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My hot take on what I'd do in the off-season.

My mind is open to these things. Definitely open. I think part of the problem we have in the playoffs with Rudy can be summed up with a baseball metaphor: Rudy is a dominant starting pitcher, but we keep asking him to pitch complete games and the playoffs especially is about the flexibility of your bullpen. If we had the right 4-5 guy who could take some reps while Rudy played some possessions in the gaps, and if we got good at a zone scheme, then I think we could give teams some diversity of looks (a bullpen, if you will). Our self-same consistency around Rudy is theee main problem (—especially when he’s surrounded by mostly below-average defenders.

If we get him some help, and add some different coverages, then I think it’s worth it to keep going.

I agree full-on with your Snyder-as-vanilla take, so this plan is contingent on his evolution as much as anything.

Thats a good way to put it. We need some flexibility. Good shooting and playmaking wings give you that... guys who can't shoot or create will remove some of that.

If you can find a way to keep Rudy around the basket and get more out of your perimeter guys through getting steals or pressuring up on shooters then great. Every year we seem to get ourselves in the same matchup issue where "these guys can get Rudy is space" its fine and he functions okay there but it takes away an advantage we kinda bank on.

I would probably negotiate really hard if I was DL and move on if we couldn't agree... realizing we might lose more games next year but have a better shot in the playoffs or a better future outlook - depends on what's out there for Rudy in trade. We don't negotiate hard... we care more about the players feelings... so we likely max him out and head down the path of mediocrity.
 
Healthy Rudy and DM and we will make the playoffs. Rudy is fantastic in the regular season. The west will be a bloodbath and it might be close... but I'd bet we make the playoffs even without big changes.
Yeah, I think the same too... Rudy and DM put a pretty high floor on this team. Unless there are serious injuries IMO we will be in a similar spot to this year... in the 3-7 range.
 
OKC would only get better over time with their young talents and all the picks they've had, whereas the only one on our team who we can trust to become better is Donovan. Houston won't miss the playoffs as long as Harden keeps showing up for games at his current %.
Except Gallo likely walks and they will look for a new home for CP. They will move into a rebuild this offseason.
 
Except Gallo likely walks and they will look for a new home for CP. They will move into a rebuild this offseason.
Yeah we can hope this happens instead of Thunders trees of young star talents living up to their expectation and filling the gap seamlessly.
But things aren't great for us so our opponents probably will have a higher hope for a Jazz collapse. The 34 yr old Ingles and Conley could literally announce their retirement at any minute and people wouldn't be surprised. What I would be surprised to see is Niang or Bradley's name on a NBA roster in three years.
 
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Ingles probably has to move to the bench though.
Ingles shouldn’t play one minute without Gobert on the floor. His contributions plummet without good players and particularly a reliable PnR big to play with. Rudy also benefits from Joe immensely.

Joe needs a god damn minutes-restriction come hell or high water (especially with the brainless extension he received). He should play the first and last six minutes of each half.

Bojan and/or Conley gotta come off the bench if we’re serious about having a good and balanced rotation. Too many mouths to feed and not enough defense to start them both.
 
Here's a question. Some peolpe here describe the Conley trade as the worst trade of the decade in the NBA(and Im not that far from agreeing with it)... DL got the time and chance to build up that team and had a several playoff runs with a couple different iterations of that team, but he never managed to build good enough roster to be true contender. So the question here is ... if we are going to go into a rebuild, do we want DL leading that rebuild or do we want someone else? I don't think this is an easy question to answer. I don't think DL has done a bad job with this team(and there are plenty worse GMs in the league), but when the time came for him to put the finishing touches on this roster he miserably failed. Conley has been atrocious trade, Ed Davis, Jeff Green and Mudiay were zeros for this team when playoff time came...
 
I'd rather gamble on OPJ. It's not much of a gamble actually given his deal would expire on the same day as Conley

Given that they both expire in a year I fail to see why Chicago would have any interest in this trade. Their team had plenty of needs, but an aging PG isn’t one of them.
 
Here's a question. Some peolpe here describe the Conley trade as the worst trade of the decade in the NBA(and Im not that far from agreeing with it)... DL got the time and chance to build up that team and had a several playoff runs with a couple different iterations of that team, but he never managed to build good enough roster to be true contender. So the question here is ... if we are going to go into a rebuild, do we want DL leading that rebuild or do we want someone else? I don't think this is an easy question to answer. I don't think DL has done a bad job with this team(and there are plenty worse GMs in the league), but when the time came for him to put the finishing touches on this roster he miserably failed. Conley has been atrocious trade, Ed Davis, Jeff Green and Mudiay were zeros for this team when playoff time came...
At the very least, DL’s actions have made this a legitimate question for whoever is paying attention.
 
Given that they both expire in a year I fail to see why Chicago would have any interest in this trade. Their team had plenty of needs, but an aging PG isn’t one of them.

because they do need veteran leadership and some PG help. Coby White is a scoring first microwave typa guy who can't playmake for others. Kris Dunn can't stay healthy and struggle to stay on the floor. Sato is a good player so versatile that he struggles to get his coach's attention throughout his NBA career.
 
We don't have the ability for any big moves. I think a couple tweaks can help. I think if they were willing to move Conley for OPJ, that'd be pretty huge. Not a ton of incentive from Chicago's end, but certainly an argument if they wanted to make a push that having Conley lead the team would have more benefit than a secondary guy like OPJ. Could look at a three-way or maybe throwing in a piece like Tucker as a bone to Chicago.

Solve the backup big situation. You can do that with either Favors or Udoh. It doesn't matter. Bring back Neto. Let Ingles be the PG, whether that's starting or bench. But OPJ solves a lot of starting unit issues.

Mitchell
Royce
Bojan
OPJ
Gobert

Dunn?
Clarkson
Ingles
Udoh/Favors
 
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