I am probably in the minority on this but I think I would move Martin this offseason. I think KPJ gets moved to the 3 next year and so Martin will be fighting him, Eason, Tate and Smith for minutes. I think Martin is a better fit than Tate but Tate is one of the few players that has some experience and is signed on a friendlier contract long term. Martin and Nix to Indiana for TJ McConnell and one of their later firsts (via Cle or Bos) - Indiana gets a rotation player that fits their timeline for a 31 year old backup point guard whose minutes will dwindle behind Haliburton and Nembhard. Nix can develop as their 3rd point guard or get cut and Martin is better now than whoever they might get with a late first. - Houston thins out their prospect numbers and gets a veteran backup (good shooter whose averaged 5 assists per for his career). Additional pick can be moved for a future pick or bundled with the LAC one. Id; probably look to draft a project 5 to groom behind Sengun (Adem Bona or maybe James Nnaji?)
Moving Martin might make sense in the right trade since we have Eason. McConnell would be fine, but I would rather have Tyus Jones (he's younger and better), and the Grizz might be interested in KJ. It could also make sense to move Martin for a good backup center. A lot will depend on who we draft and whether we sign Harden.
I still can’t understand how we hold out KPJ to get a couple mil more in cap space, but we won’t hold out other starters to secure the 2nd best odds in the draft; literally hurting the tanking strategy that is the justification for the 3 years of suffering we’ve endured. How do u justify that? It’s just plain stupid.
Maybe their board doesn't have any difference in the players they have ranked at #6 or #7. If they are rated evenly, it makes no difference. It probably doesn't make much difference anyway. Winning the lottery is getting #1 and having your pick at whoever you think is the best. They still have the best odds at all of the top 3. You can try to limit the damage all you want, but if the Pistons fall to #4, they lost this lottery. There will be no consoling them. They can spin it as "at least our record prevented us from falling to #7" all they want, but they lost. It's the same with us. All of the losing is for a chance at #1. We preserves our opportunity there, and still have the best odds at top 3, too. All of this clamoring for #5 or #6 is nonsense to me.
I understand wanting to use cap space . But our team has really young players starting at 4/5 spots. so getting a vet means we are benching them. Fine by me , but we should have done that rookie year and made them earn pt even if you exclude KPJ , you could easily include tari Eason . I just don’t see how we get much better outside of trading some young guys … or the young guys taking a leap . And despite the fact that they are young , it’s NOT a given. harden isn’t an 82 game player anymore . Even if we get victor , he will have a learning curve. the offseason for us should be about player development. unfortunately that’s the time where it’s the least structured . im collectively way higher on our forwards and bigs than I am our guards Jabari / sengun / tari / usman green / kpj / Josh / ty ty outside of kpj they are our last 7 first rounders . maybe kpj is league average . Maybe . He took a step back on D this year . At least 3 of these guys are guaranteed starting spots . And a few should get heavy minutes too . Add in another potential 2 picks. I am very skeptical of stone right now . I do not think being at the bottom of the league and collecting “talent” is that hard to do . Good luck getting teams to give up quality players for our potential and or convincing good veterans to come and not overpaying . Stones plan so far has been to gamble and get us a coin flip . It’s worked out for him so far in terms of getting high selections . If we don’t get 35 + wins I’d fire him without hesitation . Getting to 40 , I’d consider keeping him . And I don’t care what our injury luck is . OKC didn’t get anything from their number 2 pick this year and made the play-in. We barely beat Washington third stringers our goal this year was “hard to play agaisnt “ we failed spectacularly.
I understand what you are saying, but if we are picking outside the top 3 or 4 there’s a fair chance we could trade that pick. Certainly other teams would place a higher value on the higher pick. Also I’m not sure how we could possible know how the draft will play out or have completed our evaluations of all the relevant prospects at this point. So all I’m saying is that we don’t fully know the ramifications of picking 6 vs 7 yet. to me it makes sense to grab every potential advantage/edge we can get. to your point, not the end of the world, but it doesn’t make sense to me.
The NBA doesn’t want teams doing this so they make the odds unfavorable. We still have the best shot at #1, so that’s good. That’s all I ask. Beyond that, if we fall to #7, so be it. The Kawhi Leonard, Sengun, Halliburton players will be there, we just need to make sure we identify them. Avoid the Hasheem Thabeet/Coby White land mines.
Green- gain another 8 to 12 pounds (near 190 pounds) of muscle Allows for absorbing contact better. Increase stamina so that he doesn't hit that rookie Wall a 3rd year in a row. Would've averaged 25 points a game if the team were better 3-pt shooters......better spacing to drive. Jabari- much like Green, add 8 to 12 pounds of muscle. Improve on drive-n-finish. I still say Derrick Coleman. Will never drive n finish around the rim like DC, but will be a better shooter than DC. Be a facsimile in the middle in today's lighter and leaner NBA. KPj- much the same as the final 36 games: bump them all up some if at same minutes 19.2 pts/ 58% (TS%)/ 14.4 (TOV%)/ 23.8 (USG%)/ 2.7 TOV/ 5.1 rebs/ 37.4 (3P%)/ 45.9% (FG%)/ 25.7% (ast%) 5.7 ast (bump it up to 6.0 if Harden returns)/ 80.2% (Ft%) Defend better. I don't expect him to keep shifty PG's in front of him; but 2's (SG's) and 3's(SF's) should not blow by him. Pass the ball sooner. I want D'Antoni 7 seconds or less to initiate every half court set. Means run the ball up the court. Harden as well. Chances are you will get the ball back as it skips along the perimeter. Sengun- practice 1000 3-pointers a day. That way the Rockets can have Sengun at the top of the break and operating the Olynyk shoot, pass, or surprise drive as your opponent is lulled to sleep. Defense (interior) Defense (perimeter) Defense (in transition). One of the pluses of having Sengun run that Olynyk above the break.... Is so he doesn't have as far to run to get back on defense. Be a willing screener multiple times in a possession in the offensive set. Tari- increased stamina, muscle, finish at the rim on offense. 3-pt shooting. Kenyon- 3-point shooting. Thousand attempts a day. Garuba- slimmer waist line. Better lateral movement. Practice those 3's more. Get proficient shooting 5 a game.
Really not that much needs to be done. All we need is a head coach, a respectable backup vet pg, and a couple 3&D vets and we are good to go. Dream scenario: Nurse/Atkinson KPJ/Conley Green/veteran or Christopher Jabari/Cam Johnson Wemby/Tari Sengun/vet or Garuba Replace Wemby with Miller and of draft Henderson move KPJ to SF Trade KMJ, Tate, and a 1st for Conleys 20mil expiring and go overpay Cam Johnson or Bridges to come off our bench for 2-3 years It’s really not that hard to turn this ship around if we actually wanted to try to win
I think the ideal scenario this offseason would be if Stone could find about 3 good veterans to supplement the main core guys on the roster we think could be special to help them take the leap next year. I still think our biggest needs are Center and PG. We don't need a big name, just role player type vets. More than likely we won't win the Wemby/Scoot sweepstakes and will have to draft a forward. I'll try to have some optimism and plan for getting the #3 pick where we take Brandon Miller. I agree with Marks and would not want to pursue further development of the KPJ/Green backcourt as a starting unit. When VanVleet opts out of Toronto, I'd give him a contract at around 4 years $120M Also, for some more guard depth I'd go after Marcus Smart and trade Tate, Christopher, and a 2024 second-round pick to Boston I'd then target Jakob Poeltl by offering him a contract in the neighborhood of 4 years $72M to add some depth to the Center position So the starting lineup would be Vanvleet, Green, KJ Martin, Smith, Sengun 2nd unit would be Smart, KPJ, Miller, Eason, Poeltl I think we could easily get to 35 wins with a squad like that.
