Barstool Basketball Mailbag: One Season Of Peak LeBron vs Peak MJ, Nets Draft Targets, Sixers Future & More

With the college basketball season ‘over’ we’re going to expand the mailbag to a little bit of everything. We’re still going to run this every Friday like we do during the season, but we’ll be talking about college hoops, transfers, NBA Draft, NBA and recruiting questions. Reminder you can always submit questions on Twitter @barstoolreags

So this is a fun debate, but in a different manner. This isn’t LeBron’s career vs MJ’s career or who is the better player. This is just one season, each at their prime, who are you taking in a draft. My answer is LeBron and it was one that was made fairly quickly. First off, you get more roster versatility with LeBron and that’s one of my favorite things to have. You can play him at pretty much every position where Jordan is stuck to 2-3 spots on the floor at most. Second, what is Jordan better at than LeBron besides saying ‘ringz?’ I honestly mean that and before people get all up in arms, yes I am in my 30s and lived through Jordan and watched him at all times. I don’t need a history lesson here. LeBron is the better passer, defender and I’d even give him scorer as he’s developed a more consistent jumper. For one season and to form a team around, I’ll take LeBron. If you want to take Jordan, I don’t blame you, but I’d like to hear your reasoning without using the words ‘rings’ or ‘winner.’ Give me something basketball related as to why you’d take him for one season with both at their peak.

I’d guess Mikal Bridges would be a good start.

Outside of him they should target Miles Bridges and Kevin Knox. Both are guys who played a bit out of position and on a crowded court where they should thrive at the NBA level. Both also have good size and can play different positions so you have roster versatility with them. They’ll have their pick of at least 2 of the 3 as I really only think Mikal might be gone before they pick. For me it’s a no-brainer that they need to take a wing here and what’s promising is both Bridges and Knox can shoot the ball.

Whatever you think of Trae Young, throw out the window. If you think he’s going to be a bust, that’ fine, but it’s irrelevant here. So with that said, Trae Young is going to be a top-10 pick. So we’ll focus on those 10 teams and rule out obvious ones like Golden State. Right off the bat, the Mavs, Grizzlies and Kings don’t make sense. They all have either a young true point guard or Mike Conley. So we’ll rule those out. I don’t think he’s a great fit at Phoenix but him and Booker in the backcourt chucking threes would be all sorts of fun. To me there are two places where he fits in pretty well. Orlando and Cleveland. At Orlando, they just need help. They need a young point guard to come in and someone who can create his own shot. Young can do that. The Magic are just sort of stuck right now with nothing going on. Cleveland, with or without LeBron, is a good fit for Young. If LeBron is there, you can hide him a bit defensively and still let Young fire up shots as LeBron will find him. Plus he adds some youth to an older team. If LeBron leaves you have someone to build around as a top-10 pick. If you’re Young, I’d say those two are the places you want to end up.

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So the Nets have the 29th pick in the first round and this is the last year they won’t have their own pick. I agree that they’ve done a decent job trying to bring on some assets despite not really having a chance. So at 29 I think they need to target a point guard and hope that Anfernee Simons falls to them there. I’m not sure that he does but if you can take a 19 year old that would probably be a lottery pick next season if he went to college I’d take him. Some other guys to target would be Jalen Brunson, Jontay Porter, Aaron Holiday and Melvin Frazier.

I’d go to Kentucky. The simple reason is the fact Calipari has a strong track record with top players and keeping them as top picks. They also tend to be NBA ready fairly quickly and you know you’re getting exposure day in and day out playing there. The same goes for Duke or Kansas, but Calipari has a better track record in keeping top players at status quo. If I’m the No. 1 player in the country I’m looking at where can I stay there for one year, where can I have a chance to win and where can I have the most exposure? That’s Kentucky.

The Pistons have the 42nd pick. You’re not really expecting MUCH from that pick, but like Posa said you’re hoping for a role player or someone that can fill in the rotation. Maybe you look for backup help in the frontcourt? Preferably someone that has a little bit of range so you can pair him with either Blake or Drummond. Moe Wagner could fit in there. I’d guess the Pistons would go more backcourt help though so again, that group of point guards. Someone is going to fall between Devonte’ Graham, Landry Shamet and Jevon Carter. Take one of those.

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The problem with this is what seems like the logical answers leads to mismatches on the defensive end. It’s a weird situation for the Sixers right now, but they were also on the road. Let’s see how Simmons bounces back at home. What I’d try to do though is get him in some ISO sets. If you have him in and Embiid out, post up Simmons. Let him operate close to the hoop and use that little baby hook he has. Or get him in the mid/high post in an ISO set where he has more room to operate and is starting inside the 3-point line. Keep trying to surround him with shooters like Redick, Saric and Covington. But you have to find a way to get him in space and not so far away from the hoop.