The Biggest NBA Offseason Storylines To Track

We run through the NBA offseason stories we cannot stop watching, from superstar tension in Milwaukee to the next big domino around LeBron’s future. We also debate risky roster calls like Ja Morant’s value, which teams could be the most entertaining next year, and what NBA expansion could do to the league. 

• Giannis and the Bucks tension plus trade timing questions 
• LeBron’s next destination possibilities and the Bronny pressure 
• Ja Morant keep-or-trade debate plus availability concerns 
• Which team is more fun next season among Wizards Pacers Jazz 
• Warriors trade ideas around Kawhi plus keeping enough youth 
• Hope rankings for Pelicans vs Mavericks vs Bulls and Zion options 
• Expansion and relocation talk including Seattle Las Vegas and realignment 

So please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. 

Transcript

Welcome And Offseason Radar

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What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Today we're gonna talk about the NBA's off-season stories. Look, these are some that I'm gonna be paying attention to. All right. I'm gonna go down these quick. I'm not not gonna be overly in depth. All right. Just putting some of these on your radar, all right. Not talking about getting a bucket per se, but we may slip in some buckets getting for sure. But they could be off the court, not on the court. So let's talk about them. Giannis and the Bucks dilemma. Listen, I don't know if there are gonna be any any buckets getting. I don't think so. I understand I said buckets getting and not buckets gotten, trust me. I get you. I get you. But what I'm not getting is one, this Bucks investigation, okay? Because Giannis is acting like the Bucs is trying to tank, which I get. I get like Giannis is acting like he can play. But is there such a thing as the organization looking out for the player? Because sometimes players be stupid. I get that. Doc Rivers retiring. I'm reading into the tea leaves, and it seemed like Giannis' trade is looming. Question is will it happen during the offseason or will it happen during next season? Let's wait and find out. But a trade, nonetheless, is finna take place. And I'm going to be curious, where the hell does Giannis go? Like, like, where he gonna go? That's just me personally. Now, my next storyline, and it's crazy because this guy, he actually still playing in the playoffs right now. LeBron James, where's his next destination? As a Lakers fan, it's a little bittersweet. More sweet than bitter, I guess. But I'm curious where is LeBron James gonna go? I already can tell you right now, it's not gonna be the Bucs nor Memphis based on his comments made about each city. Well, I guess technically each organization, not specifically the city, to be clear. But that's how it was taken by some. So I don't think he's gonna go to the Bucks nor Memphis. But where could he go? Maybe the Knicks. Maybe the Cavs again. Hell, could he boomerang back to the heat? Let's wait and see. Or maybe he wants to take his talents down to San Francisco, go to Golden State, parlay with your mess, parlay with Steph Curry and your best friend Draymond Green. That could happen. Wherever he goes, though, I do think, unfortunately, there's gonna be a petition for Bronny to go with him as well, too. I actually like Bronny, believe it or not. But I think people are gonna say, hey, well, he needs to take Bronny with him. So wherever Ron, wherever LeBron James goes, I do kind of expect Bronny to go with him personally. But we'll wait and see, though, because we don't know. We don't have any inkling. Some people even think that LeBron James might retire. I don't think he's at that level yet, but we'll wait and see. Speaking of Memphis, because I did mention this earlier, the Ja Morant dilemma. Are they gonna end up trading or keeping Ja Morant? His stock is quite low. It's very low. To be clear, I wouldn't want Buddy on my team at all. Like, we'd have to get him for like nothing almost. And even then, I'm kind of contemplating, like, ugh, I don't know, he's not worth that money. He really is not. And the crazy thing is, the Memphis Grizzlies might have to keep him. They just might. Because if you trade him and then he's and then let what like what happens if you trade him and then he turns it around, right? That's what every organization's fearing. Oh, you trade him and then you trade your star play and then they turn it around. That might suck. So what happens if you keep him because his stock's too low? But then you're also able to tank because he's not able to play. Because keep in mind, he also got an injury history. He and it's not just his off-the-court antics, it's his injury history that causes a problem as well, too, ladies and gentlemen. Again, I would not want to have Ja Morant on my team. That's just me personally. Good talent, great talent. This season, he's played 20 games. Two seasons ago, it was nine. He's only had one season where he's played 67 games or above. Two seasons, three seasons where he's had 60. Availability not there. Because there's 82 games in a season. Availability not there, personally. So again, ladies and gentlemen, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens with Ja Morant. Now, who's more entertaining next season to watch? Will it be the Wizards, the Pacers, or the Jazz? They got talent, right? But I'm like all of them have talent, okay? The Jazz have talent. The Pacers, you're getting Halliburton back. The Wizards, I'm leaning the Wizards, okay? Because they just acquired Anthony Davis and Trey Young. And the health concerns are still there for sure. And then we got to factor in the draft picks, too. Because that's gonna be coming up in what, June, late June? So we got to wait to see what happens in the NBA draft. But right now, point in time, I think it's safe to say that the Wizards are gonna be the more entertaining team. Again, the Pacers, you get Halliburton back, but he's still got to shake off that rust. The Jazz, you got a lot of talent, so it should be time for y'all to start flourishing. But we got to wait and see. But I do expect the Wizards, because they have the experienced players, mixed with the youthful infusion of talent. So let's wait to see what happens. But I'm leaning Wizards. I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts, though, on some of these topics. Now, something that's gonna be big for me next year. Do the Warriors actually trade for Kawhi Leonard? Hear me out. That was that was they were looking to do that this season. My question is: do the Warriors have enough assets? Because when you're looking at a Kawhi Leonard, you gotta think about again availability. And what are you willing to give up? Jonathan Kaminga is no longer there, so you can't dangle him as an asset. You could try to package up Podinski, but then when you think about it, alright, well, Pedensky is technically like your youth. So could you could try to go all in? Do you swap Jimmy? Because maybe the Clippers. Look, maybe the Clippers are thinking. Let's just let's just aim low and get and go for a low draft pick next season. So you lose Kawhi. You could probably buy out Jimmy Butler. Jimmy can go wherever he wants to. Hell he can boomerang back to the Warriors for all we care. But maybe that's what you want to do. I don't know. Because also, if if if I'm the Clippers, I'd kind of want to get some decent picks or some some sort of assets back for Kawhi. So let's see what happens with the Warriors if they want to trade for Kawhi Leonard. But the Warriors do need to maintain their youth. Because again, Steph Curry is only getting older. And I don't know if they're going to keep Christos Porzingis. Al Horford's old as hell. Like they're they're they're they're yeah. Like we could be seeing a different Warriors team come next season, but I'm waiting to see what happens with the Warriors holistically. I've talked about Steve Kerr, Draymond could be gone. Let's wait to see what happens. Now, do I have more hope for the Chicago Bulls, the New Orleans Pelicans, or the Dallas Mavericks? Right now, point in time, and this feels so weird to say this, because just last season I would have said probably the Mavs. But I gotta go the New Orleans Pelicans. Their team is young. They're in a good position where even if they need to trade their quote unquote star away, meaning Zion, they still have some interesting young pieces to work with. Trey Murphy, the third Herbert Jones, Jeremiah Fears, Derek Queen. Like they got some decent pieces. So if you trade away Zion, you might get back a quality haul for him. It's not the same thing as with Memphis and John Morant. Hell, Zion just had a healthy season where they looked alright. Well, he looked alright. The Pelicans still had to do some things. Mavs, we got to figure out what Kyrie's trade value is. Or if Kyrie's going to stay, how does he return? We got to wait to see what that looks like. Also, will the Mavs team look the same? Because let's be honest too now. A lot of the reason why people had the Mavs going as high as they did was because they had Anthony Davis and Kyrie, and they had quality role players that were just in the finals not too long ago. So if they read if they bring every single player back, all right, maybe we can put the Mavs a little bit ahead of the Pelicans. But we got to wait to see what happens. And then the Bulls, Jesus, they just need more talent in the day. Like their best player is Josh Gideon. He's probably a third option on a championship team, to be clear. Maybe even fourth, but I'm thinking third. But again, if that's your best player right now, Matez Buzales is okay. He's cool. I like his heart. I don't know where I'd want to put him in terms of option on a championship team. He's not number two or number one, though. I can tell you that for sure. And it's a little bit young in his career. So we're talking about Hope. I'm looking at the Pelicans. But it's crazy because the Mavs could have eclipsed them eventually. Just depends on who they keep. But those two, though, those two teams are a little bit higher than the Bulls. So I had to talk about the Bulls somehow, somehow. Try to be decent. It'd be nice if the Bulls can get back to their winning ways, right? But that's enough about them. Now, how about the new teams forming? Memphis, should they move to Tennessee? Should we bring back Seattle Supersonics? And what about Las Vegas getting a team? I don't know. That's gonna be a little interesting. What happens if the Las Vegas, whatever their team name is, what happens if they make the make it to the playoffs in their first season? Just like how the Valkyries did. Now that would be pretty interesting. That would be very interesting. But Las Vegas. I know we got I know I know we talk about script writers, okay? All I'm saying is when a team is in Las Vegas, you gotta consider some script writing going a long way. That's all I'm saying, bro. Like that. I can hear those conversations happening, especially if they start winning. Oh my gosh, like sports betting, Vegas teams. Come on now. Come on now. But do you hear the excitement though? Like, I'm actually looking forward to seeing these new teams form up. Like Memphis, if they change their team to Tennessee. I look, I was just in Tennessee, ladies and gentlemen. Tennessee is actually nice. You got the Tennessee Titans over there. Like, bro, it it kind of makes sense, to be honest with you. So again, I'm looking forward to seeing the NBA somewhat reshape. The only thing I'm curious about, only thing, is these are two Western Conference teams. Well, three, I guess, because of Memphis. But these are two new teams that would be in the West Conference. So, what team from the Western Conference would get put into the East? I heard Minnesota, which that just sounds so crazy. Sounds so crazy. While I also hear people talking more and more about Anthony Edwards now getting to the finals or seeing Anthony Edwards versus Shea Gilders Alexander in the finals. I hear that. Oh, Jordan was in the M was in the Eastern Conference finals or in the East, and you know he reminds us of Anthony Edwards. I can hear all that. I don't want to hear Minnesota in the East. I like him in the West. I'll be curious what happens with the East and West and how that looks. Maybe we need to get two more, two new East teams. Maybe that's the answer. We'll wait to find out. But ladies and gentlemen, the end of the NBA regular season has commenced. Playoffs is happening as we speak. But over this offseason, even with playoffs happening, I'm going to be thinking about some of these storylines. And I'm going to be wondering, and I'm curious, what are y'all's thoughts about some of these storylines? Again, Giannis and the Bucs potentially breaking away. LeBron James finally leaving the Lakers. John Morant, does he stay or does he go? And then some of the teams like the Pacers, the Wizards, the Jazz, the Bulls, the Pelicans, the Mavs, how do they do? What about a team like the Warriors? Do they get Kawhi and now be viewed as a contender again? And then these new teams that are forming up, do you like them? I'm curious what your thoughts. But ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that does conclude the end of the episode. So please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Stray. I'm the host of Get of Bucket. I hope you're all having a good one. Take care.