If anything this game tells me not to deal for Cousins
LeBron>Cousins
Irving>IT
Love>Horford
Smart, Brown, Crowder, Jerekbo, Zeller combo killed it. Build around
Smart, Brown, and Crowder. Trade IT for Parker. Trade AB for another top 10 pick this draft. And keep building through the draft.
I wouldn't trade Ab but your thinking is sound. Smart, Brown, Crowder, Jerekbo, Zeller did kill it and that's the good news if Brad repeats the combo in future. Smart, Brown, AB are your building blocks. Isn't AB just 25 and improving every year. He's also not undersized playing between Brown and Smart where he can defend point guards like he should be.
I think there are a lot of positives to building (primarily) through the draft, but here's where I question that strategy: You need superstars to win in today's NBA, and of all the guys you mentioned, Brown is the only one who, in my view, still has the potential to become a superstar (emphasis on
potential; I think the odds of that happening are very small).
Let's say Boston doesn't cash in assets in a trade for a superstar; let's also say Boston signs no superstar free agent anytime soon (mainly because that market is pretty thin over the next few years, with most of the big-time FAs likely to stay with their current teams). That means Boston's best shot at landing a superstar (or two) is through the draft, but that's a crapshoot. Boston
should end up with a top-five pick in the next draft, and maybe the one after that too, but a top-5 pick doesn't guarantee a superstar; heck, a No. 1 pick doesn't guarantee a superstar. And even if Boston
does grab a superstar or two through the draft, that won't all materialize into something significant until probably 4 or 5 years from now, maybe longer.
That's a lot of
ifs and
maybes, and seems to have the lowest odds of working out, given that it's based on unknowns instead of proven players. Is that route really the way to go?