Revisiting that trade, yeah I'd say that we definitely overpaid. I mean when you consider that McCollum is on the same kind of deal and that they are similar tier players, I'd say we gave up waaay too much. And as LoPo details in his post above, there was really not a lot of reason to give up so much as we weren't really in a bidding war or anything. And with Memphis having Ja Morant in their crosshairs, they had to be more motivated than they let on. I mean two of the three players we traded for Conley are now starters for the two teams that made it to the NBA finals last year, and along with two firsts, are you crazy? Whereas New Orleans gave up Hart, Satoransky, NAW and Louzada? for McCollum, Nance and Snell one protected first and two seconds. And look at the impact that McCollum has had in his first season compared to what Conley gave us. (Wish Conley had McCollum's floater.)
It's not like it's a total fail or anything, I can think of trades that ended up worse for sure. I do consider Conley to be the best passer on the team and particularly with Ingles gone, the guy that best gets Gobert involved. But that's offset by his lack of size, his inconsistency and most importantly his load management status right from the gitgo thanks to that recurring hammy. I think we could have gotten a lot more for less. Who doesn't feel as though DRuss would have been more impactful for us? Or Jrue Holiday? Hell, George Hill on a second stint may have been close. But yeah I suppose we could have swung and missed with Teague as well.
The development of Trent Forrest should alleviate some of the woes we've had in the past when Conley has been exploited defensively for being too short and too light in the ***. We had to resign him obviously and he can be really good offensively when he's flowing. Let's just hope he gets hot going into the playoffs and turns into that special All Star player that we've all seen flashes of!
