Two 2nd-Round Picks & A Fax Machine

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.