the irony is that it has taken KD's injury to make us realize what should have been obvious all along: this team's strength last year was built on defense, hustle, and speed. Trading their best defender, and one of their quickest, most mercurial, perimeter players for a slow, aging, albeit elite scorer was always going to force a change in identity. additionally, the season long debate about who was going to be the 5th man, Tari, Reed, Okogie, or someone else, obscured the real issue. its not whether Reed or Tari should start, but rather, they both should, and that's simply not possible with KD in the lineup. The U23 starting lineup is incredibly similar to last year's, with Tari in the Brooks chaos defender role, and Reed as a better passing, better shooting version of Jalen. no matter what happens the rest of this year, they can afford to bring this group back, intact, and keep them starting together next year. and bring the old fellas, Fred, Adams, and KD off the bench. You'll need them all, plus DFS (whose defense I've been impressed with lately) for the playoffs. whether by design or necessity, the Rockets have stumbled on their future. it ain't broke, so don't fix it.
I don't think you're going to get that starting five without trading away KD at a minimum and probably Fred too, knowing Ime Udoka. I don't know if we have a "best player on a contender" in that group, but I don't know for 100% certain that we don't either. I generally agree that we should hold onto the so-called "young core" unless a really good trade offer arrives that balances out some of the fit issues without sacrificing overall talent, namely the much-discussed poor fit on offense between Sengun and Amen and poor fit on defense between Sengun and Reed. Ideally, IMO, you'd augment that group by way of the aforementioned possible KD trade. Ideally, I'd want a stretch 5 back who can lower Sengun's minutes a bit (he still seems to struggle with the load we're asking from him) and allow us to stagger Amen/Sengun a lot more often. We've discussed a lot of different options there, Ware, Okongwu, Naz Reid, etc. Just gun for one of those guys and let's go back to the youth movement.
Reed/Amen/Tari/Bari/Alpi is as good defensively as JG/Amen/Brooks/Bari/Alpi. You can give Segun a rest with Adams. Bari is your stretch.
I agree with all of that except bringing Tari back. I'd prefer we attempt to upgrade that spot, preferably by trading Durant for a younger veteran with an untapped upside. Who would that be? I have no idea. But there's no way KD agrees to come off the bench. I like Tari as a person (the dude casually asked Uncle Jeff what the 1800s were like), but he's too inconsistent and that massive slump tells me we can't trust him from one week to the next. Better to move on rather than give him a new contract.
KD ain’t coming off the bench. And we just learned that despite playing all-nba basketball, he’s not a good fit with our team. He’ll be 38 next season; it’s time to move on. I’m focused on the assets we can get for KD. I don’t mind letting Fred finish out his contract next season. If we are keeping Reed I still think that Fred will be good for his development. But also fine trading him as well. I love Steveo but I don’t think we’ll ever be able to trust his health again. As far as I’m concerned if we could squeeze a net positive asset return out of Adams, Capela, and DFS, we should. I can’t unsee what I saw the vast majority of the season. The team doesn’t fit and we need to go out and find that franchise player. But those older guys need to be converted into assets, and we need to figure out which of our younger guys we want to roll with for the future. None of this matters if we don’t significantly improve our player development as an organization.
No it wasn’t. This lineup would get blown away by any team other than the very short handed Fakers. Better fire Udoka too as he’ll never ever start Reed over FVV. Dream on….
Portland needs a kd. I want lean on the young guys more. Kd DFS and Adams for Clingan, Camarra, Sharpe and Grant Sengun Clingan Jabari Grant Amen Tari Sharpe Camarra Reed FVV
After how they lost to SanAntonio, there a lil pressure to go all out next season while they Avdija for cheap and Lillard coming back. While Holiday still has some juice left. if they can stay healthy. Lillard and Kd is an upgrade
