Trade for the best sixth man type who's playing heavy efficient minutes on a good team and on last year of rookie contract. Usually those young players were underrated due to the non-starter status, and the fact that they are due for huge raise. If they were high picks with phisical/size/athletic advantage, that's even better and safer bet. Just like Harden, Bledsoe is rocking with similar star level PER in volume minutes/usage and winning. Better yet, he's a plus defender and Kevin Pelton has already put his price tag at max contract. Suns paid even less assets for him than what we gave up for Harden. No multi-year tanking, developed by other teams, low downside, high upside, cheaper trade price... If Granger was healthy last year, George maybe another candidate like this. Who's next?
Yep. Best way of rebuilding is to suck, draft a star, then have him attract two of his buddies to play with you. It's fool proof (assuming one of those buddies is the best player in the league).
Shamelessly tank. Win unbelievable odds of getting the only sure thing future HOfer in a crap draft Championships!!! Damn Spurs....
Tanking is tried-and-true. If the Pacers were to win a title, it would be a totally new way to go about it though. They have not one player on the entire roster drafted above the #9 pick (George) and have just 2 free agent rotation players (West, Watson; Copeland would be a third one if he starts playing). Others were drafted smartly (George, Hibbert, Stephenson, Granger, Johnson, Solo Hill) or acquired in trade (George Hill, Scola, Mahinmi) I am pretty sure that no team has ever even made the conference finals without a single top 8-drafted player.
Rebuilding 101- -Get rid of large veteran contracts ASAP- -Collect as many draft picks as you can -Do your homework in the draft -manage rookie contracts- EX: You dont want to go too high upside/high risk in the first round. That can lead to Derrick Williams/Thabeet type of contracts. You might want to take the player you know will be good instead of the risky proposition. -Look for value contracts you can add that can later be flipped for picks. Think Dalembert contract, Delfino contract. -Hire the right coach. Someone flexible enough to deal with a fluid roster -Stay open to the possibility of trading for a James Harden type of player, but dont count on it... stay focused on fostering young talent, and good things will happen. -Do your due diligence in free agency. Go after all-star players, but be careful with giving high dollar contracts to the wrong all-stars. -Lastly... be able to trade or let young players that AREN'T going to be all-star players walk in free agency as to stay away from contracts that will stabilize your roster on players that aren't going to be stars.
Thanks- I had DJ Augustin on the brain, who was the highest drafted player on the Pacers team last year at #9. now George-10 Granger-17 Hibbert-17 West-18 Solo Hill-23 G. Hill-26 Mahinmi-28 O. Johnson-36 Stephenson-40 Butler-53 Scola-56 Watson-undrafted Copeland-undrafted Sloan-undrafted dang, that is a huge amount of value-drafted players
Tanking has a truly horrible success record. http://wagesofwins.com/2013/10/31/are-we-really-still-talking-about-tanking/
Tanking is better than the 6th man approach Drafting a LeBron or an Anthony Davis gives you a faar greater chance at a ring than trading for a Harden all other things being equal.
