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What will it take for a 20+ win increase to make the playin? Trade, FA, and draft suggestions.

Being healthy.

Hit on a top draft pick.

Hit on a free agent.

Hit on a good return for Jerami Grant.

A 20+ win increase would probably be caused by some combination of shortsighted and impatient moves.
A 10-15 win increase is more likely imo and in the race for the last couple of play-in spots

Cade missed 18 games
Grant missed 37 games

I’m pretty sure if they wore healthy we would have won about 30

Draft well

Bring in atleast one quality FA

And most importantly health.

Cade started the year injured and then couldnt shoot, plus it was Grant's team at that point still.

A whole year of Cade as top dog plus - picks and free agents. +20 wins is probably a good over/under spot.

It depends on the offseason to be honest. If everything stays the same(which would be wierd)but just adding a top draft pick, team is healthy, I could easily see a jump of 15 wins.

I picked the team to compete for a play-in spot this year, but it fell apart with injury. I have finally submitted to the fact that Casey will be HC for at least one more year, so that dampens my expectations a bit, but I could see the team, if adding the right pick, and offseason moves, hit 40 wins.

A ton of close games this year, and if you push half of those to the other side of the ledger, your looking at close to 30 already.

it'll help to have an entire season of cade running the team. obviously internal improvement (mainly from cade and bey) will play a factor.

other than that i don't think we should count on whatever rookie we take to have a big impact next season. cade was touted as being the most complete prospect to come out in a while which is why he contributed the way he did year one. none of the prospects we'd be targeting have that kind of nba-preparedness. to make a big jump like 20 wins we'd have to get talent either from FA or trade.

i will say that the biggest factor imo is getting a legit starting-calibre guard to play next to cade.

One word. Chet.

Smith or Banchero
Mitchell Robinson
Jalen Brunson
Cade improving from his March performance (which would 100% make him an all star)
Saddiq Bey being consistent and good, and improving his defense.
Not playing Hayes any meaningful minutes. Have a healthy season.

vege wrote:Smith or Banchero
Mitchell Robinson
Jalen Brunson
Cade improving from his March performance (which would 100% make him an all star)
Saddiq Bey being consistent and good, and improving his defense.
Not playing Hayes any meaningful minutes. Have a healthy season.

This is my hopeful scenario.

So serious question, and I know it’s always best to get the most on trades, but would you be ok if we traded Grant and Olynyk for scraps and capsapce in order to sign Brunson and Mitchell Robinson after we draft Smith or Banchero? That’d be one hell of a team next year and for the future.

Brunson/Hayes
Cade/Diallo
Bey/Livers
Smith/Bagley
Robinson/Stewart

FloridaMan78 wrote:

vege wrote:Smith or Banchero
Mitchell Robinson
Jalen Brunson
Cade improving from his March performance (which would 100% make him an all star)
Saddiq Bey being consistent and good, and improving his defense.
Not playing Hayes any meaningful minutes. Have a healthy season.

This is my hopeful scenario.

So serious question, and I know it’s always best to get the most on trades, but would you be ok if we traded Grant and Olynyk for scraps and capsapce in order to sign Brunson and Mitchell Robinson after we draft Smith or Banchero? That’d be one hell of a team next year and for the future.

Brunson/Hayes
Cade/Diallo
Bey/Livers
Smith/Bagley
Robinson/Stewart

I would be ok paying minor assets to get out of Olynyk's deal to get more cap space. That should be enough to get cap space to sign both Brunson and Robinson.

Grant would need to be traded. I would get the best value I could for him, in a perfect world a 6th man and a future pick maybe. Someone like Herro, but I would never trade for Herro, because of all the off court stuff and his attitude I really dislike the guy, but someone young and that could be a 6th man of the year candidate and with a desirable skillset for us.

Worst case scenario? Keep Grant (extend him) and move Bey to the bench.

Hayes would not be in my rotation, CoJo would. That 2nd unit is bad, they lack spacing and playmakers.

But yes, that team would have a ton of room to grow and they absolutely could get 40-45 wins if things work well next season.

vege wrote:

FloridaMan78 wrote:

vege wrote:Smith or Banchero
Mitchell Robinson
Jalen Brunson
Cade improving from his March performance (which would 100% make him an all star)
Saddiq Bey being consistent and good, and improving his defense.
Not playing Hayes any meaningful minutes. Have a healthy season.

This is my hopeful scenario.

So serious question, and I know it’s always best to get the most on trades, but would you be ok if we traded Grant and Olynyk for scraps and capsapce in order to sign Brunson and Mitchell Robinson after we draft Smith or Banchero? That’d be one hell of a team next year and for the future.

Brunson/Hayes
Cade/Diallo
Bey/Livers
Smith/Bagley
Robinson/Stewart

I would be ok paying minor assets to get out of Olynyk's deal to get more cap space. That should be enough to get cap space to sign both Brunson and Robinson.

Grant would need to be traded. I would get the best value I could for him, in a perfect world a 6th man and a future pick maybe. Someone like Herro, but I would never trade for Herro, because of all the off court stuff and his attitude I really dislike the guy, but someone young and that could be a 6th man of the year candidate and with a desirable skillset for us.

Worst case scenario? Keep Grant (extend him) and move Bey to the bench.

Hayes would not be in my rotation, CoJo would. That 2nd unit is bad, they lack spacing and playmakers.

But yes, that team would have a ton of room to grow and they absolutely could get 40-45 wins if things work well next season.

I wouldn’t mind a future draft and capspace for Grant. Of course get the most you can, but in the end get it done.

I think we keep Grant if we don’t land one of Smith, Banchero or Chet. Which would be disappointing.


I would expect Brunson and Cade to play heavy minutes. Hayes role would be 10-15 minutes at backup guard always playing alongside one of Brunson or Cade. I think he would be effective in that role and you never know he might actually improve some part of his offense. Spacing wouldn’t be as much of an issue.

That team would be young with plenty of room for improvement. And still have a ton of cap space the following year.

FloridaMan78 wrote:

vege wrote:

FloridaMan78 wrote:
This is my hopeful scenario.

So serious question, and I know it’s always best to get the most on trades, but would you be ok if we traded Grant and Olynyk for scraps and capsapce in order to sign Brunson and Mitchell Robinson after we draft Smith or Banchero? That’d be one hell of a team next year and for the future.

Brunson/Hayes
Cade/Diallo
Bey/Livers
Smith/Bagley
Robinson/Stewart

I would be ok paying minor assets to get out of Olynyk's deal to get more cap space. That should be enough to get cap space to sign both Brunson and Robinson.

Grant would need to be traded. I would get the best value I could for him, in a perfect world a 6th man and a future pick maybe. Someone like Herro, but I would never trade for Herro, because of all the off court stuff and his attitude I really dislike the guy, but someone young and that could be a 6th man of the year candidate and with a desirable skillset for us.

Worst case scenario? Keep Grant (extend him) and move Bey to the bench.

Hayes would not be in my rotation, CoJo would. That 2nd unit is bad, they lack spacing and playmakers.

But yes, that team would have a ton of room to grow and they absolutely could get 40-45 wins if things work well next season.

I wouldn’t mind a future draft and capspace for Grant. Of course get the most you can, but in the end get it done.

I think we keep Grant if we don’t land one of Smith, Banchero or Chet. Which would be disappointing.


I would expect Brunson and Cade to play heavy minutes. Hayes role would be 10-15 minutes at backup guard always playing alongside one of Brunson or Cade. I think he would be effective in that role and you never know he might actually improve some part of his offense. Spacing wouldn’t be as much of an issue.

That team would be young with plenty of room for improvement. And still have a ton of cap space the following year.

I am not a fan of trading an above average starter in the NBA for picks, since it's very difficult to hit picks, and it's very difficult for us to land an above average starter in free agency, especially one with a great skill set like Grant.

I would like to get a good player back for him. Cap space wouldn't do much for us, we would already have enough to sign Brunson and Robinson. We would overpay to land a bench player, and it would likely be another Plumlee or Olynyk caliber of player. I would rather make Bey the 6th man, extend Grant, and try to trade him again either at the deadline or next year.

Hayes need to improve a lot to be an acceptable offensive player in the NBA, like MIP level of improvement. He is arguably the worst offensive player in the NBA right now. He is an ok defender (not a DPOY candidate type of defender) a good passer but a terrible playmaker, he can't be part of a successful NBA lineup imo. He is too much of a liability for that.

S&T w/Bulls
Grant + Olynyk for Lavine

S&T w/Suns
Stewart + Hayes for Ayton

Draft Jabari Smith

PG: Cade / Cujo / Edwars
SG: Lavine / Diallo / Jackson
SF: Bey / Livers / Pickett
PF: Smith / Bagley / Key
CE: Ayton / Bagley / Garza

We either draft a big and sign Brunson or draft a guard and sign Mitchell. Can't see signing both but what do I know.
Even signing Mitchell we would have him, Stewart Bagley Olynk Grant.

Canadafan wrote:We either draft a big and sign Brunson or draft a guard and sign Mitchell. Can't see signing both but what do I know.
Even signing Mitchell we would have him, Stewart Bagley Olynk Grant.

This what I’m thinking

BiGG RaBB wrote:S&T w/Bulls
Grant + Olynyk for Lavine

S&T w/Suns
Stewart + Hayes for Ayton

Draft Jabari Smith

PG: Cade / Cujo / Edwars
SG: Lavine / Diallo / Jackson
SF: Bey / Livers / Pickett
PF: Smith / Bagley / Key
CE: Ayton / Bagley / Garza

Good luck with that one. Don't get me wrong, I imagine myself starring in porn movies too. I just don't put much stock in it actually happening.

Health, internal improvement, and nailing our draft could do it.