I can't help but feel that if we had a hall-of-fame coach, and everyone was healthy, we could be a play-in team with the roster we have (although we could stand to trade a couple of forwards and a center for another guard). PG: Anfernee, Scoot SG: Shaedon, Dalano F: Jerami, Deni, Matisse, Toumani, Jabari, Kris, Rayman C: Deandre, Donovan, Timelord, Duop But we don't want that... do we? We want to tank for at least a top 5 pick to get a start. So are we going to invent injuries again? Play well in the first third of the season just to showcase our vets and pump up their value before trading them all?
I voted for “actually try to win”, however what you said I think we will do. I don’t think we are clearly tanking, by any means. We also aren’t in the pits of hell. We have a lot of good young talent. It’s just a matter of developing to it and continuing to add. I really like where we’re at. I wish the fan base wasn’t so spoiled with so many years of making the playoffs, at the moment… we should truly appreciate this part of the development process.
What are the 5 west teams you'd rank below us? I see Utah and maybe the Spurs - thats it. East has a lot of bad teams so we could make the playin there but the west is much more difficult.
I'd like to see us trade all our vets for whatever we can and commit hard to the long term, including improving our pick to a great pick in this epically strong draft. I'd settle for less value to get deals done in the next few weeks. Once we've traded two of Grant/Simons/Ayton I'm fine holding out for more from the last one as its fine having one of those guys on the roster but I'd prefer not to have two and certainly don't want all three. Vet leadership can be replaced with players that have less short term worth and come back to us in trades, while gaining us a long term asset. Second favorite option (distant second) is trading for some more vets and making a legit run to win now. I'd probably target bringing in Garland with Scoot going out as well as a vet going out, plus target a better vet coming in likely costing picks (Markannan, etc). The west is very deep to even 11 teams but I think if we had a roster like that it could beat out most the old declining teams like PHX/LAC/LAL/GS etc and legit make the playoffs only clearly behind the contenders of OKC/DAL/MIN/DEN. Least favorite option is continuing with this roster as is. Our team holding onto all these win now vets (like we did with Timelord last year that backfired) and not featuring enough youth to get a great pick in an epically strong draft after we had the 3rd worst record in an epically weak draft is infuriating. We have no shot to compete for anything meaningful as is this season. Will be so disappointing if we continue as is with this dual timelines indecisiveness. Also I'm so sick of the Gleague starting lineups after the trade deadline - we need a roster that can get a good pick but try to maximize all the youth and best players on the roster while doing that.
Its easy to stare at our roster so hard you start to convince yourself its better than it is or can get close to .500 ball. The NBA is just deeper with more parity than it was decades ago so even the bad teams have multiple respectable starters. But we need to look at our roster compared to other west teams. As is our roster is behind all contenders of OKC/DAL/MIN/DEN Also behind MEM/HOU/SAC/NOP who all seem likely to improve We are also behind old vet teams of PHX/LAL/GS/LAC Utah is only team clearly behind us and maybe SAS so that puts us at 13th/14th in the west. Wemby might legit be the MVP of the league next season so you can't completely count them out of the playin either. So as is we are clearly not in the playin even if a couple of the above teams underperform or have injuries.
Full rebuild. Move Ant, Grant, Thybulle and Timelord. Get picks, journeyman players on short contracts, cap space and play the young players to win every game possible.
Our success really comes down to two players (Scoot and Sharpe). If they make huge strides and become border line all stars then we become borderline playoff team. That’s also assuming they stay healthy. Our secondary pieces are pretty decent Ayton Grant Dani Simons
There's also the problem that Scoot and Sharpe may turn out to be mediocre at best. That would set back any rebuild years.
Legit possibility. If so we may need to stay in the lottery a bit longer until we get multiple good young starters. With either path (ScootSharpe turn out good or turn out mediocre) its much better to get a great draft pick this year. That is the most likely path to eventually contend. A star can either be the last piece to join ScootSharpe and contend soon or be the first key piece of a group that gets completed a few years later to contend. Standing pat with this roster as is makes zero sense with either path though.
Here is my "guess" to the lane Joe is in. He wants to add quality players and increase assets. Not shotgun a quantity of new potential, and see if anything sticks. Joe is no longer in the position that he has to make a trade. He is dealing from position of strength, and will only make a trade that improves the roster. Plus this stratagy gives Joe time to see how the new players workout and fit, while giving the young core time to develop.
How many threads are you guys a going to make about this? It’s getting old, you guys are just discussing the same thing in different threads over and over. must be a slow summer for you guys
Joe is in the talent acquisition lane. The people that clamor for the vets removal at all cost (i.e. reducing talent) want another lane and mistake it for indecisiveness.
My prediction is that Joe makes one small deal this summer. Something involving Matisse seems likely. Simons, Grant and maybe Ayton are assets Joe wants solid return value for. If any of those guys are going to get moved it’s most likely to happen near the deadline. Joe’s proven that he can drive a tank. He’ll let things play out as they will early on, but unless there is a solid chance for a playoff run, he’ll fire up the tank at the end of the season, just like he did last year.
If you ain't doing noise in the playoffs with the roster you have (and let me spare you the suspense, that's us) tank for flagg. There's no other options or discussions fo be had.
So very true and all the more reason to move on from Ant, Grant, Thybulle and Williams. But I am confident that Scoot and Sharpe will prove out their talent this season.
Isn't this topic already being discussed here? http://www.sportstwo.com/threads/are-we-still-tanking.384070/
