That's a roundabout way of criticizing Pat Riley for picking him up as a free agent... He was a rotation member of a conference champion last season. Explain again how he's not a piece for a contender?
yeah, the Rockets are the only team that has dealt with injuries, so next year with perfect health from all our injury prone guys, we’ll be up there with the Lakers
That's not a middle of the road playoff team, that team is fighting for the 8th seed. And if we were guaranteed Cunningham people would not be so negative and why should we be happy to be a middle of the road playoff team with 2 aging veterans?
How is the Rockets ahead of the curve? They have most loses in the NBA, and a cheap ass owner. Tilman also will never pay luxury tax even if it is to get a 28 year old Akeem.
Maybe it's like those old Atari video games we had in my day, where you could wrap around to the other side of the screen?
Huh? What are you talking about? Wood, Porter, and Cunningham would all be reasonably young... using your logic the Pelicans with Bledsoe and Adams are just a veteran team.... Middle of the road playoffs are ok when your best players can't buy alcohol...
I think most of the negativity stems from the potential of giving OKC the #5 pick. That's pretty much an insufferable fate after the year we've gone thru. A lot of people seem to believe even if they add a top 4 pick this year that the team will be in a similar situation the following season , drafting in the top 4. I really don't see that being the case , if you draft a top 4 guy this year , you are probably around #8-10. So if you don't keep the pick this year , at best you could package the 3 picks and maybe get up as high as 8. ..... and likely be an early lotto team next year, Keeping the pick to me just flips the year in which you draft top 4 or 8-10 (16,20,24). Its highly unlikely they are picking 1-4 this year and 1-4 next year too .... If they are , they blew the pick or injury struck. Where your opinion clashes with mine is the idea that Wall is better next year - Better enough to move the needle to a playoff team. I don't buy that at all .... I think he's going to be the same guy putting up empty stats and its when you can dump his contract that the team truly turns the corner. The question is when you do that as to how much potential for growth there is beyond that date. Dumping him this offseason or the next trade deadline likely costs you significant assets which limits your growth potential going forward. You wait until he's an expiring at the deadline and it doesn't cost you to move him and you can use those assets and his outgoing salary to bring in a top quality talent rather than just a salary dump.
Idk if we are ahead of the curve . I might have thought so earlier in the year . Right now it is dependent on if we keep our top 3 pick . #1 would be nice . #2-4 will suffice Next season is make or break for wood imo . We can try keep Kelly and for the playoffs next season . alternatively , we can see if we can flip wall using some asset(s) and try to sell high on Gordon ? Lots of ways this thing can break . Despite tilman . Tilman won’t cause a decently good GM going from awful to mediocre with upside. It’s maintaining good to great rosters that we might struggle with Tate and porter and maybe Martin jr are 3 dice rolls with kpj having a pretty high upside . Tate too , I think (but he is older) We can add 3 1st round talents if we actually want to . Or get a stash pick / trade and use the advantage of giving a bigger role to top undrafted and G-league . let’s see how lucky we get / how good our player development is / how good our scouting is .
That's 3 guys what about Wall and Olynyk 2 starters who will not be here when we are actually contending. It's funny you mention the Pelicans a team that has more talent than you project us to have and they are not a middle of the road playoff team. Can you explain that?
Can you explain how that's the case if you're signing a superstar with his cap space? That's the only reason to unload him early.... I'm not a Wall guy but it's very reasonable to assume a slight improvement since he hadn't played for 2 years and the history of his injury has a long recovery... I would expect 44% from 2 and 35% from 3... not star but rotation level player....
If you're talking about barely missing the playoffs, like the Lakers are about to due because of their injuries.....then you're right
no, I mean being on the Lakers level when they had healthy Lebron and AD...probably even better since we’re so ahead of the curve Cade - LeBron KPJr - Harden Wall - Schroeder Wood - AD Olynyk - prime Gasol Tate - Morris House - Kuzma Brooks - KCP that’s a super team roster by next year
once we get our 2 injury prone superstars Wall and EG healthy, we’ll be at the top of the West next season for sure
