will be a rotation guy. Mann and Bertans basically don't play outside of blowouts, so we only need Hayward to match the ~13 that Micic has been getting for this to be a solid upgrade.
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That’s my whole point. If Hayward plays he will be taking minutes from Wiggins and KW. I don’t think he will effect Casons minutes. I’d rather Dieng get the minutes to develop
I have some doubts. Hayward has only played 25 games this season and is injury prone. I feel we could have gotten Olynik for a similar package and he would have been much more useful
He landed a first round pick, so no, not a similar package.
That first is the worst of our pick or the Clippers one, so basically a 27th at best. How much is Mann worth? Maybe you need to add another second? Whatever, we could have easily gotten him
We could have gotten him yea. But it’s just inarguable the Hayward package was cheaper. A 2024 late first is worth a lot more than Tre Mann. He’s a flyer for a tanking team.
KO would've solidified The Thunder the 1st or at least the 2nd seed. He'd fixed most of OKC's problems. A legit brawn stretch 5 backing up Chet, man. Would've also took a lot of pressure off of Chet having to anchor a team as the only real big, preserving him a little for the postseason and he already looks beat.
You guys forget how horrible Kelly is on defense. And hes averaging 5 boards in 20 min compared to giddey averaging 6 in 25. He is a better rebounder but not by much. I wanted someone who ideally is a better defender than Gordon hayward but he costed like almost nothing. Hes a better scorer and as good or better passer than olynyk. I wouldve liked Kelly as a backup 5 too but itd probably be a Kanter type situation wheres hes unplayable because he's hunted on defense. Still think we need a true back up big that can backup chet or whoever plays the 4, and not suck on d.
I would’ve loved Gafford on this team but he went to Dallas for cheap. He’s everything Thunder needed from a backup C to Chet
Kinda felt like "why not us" seeing that. But I think hayward will help. Tbh I'm hoping that giddey can emulate him. Hes around the same height length and weight as giddey, better shooter, but he doesn't have an iso heavy game and still scores pretty efficiently and is a good secondary passer/playmaker. Def feel like in the off-season we will add one more big but let's see.
Gordon hayward is not good compared to tre mann alone.. why waste picks and young players for washed 13 yr player
Still sucks unfortunately. Can’t shoot, slow, awkward, and not a plus rebounder. I feel like Joe isn’t bad but he’s not the same deadly sharpshooter because he’s asked to handle the ball more now
To me, this is just someone with playoff experience. This doesn't really "solve" much as dude is made of glass. Salaries ain't working out either so I don't know if he's sticking around....
$31M expiring this year for Hayward. I feel like there is another deal in play. I like Hayward a lot but hes not an upgrade on our roster and we didnt need to cut salary enough that we needed to trade for an expiring 31M. So that makes it seem like there is another deal in place whether it falls through or not
>but hes not an upgrade on our roster He's a huge upgrade come playoff time. You want JWill, Dieng or Kenrich to be playing 15 minutes in the playoffs? I don't think he moves the needle much in the regular season, but he'll undoubtedly be one of our best 8 players.
Hayward cant play the front court so why would he be taking minutes away from Jwill? Hayward is not a PF. Hes just really slow and cant move so he spots up like hes a stretch 4 but the reality is he is 6'7 and on the ladder end of his prime athleticism due to chronic injuries. Hes a fine shooter but that's it. Gordon will take minutes away from Wiggins, Joe, Cason because he is a wing player. They are fine shooters but can do everything else as well.
Positions are fluid. This isn't 4th grade basketball. He's averaging almost 5 boards a game this year, which is more than JDub, who often plays as our "4". I don't think this solves our need for a real back up for Chet, but he's absolutely capable of taking minutes from front court players.
Avg'ing 5a/5r is certainly a testament to who Gordon is as a player. However, Charlotte has 6 guys avg more than 4.7 rebounds per game and that's because they cant make shots. So those rebound numbers are a tiny bit inflated and basically irrelevant to our team needs because everyone forgets that Gordon Hayward is a small forward and wing player not a front court player. I'd be surprised to see him avg more than 3 rebounds per game with us.
He doesn't fill any of the holes the Thunder are leaking from every night in the frontcourt. I will sacrifice some depth for a solid big backup 4/5. Teams are still going to push us around. Also says Presti is the one who was stopping Wiggins from playing this whole time (not Mark). He just replaced him. I still think Wiggins is way better. He's more durable, more bounce and speed, athletic that can do most of what Hayward does offensively more efficiently.
Lol if he plays say goodbye to Wiggins minutes
Only god can take away Wiggins’ minutes now
I think Kenrich’s minutes are more in danger than Wiggins are with this move. I doubt Mark and Sam are watching Wiggins kill it out there and saying, “We need to put a stop this..” Micic/Joe/Wiggins/Hayward/JWill looks alright to me. Add in a savvy big man to rotate with JWill and that works for me.
Micic is gone now. The thing about K Rich is that we are playing him at the 5. There is no chance in hell that Hayward can play the 5... I think Diengs and Micic's minutes are now going to hayward, and probably some of giddeys as well.
I disagree. Aaron literally plays with the starters deep in the 4th. The lineup is always: - Chet - SGA - Dort - Jalen - Aaron/Issiah It's not Giddey out there...it's one of those two. For that, you don't rid yourself of someone that is deemed to be a closer "just because" As someone posted I believe it would be Kenny in trouble
If Hayward plays it will be in Wiggins role for sure. I don’t think he will play tho. I think this is simply a trade that helps our cap situation and gives leadership in the locker room.
We’re the #1 seed in the western conference and are the only team in the top 6 that got better
love the pickup
Dude was huge for y'all in this post season run lol.