What beliefs do you hold where had some realistic thing transpired that you believe would have led to a title? This has to be within the realm of possibility and something that was legitimately on the table. For instance, you can't say drafting Jokic instead of trading back for Bolomboy. It also has to have some level of proximity, so you can't just say not sign Gail Goodrich and have Magic Johnson, or you couldn't just say keep Dominique as he was traded 15 years before we made our first finals. I'd also like to avoid things that are outside the hands of the franchise and its players (i.e. not "if they called Jordan's push-off" or "if they didn't waive off Eisley's 3"). The rules on this are that you have to give your first unbiased take, meaning you can't read through the responses first. You can certainly give updated takes after reading but the idea is to capture the first things that come to your mind. I will list mine in spoilers. You don't have to put yours in spoilers, but the idea is to respond to the question first before reading others' responses but you're welcome to then add other discussion after reading.
My tops are as follows:
My tops are as follows:
1. The Rony Seikaly trade goes through. This one still chaps my ***.
2. Gordon Hayward stays. If we were on enough of an upswing and then had Mitchell come through, perhaps that accelerates a timeline and we still have draft assets to move things along faster rather than "keeping the powder dry."
3. Kirilenko kept his motivation during our WCF run. If he had enjoyed basketball at that point like he did before, in terms of hustling and doing dirty work. It's a bit of a tall order as we were 1-4 against San Antonio, but that series was really the championship series.
2. Gordon Hayward stays. If we were on enough of an upswing and then had Mitchell come through, perhaps that accelerates a timeline and we still have draft assets to move things along faster rather than "keeping the powder dry."
3. Kirilenko kept his motivation during our WCF run. If he had enjoyed basketball at that point like he did before, in terms of hustling and doing dirty work. It's a bit of a tall order as we were 1-4 against San Antonio, but that series was really the championship series.
