05-19-2026, 06:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-19-2026, 06:57 PM by JamesConway816.)
Random thought:
Its a bit of a stretch but Gafford might literally be the reason that we got into this mess which culminated into the Luka trade.
Kidd made the decision to start Gafford over Lively and it essentially killed their mojo the first dozen games or so after the finals run. The difference with Luka / Kyrie / Klay / PJ playing with either Gafford OR Lively was historically big. Like Gafford was literally the reason they started every single game bad back then and the second Lively stepped onto the court the suddenly ran other teams off the court. Go back and look at the numbers the on / off difference over the first 10-15 games was flat out insane.
I still go back to this every once in a while. Had Kidd just started Lively the early part od the AD trade season would have gone a lot smoother. Who knows what would have happened if they had just started Lively instead….
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Sry for derailing this thread.
Its a bit of a stretch but Gafford might literally be the reason that we got into this mess which culminated into the Luka trade.
Kidd made the decision to start Gafford over Lively and it essentially killed their mojo the first dozen games or so after the finals run. The difference with Luka / Kyrie / Klay / PJ playing with either Gafford OR Lively was historically big. Like Gafford was literally the reason they started every single game bad back then and the second Lively stepped onto the court the suddenly ran other teams off the court. Go back and look at the numbers the on / off difference over the first 10-15 games was flat out insane.
I still go back to this every once in a while. Had Kidd just started Lively the early part od the AD trade season would have gone a lot smoother. Who knows what would have happened if they had just started Lively instead….
______
Sry for derailing this thread.