CHICAGO — A veteran role player scored 18 points Tuesday and was immediately added to the offseason wish lists of at least six unrelated NBA fanbases.
“That is literally the exact type of guy we need,” wrote fans of teams with completely different rosters, salary situations, timelines, and coaching systems.
The player went 7-for-10 from the field, hit three open threes, defended competently, and committed the serious mistake of performing well on national television.
Within minutes, supporters were proposing sign-and-trades, minimum deals, midlevel exceptions, and salary-cap maneuvers that ranged from technically possible to spiritually ambitious.
Several fans described him as a “perfect connector,” though none could remember his statistics from the previous month or explain why his current team might want to keep him.
His agent reportedly noticed the discussion and quietly changed the phrase “solid veteran” in upcoming negotiations to “highly coveted two-way piece.”
By morning, one fan had already included him in a hypothetical starting lineup for a team he has never visited.
