Flip side is, Gordon and Wall are both signed for long term contracts... if you are looking to compete, they're probably sticking around, as you're probably not getting rid of them without assets or downgrading talent. Adding Powell (with Porter already in tow) creates a bit of a full house in the backcourt. That seems odd when you want to be able to go BPA if (and I hope we are in this position) drafting at the top of the draft.
I personally see a team with KPJ/Tate/Wood, along with a top 4 pick, as a pretty damn good young core to stack shooters around. Jesus Christ. If we keep pushing forward with John Wall and Eric Gordon I am going to spew. Clearly, KPJ is the guy at PG we need to be developing next to Wood. 21-8-3-2-1 as a starter in 4 games. If that jumper starts falling, LOOK OUT.
Swap Powell for Snell and it's a full go for me. I'm defense first. But Snell has been FIRE from 3 too. No FRP to any team, interesting.
It's not just drafting though. Development was stunted because every single one of those years they'd push to get back into the playoffs. Look at who they've signed those same years. Also look at the minute splits, they'd always give middling vets minutes over their young guys because they keep pushing for the playoffs. You dont get an 8th pick by tanking, you get an 8th pick by trying to get to the playoffs and failing. That's exactly the dead zone. Here are some of the shortsighted Kings transactions in that same period: 2009: Traded for vets Carl Landry and Larry Hughes 2010: Traded for John Salmons who would be their leading scorer for a while. Signed JJ Hickson to take minutes from Cousins and Whiteside 2011: Signed Chuck Hayes to Multi year deal 2012: Signed Aaron Brooks to a multi year deal, Traded for James Johnson. Gave up on TRob and traded for PatPat 2013: Traded Tyreke for Greivis Vasquez, Extended Landry, traded for Rudy Gay, traded for Reggie Evans and Jason Terry, 2014: Extended Gay, Signed Sessions to big multi-year deal, trade for Andre Miller 2015: Ah this is the big one. I'll just let the infamous Stauskas trade speak for itself: The draft rights to Arturas Gudaitis, the draft rights to Luka Mitrovic and multiple TPEs were acquired by the Sacramento Kings from the Philadelphia Sixers in exchange for: Carl Landry, Nik Stauskas, Jason Thompson, a Swap 2016 1st round picks, a Swap 2017 1st round picks and a conditional 2019 1st round pick (SAC own). Yikes. They would then sign Belinelli and Rondo to huge multi year contracts. Signed Caron Butler. 2016: Signed Matt Barnes and Anthony Tolliver, Signed Ty Lawson and Jordan Farmar 2017: This is another big one and could be similar to what will happen to us. The just drafted Fox and traded for Buddy. Then they give huuuge contracts to George Hill and Zbo and sign Vince Carter. Yikes. Then they trade for Joe Jonson and Iman Shumpert. 2018: Traded for Garrett Temple, Signed Bjelica who's still blocking Bagleys development to this day 2019: They didn't have a pick this year cause of the Stauskas trade lol. Signed Ariza and Deadmon. Huge Barnes extension. As you can see, the Kings never tanked. They just sucked at winning. They'd always make some move that would keep them mediocre. I'm pretty sure they were never a bottom 3 in the league team that whole stretch. They would always be like 20th-26th. Tanking requires commitment and they half assed it for a decade.
on the other hand ... last season was also a small sample and unusual circumstances. right now , Herro ain’t **** . He hasn’t proven anything in this league yet .
Agree that it's a good core. I like it and hope that's what happens but I don't see them knocking off one of the top 8 until that draft pick becomes a productive all star type. Also, I think everyone realizes KPJ is potentially the future of. But what are you going to do about Wall and Gordon? I guess just buy them out?
Those guys are great but putting "make the playoffs" pressure on them in their Rookie year is not good for development. Luka, Trae, Jah, Zion, Giannis, Jokic, none were in the playoffs or even trying as rookies. They need room to grow and make mistakes. Also, 2022 is when we have full control of our pick. I'd like to try to get another cornerstone in that draft to pair with our guy and start trying to make the playoffs again in 2023 earliest. These things can not and should not be rushed.
Wall is untradeable now but by next year's trade deadline with only half a season plus his player option his contract is a little easier to swallow provided Stone includes a pick or two (also provided that Stone has motivation to jettison Wall because he has another player in mind via Free Agency or via trade). Gordon shouldn't be hard to move if he can just stay healthy 80% of the time and the last year of his contract is completely non-guaranteed. At any rate my expectation is that four players (Wall, Gordon, Porter, Powell) will split the minutes pretty evenly, skewing towards the Porter/Powell backcourt.
This may be a dumb question, but I don't know the answer. Do picks have any monetary value in a trade for salary matching purposes?
There are other bad contracts out there that play other positions than PG. We should flip Wall for one of them so KPJ can start learning how to be a starting PG.
Perhaps you and I have different perceptions of this then. Ego may be our 6th man for majority of his tenure, but he plays starter minutes and is typically the 3rd option when on the floor. James, CP3, Ego James, Russ, Ego James, Dwight, Ego At least that’s how I’ve seen it.
It's all posturing to drive Magic price down IMO. No requirement like that was made to Dipo in Harden trade.
like this season isn’t filled with unusual circumstances with Covid and his 32% shooting from 3 isn’t an even smaller sample... please... Hasn’t proven anything yet? Yeah, he’s just midway through his 2nd year. KPJr hasn’t proven anything but that doesn’t stop people from already acting like he’s the next Harden. Seems like if you’re a young player on the Rockets, it’s endless hype on here, and if you’re a young player on another team, it’s time to highlight every flaw and discuss them as if they’re currently finished products.
That's my point -- 3 of the consensus top 5 are guards -- Jalen Suggs, Jalen Green, and Cade. I guess you could play Cade as a 3, but you're left either minimizing time for a top 5 pick, or you're benching a ~$20M+ player (or Porter).
