If he gets traded he’s not going to win a title any time soon. I think he would go to a fringe playoff team looking to get in or a 6-8th seed looking to become a contender. In either case the team just wont have enough to win a title and will be too good to get a draft pick that can turn things around.
That said, lets look at some teams he could put over the top and why it just won’t work.
Toronto, they are set at both guard positions. They have shooters on their tem and really don’t need IT to come in and be the gunslinger he is here. Sure they could use him as a dominant 6th man, but for the price he’ll cost they wont do it. Besides that who on their team would they be willing to give up to get IT?
San Antonio, there was talk of them maybe wanting to move Aldridge and an IT Aldridge trade would suit me just fine. Really, if that trade went down and IT won a title it would probably be the first year and it would be playing against us. The way our team would look with that trade we’d be hard to beat and as the Brooklyn picks matured we’d be a serious force. But the hot talk right now is that they are looking at Chris Paul as a free agent and I think it’s going to happen, so IT to the Spurs is unlikely.
GSW, really if he went there Clay Thompson would be coming here so I’d be ok with that. But they are about to go through their own financial crisis with Durant saying he’ll give the team the champions discount to keep it together. IT is wanting to get paid and paid a lot, so I don’t see that as working out.
Cleveland, who would they give us, Love? I don’t see anything else that they would be willing to give up that we would want and a Hayward, Love, Horford front court is pretty nice. Plus I don’t see IT as being able to get enough shots to maintain that all star production. I do see a Fultz/Brown back court scoring at will over IT and if we loose to them it will be because of LeBron not IT.
Utah, I could see a sign and trade, IT for Hayward so we keep his bird rights. If we did this I still don’t see Utah getting passed the GSW, or San Antonio for that matter, so good luck with IT wining a title in Utah, even the Western conference Finals would be a stretch.
Washington has a great backcourt already and I would take Wall or Beal over IT any day. He’d have to come off the bench and while they could really use the bench scoring I don’t see them wanting to pay what he would want for him to be a 6th man, and really who would they give us in the trade that we’d even want? Morris, Gortot? Give us there best big or biggs to add to the incoming Zizic and 2018 big man pick, not that we’d want them but even if we did, they’ll have absolutely nothing up front and won’t be good enough to stop us from posting them up. We’d score in the paint all day against that team (see Zizic highlights
), so there’s no way they’ll get through us to get to a title if they make that trade.
Milwaukee, IT would be able to start there pushing Brogdon to the bench. They have a good up and coming team, but who would we get? Parker, he’d be a nice addition to our team and system and would make us a better team, Hayward, Parker, Horford, that’s a nice front court and a lot better than the Crowder, Amir, Horford line up we rolled out this year. Plus we’d still have Crowder on the bench and the 2018 Brooklyn pick for a big man. Now if they gave us Maker imagine a C/PF combo of Maker & Bamba/Ayton with Horfod and Zizic in that rotation. That could match up against the Embiid/Simmons duo that Philly is grooming. Even with the Greek Freak if we trade IT to Millwalkee for Parker or Maker we are the better team and IT will not even play for a championship.
Topic: If Thomas was traded and was perennial All NBA and won a title somewhere else.. (Read 3423 times)