Exactly. People typically use desperation as a pejorative when describing FO’s, but desperate accurately describes the MIL FO decision. They shelled out everything for Jrue and have a massive payroll. They knew it was their time and they went for it. Fans are willing to tank for years for the hope, not guarantee, of competing for a championship. I don’t see why there’s so much hesitation to trade some of the future away when you’re already in that position to win a ring. Desperation is bad when you’re trying to make it into a last playoff spot. But it’s a huge advantage if you’re a contender and willing to pony up for a better shot at the title.
I didn’t really like the Conley move, but I understood the need to make a move at that time. Wrong guy…but right mentality. Same goes for Bogey, who was a good signing in a vacuum but also left some massive holes on our roster.
The draft stuff…some of the process was horrible. I think it was terrible to draft Udoka, but I’m not one to use hindsight and say they should have drafted this exact player that happened to be better. Anyone but Doke would have been more respectable.
The trio of awful MLE signings….Davis, Favors , Gay were all truly horrendous but appeared to be decent moves when they signed. They just missed terribly and Ryan’s pockets were more important than keeping our draft picks.
So when you look at allthat, I do think there were some good intentions and mostly good process behind the decisions even if the results were mostly bad and often horrendous. What’s completely unforgivable to me is that this FO didn’t even attempt to address the obvious playoff issues. If they had just rearranged the pieces a bit around Don+Gobert I think we’d be in a much different spot. Their inaction squandered our window and shortened it.
They didn’t have the same desperation that the Bucks had. The Jazz had their window and decided to sit on their hands the whole time. It was a huge competitive advantage for MIL to actually go for the title and build a better team. Before they won, MIL was considered a playoff pretender. Difference between them and the Jazz is the that the Bucks made the necessary moves to change that.