Was considering doing an email to the show on this after last episode's Giannis talk but since it came up here...
The thing people seem to not be talking enough about is Giannis' health. Over the past two years he's had several of the scary portending calf injuries and has played in less than half of the Buck's playoff games the past three years.
He's not OLD but he is over 30 and plays a super athleticism based game if something really goes it might be super bad for a player like him.
I am not saying this unquestionably answers the "would you trade VJ for him" question. It pushes me further toward no but your mileage may vary. Just something I think is super relevant when talking about his value vs. risk profile.
All the guys that have had these recurring calf injuries ended up tearing their achilles. That would be disastrous. You’d lose 1-2 years from the injury alone and Giannis would most likely be more good than great upon returning. Couple that with the fact that VJ looks like a sure fire top 10-15 player in his prime and it just doesn’t make sense to me. You’d burn all your assets and be stuck with just Maxey/Giannis and a bunch of mid players once Embiid inevitably falls apart. This is like if they traded Maxey for KD a couple years ago. Yes, we’d have been excited the first time they announced KD at a home game, but they still wouldn’t have won anything and now we’d be watching Maxey drop 30 ppg somewhere else. If Giannis was 28 and/or Embiid never got hurt, you do it, but not at 31 with Embiid being a ticking time bomb. Lastly, if Embiid goes down in 2 weeks and is done, which is a very realistic possibility, they’re not winning anything. No team is winning with a max contract player not playing. At least with VJ, you can wait that out. You’d tread water for a few years and then move Embiid when he’s expiring. At that point Maxey will be 28 and VJ 23. If you do the Giannis thing, you need to win over the next 2-3 years. The only way I consider it is if Embiid is the salary matching piece going out. PG’s contract is easily moveable and the prospect of Maxey/Giannis and max cap space is much more appealing than taking our chances Embiid stays healthy the next 3 years
Really powerful tribute at the end. The detail about going through old messages since 2011 and wanting to talk about the shopping malls book kinda hit me. Lost someone similar few years back and it's those specific conversations that stick with you way more than people realize. Dan sounds like he was doing real work in Philly sports media.
Was considering doing an email to the show on this after last episode's Giannis talk but since it came up here...
The thing people seem to not be talking enough about is Giannis' health. Over the past two years he's had several of the scary portending calf injuries and has played in less than half of the Buck's playoff games the past three years.
He's not OLD but he is over 30 and plays a super athleticism based game if something really goes it might be super bad for a player like him.
I am not saying this unquestionably answers the "would you trade VJ for him" question. It pushes me further toward no but your mileage may vary. Just something I think is super relevant when talking about his value vs. risk profile.
Late to this post, but lovely tribute.
All the guys that have had these recurring calf injuries ended up tearing their achilles. That would be disastrous. You’d lose 1-2 years from the injury alone and Giannis would most likely be more good than great upon returning. Couple that with the fact that VJ looks like a sure fire top 10-15 player in his prime and it just doesn’t make sense to me. You’d burn all your assets and be stuck with just Maxey/Giannis and a bunch of mid players once Embiid inevitably falls apart. This is like if they traded Maxey for KD a couple years ago. Yes, we’d have been excited the first time they announced KD at a home game, but they still wouldn’t have won anything and now we’d be watching Maxey drop 30 ppg somewhere else. If Giannis was 28 and/or Embiid never got hurt, you do it, but not at 31 with Embiid being a ticking time bomb. Lastly, if Embiid goes down in 2 weeks and is done, which is a very realistic possibility, they’re not winning anything. No team is winning with a max contract player not playing. At least with VJ, you can wait that out. You’d tread water for a few years and then move Embiid when he’s expiring. At that point Maxey will be 28 and VJ 23. If you do the Giannis thing, you need to win over the next 2-3 years. The only way I consider it is if Embiid is the salary matching piece going out. PG’s contract is easily moveable and the prospect of Maxey/Giannis and max cap space is much more appealing than taking our chances Embiid stays healthy the next 3 years
Really powerful tribute at the end. The detail about going through old messages since 2011 and wanting to talk about the shopping malls book kinda hit me. Lost someone similar few years back and it's those specific conversations that stick with you way more than people realize. Dan sounds like he was doing real work in Philly sports media.