Nah, not really. That was a 43-39 team the year before, than Adelman was let go, McHale was hired, and they were worse the following year - with Morris (and Chandler) as rookies. They had Scola still. And PPat. In either case, DM's also probably made a mistake by drafting positionally too much. Like the run he had on PFs for a while there. You should always draft best player on your board, imo. Most of these guys don't even make it long term anyway.
Well, maybe was the year I was on a basketball crush with Chandler Parsons LOL. But Knowing Morey if he believed in kawhi he wouldnt give a damn about a promising 2nd rounder; you are right here
I was also a "no" vote in this poll. Watching Melton over the next few years has some real masochistic potential.
Melton was the best player in the deal. But I am not willing to judge it fully until I know what happens with Knight and Chriss. We haven't reached 'end game' yet with that transaction.
To be fair, 13 other teams / picks passed on Kawhi... it just stings when its a VERY similar player, picked RIGHT after your pick, by one of your main competitors, who not only made the pick but wisely traded up to do so. In other words, a COMPLETE swing and a miss on scouting.
It's a gamble either way. If Knight isn't contributing much, he is dead weight sitting on the bench, pretty much the same way Anderson was. Chriss is already a dead weight although not as big as those two guys. The trade is about exchanging one huge dead weight for two smaller dead weights. And the price is Melton. Melton isn't a game changer. He could be a serviceable rotation player, kind of like Ennis, maybe better. Who knows how he would develop with us instead of with the Suns. So it will depend on ... (1) whether Knight will turn out to be more than just being a dead weight, something more useful than Melton. I am not holding my breath. (2) whether Morey will be able to move Knight and/or Chriss for something more useful than Melton without having to pay another price.
This point is often said, but it neglects the fact that the later in the draft you missed a star, the bigger the mistake was. Nobody would say Cleveland made a huge mistake picking Kyrie over Kawhi even though Leonard might have turned out to be a better player than Irving.
Like I mentioned earlier, I still contend Ryno at $40M and unplayable would have been one of the most unmovable contracts in the league. Our prospects would have been radioactive monstrosities like Batum, Parsons or pre-buyout Deng. That's what Ryno would be fetching us if he were still a Rocket. Anything else is going to involve smaller poor contracts/players and multiple 1st rounders surrendered. We have a lot more flexibility to improve the roster with Chriss' expiring deal and Knight's game that translates league-wide (as opposed to Ryno's game which was unique to our system and unappealing to the rest of the league). I'll concede it will likely cost us an asset, perhaps our 2019 1st, to attach to Knight and/or Chriss to make a significant move. It sounds like we disagree on this one - you're opposed to the idea of paying another price, whereas I'm just trying to be realistic. Either way, I like our chances to better utilize the 1/5th of the payroll Ryno was occupying now than had we stood pat. I think our hands would be tied.
Yes, if we have to pay another price to move Knight, then in effect we are paying two prices just to move Anderson's contract. The calculus would be, is it worth it? Is waiting for Anderson's contract to expire more costly than paying those prices? I guess it depends on the prices, right? Our hands have already been tied the minutes Anderson was signed to that big contract. Morey has been trying very hard to remedy that. In my opinion, the trade was a lateral move unless Knight turns out to be more serviceable than Ryno.
I'll concede that it's basically been a lateral move. We dumped a toxic and nearly impossible to move contract for two smaller pieces that haven't contributed anything while sacrificing Melton. It definitely hasn't been a home-run. That said, I still think we're better positioned now to make a move or two to address the depth issue than we would have been had we kept Ryno. Either way, here's what I know: our starters are playing too many minutes. We can probably agree on that. We can also probably agree Knight/Chriss + whatever assets (big or small) are the best and most realistic option to address the depth issue. That said, I'm not sure how we can both address the depth issue and not surrender the 2019 1st. Maybe you can convince Miami to dump James Johnson or Charlotte to dump MKG or Marvin for Knight without it. I'm not sure how we're going to parlay that craptastic package into 1-2 rotation pieces without involving 1st rounders, but maybe we'll be surprised. But you're right, it all started way-back-when with the awful Ryno signing. We've been doing roster damage control ever since.
Folks, to show you HOW FAR Ryan Scrubberson has fallen with the Suns. They just played a TIGHT game vs the Kings. Quincy Acy, who just signed a TEN DAY CONTRACT got 8 minutes in this game. Ryan Anderson is NAILED to the bench. DNP-CD (scrub) L.O.L. http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071280
I can't imagine what we could get for Ryno and a 1st would be different than what we could get for Knight and a 1st. Which begs the question, why did we trade Melton? I don't think we wanted to pay him and Clark, so maybe the team bet on Clark. Who knows.
Sorry to have "bumped" this thread, but when I saw that box score with Acy getting minutes and Scrubberson sitting on his ass...I couldn't resist.
BK has a better chance to play later on, he's shown small flashes. His 20 vs. 15 makes a big difference in salary. The biggest pain in all of this is that Melton looks good for a rookie. Oh well, what's done is done.
It's a The Athletic story waiting to be written*: Guys like Ryno and Melo, who were solid NBA contributors as recently as two years ago, aren't able to even get on the court now. Yeah, I know Melo is on the bench because of Morey, but the fact is he's going to have a hard time being anything remotely close to what he was before. And it's not due to their diminished skills, it's because their skillsets are no longer being adequate for the modern NBA game. * You're welcome, @KellyUnchained!
