Yeah, I'd do two of Vonleh, Plumlee and Aminu along with CLEs 1st and maybe another pick. Could start Davis and Gasol.
Here's the thing, if we could trade for Gasol, we should still have enough cap space left to sign someone to play the four. It sucks because there are a lot of free agent centers this summer, but not many power forwards.
Yeah it's a gamble. I think Gasol would do a lot better on offense would guys like Dame and CJ, guys who he's never had his whole career.
Honestly, I would just take their entire frontcourt. Gasol and ZBO. Package deal. Quote us a price Memphis.
Marc Gasol is nearly a year older than Dwight fwiw. He also has 4 yrs/ $90 mil left on his contract coming off a year in which he just missed 30 games and the playoffs.
All this talk of Dwight and Marc might just be moot. One thing that Neil has repeatedly stressed is that he wants to get guys on Dame's "career arc." Neither Dwight nor Marc (nor Horford for that matter) fit that underlying, central criteria. Think we're better off looking at Whiteside/Sanders and the lot.
I agree that he has talked about Dame's career arc, but honestly I think that's a bad way to look at things. A good team has a mix of veterans and young guys. The Warriors have Curry/Green/Klay but they also have Livingston/Iggy/Bogut. The Spurs have had Kawhi/Green/Patty to go with Parker/Manu/Duncan. Cavs have LeBron and JR Smith to go with Kyrie and Love. Trying to build a contender with a bunch of dudes who are all young is difficult to do and unrealistic. It's good to have a few older guys who have been there, done that. Guys who are hungry for a championship. If you keep Dame/CJ/Crabbe/Harkless/Davis, but you add (hypothetically) Gasol/Randolph, you've got a young core of guys but you also have a couple proven vets who can get shit done. Dame CJ Harkless or Aminu Randolph Gasol That's a serious contender. The only unreliable scorer in that lineup would be Harkless. I could live with that.
I think we should stick to Dame's career arc but there would be something sweet about Randolph coming back to Portland to win a championship.
Name one champion in the last 20 years who had every single core player in the same age bracket? It just doesn't make sense. I guess if you go with an all-old man veteran team, you can get it done, but even Boston had a couple of younger guys in Rondo and Perkins and Tony Allen.
That place is the worst... They may have a better ball knowledge than clutchfans but disrespect/bad human being wise they take the cake.
The 91-93 Bulls team was basically the same team for several years. That's what I'd like to do. Get a set lineup and grow together. I'm not opposed to bringing back our exact same starting lineup next season. In 2-3 years, Dame/CJ/Aminu/Harkless/Plumlee will be a veteran team in their prime with a lot of playoff experience together. Now, if Durant and/or Horford are available, we can talk, but I say stick with what he have. Especially since Plumlee was the best player in the Clippers series and Aminu is turning out to be the real deal who has not reached his ceiling.