Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[Winter]

It was not about AD over KD as a player...but yes, probably AD is better than KD right now IMHO.

However i prefer AD because we can trade him higher than KD, the win now mode is done after Luka trade and Irving injury.

If that Harrison still wants to go on with that foolish plan to win next year then i agree with you, KD is a better fit that AD for this squad.

Unfortunately a hypothetical AD trade will always be compared to what we got for him so i don't think Harrison is so fool to trade him. No way.

The issue for me is not about AD as a player. It's about the roster in general. The more I think about the potential congestion, the less I like it.

If AD went to the Front Office and said, "I will commit to playing center", this whole conversation would change. But there is a sense that AD wants to be accommodated at the PF position. I just don't think this is sustainable. I just think that lineup is too slow. I'd like to believe otherwise, but I don't. I think the Front Office has to show its hand here (just like the Lakers did). 

So either AD is told he will have to play some of the time at the center position, or AD is traded. I doubt he's traded, but I think it's a possibility. I'm having a hard time imagining that a lineup of Lively, AD, and Flagg (or worse, Gafford, AD, and Flagg) can exist much outside of preseason. I wouldn't mind being proven wrong, but I seriously doubt there are analytics that prove that to be an optimum lineup.

If AD commits to some time at the center position, I can only assume they will trade Gafford eventually. That will probably be a "tell" of some sort.