This team has too much talent to do a full rebuild so we're retooling like OKC (except they have more picks than us). I love our guys on this team but it's hard to see them develop into a championship roster. It's all fun and games until we have championship expectations. I personally hate how the lottery works because teams like the Pelicans who keep trading away their good players for picks will end up with multiple #1 picks and most likely end up being the better team compared to a team who is still competing but relying on other teams picks to convert. Basically just compare Philly to Boston. One team did a full tank and the other one tried to compete while waiting for Nets picks to convert. Which team is closer to winning a ring? Philly and that's with their horrible front office who wasted a bunch of their picks after firing Hinki. If our competition ends up being the Pelicans in the a couple years, they're likely going to end up being the better team because they did the tanking while we did the retooling. And yes, I know we just beat them today but that's because they front office is still in tank mode (traded away players for picks).
Well sure.... but there are times to rebuild and times to retool and I feel losing your only superstar points to the former. You can't remain competitive forever and I don't envy the Spurs wandering desert after Kawhi.
And one is on an albatross contract, one is on an expiring contract and wants to get paid, and one is on a contract the vacillates between positive and negative. Cousins, Exum, and McLemore are inexpensive expirings. Retool.... rebuild...... Still about 3 years away realistically.
That depends upon whether you flip them, or sign them, or whom you get next, and how the chemistry fits together, this team has the best chemistry I have seen on the Rockets since the CP3 and Harden year.... Doesn't mean they will be that successful, but I really like the direction they are going. DD
I'm not really sure what direction we are going until we pass the trade deadline. What's real and what isn't real in this COVID season is unclear.
Dipo can be traded, he just can't be packaged until deadline. I think by trade deadline Gordon is a positive asset for playoff teams needing scoring.
When did we get them??? (Rehabbing Wall on worst contract, Rehabbing Cousins on vet min, Rehabbing Dipo on expiring after trade, Dante Excrement, Ben McLemore vet min) Context is important. 4 of the 6 have had major success and we could never get them when it really mattered. Everyone misses the lesson from Hinkie. You look at Philly AFTER Hinkie was sabotaged by the Colangelo's. He drafted Embiid, Simmons, and would have drafted Tatum and still had ALL of his assets that were thrown away. He made one big miss in Okafor and then with MCW in weak drafts. If he doesn't trade Jrue Holliday they likely never get the draft picks they did and would have been on the treadmill. In hindsight it doesn't look as good but his asset accumulation including stealing Covington from us was excellent. You can tank for two years, accumulate assets, and use FA when the time is right. NOT tanking strips the team of really ALL methods of real asset accumulation and lowers your odds significantly of success. Yes, you can draft but not in the lottery, yes you can make small trades but don't trade away Tucker, EGo, Dipo, or we lose games, don't give our young players minutes to develop or align the assets of the team, and don't free up salary slots so we can attract FAs to a team with the ability to make other moves. Let's just do what we did before and lock up Dipo so we are the same team for the next 5 years. Maybe that #18 pick will be the one this time around. Let's all get excited about trading for Beal and recreating an older Wizards because that worked so well.
Most of them are 30 or nearing 30. Y'all need to have a 5 year and 10 year plan. Wall and Oladipo should not be part of that. And Gordon is already 32.
Of the top 4 seeds in both conferences, one of them got there via tanking. Of the recent finals teams, only the Cavaliers (and that was only because LeBron took pity on them)and Thunder got there primarily via tanking. Duncan is the only true example of a top 3 pick that led his team to the promised land before leaving in decades. In the modern NBA, creating a great situation to lure a superstar, and/or great team building has proven to be the far more reliable way to get yourself in the title window then good luck with ping pong balls.
Which is why you saying the 6ers tank failed is so stupid. Embiid is 27 and playing like an mvp. He nicknamed himself the process for goodness sake.
I'm unclear how Philly failed. They still stand a chance of winning a championship with Embiid as their centerpiece. I'd add that where they went wrong is not allowing Hinkie to see it through. Colangelo and Elton Brand undid a lot of the good Hinkie had done.
Cavs were a poorly run organization(but it still worked out for them, they would have no title without Kyrie too). And so was New Orleans wth Anthony Davis. Of the top 3 seeds realistically competing for title, we have Brooklyn who is a FA destination, LA who is FA destination and another LA. We are not LA. Thunder and Philly would likely have titles right now if i wasnt due to poor ownership or management. Curry is a superstar who was drafted 7 but GS had to be bad to even have a shot at getting. Nuggets used their tanking process to get Jamal Murray on their team. Utah is a really good team but do you actually see them winning any time soon? Probably not. Same with the Bucks, they drafted Giannis but they took 5-6 years to be good. Banking on finding another Giannis in the draft isnt a good way to go about it. The counterpoint I have to this second statement is that these type of things happen at places that players want to live in. New York, LA, or Miami. Its only like that for certain cities. You can still be the Warriors, Spurs, Rockets, former Bulls, Sixers, Thunder with good drafting and good management. Im not trying to "rain on the parade" but Im pushing back on the notion that doing what LA or New York is doing is a more reliable way than drafting, it is not and we are not them.
First time champions Kobe 22 yrs old TD 23 Kyrie 24 Steph 27 Shaq 28 MJ 28 Durant 29 With some exceptions, you should seriously contend or win one ship around 27-28 years old. Neither one of WOW is good enough to carry it alone, together they may be getting to the 2nd round or even 3rd round given form and injury luck. (Ceiling and floor would be 1st R exit or earlier, not making playoffs) But it'd be still the same result if you had Harden, CP3 and Westbrook, what changed?
