I'm not trying to force anyone to change their minds or anything like that and I'm not targeting anyone, BUT I'm wondering what people think when they support the idea of trading Isaiah Thomas for "good value". Like WHAT do they want/expect in return?
The most common sentiment around here it seems is, "We need to trade IT this summer because his value will never be higher".
The problem with that is, no way trading IT gets us a Westbrook or Lilliard back in return. That's what people act like we will get in an IT return.
And are we seriously considering trading Isaiah Thomas for a 2017 First Rounder and maybe a future pick or role player? Really???
Also Isaiah becomes an expiring next season, so no way he fetches that much value anyways.
Trading away IT is the equivalent of WAS trading away Beal, or TOR trading away either DeRozan/Lowry. Those teams aren't legit final contenders either, so shouldn't they trade away their stars as well and try again?
Without him, lets be honest, this is a lottery team that would struggle to be at .500 for the season.
"Take one step back, two steps forward" might sound nice, but ultimately you turn a #2 seed into a lottery team, and then if, god forbid, the next few picks DON'T become legit scorers like IT and his 29 PPG is, then this team will continue to be a rebuilding team for YEARS to come (even more than 4-5+ years).
My preference is to keep all of Smart/Bradley/IT and pay a big luxury tax to field a contender, but if we were to trade anyone I'd trade Bradley for some moderate front court help and keep Smart (makes winning plays) and IT (legit scorer - we don't have another).