Just when we thought that Olshey choked in FA, he works his magic to keep our in house core. Always a good rule of thumb to work on your own guys. If you look at it as a whole and not just the Turner overpay then all balanced out cause Harkless, Leonard and Festus seem bargains.
OK, now we need to wait for some small team to blow it up and look for a trade. Anyone else smells a Millsap?
Dame was not our pick. We got him...through a trade. Cj was our pick but we still had LMA, Wes, Nic and Dame on the team. We did not "blow it up" to get into the lottery. I do think the draft is very important to the stability of a franchise. I just think there is a better strategy to get better than blowing the team up. You can find quality draft picks outside the lottery. Teams like the Lakers might get away with it because they do have a history of landing big free agents to help with the process. (once the team gets better.) But we can't afford to suck for 5 years in a row. With either strategy you have to get lucky. I just prefer this strategy better.
I'm not sure what the % is, but my guess is 95% of teams playing for a title are doing so because they they stunk and were able to draft great players. MOST of those great players come from high lottery picks. I think you have it backwards. Teams like LA have been able to sign guys. Teams like OKC need to draft them
I wouldn't' call a team with Dwight Howard small. I think the Blazers target Nikola Vucevic or Tyson Chandler using some combo of Davis/Aminu/Noah/Picks.
You make it sound like there's a recipe to be followed by small market teams trying to compete for a title: suck for a number of years, get high draft picks, and pray that they develop quickly so you can win a title before you lose them to other teams after 7 or 8 years. Most teams making high lottery picks never sniff a championship. Most high lottery picks don't pan out to be great players. Sometimes lower picks become great players. The Warriors won a title with a No. 7 pick (Curry), a No. 11 pick (Thompson) and a No. 35 pick (Green). The Blazers have Dame (No. 6 pick), Aminu (No. 8), CJ (No. 10 pick) and a whole boat-load of other mid-lottery talent. Will it be enough to do more than be a perennial playoff team that never wins a title, or will Olshey be able to parlay the pieces he has now into something even stronger? I don't know, but I think there's every bit as great of a chance that it will work out as if he were to dump everything in the hopes of getting that one great player in a future draft.
If you trade for a pick, it's then your pick....it doesn't matter how you acquired the pick...you choose who to take on draft day with that pick..the Nets didn't draft Lillard for Portland...Olshey drafted Lillard with an acquired pick...that makes it our pick
And OKC still never won it, and their stars are leaving. I think the Warriors are similar to us. Their two stars came from the 7th pick and the 11th pick. Similar to Dame and CJ. But their 3rd star and the player who made the team excel..... was a 2nd round pick. People hate on Green, but without his unique skill set, they are still good, but not champions. I never said stars don't come from the draft. On the contrary you have to keep your picks and draft wisely. I just don't agree with those who favor getting really bad in order to get really good. Of course SA was the exception because they tanked because of an injury. They still had their star the next year......plus the #1 pick. I am not opposed to a one year tank, it's the cleaning house approach that can kill a franchise for years.
Stability is the name of the game...the Spurs have proven that ...starts with coaching staff. Gerald Henderson played for half a dozen coaches in 5 years and new teammates every season...so Charlotte never really made noise in the post season even with talent upgrades. Keeping a core and system intact has been a real key to success. I think Olshey has patterned his moves with this in mind.
But you are not tanking in the process. SA traded for Leonard......did they tank? The topic is how you get Stars. Trading to get a good draft is preferred, blowing the team up to get one....is not. Again you don't have to get really bad to get really good. You just need to be smart, and a little lucky. Kind of like the Lakers getting Kobe.