TheStig wrote:DASMACKDOWN wrote:TheStig wrote:Underrated Candidate for worst GM: Elton Brand
He's completely squandering the process. He had a full war chest of extra picks, young players and young stars. He's literally traded almost every pick, young player (outside of Embid and Simmons) and asset they've had for basically a rental of Butler and Tobias Harris. He didn't pay Jimmy after trading for him and a strong playoff performance. He signed another center to huge money in a old Hortford. He has basically traded a huge amount of assets and payed Tobias Harris an obscene amount of money. He traded away Fultz for nothing who has only become better after. He has two stars that don't work well together and couldn't put around the one thing to help in shooting around them.
Somehow I never hit send on my original post.
The real key mistake was that the team should have been Embiid, Simmons and Jimmy. Those 3 are the true scary pieces. They could have just built around those 3 and been fantastic every year. I think Brand was suckered into "Oh but what about the shooting?"
There is no way in the world anyone would think Tobias Harris is a better player than Jimmy Butler. Even if you thought Tobias could shoot it better, the other intangibles Jimmy brings trumps it significantly.
So to me that was the single egregious move Brand did that started the downward trend.
But also Brand double downed on his mistake by locking in all his remaining assets for Horford. That was a Gar move. All because Horford played well against Embiid in the past doesnt mean he will also make a good teammate.
Embiid and Horford couldnt play together. Horford these days is certainly a 5. An undersized 5 but still a 5. Having them both out there, gave vibe of Joakim and Gasol. That combo never worked and never could.
Now mind you, I didnt say the team was trash. Its certainly not. It just has to play to his optimal level. What they are hoping for is another coach can crack the code and bring them to a true title contender. But if they come out of the gate slow next year or still have the same problems, I think then we will see a big influx of trade rumors for Ben and Embiid.
If I were the Bulls I would go hard for Ben. I Know he cant or does shoot jumpers, but he is such a unique talent that you cannot match up with him. Too big for the guards, too quick for the bigs. I just really think you could build a beautiful team around him.
I liked the acquisition of Jimmy too. The guy I would have gone after was a small ball 4 like Gallo with that money and kept Reddick too. Then you'd just be looking for a PG but you would have had some good shooting around your big 3.
I never got putting all your eggs in one basket for Harris. He'd been passed around the league and no one wanted to keep him. And then they give him the max. And as you said, double down with Hortford.
I guess I see it differently when they traded for Harris and where they are now. I believe Brand/76ers ownership is leaning on building around Simmons with the Harris trade.
* Butler price in a trade was relatively cheap for a player of his level.
* Butler played 3rd fiddle in Philly except in the 4th, basically marginalizing him for 3 quarters.
* Since Butler wasn't being utilized well with Simmons and Embiid it was decided long term to add Harris and being ready to retool the roster around Simmons but they'd give it another year with Simmons and Embiid.
* 2nd round of the playoffs B.Brown finally goes to Butler as the main ball handler and they lose to the eventual champs in game 7 on the road.
* Even though they saw they had a championship level team they really couldn't pay everyone big money(Butler, Harris, Redick) and since they gave up so much for Harris, they decided to stick with him vs him being an expensive rental.
* If you look at the acquisitions in the last year for Philly, long term of adding Harris and Horford those 2 are nearly they are the right type of C and PF for a pace and space team built around Simmons while letting Butler and Redick go who were the right type of players for Embiid. Redick and Embiid had a great 2 man game and Butler is the type of wing(defensive, triple threat) to go with him for the end of games.
I don't expect Embiid to be in Philly for the next 2 seasons, I think they go all out on building around Simmons and although Philly won't get 1:1 value for Embiid, they'll have picked a path and become a better team because of it.
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