Consider this... imagine if we found (e.g. traded) a player who is near Mike Conley level and is 25 or younger, how would you feel about our future then? Are we still far away, or are we maybe monitoring superstars who want out of their teams just to give back some of the picks we got from our 2 hauls.
The argument against tanking imo... is you have those other picks that will convey and bring some all-stars later... trading some those to add a disgruntled star or a guy on Mike's level but younger is great and all but I'm not sure what the point of that is. If Ochai was showing some promise I might feel a bit differently but he's struggling with the stars right now. IF we currently had more long term pieces then by all means lets gun for the play in.
Phoenix is real good... if we win that game it will be a data point for me to consider... I still think we are like a 35 win team that outperformed our early schedule by 3 or 4 games.
Yeah, I think it will be a good litmus test. We won't have any excuses as far as rest or travel schedule or major injuries. Phoenix is playing well right now. We are at home, so if we are a legit team we should keep it competitive.
Does he put cut up bacon in it?
That and we won two overtime games, one game with Memphis by 1, and we have had good injury luck thus far. Haven't had key guys sit and NO lost BI in the first half, saw Memphis without Ja one night and Bane the other.
I think you have to include Sexton and THT for us as well. I actually think THT is starting to compare very favorably to Dort with his strong defense. He is beginning to show quite a bit more play making ability as well though. Then of course Sexton is a 23yr old that is more than capable of putting up 20pts a game on high efficiency.
We have definitely had a lot of breaks go our way. We are a few breaks away from being 6-10 rather than 10-6.
I would disagree on THT vs. Dort... strongly. The player types are very different as THT needs the ball in hand to be effective on offense and Dort is similarly effective in an offball role. I think Dort is a much better defender as well. THT is making progress I think but catch and shoot 3 is horrible.
I still don't know if he has a trade market. Only team I could see trading for him atm is the Nets in a three team Kyrie deal. The contract is just big enough its hard to work a deal. Which may mean its JC/KO that get moved instead. I think you can justify resting Mike more as an aging vet... so you could manage his minutes without catching the leagues attention... maybe.
You know why we traded Rudy and DM as well as I do. Had nothing to do with "wanting to tank". It was moving away from something that wasnt working and that was gaining negativity towards us.
I think people underrate the ability to get to the free throw line. It's super valuable to efficient offenses.
I enjoy him... he is a real positive some nights. He needs some additional run to kind of explore his playmaking a bit. If he can't get better on that end he is just a really good bench player. Which is nice to have but not something that I'm building around per se. I just have my concerns.
Lots of assumptions that I don't agree with. Lauri might be a solid number two... but to be a contender many teams have multi all-nba talents. That is the hardest thing to find... that is something we will only get in the draft. Rebuilding teams don't sell off All-NBA talents in their 20s all that often. You might hit on a lot of the other moves you make but not getting that superstar will have you wandering in the NBA middle between the play in and first round exits. Can you get them in the teens in the draft? Sure.
