Most Corporations Gift Mense A Gold Watch When They Finally Retire After 20+ Years Of Service... But What Do You Really Get A Man Like Coach Pop, Who Has Won You 5 NBA Championships Since Taking Charge Of Your Organization? Maybe Another Ring? After A Nigh Endless Series Of Golden Ages That Were Highlighted By All-Star Caliber Leading Talents Like David Robinson, Tim Duncan & Kawhi Leonard, The Spurs Have Been On A Rebuilding Journey Of Late, Once Which Saw Them Miss Out On The Playoffs Last Season, For The First Time In Pop's Tenure, Which Is Something They Don't Seem Intent On Watching A Repeat Of Last Season.

LaMarcus Aldridge Had Been Sat Down In Lure Of A Potential Trade Or Buy-Out Post March 25, Which Shows Some Of The Spurs Hand Going Into The Off-Season... Trading Away L.A. While Looking To Get Back Some Young Talent To Kickstart This Rebuild & Gift Pop A Team That He Can Win One Last Ring With, Now That's A Retirement Gift Befitting Of The Man Who Will Go Down As Arguably The Greatest Basketball Coach Ever & An Exemplary Example For Humankind Too... Methinks That The Chicago Should Be Open To Listening, As Zach LaVine & Lauri Markkanen Are Two Young Players That Would Fit Perfectly In San Antonio Under Pop, While Chicago Gets Back The Assets That They Need To Kickstart Their Own Rebuilding Process.

For Many A Young Basketball Fan, Michael Jordan Is The Gateway Into The Game - I Fell In Love With B-Ball Through My Older Brother & Uncle, Who Are Both Big Fans Of The GOAT Himself - For One Of The Greatest Players Of All-Time, If Not The Greatest, To Own An NBA Franchise Today Is Actually Rather Cool... MJ Has Opened Up So Many Lanes For Modern Athlete's & Entertainers, Yet His Ownership Of The Charlotte Hornets Is Arguably One Of His Biggest Accomplishments Yet. Equity Ownership Is Something That Is Very Dear To Us As Young People Of Colour In The World Today, To See One Of Our Own Attain It Is Awe-Inspiring Is So Many Ways. Now All MJ Needs To Do Is Build The Hornets Up Into A Competitive Team, Over The Next Few Season's, While Praying That LaMelo Ball Develops Into The Transcendental Talent That He Has Showcased The Potential To Become Early On.

With Melo Out Injured For The Rest Of The Season, The Hornets Will Have To Step It Up In His Absence If They Desire To Make It Into The Playoffs This Season, Even With LaMelo Out Injured After Making Such An Impressive Start Early On This Season. MJ Is Known To Be High On Scary Terry Rozier, While DeVonte Graham & Malik Monk Are In Contract Years, Making It A Very Key Next Couple Of Months For The Hornets Front Office... We Cooked Up A Couple Of Trades To Try & Fast Track The Rebuilding Process Out In Charlotte...

There Is Some Poetic Justice In The Manner Through Which The Utah Jazz Transitioned On So Effortlesly From The Gordon Hayward Years, While Feasibly Improving On From Where They Were Before The Arrival Of Their New Franchise Player Donovan Mitchell, Who Rose From Being Overlooked In The Draft To A Surefire Rookie Of The Year Candidate In Just His First Season As A Pro. Having Elevated His Game To An All-Star Level, Alongside Fellow All-Star Centre Rudy Gobert, Spyda Mitchell Now Seems Set To Take Utah Up A Notch & Elevate Them To The Heights That They Saw Under Hall-Of-Famer's Karl Malone & John Stockton. With The 1st Seed In The West Theirs For The Time Being, Utah Has Been Able To Glimpse Into The Potential Future Of A Mitchell-Led Jazz Band & It Would Behoove Them To Invest In More Complimentary Teammates For Spyda To Begin Perfecting His Melodies Alongside As He Prepares For His Golden Opportunity To Potentially Make That Western Conference Top Spot His Home For The Foreseeable Future, Setting The Jazz Up To Potentially Win It All Someday Soon.

On This Episode Of Two 2nd-Round Picks & A Fax Machine, We Explored A Few Trades For The High-Flying Utah Jazz... Looking To Get Younger Talent Around Donovan Mitchell, While Adding Some More Perimeter Shooting & Depth In One Trade; While Going Hunting For A Pair Of Talented Young Ballers In Atlanta That Could Potentially Shift The Timeline For Utah Into A Potential Dynastic Run Built Around A Trio Of Upward Trending Prospects & A Handful Of Wiley Old Vets That Know How To Win... We Tried To Make Moves That Will Set The Right Tone For Utah's Rebuilding Of The Band, While Making Sure That They Continue To Hit These High Notes That They've So Far Successfully Managed To Hit This Season.

Peace!

Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy; When The Portland Trailblazers Drafted Damien Lillard Out Of Weber State University With The 6th Pick In 2012, They Already Had A Pretty Good Foundation In LaMarcus Aldridge, While Trading Gerald Wallace To The Nets Landed Them A Top-3 Protected Pick That Ended Up Falling In The 6th Slot Where The Basketball God's Made Up For The Brandon Roy & Raymond Felton Situations With Damien Lillard & CJ McCollum Coming In With The 10th Pick Of The 2013 Draft, Effectively Ensuring A Rebuild That Needn't Necessarily Come With Consecutive Losing Seasons. Coming From Being The JailBlazers, To A Perennial Playoff Team That Features A Player Who Is Top 10 In The League Should Be A Win For Portland; Yet They've Been Unfairly Compared To The Golden State Warrior's, Who Have Maximized Their Transcendent Player Into 3 Rings & A Dynastic Run Which Now Sees Them Join The Upper Echelons Of NBA Royalty; The Trailblazers Can Only Control Their Own Narrative & Pray That Things Open Up For Then Out West, As They Probably Would've Already Been Champions In Any Other Era Not Dominated By A Pair Of Lads Born In The Same Akron Hospital.

Damien Lillard Is The Future Of Portland Still, It May Sound Crazy To Some But 30 Is Very Young For A Modern Guard... The Combination Of Dame & CJ Is Hard Not To Fall In Love With, Yet It Seems Hard To Win A Ring With The Pair Of Them In Portland As We've Continually Seen Over The Past 6/7 Season's. We Explored Trades That Can Either Prepare Portland To Give It One Final Try With Dame & CJ Plus Some Much Needed Defensive Anchor / Interior Scorer Help, Or Even Exploring The Option Of Selling High On CJ While He's Averaging A Career High In Points During An Injury Shortened Season. Whichever Way They Opt To Peal This Onion, The Portland Front Office Will Have To Do Something In Order To Ensure That Damien Lillard's Star Continues To Blaze A Trail Throughout This League... Who Knows, Maybe One Of Gray Trent Jr., Anfrenee Simmons, CJ Elleby & Zach Collins & Harry Giles Will Breakout Over The Next Few Seasons To Become The Long-Term Complimentary Piece That They've Yearned For And Seemed To Have Found In OG Melo.

#T2RPAAFMPodcast #StillBlazin #LoudBoothPodcasts #SuperCreativeFC #Epi16 #NBATrades #NBA #POR #TrailBlazers #RipCity

The Modern NBA Has Gradually Become More Of A Feast Or Famine Reality For Most Ball-Clubs... You Either Get A Window To Shoot For The Chip & Be Winsome As An Organization, Or You're Facing The Uncontrollable Factors That Now Come With A Rebuild That's Based On Tanking Or Intentionally Losing In An Unveiled Attempt To Try & Boost Your Teams Draft Odds. It's Rather Rare To Find Yourself In The Middle Of Those Two Realities In Today's NBA, Where Owners, GMs, Fans & Even Players Often Lack The Wherewithal To Keep Up With The Pace Of The Race Leaders, Even Though They May Not Be Good Enough To Win It All Just Yet... The Indiana Pacers Have Done Amazingly Well To Remain Relevant & Competitive For Nearly 3 Decade's; From The Reggie Miller Golden Year's, Onto The Early Danny Granger / Paul "Playoff-P" George Era, Through Onto The Current Turner/ Brogdon/ Sabonis Generation, Indy Have Been A Perennial Playoff Team That Always Seemed A Piece Or Two Away From Going Up To That Championship Contender Level.

Without Been A Major Free-Agent Destination, Indy Still Manage To Put Out A Playoff Caliber Team, Albeit In The LEASTern Conference, Which Is A Major Credit To The Professional Manner In Which The Front Office & Backroom Staff Approaches Player / Personnel Development Regardless Of Where Players Were Drafted Or How Much They Are Paid, The Pacers Will Get Max Production Out Of Them & Also Improve Them As Young Men Off The Court, Which Means That Indiana As An Organization Will Always Win In The Game Of Life, Even When The Score Of The Games Go Against Them Sometimes... We Cooked Up A Few Trades That Would See Indy Continue Their Great Tradition Of Being Competitive For The Next Few Seasons, While Potentially Opening Up A Window For Themselves To Come Out Of The East & Have A Shot At Winning The Sacred Larry O'Brian Trophy.

#T2RPAAFMPodcast #KeepingThePace #LoudBoothPodcasts #SuperCreativeFC #Epi15 #NBATrades #NBA #IND #Pacers #AlwaysGame

It’s Rapidly Become A Norm For Young Players In Smaller Markets To Bide Their Time And Develop On Their Rookie Deals, Resign With The Team That Drafted Them To Maximize Their Contract Value And Only Then Do They Take A Step Back To Reassess Where They Are In Their Personal Development, In Relation To How The Team Is Developing Towards That Championship Winning Level Befitting Of Said Players Pedigree, Before We Hear Murmurs Of Them Wanting Out Or Being Disgruntled. Granted, For Every Anthony Davis There Will Be A Damian Lillard Or A Stephen Curry, Who Ride It Out With Their Team Regardless Of What The Odds Are, Honourably So. The One Thing That May Have Begun To Change Within This Dynamic, Is The Ages At Which The Prodigy’s Begin To Think Of Wanting Out In Lure Of Greener Pastures These Days - Giannis Has Doubled Down On The Dame & Steph Playbook, By Staying In Milwaukee And Looking To Bring Talent To Him, Instead Of Going Elsewhere To Play And Try Win It All - Which Makes A Youngster Like Zion Williamson Even More Intriguing As A Prospect, Provided The New Orleans Pelicans Get It Right In Player Acquisition And Player / Personnel Development Over The Next 2 Seasons, Zion Will Probably Become A Champion In New Orleans Before He Retires There As A One Team Player, Something Many Wouldn’t Think Would Be Possible In The Super-Friends AAU 2K Build-A-Team Era.

The Clock Has Officially Begun For The Pelicans, As It Pertains To Operation Build Around Zion & Brandon Ingram As Their Cornerstones - Having Recouped A Few Good Assets In The Anthony Davis To LA Trade, You Now Have A Situation Where New Orleans Can Feasibly Get Very Good, Very Fast, Through Trades, Free Agency And The Draft Market, While A Few Great Young Staff Hires Wouldn’t Hurt Them Much Either - The Free Agency Signings All Seemed Geared Towards Getting Better To Help Zion & B.I. Push For A Play-In / Late Playoff Seed, Yet The Team May Need A Lot More Tweaking, Before They Can Really Be Ready To Take That Next Step And Become A Perennial Playoff Team Out West... A Process That They Have 3 Years To Master, Before Hopefully Resigning Zion On A Long-Term SuperMax Deal And Making A Concerted Run At The Finals, Knowing That A Few Current Older Stars May Be Getting Towards The End Of Their Peaks, Leaving A Window For Zion To Begin His Own Reign In The NBA, As A New Orleans Pelican (For Life).

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Timestamps Still To Be Added, Askies Tog. 🏾


#T2RPAAFM #NOP #Pelicans #NOPelicans #Pels #NOLA #WontBowDown #NBA #Trades #TradeMachine #Episode14

The History Of NBA Franchises Who Lose All-Time Great Players In Trades Or Free-Agency, Doesn’t Tend To End Well... We’ve Seen How It Can Often Take A Team Decades To Recover From The Loss Of A Great Player, Regardless Of The Picks Or Player Assets That They May Get Back In A Trade, Or The Opportunity Cost They Paid For The Success Enjoyed When Times Were Good. The Cleveland Cavaliers Took A Series Of Hard Losses During The End Of LeBron James’ 2nd Reign In His Hometown Of Akron; Losing Kyrie Irving For Next To Nothing, Constantly Trading Away Your First Rounders For “More Pieces” Like D-Wade / D-Rose & Rodney Hood / George Hill, Coupled With Them Now Having To Watch Andrew Wiggins Blossom Into A Potential Superstar In Golden State, While The Only Remnant Of The Glory Years In BelieveLand, Is An Albatross Kevin Love Contract & Some Specks Of Leftover Confetti In The Locker Room.

Cleveland Has Done Amazingly Well To Return Back To Some Degree Of Prominence, After Losing LeBron For Free And Barely Getting Anything Back For Kyrie Irving In The Boston Highway Robbery Trade (Part 2)... We Looked Into A Couple Of Potential Trades That Are Designed To Help Strengthen This Young SexLand Core, With Some More Complimentary Talent That Could Comfortably See The Cavs Securing Their Place Back In The Playoff Picture Out East, With Room To Make A Run Over The Coming Years, As Some Of The League's Superstars Begin To Come To The Tail-End Of Their Careers & Open Up A Window For A Now Seasoned Cavs Team To Return To The Summit Of The Eastern Conference. However GM Kobe Altman Chooses To Approach The Next Few Weeks, We Will Certainly Have To Keep An Eye On These Here Cavs, To See What They May Become In The Seasons To Come.

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Timestamps

00:45 - From The Lottery To The Top & Back Again... (How Did We Get Here?)
02:00 - The All Black Think Tank (Who Makes The Calls In Cleveland?)
02:45 - Off-Season Moves (A Great Draft Selection In Isaac Okoro, Some Pretty Decent Free Agency Signings & The JaVelle Trade Chip)
04:05 - Current Depth Chart & Season Projection / Eastern Conference Outlook

07:40 - Trade 1 (Back The Kids Today & Tomorrow)

CLE Get - DeMar DeRozan (SG/SF), Keldon Johnson (SF), Tre Jones (PG) & 1st Round Pick

SAS Get - Andre Drummond (C), Cedi Osman (SG/SF) & 7 Picks (2 1st Rounders & 5 2nd Rounders)

14:28 - New Team Lineup / Outlook

PG - Colin Sexton / Tre Jones / Matthew Delladova
SG - Darius Garland / Isaac Okoro / Damyean Dotson
SF - DeMar DeRozan / Keldon Johnson / Dylan Windler
PF - Taureen Prince / Larry Nance Jr. / Lamar Stevens
C - Jarret Allen / Kevin Love / Javelle McGee / Marques Bolden

16:40 - Trade 2 (3 Birds One Stone & Some Potential Silverware)

CLE Get - Paul George (SG/SF) & 5 Picks (2nd Rounders From BKN & LAC)

BKN Get - Andre Drummond (C) & 2 Picks (1st Rounders From CLE)

LAC Get - Kyrie Irving (PG)

24:22 - New Team Lineup / Outlook

PG - Colin Sexton / Matthew Delladova
SG - Darius Garland / Isaac Okoro / Damyean Dotson
SF - Paul George / Cedi Osman / Dylan Windler
PF - Taureen Prince / Larry Nance Jr. / Lamar Stevens (Kevin Love)
C - Jarret Allen / Javelle McGee / Kevin Love / Marques Bolden


#T2RPAAFM #CLE #Cavaliers #CLECavaliers #Cavs #BeTheFight #NBA #Trades #TradeMachine #Episode14

Player Power Is A Growing Reality Is Sports, One That Team Owners, GMs, Coaches And Fanbases Are All Having To Acclamatize To, Due To The Reality Of What This All Means For Their Beloved Franchises. The Houston Rockets Have Had A First Had Look Into The Pros & Cons Of Having To Acquiesce To A Superstar Play, In Order To Keep Them Happy And Optimize Your Chances Of Winning It All. The Rockets Gave All They Could To Make James Happy In Houston And They Even Managed To Put Together Some Really Competitive Teams In His Time With Them, It All Ultimately Came To Naught, As James Publicly Wanted Out And Left Houston With No Option But To Trade Away Two All-Star Players In Their Peak, From A Selling Position, In A Rather Constrained Market, Due To Covid Potentially Affecting The Salary Cap Again Next Season And Teams Being Unwillingly To Take On Such Huge Salaries In Exchange For Too Many Assets.

James Finally Got Is Trade To Brooklyn, Via The Harden Route... The Houston Rockets Can Actually Begin Their Off-Season Now, As They Begin To Ascertain Their New Identity. The Return Of John Wall & Victor Oladipo From The Westbrook & Harden Trades Was Rather Impressive, While They Are Both All-Star Calibre Players Recovering From Injuries, They Add To This New Resilient Nature Of These New Rockets, A Team Littered With Players That Have A Point To Prove, Even If It’s Just To Themselves... Add In A First Year Head Coach In Paul Silas And A Billionaire Owner In Tilman Fertitta Into The Mix And Things Are Certainly Going To Get Interesting Out In Houston. We’ve Seen How Eager They Are To Strike Deals In The Past, When Darryl Morey Was In Charge As GM, Now That Raphael Stone Is At The Helm It Will Be Intriguing To See Just How Houston Chooses To Approach Things Over The Course Of This Season. We’ve Cooked Up Some Trades To Keep Them In Contention Out West, While Doubling Down On Their Newfound Appetite For Bringing In Superstars On The Mend To Rehabilitate And Potentially Cash In On.

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Timestamps

00:44 - The Aftermath Of The Harden Years (A Quick Catch-Up Of How We Got Here)
02:03 - The Real Off-Season Starts Now (So Where To From Here Houston?)
04:10 - Off-Season Moves (A Good Draft Selection & Some Pretty Underrated Free Agency Signings In Boogie & Chis Wood)
05:20 - A Rated Return On Investment (Recouping Good Players In Good Trades)
06:05 - Current Depth Chart & Season Projection / Western Conference Outlook

07:35 - Trade 1 (Two Gordon’s & Some Dash)

HOU Get - Aaron Gordon (SF/PF)
ORL Get - PJ Tucker (SF/PF), Ben McLemore (SG/SF), Danuel House Jr. (SG/SF), Jae’Sean Tate (SG/SF) & 4 Picks (2 1st Rounders & 2 2nd Rounders)

11:40 - New Team Lineup / Outlook

PG - John Wall / Dante Exum / Mason Jones
SG - Vic Oladipo/ Chris Clemons / Brodic Thomas
SF - Eric Gordon / David Nwaba / Sterling Brown
PF - Aaron Gordon / Ridonis Kurucs / Kenyon Martin Jr. /
C - Chris Wood / Boogie Cousins / Ersan Illiyasova

13:25 - Trade 2 (The Rehabilitation Rockets)

HOU Get - Blake Griffin (PF/C) & Svi Mykhailiak (SG/SF)
DET Get - Eric Gordon (SF), PF Tucker (SF/PF), Ben McLemore (SG/SF), David Nwaba (SF), Danuel House Jr. (SF), Jae’Sean Tate (SF) & 4 Picks (3 1st Rounders & 1 2nd Rounder)

19:00 - New Team Lineup / Outlook

PG - John Wall / Dante Exum / Mason Jones
SG - Victor Oladipo / Chris Clemons / Brodric Thomas
SF - Kenyon Martin Jr. / Sterling Brown / Svi Mykhailiak
PF - Blake Griffin / Ridonis Kurucs / Mario Henzozja
C - Chris Wood / Boogie Cousins


#T2RPAAFM #HOU #Rockets #HOURockets #HTown #NBA #Trades #TradeMachine #Episode12

The Trade Deadline Is 2 Months Away And We Have Already Seen Some Teams Show Their Hand In The Market, The Atlanta Hawks Are One Of The Teams Who Could Potentially Improve Their Squad Even Further, By Entering Into The Trade Market. After A Great Off-Season, That Involved Picking Up Some Great Back-Up Point Guard Help In Rajon Rondo & Kris Dunn, Along With Wing Shooting In Bogdan Bogdanovic & Danilo Gallinari, The Hawks Added To Their Young Nucleus Of Trae Young, Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter, Cam Reddish, John Collins & Clint Capela, To Effectively Move Their Timeline Up From A Developing Team, Into A Win-Now Ball Club That Will Have To Start Making Noise In The East With A Playoff Finish.

At a The Start Of The Season, We Had The Hawks Finishing 8/9 And In That Play-In Picture Out East, We Focused On Making Some Trades To Improve Those Odds, While Ensuring That We Retain As Much Of The Young Core As Possible. Trae Young Has Ascended Into A Young Superstar, Who Is Now Ready To Start Winning At The Highest Level, Or Learning How To Do That... Atlanta Made Some Draft Pick Sacrifices To Draft Trae Ahead Of Luka Doncic, Who Has Grown Into An MVP Level Player Already, The Time Has Come For The Hawks To Go All In On The Trae Young Experiment And Build A Team That He Can Lead To Glory In The Years To Come.

One Things For Sure, And Two Things Are For Certain... Atlanta Will Need To Do Some Business To Help Trae Win Now, Or He Will Walk Down The Line. One Needn’t Have Hawk Eye Vision To See Where The Tide Is Turning, In A Player-Power Driven League Of Superteams & AAU SuperFriend Combos.

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Timestamps

00:33 - Off-Season Moves (Good Draft Selection & Great Free Agency Signings)
01:01 - Current State Of The East (Season Projections)
02:22 - An Ever Improving Think Tank (GM & Head Coach Thoughts)
03:45 - Off-Season Moves In Depth (Reviewing The Pick-Ups)
07:07 - Current Depth Chart & Season Projection / Eastern Conference Outlook

08:50 - Trade 1 (Two All-Stars & A Possible)

ATL Get - Zach LaVine (SG) & Lauri Markkannen (PF)
CHI Get - Cam Reddish (SG/SF), John Collins (PF/C), Tony Snell (SG/SF) & 6 Picks (3 1st Rounders & 3 2nd Rounders)

14:25 - New Team Lineup / Outlook

PG - Trae Young / Ramon Rondo / Kris Dunn
SG - Zach LaVine / Bogdan Bogdanovic / Kevin Huerter
SF - De’Andre Hunter / Marco Bellinelli/ Chandler Parsons
PF - Lauri Markkannen / Solomon Hill / Nathan Knight
C - Clint Capela / Bruno Fernando / Onyeka Okongwu

16:20 - Trade 2 (I Got Beal In Atlanta! Panda )

ATL Get - Bradley Beal (SG/SF) & Deni Avdija (SG/SF)
WAS Get - John Collins (PF/C), De’Andre Hunter (SF), Kevin Huerter (SG), Tony Snell (SG/SF) & 6 Picks (4 1st Rounders & 2 2nd Rounders)

21:35 - New Team Lineup / Outlook

PG - Trae Young / Rajon Rondo / Kris Dunn
SG - Bradley Beal / Bogdan Bogdanovic / Brandon Goodwin / Skylar Mays
SF - Deni Avdija / Cam Reddish / Andre Roberson
PF - Danilo Gallanari / Solomon Hill / Nathan Knight
C - Clint Capela / Bruno Fernando / Onyeka Okongwu


#T2RPAAFM #ATL #Hawks #ATLHawks #TrueToAtlanta #NBA #Trades #TradeMachine #Episode11