I consider franchise player “the best guy on a championship level team.” So you might be right, but why the hell are you acting like Wood isn’t really good? He can easily be the second option on a title team. We desperately need to keep him around. We went from being the hottest team in the league to by far the worst when he got hurt... put some respect on his name.
Im not saying Woods is KAT - yet, but why be so pessimistic? There is enough of a sample size to be optimistic about Woods here. Sure it would be great to see how Woods performs in playoff games, but that is not happening this year. I can only pray that Stone does a better job than the GM in Minny.
I just realized that this thread is just the "Is Wood a superstar" thread with different semantics.... Like I said there, he's great but not a top 10 player and you need one of those to win a championship so we have to tank and draft that guy as soon as possible. I wouldn't be opposed to giving Wood a frontloaded max extension right now though so that his salary becomes more manageable by the time Player X's rookie contract is up.
Who is being pessimistic? I am just being realistic it's far more likely that Wood is not even as good as KAT and yet we are talking about him being a top 20 player? He has played what less than 20 games? I have no idea why some are scoreboarding his stats.
And you know this how? How can you extrapolate that from 20 games in a season such as this? Pump the breaks my guy.
Okay so if he comes back and finishes the year off with the same or better stat line that would make you feel more cozy? When is the baseline established for good player? What else can fans of this team do right now other that stat gawk and hope SOMEBODY on this team is relevant? Doesnt Woods game translate all the way back to last year I thought that was the reason we signed him in the first place - noticed the talent and locked him up on a team friendly deal.
I don’t disagree with your proposal. I’m down for trading him next season. But I will say, trading him this season wouldn’t be selling low. Even with the small sample size, his value is perceived to be pretty high IMO. Teams like Boston, Sacramento, Toronto, Dallas, and Indiana would give up a great package right now to pair Wood with their other 25-26 year old pieces.
His stat line means nothing to me just look at Wiggins stat line or Bookers stat line the last 2 years. Does he contribute to winning on a consistent basis and can he be counted on in crunchtime. The baseline is established in the playoffs, have seen far to many regular season wonders, Top 20 NBA player is a high bar and having not even played a full season yet as a starter means the jury will be out for awhile. Nobody is saying you can't stat gawk or hope but throwing around NBA Top 20 and franchise player on less than 20 games.
Nope. No GM is gonna break the break on this sample size, they would have done it last year when he was a RFA and did the same down the stretch.
It’s one thing to have vets like a washed Al Horford, PJ Tucker, or a bad contract vet like Harrison Barnes during a rebuild. It’s another thing to have a 25 year old stud on the roster just to waste his talents tanking. That’s why trading him this or next season should be prioritized. I’m not saying we’d get a Harden package. I think right now we can easily get a player or two on a rookie contract + FRPs for him. I’m extremely high on Haliburton. I proposed in another thread Wood for Haliburton, Bagley, 1 FRP.
He's our top asset. It's pretty hard for a big man to be a franchise player in this NBA without being a playmaker for others.
Of course Portland would kill for a 25 yr old Aldridge — they’re in win now mode. Why would we want a 25 yr old B-level star when we’re JUST starting our rebuild through the draft. Our next franchise player is probably some 18 year old kid right now in high school.
I'm honestly not worrying myself on if he's a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd option. He's 25 and we are rebuilding, there shouldn't be a rush to try and determine his ceiling and it doesn't really matter if he's only a 3rd option. Those are hard to find, not even the Lakers have a reliable 3rd or the Clippers, or Bucks, or Celtics. Only the Nets do. so say we draft Cade and he's the HOF PG material, at least we already have a 3rd option and it would be that much easier to attract another star to slide between them. Like if we're going the 3 star route it doesn't matter too much when we acquire them, only that we do.
All of this is the same ish people said about Jokic as he started to improve every year. Why? Because his draft position. Because of that no one wanted to believe what they were seeing was real so it was always that he's a nice player but not a franchise player. Boy were they wrong.
Wood is a great player, but he doesn't fit into our timeline. He needs to be traded for maximum value sometime in the next 3 years.
Wood has only played not even half a season with starting minutes, let's not exaggerate his worth and abilities yet. And there's no way Kings is even willing to swap Haliburton, let along attach a pick, he's the best rookie of this class. What we need to do is to extend Wood, we aren't going to get equal value in a trade for him.
He don't have dream potential. Those type of players come ready when they first step on a nba floor. What g level player that you know that rose up to be a superstar player.
