Good Morning It’s Basketball - Get the dominoes out
This is a preview of today’s full, robust newsletter. Want the whole thing, plus every full newsletter five times a week? This glorious prize is within your grasp for just $5 per month or $50 per year! Good morning. Let’s basketball. Approaching Thunder Storm; Martin Johnson Heade; 1859 The Thunder charitably had some items to attend to this summer after a stunning rise up the standings to No. 1 in the West followed by a second-round ejection at the hands of Luka Doncic and the Mavericks. That whole list, according to me:
Oklahoma City addressed two of those issues in one fell swoop by reportedly trading Giddey to the Bulls for Alex Caruso straight-up. Caruso (30) is much older than Giddey (21), and is a better player right now (maybe by a lot). He’ll soon be a little pricey, too, as he’s hitting unrestricted free agency in a year. Giddey will be a restricted free agent in 2025; they honestly could end up at similar salary levels, depending on how the Bulls do. Caruso is definitely a rotational player for OKC. I think he starts off the bench, which means the Thunder probably have a starting slot to fill. By Game 5 of the Dallas series, Mark Daigneault had turned to Isaiah Joe over Giddey. Joe is nice — the Joe-Caruso bench mob is going to be a treat — but Bullet #2 above reminds us that the Thunder likely need some size with Holmgren. Jaylin Williams probably is not it, and playing Lu Dort and Jalen Williams as your forwards really puts a ton of pressure on Holmgren. So the Thunder are quite possibly still searching for a fifth starter. For the Bulls, unless you are totally out on Giddey — which is a fair position to take, I’m not sure he’s a good NBA player — it’s not a bad thing to turn a 30-year-old pending UFA into a 21-year-old pending RFA, especially given Giddey’s one primary strength (playmaking from a non-traditional position) and the Bulls’ biggest weakness (passing). You can grouse about whether Chicago could have collected more assets dealing Caruso at the trade deadline, but this trade was almost assuredly not available then and the Bulls deserve some credit for signing Caruso outright three years ago, setting up this next domino. Free DeMar DeRozan, though. Malik Is Arabic For KingThat sounds you hear is an enormous sign of relief from the entire Sacramento River Valley as Malik Monk signed a 4-year, $78 million extension with the Kings. This was the max that the Kings were contractually allowed to offer, and less than some other teams needing guard help were expected to shell out. Kings fans have been collectively worrying about Monk’s future with the team because of this contractual anomaly since basically last offseason. To have it resolved in the first 48 hours of the offseason is a miracle... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Good Morning It's Basketball to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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C'ing is believing
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Boston shreds Dallas to close the series, the championship and the season. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
What is fair to ask of Luka?
Monday, June 17, 2024
His Game 4 defensive effort was completely divorced from what we'd seen previously. Is it right to expect he repeats it? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The Celtics' reality beats the theories
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Whatever you think you thought about Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown and stardom in the NBA is running up against a little thing called the Larry O'Brien Trophy. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
When will the Lakers catch a break?
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Kurt Rambis is always available. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
When depth destroys top-line talent
Monday, June 10, 2024
The Mavericks' best player is killing. The Celtics' best player is flailing. Boston is up 2-0. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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