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Hoops Rumors Live Chat: 3/27/2025
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Luke Adams
12:01
Welcome to this week's chat and thanks for the early questions, guys. Let's jump in...
Arcman
12:02
Which team is the deepest that can lose their best player and still make it to the finals?
Luke Adams
12:03
I think that would be a difficult proposition in the West, where the Thunder would be beatable without SGA and I can't imagine any other team without its top player beating a fully healthy OKC squad.

So it's probably gotta be either Cleveland or Boston, and after seeing what the Celtics did last night without Tatum, I definitely lean in their direction.
Hinkies to blame
12:04
Of the Big 3 in Philly which realisticly can the sixers move in the off-season to reboot the process ?
Luke Adams
12:08
Maxey would be easy to move for value, but there's no reason they'd want to do so. He's young and doesn't have a lengthy injury history.

That leaves Embiid and George. You'd run into the same problem in either one of those cases -- they have so many years and so much money left on their contracts and they were so bad this year that you'd really be selling low. I don't think you're getting a haul for George. It's more viable for Embiid, but not if a team isn't certain about his ability to get back to 100% health.

Since I can't see Philadelphia selling low on Embiid or trading Maxey at all, I guess a George deal is the easiest to envision. But I just can't picture him returning enough value to warrant pulling the trigger at this point.
Do you know the way..to Alturas??
12:08
Hey Luke. Please name for me at least 3 players, not household names or first years, who vastly exceeded your expectations this season. I’ll help get it started: Payton Pritchard of the eventual conference champion Celtics.
Luke Adams
12:12
Since I'm thinking of these players off the top of my head, they're the first names that come to mind and not necessarily the best names, but here are three that have really surprised and impressed me:

  1. Ty Jerome: After he missed pretty much all of last season with an ankle injury, I sort of viewed him as dead money for the Cavs last summer. His comeback/career year this season has been incredible.
  2. Ryan Rollins: Thought he was trending toward being a two-way player or borderline NBA player going forward. The fact that he's played a legitimate role for a top-five team in the East is really surprising.
  3. Toumani Camara: He had a really good rookie year considering where he was drafted (52nd overall). If he'd regressed to some extent this year, it would've been totally understandable and even expected. Instead, he's taken a pretty impressive step forward and is establishing himself as one of the best defenders in the NBA.
TrustTheProcess
12:13
Has Trae Young shown enough progress this season to receive a 4-year, $229 million extension? Or will the Hawks wait until the 2026 offseason to address his contract?
Luke Adams
12:17
This feels like it's destined to become one of the bigger storylines of the offseason.

I can't help but compare Young's situation this year to De'Aaron Fox's last year. It helps that they were both No. 5 overall picks one year apart, but both guys are (or were) on teams that have been hovering around the playoff cut-off and are perhaps second-tier stars playing on maximum-salary contracts.

Fox reached an inflection point in his contract situation this year, where the Kings felt like they had to trade him because they weren't sure they'd be able to extend him.

In Young's case, I think he'd accept the max extension if the Hawks offered it, but I'm less confident that they'll do so -- if they don't, that may just be another way of reaching that extend-or-trade inflection point.
12:19
Just realized I didn't really answer your question directly, but I think the Young situation has gotta be resolved by the 2026 trade deadline. I'd be surprised if they wait until the 2026 offseason to make a decision on whether or not to extend him.
Guest
12:19
How tough would the Rockets be if had Banchero & Cade instead of Green & Jabari
Luke Adams
12:21
They'd have more offensive punch, for sure. But it's not like they had a chance to take those guys and passed on them. You could do similar "what ifs" for a lot of teams. I get that maybe Green and Smith haven't lived up to expectations based on where they were selected, but the Rockets could've done a lot worse in those drafts too.
12:22
("A lot" worse is maybe not accurate because they only could've fallen so far in the draft order, but my point is that those guys are still pretty solid players with room to keep getting better.)
Desmond
12:22
do you fully expect in august when eligible luka will extend with the lakers on the two plus one deal thar allows him to become a free agent in year 10 if his career? When that and likely jaren Jackson jr extends do you think teams will punt their 2026 cap space plans ( heat , clippers in particular)
Luke Adams
12:26
Yeah, we'll see how the postseason goes this spring. If the Lakers get swept out of round one, maybe my opinion changes, but I'd be surprised if Luka doesn't sign some sort of extension with L.A. this offseason. Same goes for the Grizzlies and Jackson, who still looks to me like a pretty strong bet for an All-NBA spot that would make him super-max eligible.

Not sure whether that makes teams with 2026 cap room immediately punt that space (there are still quality players available that summer), but free agency has increasingly become a long-shot way to add an impact player, so if teams like the Heat and Clippers want to have a shot at a star who is in the Luka tier or the JJJ tier (or someone who can get there), finding a way to trade for one is probably their best bet.
KAT conumdrum
12:26
Could the NYK be better on D if KAT stays at the 4? Last night against the Clips the whole team struggled. Would the knicks consider a KAT trade to regain their defensive identity?
Luke Adams
12:30
Robinson's only been back for, what, 10 or 11 games? I doubt the Knicks are making any final judgments on their roster yet -- I expect they'll exercise the same sort of patience the Timberwolves did with the KAT/Gobert pairing after it didn't really work in year one and hope that more reps, a full offseason with this core, and maybe some roster tweaks around the core will yield more success.

Of course, the Wolves traded Towns after year two of the KAT/Gobert experiment, so I'm not ruling out the possibility of the Knicks bailing in a similar manner down the road. But I don't think they made a trade of that magnitude just to give it a try for one year and then move on.
Insert Witty Name Here
12:32
How can the league get the coaches/players to stop whining so much to the refs?  There has to be a happy medium where they can talk to the refs to discuss the current game, but the emotion/hostility is really distracting.
Luke Adams
12:37
The NBA has the ability to put its finger on the scales by telling its referees to emphasize certain calls -- if the league wanted to, it could encourage its refs to more freely hand out techs to players or coaches who are complaining excessively about calls.

I don't really think that would be a good look though, unless you're confident that your refs are getting 95%+ of the calls right. I don't think the NBA can say that.

Other sports, like tennis and baseball, have the ability to automate certain calls (in/out calls in tennis, balls/strikes in baseball) in a way that takes the decisions out of human hands and makes it so the players have no one to really argue against. But the somewhat subjective nature of foul calls in basketball makes it hard for the NBA to implement similar automation, so it feels like there's always going to be some level of arguing over those calls.
Jorge
12:37
Let’s say this Lillard news leads the Bucks to hit the reset button quickly this offseason.  Do Hawks have capital to make a play for Giannis?  Would Jalen Johnson plus a pick (and another contract to offset salaries) be enough?
Luke Adams
12:39
Jalen Johnson would be a great centerpiece for the Bucks in that sort of deal, though I'm skeptical the Hawks would give him up. Even if they were willing, I imagine the Bucks would seek more than just a single pick -- Johnson is an awesome up-and-coming player, but Giannis is a two-time MVP still very much in his prime.
12:40
(I know the Mavs only got a single first-round pick in their Doncic trade, but I don't think that's a good point of comparison in a case like this because the Mavs seemed to view Anthony Davis as a top-10 player whose value was almost equivalent to Luka's. The Bucks would view the gap between Giannis and Johnson as much more significant.)
Cam Thomas
12:40
How much will I make in free agency this summer? Am I a lock to receive a qualifying offer?
Luke Adams
12:44
I view you as a lock to get a QO. It's only worth about $6MM, and your cap hold is just over $12MM, I believe. That's not a big commitment for a team projected to have more than $60MM in room.

I'm less confident about projecting your next contract. It wouldn't shock me if there's a significant gap in the contract the Nets are willing to give you and the one you think you deserve. It's pretty rare for an RFA of your caliber to accept his qualifying offer, but I could imagine a scenario where you do so in the belief that you'll be able to play your way into a bigger payday as a UFA in 2026 with a healthier season.

For what it's worth, I'd be surprised if the Nets go too much higher than $20MM per year in an offer for you. A Cam Johnson-type deal (four years, $90MM) sort of feels right to me.
Arcman
12:45
What is frustrating about Refs in r today's game 1 set will call ever foul and another set will let them play. Can the NBA coordinate the Refs so the foul call don't differ so much with Refs?
Luke Adams
12:46
That's generally the goal and the league office will sometimes send memos to the refs in an effort to make sure things are being called consistently across the board.

It's a really difficult job though, given how fast-paced the modern game is and how many thing a ref is expected to keep an eye on within a single play. Getting consistent, high-quality officiating across the board will always be a challenge.
Mr Queen
12:47
Is Derik Queen better than Maluach?
Luke Adams
12:50
I'll defer to the draft experts and scouts on that one since there's too much NBA basketball for me to watch to focus too much on college games before March. I liked what I saw from Queen last week quite a bit though.
Mr Queen
12:50
Can Barnes, Ingram and RJ Barrett all play together and win?
Luke Adams
12:50
It feels to me like Barrett might be the odd man out there. Maybe they'll give it a try with all three guys next season, but I wouldn't be shocked if Barrett is no longer a Raptor by the 2026 trade deadline.
Kispert
12:51
Will Corey Kispert’s extension have negative, neutral or positive value when it starts next season? His role was pretty modest and he was drafted by the old front office.
Luke Adams
12:54
I was a little surprised the Wizards did a new deal with Kispert last fall. I thought the fact that he was drafted by the old regime and has a somewhat one-dimensional game meant the team was more likely to take him to restricted free agency and see what the market said.

Maybe that would've been the right move. His scoring and three-point shooting dipped a little this season and he'll be coming off season-ending surgery (though a thumb surgery is a lot less concerning than, say, a knee or ankle). Hard to call that contract a positive asset right now. Probably neutral at best.
12:56
Thanks to everyone from joining me at a new time this week!

Our chat schedule for the next couple weeks is a little up in the air at this point (I'll be taking a vacation and will likely have to miss at least one week). But by the time the regular season ends, we'll be back to our usual weekly schedule as the offseason gets underway for a third of the league.

Have a great week, everyone!
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