POD: Kyrie is a pain in the butt

[Joe]

Finally managed to scrape together two O6 fellas at the same time for a pod, right as the Passover holiday is ending. Clearly not all of us had our best stuff, as right at the beginning of the pod I say "it's just a regular Monday," when in reality, it is very much Tuesday, borderline Wednesday. Fortunately, Heimer and Pankin join me and Matt as well!

We discuss the implications of Kyrie's stip, run through some trades since day 30 that have not yet been discussed, give the Tony Parker deal some airtime, and make some predictions for the end of the season. Enjoy!

[Hoff]

Yeah that was a bad offer lol sorry @Matt you live and you learn

[Hoff]

Hopefully Jrue keeps this up... he's still only 23, and I loved him coming out of the draft. He had shown some flashes in previous seasons but is currently on a different level

[pacers]

very enjoyable pod! appreciate the shoutout!

[R B]

Matt described my thinking on Kyrie well - super fun to have the stip as a wildcard even if it means he’s inherently difficult to plan around, so I definitely wouldn’t deal him for peanuts. I also don’t totally disagree with Matt that there are other great PGs available but I think Kyrie is undoubtedly the best and a top 3-5 player in the league with more upside to come given his age and still B potential. So in my mind he’s still going to be great value even on a max contract after next season, assuming these stip issues don’t come up all the time.

I’m also thankfully (and admittedly not fully intentionally) well positioned to weather the storm temporarily by slotting Lou Will in at PG. My hope is we can still make the playoffs and Kyrie comes back and we’re a very dangerous 5-8 seed in the East.

The JR topic is an interesting one too. I’m more of the view that they surely can’t just be tied together forever in this stip and maybe that one has already played out so I can legitimately think about dealing him. But it’s obviously impossible to say at this point.

And then ya I have completely dealt away my future first round picks through 2019 so I pretty much have to roll with this at least for the time being. I’m not a big content guy so I’m trying to remain competitive and build up RP by making the playoffs and wanted to lean in to Kyrie on this rookie deal. Clearly some holes in my roster but I’ve also had some injuries peppered throughout the season and now the Kyrie exit, so I feel like we’re a better team than our record suggests.

All in all though, it’s just been way more fun this season and last vs my first couple in the league while we were still tanking. So I’ve probably gotten too aggressive on dealing away the team’s future to compete now and that will be tough to navigate going forward, but it’s been so much more interesting and enjoyable

[nolan]

Love that it's the Celtics year again

[nolan]

I think Im the only person other than Heimer that wants Russ to be good so bad

[Joe]

I think Im the only person other than Heimer that wants Russ to be good so bad

I hate real life russ but i love real life heimer so I'm torn

[bpankin]

I think Im the only person other than Heimer that wants Russ to be good so bad

I hate real life russ but i love real life heimer so I'm torn

But you hate sln heimer

[Merv]

Kangz might have the two best players in any playoff series unless they play Philly. Hard to see them losing 4 games in a series without injury. Think they come out of the west after the Parker trade.