Don't see why people would suggest trading Rozier this offseason for a 2017 draft pick. Next year this is a contending team. They will need all the great players they can get to win a title, Rozier included. And since we own him on cheap money and can match or sign and trade him the following year, you keep him for the title run.
We are no longer in the development stage of bringing more and more rookies on board to develop. We are developing a ton of players right now. This team doesn't need to try to develop another in a contending year by giving up a possible 6th Man of the Year candidate.
BTW, trading Kyrie because we have Rozier is just silly talk.
The reason is Gordon Hayward is back next year, and he's taking 32 minutes from someone. Irving, Brown and Tatum aren't giving up any. Unless we run into another rash of injuries, either Smart or Rozier is barely going to play next year. The likelihood is that keeping both Smart and Rozier means devaluing one of them.
There are 5 outstanding centers/power forwards at the top of this year's draft. It's a truly unique opportunity to get an young athletic two-way big, which is the last piece we need to secure for the long term.
The top two, Ayton and Bagley, are not advanced defensively, but the other three, Bamba, Jackson and Carter, are excellent defenders and rim protectors. We are more likely to get a shot at one of those three, and any of them would probably be a foundational player.
In 2019, it does not look right now like there are any elite bigs.
