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hey marc what do you think about Toronto and the direction of the team?

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There are certainly lingering questions. Can Quickley justify the contract? Can they turn Bruce Brown's contract into something useful via trade? Much remains TBD. How do you see it? What is the temperature in Toronto?

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Masai held a presser for both IQ and Scottie on their new deals and the message was the franchise was starting fresh building around these 2. The depth is still very young and Darko said its year 1 of a rebuild so i think they know it will take time and next year will be a development year.

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Is Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office (not-so-secretly) trying to sabotage this year's team?!?!

"Trades are hard," according to #pROBlyPELINKA, but to not even be able to clear 1-2 roster spots for Gary Trent, Jr., to sign the minimum?!?! Geez...🤦‍♂️

I don't think I've liked one thing about this off-season for the team. Even the joy of re-signing Max Christie was dampened somewhat by the contract structure we gave him. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Guess there's always the trade deadline to make us believe and then, pull the rug out from under us, again... 😭

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Totally get the frustrations. You're actually calmer than I expected. Trying to find out more!

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Hahaha! I don't want anyone to think I'm totally off my rocker... 😭😂

Appreciate the efforts to learn more. Watching Team USA has been a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, it's been great to see AD paired with Bam and looking like 2019-2020 era AD.

On the other hand, it still is befuddling that the team can see what works with AD, and yet, they continue to go away from it. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Maybe trades are hard. They certainly don't get any easier, though, when most of the good available players having been moved already and your desperation stands out even more.

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Marc, are the Mavs just looking at all their options or do you believe after the summer league prior to going into training camp? They will look to sign either DSJ or Dinwiddie? DSJ would give Mavs more defense. Something that they need to add outside of more offense. Thanks as always.

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Remember: They didn't sign Derrick Jones Jr. until August last summer. It's not the first time they've moved deliberately when looking at the end of the roster.

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Marc, thanks for reminding me of that last off-season. Appreciate you getting back to me. Have a great day.

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Jul 16Liked by Marc Stein

Ty Jones being on the market still is baffling to me. Good work as always sir!

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I don't have any specific info on this, but I have a feeling that if the Warriors do relent and include Podz in a package for Markkanen (and they would do so reluctantly), and they clear enough salary in the process, Jones would be a player to whom they'd consider offering their bi-annual exception, as they'd be down a backup PG (Melton isn't really a facilitator, although Kyle Anderson would probably be used more as a ball-handler with the 2nd unit, a la Draymond Green). It's a sizable decrease in salary, but several players who joined the Warriors for a one year pay-cut have parlayed a 1 yr 'cameo' deal with the Dubs into a bigger deal (Donte DiVicenzo, Otto Porter Jr., Gary Payton II, etc.) elsewhere.

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Agreed. Hard to believe there's been so little chatter about him.

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Agreed! He’s been a very solid point guard - very surprised he’s available. Perhaps he’s unhappy with offers and doing a DiVincenzo - kick the can down the road for one year.

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