Define competitive. Compete? Seems like they compete to me. They try hard every night, win or lose and isn't that competing? What is the nba definition of competing? Staying in games and making them close? Or winning most games? To me competing is staying in games and making them close. It sure seems like they are doing that to me?
How long are you content to be in rebuilding purgatory? It seems as if your plan is to trade all the experienced guys for ending contracts and picks, and play the young guys, no matter how many losses, until they figure out how to play at a competitive level. Not sure I have enough years before senility strikes left for that plan to work.
I don't think we should trade Ayton. I don't think we should trade Thybulle. I don't think we should trade Grant necessarily. I don't think we need a 30 year old point guard when we have three young guards who need the ball. I'm fine with rebuilding for this year and next year.
This team isn't good enough to be competitive for a playin or playoff spot even if we play our veterans 40 minutes per night. So giving up minutes that should go to our young guys just so we can keep a guy in his 30s and maybe snag a few extra wins is counter productive.
How do we know? We haven't seen this team healthy. We haven't seen this team's best configuration. It's clear now that a Simons/Brogdon backcourt would be at present our most NBA-capable starting pairing. Did they even spend any time on the court together in the first game? Even when Ant comes back, is Sharpe even healthy right now? Based on the way he's shot the past couple weeks (32/24/82 since 11/14), I doubt it. We don't know how this team might actually perform with its full roster. But I would venture to say that a Simons/Brogdon/Camara/Grant/Ayton starting lineup would absolutely be "competitive" game in and game out, and Scoot and Sharpe could still get plenty of valuable development time, even in reserve roles.
The idea that we don't get another blue chip prospect because we can possibly be a first round out this season is asinine. What in the actual fuck are we doing here? This is a rebuild... a youth rebuild. We should leverage Jerami and Malcolm for assets that will be at their most viable when Scoot and Shae are playoff series winning components. The good news is I think Joe is going to get the most he can for those guys and tank this one last season.
Looking at the last 2 games, with Scoot back and still no Anfernee Simons, how is it not a competitive team? With Scoot the team is 4-4. Is .500 not competitive to you?
If, as you state, this team isn't good enough to be competitive, even with its best players healthy, then whether or not we trade Grant and/or Brogdon will have little-to-no effect on the likelihood of procuring another blue-chip talent.
Not with you on Thybulle. He just does not seem to like it here or fit. I would pause on throwing three young guards into the deep end. Simons is still hurt, Sharpe looks hurt, and Henderson is looking pretty rough. This team has many players to develop and think we are going to be fighting for wins all season. Cronin and Billups have shown they can fire up the tank when necessary.
Agree. Like you said we don't know that for sure because we have yet to see them together, but once Ant is fully healthy, my gut says those 5 will fit well together. I think an argument could be made to start Sharpe instead of Camara, but me personally I would mix it up and give them both a chance to start depending on the opponent. Either way, Sharpe will get minutes at SG and SF.....they are not that different and Sharpe is proving to be a decent rebounder.
Thybulle has become a very good disruptor off the bench. In the last two games, when Thybulle and Scoot come in, scoreboard deficits have reversed. In the Milwaukee game that reversal turned into a huge lead.
Being competitive for the 8th or 9th spot isn’t being competitive. It means you’re mediocre and I don’t want to be mediocre right now. There’s no point. This is the time while Scoot and Shae and Camara are young and learning. This is when you give them minutes because you don’t care if you win or lose. I get that you guys want to win games because it makes you feel good, but the true goal for this season is to see what we have. We don’t need to see what Malcolm Brogdon is. We know what he is. The league knows what he is. Playing our vets a bunch of minutes so that we can steal a few wins is just pointless.
No, we'll be competitive enough to end up with our pick in the 7-10 range... I'd just much much rather have a pick around 1-3 and a bunch of other assets that we get in return for Grant and Brogdon that actually help our rebuild. The idea for me is that we are trying to be elite contenders in 4 or 5 seasons instead of being below average now and just above average then and for the foreseeable future.
It's more than just pointless it's counterproductive. It means less experience for the guys we're trying to build around and it means diminishing draft returns. I do not mind playing Jerami and Malcolm a bunch right now because they're proving to the rest of the league to be very very effective starters. I don't mind featuring them to increase trade value even if it means a few less wins because we've shown that this team knows how to tank. I think we'll likely have about seven to ten more wins between now and the trade deadline and that should give us plenty of room to end up as a bottom 3 team with a handful of other assets that make sense with Shae and Scoot from trading Jerami and Malcolm.
Anthony Edwards' team never went for the tank after drafting him. They did give away a lot in the win-now trade for Gobert, which is the opposite of what the Tankers want. Now that team is in first place in the Western Conference with a 13-4 record. Compare Anthony Edwards story to Cade Cunningham, another #1 pick. Cade is a talented, big point guard playing for a dumpster fire.
Riiight... you left out the part about Anthony Edwards being drafted by a team with an established all-nba player. That being said what we want as fans doesn't matter. I think Joe has shown his commitment to attaining very high draft picks the last two seasons, there is no reason to think that commitment is about to wane after we gave up our franchise player. I guess we'll see in a couple months but my guess based on everything Joe has done since becoming GM is that because win now players are more valuable to win now teams than they are to a team rebuilding, our win now guys who aren't really young (Jerami and Malcolm) will be gone because they have more value elsewhere.
