The treadmill of losing: what if LeBron didn't come back?
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:22 pm
Fans fear the treadmill of mediocrity and enjoy getting lottery picks because of the hope they bring each season, but you have to come out of a rebuild or tank job with a core and that core generally needs to be pushed to the level of contention with some signings or trades to work-out fit and add veterans to fill holes and help the team learn how to win.
So, let's revisit 2014 for a moment, and ponder whether that team could have been pushed in to contention if LeBron didn't return.
Let's take a look post-lottery but we can assume Kyrie will be willing to re-sign for the max and anything else our future knowledge grants us.
Our roster looked something like this:
Kyrie, Jack, Delly
Dion, Joe Harris
(Wiggins), Sergey Karasev
Tristan, Bennett
Andy, Zeller
There's some others who might had stuck around if James didn't return to at least fill out the roster, but we can consider them optional. Like CJ Miles, Carrick Felix, Alonzo Gee, Henry Sims, maybe even Spencer Hawes.
We would still have some money to spend in free-agency (even a max offer if we cleared out contracts like we did for James), but the pickings are kind of slim. There's Greg Monroe, Lance Stephenson, Eric Bledsoe, Kyle Lowry, Marcin Gortat, Trevor Ariza, Pau Gasol, Isaiah Thomas, Shaun Livingston, etc, etc, and of course Gordon Hayward who we wanted to sign but he was restricted.
Here's a full list:
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2014-nba-free-agency-ranking-the-top-40-free-agents/
The Cavs were also interested in trading for Kevin Love before James announced his return, but they wanted him to agree to stay and he wouldn't.
Using what we know now, could we have turned that team in to a contender?
I think we'd need to ignored the medicals and take Embiid, trade Dion for whatever we can get, and try to sign maybe Lowry and Ariza.
It would be pretty depressing for a couple of seasons waiting for Embiid to get healthy, but I think eventually we'd have a competitive team, but perhaps a 1st or 2nd round out.
And does this tell us anything about our current team?
Maybe that we shouldn't rush things ... and to be very careful we identify the right players to keep .vs. letting go.
So, let's revisit 2014 for a moment, and ponder whether that team could have been pushed in to contention if LeBron didn't return.
Let's take a look post-lottery but we can assume Kyrie will be willing to re-sign for the max and anything else our future knowledge grants us.
Our roster looked something like this:
Kyrie, Jack, Delly
Dion, Joe Harris
(Wiggins), Sergey Karasev
Tristan, Bennett
Andy, Zeller
There's some others who might had stuck around if James didn't return to at least fill out the roster, but we can consider them optional. Like CJ Miles, Carrick Felix, Alonzo Gee, Henry Sims, maybe even Spencer Hawes.
We would still have some money to spend in free-agency (even a max offer if we cleared out contracts like we did for James), but the pickings are kind of slim. There's Greg Monroe, Lance Stephenson, Eric Bledsoe, Kyle Lowry, Marcin Gortat, Trevor Ariza, Pau Gasol, Isaiah Thomas, Shaun Livingston, etc, etc, and of course Gordon Hayward who we wanted to sign but he was restricted.
Here's a full list:
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2014-nba-free-agency-ranking-the-top-40-free-agents/
The Cavs were also interested in trading for Kevin Love before James announced his return, but they wanted him to agree to stay and he wouldn't.
Using what we know now, could we have turned that team in to a contender?
I think we'd need to ignored the medicals and take Embiid, trade Dion for whatever we can get, and try to sign maybe Lowry and Ariza.
It would be pretty depressing for a couple of seasons waiting for Embiid to get healthy, but I think eventually we'd have a competitive team, but perhaps a 1st or 2nd round out.
And does this tell us anything about our current team?
Maybe that we shouldn't rush things ... and to be very careful we identify the right players to keep .vs. letting go.