Best Damian Lillard FITS after Bucks release: Warriors, Pistons, Mavericks, Cavaliers & Rockets

Best Damian Lillard FITS after Bucks release: Warriors, Pistons, Mavericks, Cavaliers & Rockets

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. With the Damewave, could a team like the Nuggets sign him just for postseason help? So, obviously with the Achilles tear, there’s no way of knowing what it’s going to look like in terms of his recovery. There is a chance, we’ve seen it before, that he could come back in less than a year. I I would imagine that unless he’s feeling great, he would take the time he needs to get 100% healthy. But let’s evaluate just this theoretical scenario. Damen Lillard races through rehab, does a great job, his body heals quickly, and right around like right around the stretch run, like early April, he’s just ready to go. Okay, so that’s 11 months postsurgery. Theoretically, this would be a situation where it’s not like he’s coming back to take on a starting point guard role in a dead serious like massive usage context. There’s no way he’s doing that this year. But a guy who could come off the bench for you in a playoff series and provide some better shot creation than many of the backup guards that are around the NBA, even on an uh surgically repaired Achilles. That’s an interesting cont uh concept, right? So, let’s talk about some teams that would make sense for Damen Lillard. I don’t actually love the Nuggets fit. I think that that Nuggets team is kind of like geared in a way where they have ways to run offense in various groups. I I think you see Jamal Murray in many cases lead the bench group when Nicole Joic is off the floor. I’m not saying it’s a bad fit for Dame, but I just see some less value there compared to some other um potential units around the league. So, I put together six teams. These are the six teams that I think would be fun fits for Damen Lillard as like a just, oh, I’m I’m here for the playoffs as a backup guard who’s going to play 15 minutes a night. the Dallas Mavericks, a team that’s desperately in need of ball handling and like if they’re in a situation where Kyrie Irving is just not ready to come back this season, Damen Lillard could be a guy who steps in and plays some bench ball handling role for the Dallas Mavericks in a postseason context. the Golden State Warriors. This is a team that Jimmy Butler has come in and helped a lot in terms of secondary shot creation. It has certainly allowed them to have some more flexibility when Steph is off the floor and obviously a great defensive playmaker. Jimmy, I think the Jimmy fit with Golden State has been a resounding success so far. Um, but they still struggle a little bit with creating shots outside of the context of Steph Curry. Damen Lillard would be a really interesting fit to come into Golden State and play a small role off the bench for them in a postseason context. Cleveland Cavaliers, this is a team once again that we talked about when we were talking about the LeBron trade. In the postseason, Darius Garland has just really struggled to create shots. And so Donovan Mitchell has had to basically revert back to heliocentric ball to keep the offense afloat at times. You lose Tai Jerome. Alonzo Ball is a good backup guard. He’s just a very different backup guard. and what he’s not is like some supreme shot creator. Damen Lillard could fit a role there as a bench guard for them. The Detroit Pistons, they signed Caris Levert as a replacement for Dennis Schroeder and Caris is a good player, but similarly, they’re a team that could use some shot creation beyond Kade Cunningham. Damen would be a nice fit there. The Houston Rockets, they’re still light on ball handling. Um, on that roster, they’re obviously uh they retain Fred Van Vleet, you bring in Kevin Durant, that really helps. Shangon can help, but they don’t really have a guy off the bench, unless Reed Shepard can develop into it. They don’t really have a guy off the bench that can come in and consistently provide higher level ball handling for them. Dame would be a great fit in Houston. Last, the Minnesota Timberwolves. This is a team that once they go to their bench, similarly has a little bit of a de lack of depth in ball handling. You lose Alexander Walker who used to run some second side action for them. I like the idea of a highlevel skill guard playing alongside Anthony Edwards that can set him up with some more offball opportunities as well. Minnesota would be a fun destination for Dame. Again, I think the far more likely scenario is that Dame doesn’t play a minute in the NBA this year and that he ends up coming back next year and that’s going to be a completely different discussion because now we’re talking about a healthy Dame that’s had 18 months to recover and that’s got a full training camp to join a team probably in a starting role. But in the short term, those are the teams that I think would be fun for like a late postseason edition. We’re covering the biggest winners of NBA free agency. We were originally thinking biggest winners and losers, but here’s the thing. If you really look at the biggest losers conversation, it’s complicated because I saw a report yesterday that the Kevin Durant trade could potentially be expanded to include five additional teams. The Warriors are probably going to do something in the trade market. The Lakers are probably going to do something in the trade market. There’s so many teams that still have things that they can do. This is so far from over that I don’t want to necessarily focus on the losers yet. We will do that at some point in the postseason, but today we’re just going to focus on the winners. The Denver Nuggets. After a couple of years of slippage in the Western Conference, the Nuggets have completely reloaded, trading Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, significantly upgrading their starting three spot and saving some salary. Trading Dario Sarge for Yonas Valenunis, turning a useless backup center into a guy that gives them a better chance to win. when Nicole Joic is off the floor. It also will help them maintain some scheme consistency. Jonas Valenunis is obviously a substantially lower level player than Nicole Joic, but there are some similarities in their play style which I think will actually help you know the bench units for Denver over the years. we remember it was uh they generally went small and it usually turned into like the opponent would just switch against that group and in those units it’d be a lot of like we’re hunting mismatches with Aaron Gordon for postups and Jamal Murray’s picking on bigs or a weaker perimeter defender and getting into his bag for like a mid-range pullup. I think that having a Jonas Valenunis will allow them to run some of the similar offensive concepts that they run when Joic is on the floor and that scheme consistency could help them be more reliable in their bench groups. Signing Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. that gives them two substantial bench upgrades. A guy in Bruce Brown who was proven to fit with Yokic in a championship context and a guy in Tim Hardaway Jr. who should theoretically fit really well as a movement shooter and a super aggressive uh spot-up player as well. Defense was also an issue for them in the regular season last year, Cam Johnson and Bruce Brown are legitimately upgrades on the defensive end of the floor. And like as we discussed on Tuesday, they both represent options on the perimeter. And this matters because over the years, Denver’s had to deploy Aaron Gordon in a lot of those situations. And every time you deploy a big forward out on the perimeter, it limits your backline defensively in terms of rim protection and defensive rebounding. Having Bruce Brown and Cam Johnson as like substantially better perimeter defenders than anybody that was on the roster last year, not named Christian Brown, that gives them a better opportunity to keep Aaron Gordon in a more realistic, not realistic, but in a better fit role for him as a backline defender. It also be easier on Aaron Gordon’s body throughout the season, which may allow him to hold up better physically throughout the season. I was already a big believer in Denver’s core four and with these substantial upgrades, I’m now seriously considering the Denver Nuggets as my favorite to win the title next year. By the way, I view this as a value right now. All of our odds are provided by DraftKings. The Denver Nuggets right now are plus,00 to win the title. That is the fifth best odds in the NBA. I I would like that to me looks like a great value at this point because you’re getting the best player in the world. A team that last year already pushed Oklahoma City to the brink. They’re a great matchup specifically with Oklahoma City and they significantly addressed some of their biggest needs. Backup center, bench depth, upgraded that fifth starter. They I I would have if if I was placing odds I like right at this point in time I don’t see any reason why they should be anywhere lower than two behind the Oklahoma City Thunder. They seem to me like such a safe bet compared to some of these more volatile teams that we haven’t actually seen them play yet. Secondly, I have four teams today in our biggest winners. The Dallas Mavericks. Hard to imagine a scenario where a team could pivot off of a superstar trade faster than the Mavs have. Obviously, you get a superstar talent back in the trade in Anthony Davis. You get a starting caliber two guard in Max Christie in the deal. You also get a first round pick from the Lakers in the deal. You fortunately get the number one pick in the draft out of the lottery, which turns into Cooper Flag, who has the potential to be a monster defensive player next to Anthony Davis. And who knows what he’s going to be on the offensive end, but chances are he’ll be a very, very good player there as well. And you make a very savvy signing of D’Angelo Russell. you needed ball handling and you got a guy who fits perfectly alongside AD and the rest of the I I think he just fits that roster really well at a team friendly number. I don’t really know what the Navs are yet and I would imagine they’ll make a trade still at this point with their gut glut of uh forward talent, but just simply an aggregate talent. Like if I was just saying which team has the most on paper talent in the league, the Mavs have one of the more talented rosters in the NBA right now if you really zoom out. So, I’m super excited to watch them next season. Three, the Atlanta Hawks in an Eastern Conference that’s there for the taking. They went for it. They made a couple of substantial upgrades. We’ve seen teams not do that. Cleveland has basically stood pat. They made a swap from Tai Jerome to Lonzo Ball. You get Larry Nance Jr. who’s a a good big man uh in their rotation on a discounted deal. But Cleveland is more or less talent-wise where they were last year. The Knicks have made some upgrades on their bench, which we’ll talk about in a minute, but they’re not exactly loading up. The Hawks are like, “We’re going for this thing. We’re going to try to make this happen.” They, you know, Christophs Porzingis had health issues in Boston, and that obviously will be the wild card here, but he’s a substantially more talented player than Clink Capella, and I still view him as a massive upgrade at the starting center spot. They’ve won the Nquille Alexander Walker sweep stakes. He’s one of my favorite three and D guards in the league who I think he’s like I don’t think ideally he’s not starting for you, but he is a quality playoff rotation piece. You get Jaylen Johnson back, another year of improvement for Zachary Riset, another year of improvement for Tyson Daniels. The Hawks are going to be a ton of fun this year. I mentioned this on the show on Tuesday. I think it’s a legitimate goal for them. They should be shooting for homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. I think they should be looking for a top four seed. And then lastly, the Houston Rockets. Getting Kevin Durant, adding Clint Capella, adding Dorian Finny Smith, resigning many of their young players, including Jabari Smith Jr., maintaining their trove of draft compensation for future flexibility. They ended free agency, according to DraftKings, as the second favorite to win the title at plus 700. getting KD, increasing your depth, resigning your young talent. Hard to not consider the Houston Rockets as one of the big winners in free agency.

Jason discusses which teams could be a good fit for Damian Lillard after he was waived by the Milwaukee Bucks including the Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Houston Rockets. He also discusses why the Denver Nuggets are NOT a good option.

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