I would have no problem trading the 2018 Nets pick, Zeller, Smart and Rozier for Butler. Draft Fultz. Trade Bradley for a future 1st. Sign Hayward. Re-Sign KO. Sign Jerebko using Room exception. Sign Amir to vet min
IT/Fultz
Butler/Brown
Hayward/Brown/Nader
Horford/Jerebko
KO/Amir/Zizic
I would. This team still can't compete with these Warriors and you may be giving up a number 1 pick in 2018, where it seems there are franchise-altering bigs.
So basically you want to kick the can down the road 5 or 6 years and hope to death you get lucky and that all this youth develops into superstars. I say the above team could compete with Cleveland and GSW. It might take those teams having an injury to beat them or maybe one of those teams has some below expected play...like Miami versus Dallas. But I would definitely give up a super young undeveloped teenager for Butler to try to win now and later.
I say it couldn't. I can reluctantly accept you can bring the Cavs into seven games in two years (slightly worse LeBron) if you can afford that after extending IT, but you can't compete with Curry, Klay, Draymond and Durant.
You are certainly not the only one think/feel this way, but I have to say I find it absolutely abhorrent. It's the most defeatist, lame, noncompetitive mindset. To just throw your hands up and say, "no mas", really bothers me as a fan. I can't condone this type of mindset, and I pray Danny Ainge doesn't think this way.
Personally, I'd prefer to trade for Paul George. To me he's a better player than Jimmy Butler. I think PG absolutely puts us in the conversation with Cleveland. As for GSW, we'll see what happens with that team and what the roster looks like next year. Their bench is getting older and it is going to put an enormous amount of pressure on the starters eventually.
I would absolutely not trade the 2017 #1 pick though. I wouldn't trade that pick for anyone that would realistically be available.
Having an accurate appraisal of your team vs. the competition is an important part of Ainge's job. If he thinks making a deal for George or Butler will not improve the team enough to win a title, he won't make the deal since the asset cost will likely be great. You may have a rosier outlook than others about this team's potential in the near future, but that's an opinion. If others don't share the same opinion, why is it "defeatist"?
Golden State is being compared to the greatest teams in history. It's not a crazy opinion to think that there isn't any one move out there that can make us competitive with them, and we're not even competitive with the Cavs yet. How quickly we forget that they pasted us in the ECF.
Lets stop lumping Cleveland in with Golden State as some team we can't beat with another superstar. We are already witnessing the decline of Lebron this finals. He is still a great player, you can see his lateral speed is already declining slightly. This is only going to get faster. The rest of the Cavs players are starting to fossilize before our eyes.
Smith is completely cooked and they are on the hook for him for many more years.
Korver can't guard a chair and probably won't be back
Deron Williams is Done
Frye is 34
Jefferson will almost certainly retire
With their massive contract commitments to other players it will be tough for them to replace all of these guys (they will get a few vet mins that want to play with Lebron, but not 5-6). Worse still, not a single player on their team is projected to still be getting better. They have traded and cut so many first round picks and rookies the last few years (or spent roster spots on Lebron's entourage like James Jones), that they have no internal development happening. The beginning of the end for that core in Cleveland has already begun.