Just about every player has flaws. When you say Fox and Booker isn’t worth giving up assets and a big contract well who is? Who is this magical player that will become available in trade or FA that we are waiting on? Last year many argued Donovan Mitchell wasn’t worth it when those rumors were going. Obviously those people were wrong. Go down the list. You’re not getting Jokic, SGA, Doncic, Tatum, etc. The only players arguably better than Booker or Fox that might, and that’s a big maybe, might eventually become available, is LaMelo Ball and ANT. So is that the master plan? Keep the core together until one of those two maybe, possibly, potentially, demands a trade??
You never know. Decent chance ant will want out, decent chance sga won’t be in okc forever. Jokic could easily get sick of his awful ownership/FO. If we lose our assets for fox and pay him, that basically ends the chance of being a contender imo. It doesn’t look like anyone on our team has a chance to be a top 4-5 player, so I would rather save the assets in case. 20% chance at ant >>>>>> 100% chance at fox.
isnt incremental improvement a viable play though in the event Ant shakes loose? If all you give up is FVV, a couple of the the young guys + a couple picks and that’s an improvement in terms of asset (Fox > than that package) then if Ant or someone else is available, you have Fox to use as a trade. If none shake loose you still have a Fox in the hand.
We will never have the assets we have now (and this upcoming offseason) towards a trade. We have two grand slams in Sengun and Amen, as well as the perfect complementary piece in Smith. We have one major weakness — scoring efficiency at the guard positon. If you can land a top 25 overall player in his 20s who fills this need without giving up Amen or Sengun, you do it, period.
We have a pg, sg, c and sf who are all near the bottom of the league in efficiency for starters at their position. We also have no goto guy/ closer. We are one of the worst shooting teams in the league. We have multiple issues to solve. That being said, I agree that if you can go get a top 25 guy, then you do it in most cases.
I don’t agree with this at all. Fox will be a massive albatross when he gets his new deal, he will be making at minimum 30% of the cap and is nowhere near that level of player. Plus we will have less young guys and picks, it would take us out of the running for any elite player.
Ya absolutely. It’s just a difference of philosophy. My ONLY interest is maximizing our chance to win a title. Trading assets for fox decreases those odds a good bit, even if it makes us better short term. I could not care less if we win 46 or 50 games this season, my only interest is development (i would be playing reed 25 mpg for example). I would rather risk those assets turning into nothing than lighting them on fire for short term gain. It’s also clear at this point IMO that nobody we have has legit top 4-5 player in the league potential, so we have to maximize our chance to acquire that player.
I suppose this comes down to how much faith you have in stone to negotiate a deal that isn’t negative value. If you don’t then it’s one shot one kill with our assets. I think stone can manage it though.
Fox turned down 55/year from the kings. There’s nothing to negotiate, if you trade for him you max him because the kings are willing to.
Amen + Sengun means this team isn't interested in Fox. He's a non shooter and is essentially smaller, older Amen with worse defense. Keep the picks for when a real shooter hits the market. But we need to figure out who out of Fred, Jalen or Dillon gets relegated to the bench. Amen is literally 1% below Jalen on 3s this year. Booker fits much better but makes way too much money.
He's also one if the best closers in the league. See his 2023 NBA clutch player if the year award. 26+ pts/gm on good efficiency isn't anything that we have on the roster.
I'm on team, look into Fox. His first 4 seasons vs his last 4 seasons shows a player that has grown a lot. Yes, he isn't a shooter and doesn't fit every need but there's no rule that the perfect fit will become available in a timely manner.
Amen can't run on an offense full time..... While I don't think Ime wants a heliocentric offense, Amen still have ways to go to even sniff becoming a primary ballhander on a playoff team.
The clutch stuff is mostly small sample size variance, and his efficiency is pretty overstated. He's only been above league average twice, including this season where he's 1% above, so it's not like he's giving you game changing elite efficiency. He also can't shoot and doesn't defend. He's a good player, he's better than FVV (this season, in past seasons maybe not), he would help the rockets, but he's not an impactful game changer.
I’m 60/40 on a Fox upgrade if the price is right. None of us know what GMs know and how players like Fox are valued around the league. Ultimately it’s risky either way and I’d rather move on from FVV sooner than later. But I trust Stone to make the right call.
There's no risk to NOT getting fox because if you miss out on him, who cares? We know what he is. The risk of getting him and missing out on a potential real star is massive.
If we look into fox it is to replace Fred. I’d give up reed, Tari, filler and picks. Fox, Jalen, Amen, Bari and Goon. Very formidable
