Do the Hawks have the brightest future of any team?

[Donoghus]

OKC is the correct answer.  Paul is 34, Gallinari is 31, but no one else (of note) is above 26 and they are the 5th seed in the West.  They have a real potential star in SGA.  But the real reason it is them is the plethora of future draft picks they own.  That gives them so much trading and drafting flexibility and several of the picks are so far in the future they are bound to hit on one or two.

I'd take one MVP caliber player under 25 on my roster over any number of draft picks.

Something...something....bird in the hand.

[Moranis]

OKC is the correct answer.  Paul is 34, Gallinari is 31, but no one else (of note) is above 26 and they are the 5th seed in the West.  They have a real potential star in SGA.  But the real reason it is them is the plethora of future draft picks they own.  That gives them so much trading and drafting flexibility and several of the picks are so far in the future they are bound to hit on one or two.

I'd take one MVP caliber player under 25 on my roster over any number of draft picks.

They have one of those and I specifically mentioned him.  He is 21 in his 2nd year.  He is averaging 19/6/3 with a steal and rarely turns it over with a TS% of 56.6.  You know all significantly better numbers than Tatum had in his 2nd year.  Also much better advanced stats (i.e. WS, BPM, VORP, etc.) than Tatum in year 2 also. 

[footey]

Dallas >>> everybody else

If I had to pick one player to build my team around, I'd pick Luka and it's not even close. Him and KP are hands down the best young duo in the league. I believe the Mavs were a dark horse to make some serious noise in the playoffs this season. I bet they'll win a championship in the next 2-3 years. Luka is that good. Imo, he's a GOAT candidate in the making.

Btw, I'm not a fan of Trae's game. Stats mean nothing, unless you are helping your team win games. All I see in Trae's case is empty stats.

I'm biased, but prefer Tatum and Brown to Luka and Porzingis. 

[footey]

OKC is the correct answer.  Paul is 34, Gallinari is 31, but no one else (of note) is above 26 and they are the 5th seed in the West.  They have a real potential star in SGA.  But the real reason it is them is the plethora of future draft picks they own.  That gives them so much trading and drafting flexibility and several of the picks are so far in the future they are bound to hit on one or two.

I'd take one MVP caliber player under 25 on my roster over any number of draft picks.

They have one of those and I specifically mentioned him.  He is 21 in his 2nd year.  He is averaging 19/6/3 with a steal and rarely turns it over with a TS% of 56.6.  You know all significantly better numbers than Tatum had in his 2nd year.  Also much better advanced stats (i.e. WS, BPM, VORP, etc.) than Tatum in year 2 also.

Wow, SGA is now MVP caliber player according to Moranis. LOL.

[PhoSita]

OKC is the correct answer.  Paul is 34, Gallinari is 31, but no one else (of note) is above 26 and they are the 5th seed in the West.  They have a real potential star in SGA.  But the real reason it is them is the plethora of future draft picks they own.  That gives them so much trading and drafting flexibility and several of the picks are so far in the future they are bound to hit on one or two.

I'd take one MVP caliber player under 25 on my roster over any number of draft picks.

They have one of those and I specifically mentioned him.  He is 21 in his 2nd year.  He is averaging 19/6/3 with a steal and rarely turns it over with a TS% of 56.6.  You know all significantly better numbers than Tatum had in his 2nd year.  Also much better advanced stats (i.e. WS, BPM, VORP, etc.) than Tatum in year 2 also.

SGA would have to make an enormous leap to become an MVP caliber player.


Luka is basically already there.

[GreenEnvy]

Don't see the Trae/Steph comparison to be honest.

And also don't see Atlanta as the brightest future, and it's not even close. Very rarely do you see a PG be the best player on a championship squad (Curry however is one of the few in 2015, but didn't win Finals MVP, for what it's worth). Luka can certainly be, but he's more in the mold of Magic Johnson and Trae is more Curry/Nash/Paul/etc.

I'd take teams like (in no particular order) Boston's, New Orleans', and Milwaukee's futures over theirs.

[RockinRyA]

OKC is the correct answer.  Paul is 34, Gallinari is 31, but no one else (of note) is above 26 and they are the 5th seed in the West.  They have a real potential star in SGA.  But the real reason it is them is the plethora of future draft picks they own.  That gives them so much trading and drafting flexibility and several of the picks are so far in the future they are bound to hit on one or two.

I'd take one MVP caliber player under 25 on my roster over any number of draft picks.

They have one of those and I specifically mentioned him.  He is 21 in his 2nd year.  He is averaging 19/6/3 with a steal and rarely turns it over with a TS% of 56.6.  You know all significantly better numbers than Tatum had in his 2nd year.  Also much better advanced stats (i.e. WS, BPM, VORP, etc.) than Tatum in year 2 also.

Wow, SGA is now MVP caliber player according to Moranis. LOL.

What do you expect from someone who basically said Steve Nash is a better defender than Deshawn Stevenson?

[Moranis]

OKC is the correct answer.  Paul is 34, Gallinari is 31, but no one else (of note) is above 26 and they are the 5th seed in the West.  They have a real potential star in SGA.  But the real reason it is them is the plethora of future draft picks they own.  That gives them so much trading and drafting flexibility and several of the picks are so far in the future they are bound to hit on one or two.

I'd take one MVP caliber player under 25 on my roster over any number of draft picks.

They have one of those and I specifically mentioned him.  He is 21 in his 2nd year.  He is averaging 19/6/3 with a steal and rarely turns it over with a TS% of 56.6.  You know all significantly better numbers than Tatum had in his 2nd year.  Also much better advanced stats (i.e. WS, BPM, VORP, etc.) than Tatum in year 2 also.

SGA would have to make an enormous leap to become an MVP caliber player.


Luka is basically already there.

Oh no question, Luka is already there, but the Mavs have no where near the flexibility of the Thunder going forward and have a ton of money locked up for a long time in the Zinger, and I just don't trust his health.  Now if they don't do anything crazy they should have some cap room in the next year or two to add another piece to Luka, but there is a lot of risk in relying on that route.

As for SGA, he took a huge leap from his rookie year to this year.  And it was just last summer where national writers were putting SGA in the same tier as an asset to Tatum.  They both took leaps this year, but SGA is a year less service and had a significantly better year than Tatum did in his 2nd year.

EDIT: Like this article from last summer regarding AD trade assets.  https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2019/05/top-25-assets-among-presumed-anthony-davis-contenders.html  or this one from a Pelicans site doing the same sort of analysis https://www.thebirdwrites.com/2019/6/14/18679083/anthony-davis-nba-trade-ranking-assets-tatum-shai-lonzo-kuzma-ingram-pelicans-lakers-celtics-knicks

And let me be clear, I'd rather have Tatum than SGA.  I think he has a higher ceiling and is more likely to reach it than SGA, but SGA is absolutely a potential MVP candidate down the line.  He is a superb all around player and spent a lot of time playing SF this year and doing it quite well after basically being a PG as a rookie.  Put him with a very young team and a gigantic treasure trove of future 1st round picks, and I think the Thunder top the list of bright futures.

[Somebody]

I don't think that SGA had a better year than Tatum in his second season. SGA tops Tatum in box metrics, but that is mainly due to role: SGA is OKC's secondary ballhandler in the starting lineup and gets to make on-ball plays considerably more than Tatum, which will pump up box-based metrics as long as his efficiency isn't poor. Tatum also has a significant edge on defence, which is captured in non-box metrics such as RAPM (albeit NPI, although it still holds true in multiyear samples that are much more reliable), which has him ranked 12th in multiyear defensive RAPM from 2017-2020 while Shai is ranked quite low, which makes sense given that Shai is an alright man defender but a problematic team defender. I think Shai is in a similar range compared to Tatum in his sophomore season: both are top 50ish players.

As for the potential of both players, I think Moranis is spot on regarding who has the higher ceiling even though I don't think either player has clear MVP potential, maybe Tatum has a shot but I don't see it for Shai.