Yikes! People are insisting Kanter >= Drummond?
Look, I get the whole overrating your own but really? Makes me think that if we had drafted Wiggins, people here would balk at trading Wiggins for Tatum.
Not seriously - pretty obvious tongue in cheek. But Kanter for $5m without having to trade anything is better than Drummond for 5 times that, where we’d have to trade our most well-rounder offensive player.
But I don’t even see the arguments talking about salary. I’m seeing the whole “we don’t need Drummond because Kanter is just as good, if not even better in limited minutes. Imagine what he could do with more!”
Like, there’s a reason Kanter doesn’t get huge minutes.
Well, we don’t need to needlessly give up Hayward for a guy that doesn’t offer much more than Kanter does (better defence, including rebounding, but less offensively talented) is probably what I would interpret as the argument.
Mmm, then it‘s sounding like my Wiggins-Tatum analogy then.
Tatum is clearly better, but someone drinking the kool aid (assuming Wiggins was drafted by the C’s and Tatum wasn’t) will say Tatum doesn’t offer much more than Wiggins (better defense, but less offensively efficient). Of course, we don’t think that now because Tatum is objectively a better player and a fan favorite.
Going off on a tangent, I mean, how many people on here were pushing hard for the C’s to sign or trade for Kemba in the past few years? What was the board’s general consensus on Kemba circa Dec/Jan 2019? How about late 2018? I imagine the popular opinion here was that he was a nice guy, a high volume scorer who doesn’t really know how to pass, a guy who needs the ball in his hands to be effective, and maybe someone who couldn’t they see as the best player on a championship squad. Probably a solid #2 guy
Anyway, I digress. Here’s an interesting POV which I haven’t seen get brought up: whose Bird rights would people rather have? Drummond or Hayward?
We’re paying Tatum next offseason, this is obvious. Hayward may or may not opt in. If he doesn’t, do we let Hayward walk (Horford-style) or do we pay Hayward big money? Should we lock ourselves into this fearsome foursome + Smart long term?
Psst. Even in this, Wiggins "premier" offensive year, look at the comparison:
Wiggins 23.6ppg, 5.2rpg, 3.3apg, 2.5 topg on 44/32/75 shooting splits.
Tatum 21.3ppg, 6.9rpg, 2.9apg, 2.1topg on 43/36/86 shooting splits.
Tatum is still growing as an offensive talent. Wiggins is pretty plateaued.
Tatum is a much better defender. Wiggins has taken a step forward, but he has yet to play a meaningful minute in the NBA and doesn't really contribute to winning. Tatum does.
In this hypothetical, here’s what would have been different:
1. Wiggins is a Celtic, which means there’s no way anyone here would think he has plateaued at 23/24 years old
2. Tatum wouldn’t have been a Celtic, and if he ended up let’s say in a place like Detroit, we would be saying he hasn’t played a “meaningful minute in the NBA” either.
My point in this comparison is that:
1) Tatum is clearly better than Wiggins even if statistically, it looks close.
2) Drummond is clearly better than Kanter and yet people here seem quite insistent that since statistically they look close (enough), then they must be similar players.