TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[KillerLeft]

Reading through the comments about LaVert, it almost seems like "better ball handler" (relative to Hardaway, that's true) is being interpreted as "can play PG". 

For perspective, I'd say LaVert is a less of a PG than Dinwiddie is, and Dinwiddie is already a stretch at that position, imho. I think it's possible that LaVert can play as the second smallest player on the floor in some lineups, sure, but I wouldn't say we can think of him in a three-way rotation with Luka and Dinwiddie. 

If they traded for him, my guess is that they'd view him as the starting 3. He's basically a really poor man's Paul George. There are some advantages to replacing Hardaway with him, for sure, but also some disadvantages, and I really don't think it would solve the "what do we do without Brunson" problem. It would add another player to the mix who could dribble, so that's good. But my feeling is that here, that would manifest itself in the "better at attacking closeouts" way rather than the "we can run sets through him" way. 

If I'm wrong about any of that, my opinion of the trade would improve drastically.