Handlogten's Heros
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I mean SGA signed an extension for the max length with no options so I think maybe you might be wrong that he will bail at his first opportunity.As far as culture goes, I don't think it is wise to throw a bunch of 22 year olds out there to fumble around and hope they lose. You need to play functional basketball and need players on the team that can run an offense or anchor a defense, even if they aren't top drawer. You aren't developing anyone losing by 20 every night. And if you have a potential star, you are just wasting their potential and years under control.
What do you think Donovan or Rudy look like if they had been drafted by the Kings? SGA is going to fall short of his potential with his misadventures in OKC. He's also going to bail at his first opportunity.
Rebuilding is a lot harder than just racing to the bottom, even the teams that do that don't have a great record of success.
While I think there is some truth to what you are saying... I think you need the top talent more than the amazing culture. SA has great culture... last few years it hasn't worked doe. Once you get the top talent you'd do really well to make sure its a functional environment... those environments are fungible and the awesome culture you provided for Walker Kessler that landed you the #6/7 pick isn't going to carry you to more wins than getting a top 2 or 3 guy. Nothing is guaranteed but I'd be working to offload at least one of JC and Mike... likely wouldn't have done a deal to bring in KO. The culture benefits we get from Mike and KO being here won't have a material future effect when we are trying to compete in a couple years... if that culture produced 5 more meaningless wins and a worse pick.
Its going to be a long 82 games regardless of if we win 28 games and have a -7 pt differential or win 23 games and have a -12 pt diff. The difference in pick value could be franchise altering. Its just math.