Our schedule will turn easier based on all measurements (# of b2bs, rest advantage, opponent strength... even 1 extra home game). We are in good position to make the top 6 even without trades, and if we find a good trade then that might push us even further. No one is owning the West atm.
If it ends in a ring at some point then, yep.
We will never be that bad.
What kind of timescale are we talking about here?
Unfortunately, I presume most teams will be calling about Lauri, and he's obviously off limits in any kind of tank-related fire sale.
Well considering we are riding a, what near 50-year long dry spell, I would imagine as long as you could vaguely attrribute winning a championship to a string of bad seasons, even if it was 10 years further down the road, it would probably be worth it. Now, if they let that happen and they don't have any kind of plan and it just kind of fades away and doesn't amount to anything that will be an abject failure. But if we can connect a string of points from point A - losing seasons for a couple of years, to point Z - winning the championship, then it would be worth it. So, losing seasons means we get picks A, B, and C and that leads to players D, E, and F, which facilitates trades G, H, and I, which leads to picks J, k, and L and free agent signing M, N, and O, which gets used in a trade for player P, and picks Q, R, and S, which then get flipped into players T and U, and a trade for player V, with picks leading to W, X, and a final trade for the last piece, player Y, leading to Championship Z!! Well that would be worth it.
You forgot Vando. If Hardy won't play him and Kessler together, and if we want Kessler to play more, then we need to move Vando.
This. Time to get what we can for Vando. The guy is an energy guy that makes you feel like he is doing more than he is for us on the court. But activity does not equal effectiveness. We could get an asset or 2 for him, even if just a few 2nd rounders, or such, and that would open up room for Kessler to play more.
Agree with everything in this post except NOLA being in a selective contender tier. They've got a good point differential and all, but I have no faith in that team in the playoffs, just surprised to see someone so high on them
Yeah, wild to be high on a team that is #1 in the West despite dealing with a ton of injuries
Yeah, in an ideal world he would bring back some picks, but other teams can read advanced stats too.
| 1 | 1 | Karl-Anthony Towns*~ | C |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | Kentucky (Fr.) |
| 1 | 2 | D'Angelo Russell+ | PG | 
| Los Angeles Lakers | Ohio State (Fr.) |
| 1 | 3 | Jahlil Okafor | C | 
| Philadelphia 76ers | Duke (Fr.) |
| 1 | 4 | Kristaps Porziņģis+ | PF/C | 
| New York Knicks | Baloncesto Sevilla (Spain) |
| 1 | 5 | Mario Hezonja | SG/SF | 
| Orlando Magic | FC Barcelona (Spain) |
| 1 | 6 | Willie Cauley-Stein | PF |
| Sacramento Kings | Kentucky (Jr.) |
| 1 | 7 | Emmanuel Mudiay | PG | 
| Denver Nuggets | Guangdong Southern Tigers |
| 1 | 8 | Stanley Johnson | SF |
| Detroit Pistons | Arizona (Fr.) |
| 1 | 9 | Frank Kaminsky | PF |
| Charlotte Hornets | Wisconsin (Sr.) |
| 1 | 10 | Justise Winslow | SF |
| Miami Heat | Duke (Fr.) |
| 1 | 11 | Myles Turner | C |
| Indiana Pacers | Texas (Fr.) |
| 1 | 12 | Trey Lyles | PF | 
| Utah Jazz | Kentucky (Fr.) |
Wait... so you say screw the tank then list off the top 13 players in the NBA and over half were taken in the top 4?Screw the tank.
There is no formula.
There is just a promise of "maybe".
More specifically, "maybe in the future we can draft the right guys and build a winning team around them".
Top 10 guys are often not who we think they are coming from the draft. Evidenced by the fact that most of the time we draft others before them. And since it seems like a fairly accepted fact that you must have a top 10 guy to truely compete, well... how to exactly draft him?
Lets look at best players in the league right now (in no particular order but hopefully covering all that appear on anyones top 10):
Luka - 3rd (important notice, despite being top 3 the two guys drafted before him are total scrubs, and Hawks were willing to downgrade away from Luka)
Tatum - 3rd (drafed behind 2 guys who havent made an impact yet, and maybe never will due to health reasons)
Giannis - 15th
Steph - 7th
Jokic - 41st
Durant - 2nd (and the guy drafted ahead of him was the more "surefire" guy in Greg Oden... you see KD needed a lot of work "in the weight room" before he could become legit in the NBA)
AD - 1st and rightfully so.. but even though he is back to top 10 now, he hasn't been consistently up there. Furthermore, the team that drafted him has 0 championships and another team that paid the ransom reaped the benefits.
Embiid - 3rd (as a talent he was the best but health concerns dropped him to 3rd)
Booker - 13th
DM - 13th
Ja - 2nd
Zion - 1st
SGA - 11th
Shouldnt there be more #1s in that list than Zion and AD? Also count how many chips guys drafted top 3 won for the teams that drafted them? Hint: 0.
Get this: there are no top 3 picks from past 15 years who won a chip for the team that drafted them as their best player. Kyrie won one with Lebron, but playing the second fiddle. Tatum might break the trend. Might.
Oh and btw, that is 15+ years of drafts there. So 38 total top 3 picks that are not on that list which still has 5 guys picked outside of top 10 (40%). To be fair, some of those 38 top 3 picks that are not on that list were up there for a moment before disappearing... but vast majority have turned good to decent or just slipped to total irrelevance after doing next to nothing.
Lets look at 2015 just because these guys are in their absolute prime right now... yet some of them are out of jobs. Booker was #13, but these guys where valued better than him. Which of those has ever even been mentioned as a top player? No one. Potential top 10? KAT only. But we now know he isnt.
1 1 Karl-Anthony Towns*~ C Minnesota Timberwolves Kentucky (Fr.) 1 2 D'Angelo Russell+ PG Los Angeles Lakers Ohio State (Fr.) 1 3 Jahlil Okafor C Philadelphia 76ers Duke (Fr.) 1 4 Kristaps Porziņģis+ PF/C New York Knicks Baloncesto Sevilla (Spain) 1 5 Mario Hezonja SG/SF Orlando Magic FC Barcelona (Spain) 1 6 Willie Cauley-Stein PF Sacramento Kings Kentucky (Jr.) 1 7 Emmanuel Mudiay PG Denver Nuggets Guangdong Southern Tigers 1 8 Stanley Johnson SF Detroit Pistons Arizona (Fr.) 1 9 Frank Kaminsky PF Charlotte Hornets Wisconsin (Sr.) 1 10 Justise Winslow SF Miami Heat Duke (Fr.) 1 11 Myles Turner C Indiana Pacers Texas (Fr.) 1 12 Trey Lyles PF Utah Jazz Kentucky (Fr.)
There is an average of 2 guys per draft who at some point during their career get elevated to the elitest tier of players. Some drafts there can be as many as 6 or 7, other drafts you struggle to find a single one. And we just suck at telling who those guys are before they are drafted and sometimes even after seeing them play for a few years.
Its all smoke and mirrors. Picking 1st or 7th or 25th is not what eventually sets teams apart. Winning chips these days is much more about player development, coaching and team building (trades included). Only thing high pick gives you is a better chance for a better embryo to try and develop. But some of the even most hyped ones are just tainted, hopeless and destined to be busts regardless of where they land.
With combined 0 championships won for the teams that drafted them.
When you measure success as only championships then every team building strategy can be dismissed as stupid with a handful of outliers... because the nature of title teams is they are outliers. The goal should be to be a top 5 team over a 5-6 year window and hope to get some breaks that lead to winning a title.
I like the concept or being competitive and building up with a purpose, while being opportunistic.
You don't seem to get it. At this point there is no benefit to keeping vets and trying to win games. Whether it is focusing on what type of potential our younger player have or the improvement of our draft pick the best thing for this team is to trade away the vets.
I can respect it... I just think if you take the top 5 picks each year and compare the value to the say 10-15 picks in the draft that the hit rate is likely double what the 10-15 range is. The biggest thing we need to build the franchise is talent.
