Going into this season I felt that every one of our starters were just place holders for the real starter to come latter. We should be in that middle of the pack nightmare where you’re not good enough to contend but too good to get a great pick. Except that we are contending, at least as well as any team could reasonably be expected to against LeBron and Golden State. Not only that we are most likely going to get a top two pick this year, but even if its # 3 or 4 that is a major coup for a team currently 3 games out of the top sport in the east. On top of that we are almost guaranteed another top 5 pick next year.
I really don’t think we will trade either Brooklyn pick. I believe that ownership is looking for that player that can carry a team for a decade and picking in the top 5 is the best way to get that player. Does anyone really think if we gave up Smart and Crowder and replaced them with Butler that we would be significantly better? I think we still have a tough fight against Toronto (probably lose) and still no chance at Cleveland. Plus we would miss out on Fultz or Ball (Danny sat court side at their match up, FYI).
Really if a lot of fans on this board were GMs we would have traded those picks as soon as we got them for Gortot or Hibbert (there was so much interest at one point). Trading for George would be great until he jumps ship for LA. Then it would be a trade we got punked on, because we’d still have no NBA title. Truth be told it appears we are really trying to build our roster to be the team that steps up next. There are some teams that look like that can really dominate in a few years: Minnesota, Philly, Milwaukee, and now New Orleans. Sure IT and Horford have shorter windows than Smart and Brown, but if we keep Smart and Brown, when they’re ready they’ll be joined by two more top 5 picks. Also we have the ability to max out another free agent this summer. If we get Hayward that is really big. It’s not just Hayward, but Hayward backed up by Crowder making for a strong bench.
PG13 already fell short with a really good Pacers team and Butler likewise came up short with a really good Bulls team. We need a true transcendent talent and maybe ball or Fultz is that guy, but we already know that both Butler and George as good as they are, they’re not transcendent.
Let’s say we get Hayward as a FA and the Brooklyn picks step up as starters (they earn it) and IT stays and accepts a bench role. Then we could have this in 2018.
Starters
PG: Fultz/Ball (2017 BKN pick)
SG: Brown
SF: Hayward
PF: Horford
C: DeAndre Ayton/ Mohamed Bamba (2018 BKN)
Bench
PG: IT
SG: Smart
SF: Crowder
PF: KO
C: Zizic
Sure the roster could look different and we could have IT starting with Fultz at SG and Brown at SF and no Hayward, but that would still be really good.
Maybe we go in to 2018 like this:
PG: IT/Smart
SG: Fultz/Rozier
SF: Brown/Crowder
PF: Horford/KO
C: Zizic/Mohamed Bamba
The point is not making a trade doesn’t hurt us at all. Keeping our picks and key role players like Smart and Crowder let us have a devastating bench and a really strong starting 5.
Doing nothing and just drafting the Brooklyn picks will make us much better, much faster than had we traded for Butler or George.
