Locke's Tone: Tank on The Horizon?

[Ineptimusprime]

When no “win now” trades materialized around the draft, I wondered if things might trend this direction. The reality is, unless you could move Rudy for like talent, or could move the surrounding pieces around Don and Rudy for something of value, the options pretty quickly become blow it up for picks and young pieces or run it back for more of the same.

 

[LoPo]

How do you propose we have Don sit out the entire season?

It doesn't take the entire season to make it into the bottom 4 of the draft. Don could have a very strong start to the season, we realize we have some roster work to do, then he sits after the All Star Break when he's getting Lasix, recovering from an ankle, etc.

 

[YoungJefe]

It doesn't take the entire season to make it into the bottom 4 of the draft. Don could have a very strong start to the season, we realize we have some roster work to do, then he sits after the All Star Break when he's getting Lasix, recovering from an ankle, etc.

We'd have to win 20-25 games, so half of what we've averaged with Rudy/Don.

 

[LoPo]

We'd have to win 20-25 games, so half of what we've averaged with Rudy/Don.

Just stick with me for a minute with this train of thought...

- trade Rudy for the type of young, promising talent we have been linked to - DAndre Hunter, Pat Williams, etc.
- trade Conley for expirings and any sort of draft compensation possible
- trade Bojan for expirings and any sort of draft compensation possible
- sign guys who are young and have potential

If we come back next year with draft capital, a promising young player like Williams/Hunter, Donovan and other pieces who could improve, then we have the makings of what we want. In an ideal world, we show some promise early on, but Don needs to sit the 2nd half of the season for whatever reason.

Going into next year, we would have Don, Williams/Hunter, a top 5 pick, and loads of cap space. That's the core of new revival. It takes a year of pain, but it could be 5-10 years of promise following.

 

[Shad]

Please trade everyone for picks and then sign a bunch of undrafted players, develop them, and trade them for picks as well until we get the #1

 

[YoungJefe]

Just stick with me for a minute with this train of thought...

- trade Rudy for the type of young, promising talent we have been linked to - DAndre Hunter, Pat Williams, etc.
- trade Conley for expirings and any sort of draft compensation possible
- trade Bojan for expirings and any sort of draft compensation possible
- sign guys who are young and have potential

If we come back next year with draft capital, a promising young player like Williams/Hunter, Donovan and other pieces who could improve, then we have the makings of what we want. In an ideal world, we show some promise early on, but Don needs to sit the 2nd half of the season for whatever reason.

Going into next year, we would have Don, Williams/Hunter, a top 5 pick, and loads of cap space. That's the core of new revival. It takes a year of pain, but it could be 5-10 years of promise following.

It's going to be nearly impossible to trade Rudy and the other team send us matching salary but we completely tank.
A team sending us expiring deals for Conley would be doing us a favor, so we'd have to send draft capital out.
Bojan for a bad contract would probably net picks.

 

[LoPo]

It's going to be nearly impossible to trade Rudy and the other team send us matching salary but we completely tank.
A team sending us expiring deals for Conley would be doing us a favor, so we'd have to send draft capital out.
Bojan for a bad contract would probably net picks.

Let's just say we do the Rudy deal with Chicago. It will largely be built around Vuc, Williams, Coby White and picks. White and Williams are exactly the type guys we would want. Young, promising, hungry and probably not taking us to the playoffs.

Conley to Washington for KCP, Ish Smith and a future pick is fair. Both of those contracts are expiring.

Bojan to the Boston Celtics for their huge trade exception or to Portland for Bledsoe and draft picks makes sense.

The only question would be - would Donovan sign on off one probably bad year? I'm not here to answer that question, but if you want to know what I'd do, that would be it.

 

[Jazz Traveler]

I’m fine with trading Mitchell and Rudy for picks and young players. There was something missing from this team all of last season. Made it really hard to believe in them because the flaws were glaringly obvious. People can get behind young players if they can see hope for the future.

 

[YoungJefe]

Let's just say we do the Rudy deal with Chicago. It will largely be built around Vuc, Williams, Coby White and picks. White and Williams are exactly the type guys we would want. Young, promising, hungry and probably not taking us to the playoffs.

Conley to Washington for KCP, Ish Smith and a future pick is fair. Both of those contracts are expiring.

Bojan to the Boston Celtics for their huge trade exception or to Portland for Bledsoe and draft picks makes sense.

The only question would be - would Donovan sign on off one probably bad year? I'm not here to answer that question, but if you want to know what I'd do, that would be it.

I think a team of Don - White - KCP - Williams - Vuc is the exactly the type of team that you don't want. Not good enough to make the playoffs but to good to secure a top pick.

If we're selling off everyone for picks, I'm sure Don will ask out. There's no guarantee that those young guys develop, we get lucky in the lottery, or whoever we pick pans out. So there's no guarantee it's a one year rebuild.

 

[LoPo]

I think a team of Don - White - KCP - Williams - Vuc is the exactly the type of team that you don't want. Not good enough to make the playoffs but to good to secure a top pick.

If we're selling off everyone for picks, I'm sure Don will ask out. There's no guarantee that those young guys develop, we get lucky in the lottery, or whoever we pick pans out. So there's no guarantee it's a one year rebuild.

I think so much of this depends on how good Hardy is, and what Ainge really wants to do.

If we got draft assets for Rudy, Conley and Bojan, I'm not sure how Ainge would use it. Would he flip them and build right now? Wait to build in summer 2023?

I don't think Don has much to lose by waiting a year to see how it all goes down. But if he wants gone, he'll let Ainge know. Trading the two old guys and Rudy for youth and/or picks is the right call.

 

[YoungJefe]

I think so much of this depends on how good Hardy is, and what Ainge really wants to do.

If we got draft assets for Rudy, Conley and Bojan, I'm not sure how Ainge would use it. Would he flip them and build right now? Wait to build in summer 2023?

I don't think Don has much to lose by waiting a year to see how it all goes down. But if he wants gone, he'll let Ainge know. Trading the two old guys and Rudy for youth and/or picks is the right call.

If a team with Don, KCP, Williams, and Vuc is as bad as teams like the Rockets, Thunder, Pistons, etc. who are literally trying to be terrible, Hardy is probably a horrible coach.

The difficult thing with a Rudy trade is that you have to match $38M in salary coming back with most potential trade partners so we'll likely get a couple solid players at least making it hard to tank.

I don't see anyone giving up draft capital to take on Conley's $50M over the next two years.

 

[LoPo]

If a team with Don, KCP, Williams, and Vuc is as bad as teams like the Rockets, Thunder, Pistons, etc. who are literally trying to be terrible, Hardy is probably a horrible coach.

The difficult thing with a Rudy trade is that you have to match $38M in salary coming back with most potential trade partners so we'll likely get a couple solid players at least making it hard to tank.

I don't see anyone giving up draft capital to take on Conley's $50M over the next two years.

I don't think you set out to tank, but if the opportunity presents itself, then you tank. GS and SA didn't start the season setting to tank. They had Robinson and Elliott or Steph, Klay and Draymond, then ran into injuries, bad luck, whatever. At that point, then decided to shelve the better players and play the youth which inevitably lost a ton.