That is what I am asking, who are the ones you keep, he makes an excellent point, about teams keeping good young players, but OKC is primarily there because they traded Westbrook for CP3, and moved him then traded Paul George for SGA - he wasn't drafted by them. Now, that isn't to say the way they did it is wrong, I like where we are, but I honestly could see us trading ANYONE on this team, until we have a true LEAD dog. Right now we don't have that, the only one trending that direction is Amen - Sengun will fall short and so will Jalen....good but not GREAT players, who knows what Cam might become, or Reed, Bari and Tari look to be nice complimentary pieces...... I honestly have no clue who we will keep other than Amen. DD
Highest ceiling IMO is Alpi. Green is surprising me in positive. Tari and Amen solid as Sears. Bari? I’m scared to pay him big $s. Cam? He’ll either be very good or wash out due to issues reflected in his body language. I just cannot read him. Reed? He just might turn into a bit of a Derrick White/(likeable) Stockton. Who fits with whomever Cores-forward? Cam Johnson? Yabu? Ausur??? Please, a tall shooter and a taller tall guy.
I suspect amen is the true franchise player in all of this. The question is quickly going to become who in the core best complements his style. Amen has a ceiling through the roof. Amen and alpi have a shown a good chemistry last few games. Brooks skillset fits what amen needs. If amen can figure out how to initiate half court offense between him and green, we have a true chance to try and move FVV to 6th man and run a big lineup of green, amen, tari, Jabari and alpi. Most likely consolidation depends on how green can develop ability to initiate half court offense. If so, tari/cam/brooks become heavily expendable. If not, green/can become focal pieces. Just my opinion….
The thing is, it is still too early to make a definitive judgment on ANY of the 7 draftees we got. Even the fourth year guys Jalen and Sengun are still evolving. Trading your up and coming young guys for a 2nd or 3rd tier star is very risky. You know that star is not capable of carrying a team by himself. So you still need another star that is equal or better. There is always the possibility that the young player you trade away would turn out to be that other star you need.
On trading draft picks, when it comes to first round picks, trading away any of the picks now really decreases the value you can offer going forward. The team doesn't have a high volume of picks like OKC, Utah or San Antonio, they just have what appears to be very valuable picks. You trade one of those & it can affect the ability to trade the following years pick. Also, they have no pick in the first round of 26 meaning they have to make selections in both 25 & 27. Also - because PHX owes so many picks & swaps to other teams, the Rockets really don't have any added leverage when dealing with them, getting their picks back is really irrelevant - they still can't tank. Rather than "bailing them out" in a trade, it's best to just sit back and wait on those picks coming in the lottery OR using them in a trade to acquire the necessary star from elsewhere.
