2018 NBA Draft Talk

[Ranma]

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[Clemenza]

[Ranma]

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[Captain Ballmer]

This is a definition of overreaction thread IMO. I'm opposed to lose for higher lottery ticket.

Regarding the tanking, I have no problem with losing this year as long as Blake trying to develop his outside game. I set my before the season expectations of 45 win team with a decrease to 35 win at the moment. Individually the team looks Ok. Blake plays good, Lou is good, DJ, Austin, Willie are good, Pat does his things, rookie's and youngs are also contributing. Hell even Wes Johnson looks like an actual nba player after all. Only bad performing is coming from Gallo. So individually we are playing out of %90 what we have. But even at %90 performing, we are not look like a 50 win team. I don't know healthy Milos with addition of good coaching will be enough to make this team relevant(55+ win team) again.

With the way our team constructed and our guys performing, I just can't see this team have any room left to expand and doesn't really looks like it will have in the near future. So, we are pretty much in the area where the last couple year's 30 win Sacto team in, with an upside with servicable veteran players to make it maybe 35ish win.

I just don't wanna spend Blake's last 2-3 years of prime like this. So i'm starting to embrace lottery, will save my hope for trading that pick along with DJ and Lou and maybe even Pat as assets for one established STAR Player, maybe something like Presti did with George can be pulled by The Logo.

I'm still standing with what i sad before, yet i have to below my win expectations to 26-28. It's not like we are underperforming. Milos and Gallo doesn't have a magical stick. Doc rivers, Blake and DJ won't change.

We can't build a future on a dead man's body. I'm open to trade anyone but Blake Griffin atm. But neither tanking for lottery picks nor trading our assets for 1st round picks will help us enough to make this franchise legitimize and go beyond of the last 6 years of relevance.

Most of the other team have that tanking luxury but we don't. We don't have any kind of respectable history or high volume fan base. Whatever we got, gotta expanded. Ballmer knows this. If DJ not settle for a good contract, then you trade him for good players with fair contracts. Deandre ayton or Luka Doncic or some other 20 years old will not save this franchise.
KAT for 2 years and Wiggins for 3 years didn't save Minnesota.
Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle and D'angelo Russell didn't save Lakers.
Jabari Parker didn't save Bucks. Just Giannis Happened.
Noel, Okafor, Embiid, Ben simmons didn't save sixers for 5 years. They might just find something but it's so fragile that one more of those injuries to that giant 7 footer and they probably done.
Durant, LBJ, Wade ain't waiting coming through that draft door.
We have send our Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut and trust our Injured, broken, beaten Curry to carry us.

I'm still believing on Blake Griffin. We gotta find a way to build a roster that maximize his talents.

[esqtvd]

Deandre Ayton or Luka Doncic or some other 20 years old will not save this franchise.
KAT for 2 years and Wiggins for 3 years didn't save Minnesota.
Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle and D'angelo Russell didn't save Lakers.
Jabari Parker didn't save Bucks. Just Giannis Happened.
Noel, Okafor, Embiid, Ben Simmons didn't save Sixers for 5 years. They might just find something but it's so fragile that one more of those injuries to that giant 7 footer and they probably done.

Word.

[MartinToVaught]

Most of the other team have that tanking luxury but we don't. We don't have any kind of respectable history or high volume fan base.

Treadmilling isn't going to fix either of those issues. Only championships will. And champions are pretty much always built through the draft. That means sometimes, you need to tank. Every team goes through it eventually... even the Celtics and Lakers have had periods of tanking.

Deandre ayton or Luka Doncic or some other 20 years old will not save this franchise.

They might not, but there's also a chance they will. In contrast, there is no chance that running in place on the treadmill of mediocrity will save this franchise.

KAT for 2 years and Wiggins for 3 years didn't save Minnesota.
Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle and D'angelo Russell didn't save Lakers.
Jabari Parker didn't save Bucks. Just Giannis Happened.

Yes, we're all aware that you can make tanking sound horrible when you cherrypick the times it didn't work out. Meanwhile, LeBron saved the Cavs, DRob and Duncan saved the Spurs, Wade saved the Heat, Shaq put Orlando on the map, etc., etc.

Nobody's arguing that tanking is a risk-free strategy - but guess what, you can't have success without taking risks and making tough decisions.

Noel, Okafor, Embiid, Ben simmons didn't save sixers for 5 years. They might just find something but it's so fragile that one more of those injuries to that giant 7 footer and they probably done.

All the Sixers hate on this board just sounds like a bunch of sour grapes to me. Bottom line: you can nitpick some of the picks they made in the draft, but The Process has still put the Sixers in a better position right now than our franchise has ever been in. There is no way that a rebuilding strategy that has netted Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Robert Covington can be deemed a failure.

Durant, LBJ, Wade ain't waiting coming through that draft door.

This is looking like the most stacked draft since 2003. If there's ever a time to tank, it's now.

We have send our Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut and trust our Injured, broken, beaten Curry to carry us.

The Warriors built their team through the draft. Curry and Barnes were both top-10 picks and Klay was just outside the top 10.

I'm still believing on Blake Griffin. We gotta find a way to build a roster that maximize his talents.

We all agree on that. Getting some young talent in this draft would help us do that.

[Captain Ballmer]

Most of the other team have that tanking luxury but we don't. We don't have any kind of respectable history or high volume fan base.

Treadmilling isn't going to fix either of those issues. Only championships will. And champions are pretty much always built through the draft. That means sometimes, you need to tank. Every team goes through it eventually... even the Celtics and Lakers have had periods of tanking.

I disagree with the bold part. Let me just list some champions for you.
2004 pistons didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got rip, billups, wallace via trade.
Early 2000's lakers didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got shaq via trade.
Spurs.... they never tank. One injuried season of admiral got them Duncan. It's just luck.
2008 Boston didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They trade their so called valuable high lottery draft pick to get Ray Allen. They acquire KG via trade too.
2006 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They add Shaq via trade.
2010-14 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. Their draft pick was a bust(beasley). They acquire LBJ and Bosh via Free Agency.
2011 Mavs didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They keep tried around Dirk and acquire good assets via several trades and free agency.
And finally, 2015 warriors didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They acquired Bogut, Iggy via trade and keep doing it around Curry. The injuries let them to get lottery picks over and over through 2010-2012 years. When the injuries stopped, they become the one.

Did i miss someone from the last 20 years?

When you find your guy, you just try to keep going with him. There is no start over, no tanking or trading valuable assets for youth.

[wco81]

Well the Warriors core was built through the draft: Curry, Klay and Green were all draftees. Barnes and Ezeli were also key players on their first championship team in 2015.

I thought Iggy signed as a free agent but they might have done a sign and trade.

Of course they traded Monta Ellis, a second round draftee, for Bogut.

But 3 of the core players, they really hit on in the draft, with a lot of good fortune. For instance, Curry dropped to #7 and turned out to be clearly better than several players picked ahead of him, including 2 or 3 other PGs.

Klay was picked #13 and he turned out better than his draft position.

Green also way outplayed his draft position in the second round.

Team also made a difficult coaching decision, firing a coach which had gotten the team to the playoffs for the first time in several seasons (which is why they had lottery picks for Curry, Thompson, Harrison Barnes). Of course Mark Jackson alienated a lot of people in the building as well as many others around the team, so it probably wasn't that difficult to let him go.


You also have to remember that the only way they signed KD a couple of years ago was that most of the core players were on manageable contracts. Curry was vastly underpaid before this season and while Klay and Draymond got good extensions at the time, those deals are pretty reasonable now. Igudala had also taken a below-market deal to sign with the Warriors back 4 years ago so that along with the cap spike led to the Warriors being able to sign him.


Might be tough for any team to replicate. Probably more an outlier.

Then again, the big 3 Boston Celtics were an outlier as well.

76ers have tanked and now they have young players with bright futures but they haven't won it all yet. They may become a perennial 50-win team which doesn't have playoffs run for another 3-5 years for all we know.

But with the new lottery rules, tanking isn't going to work nearly as well now, so the argument shouldn't be about tanking but whether you can build through the draft.

I thought the Clippers were going to have some cap space after this season? Hasn't there been discussion here about going after PG or LeBron? But I don't see big free agents signing with the Clippers or the Lakers or any team that wins fewer than 35-40 games, at least be playoffs teams or teams which are on the cusp of getting in the playoffs.

Lakers couldn't sign the big free agents in recent years unless they overpaid some guys, not even stars, to join their team. So teams which tank can't really expect to be able to attract franchise players in free agency.

[MartinToVaught]

Most of the other team have that tanking luxury but we don't. We don't have any kind of respectable history or high volume fan base.

Treadmilling isn't going to fix either of those issues. Only championships will. And champions are pretty much always built through the draft. That means sometimes, you need to tank. Every team goes through it eventually... even the Celtics and Lakers have had periods of tanking.

I disagree with the bold part. Let me just list some champions for you.
2004 pistons didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got rip, billups, wallace via trade.
Early 2000's lakers didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got shaq via trade.
Spurs.... they never tank. One injuried season of admiral got them Duncan. It's just luck.
2008 Boston didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They trade their so called valuable high lottery draft pick to get Ray Allen. They acquire KG via trade too.
2006 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They add Shaq via trade.
2010-14 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. Their draft pick was a bust(beasley). They acquire LBJ and Bosh via Free Agency.
2011 Mavs didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They keep tried around Dirk and acquire good assets via several trades and free agency.
And finally, 2015 warriors didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They acquired Bogut, Iggy via trade and keep doing it around Curry. The injuries let them to get lottery picks over and over through 2010-2012 years. When the injuries stopped, they become the one.

Did i miss someone from the last 20 years?

When you find your guy, you just try to keep going with him. There is no start over, no tanking or trading valuable assets for youth.

The Lakers drafted Kobe, the Celtics drafted Pierce, the Heat drafted Wade, the Mavs drafted Dirk, and the Warriors drafted Curry, Klay, Draymond and Barnes. The 2004 Pistons are one of the very few exceptions to the rule. Again, champions are built through the draft 99% of the time.

And if you're pinning your hopes on repeating the outlier of the 2004 Pistons, good luck with that. Hoping for a miracle is not a strategy. Especially since offenses today are a lot better than 2004. Those Pistons were great for their era, but they never had to try to keep up with a team like the Warriors, Rockets or Cavs.

[Quake Griffin]

LOL at acting like built through the draft means all 15 players are draft picks.

LOL at it being obvious the Spurs were built through the draft, so the argument just switches to “they didnt intentionally tank.”

Guess we can cross our fingers and pray for rain. I hear that’s the best way to get a needle mover outside of the draft (read: trade or FA).


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[esqtvd]

The Lakers drafted Kobe, the Celtics drafted Pierce, the Heat drafted Wade, the Mavs drafted Dirk, and the Warriors drafted Curry, Klay, Draymond and Barnes. The 2004 Pistons are one of the very few exceptions to the rule.

And none of them tanked.

Neither were any of them Top 5 picks exc Wade, who was a #5. Kobe and Dirk were acquired in trade, and let's add Kawhi in with them too. [Although let's see what happens without Duncan, whose acquisition was a total stroke of the best bad luck in NBA history, with The Admiral going down just in time for Tim Duncan's availability in the draft.]

https://www.boxscoregeeks.com/articles/the-myth-of-the-tanking-spurs

[Captain Ballmer]

Treadmilling isn't going to fix either of those issues. Only championships will. And champions are pretty much always built through the draft. That means sometimes, you need to tank. Every team goes through it eventually... even the Celtics and Lakers have had periods of tanking.

I disagree with the bold part. Let me just list some champions for you.
2004 pistons didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got rip, billups, wallace via trade.
Early 2000's lakers didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got shaq via trade.
Spurs.... they never tank. One injuried season of admiral got them Duncan. It's just luck.
2008 Boston didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They trade their so called valuable high lottery draft pick to get Ray Allen. They acquire KG via trade too.
2006 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They add Shaq via trade.
2010-14 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. Their draft pick was a bust(beasley). They acquire LBJ and Bosh via Free Agency.
2011 Mavs didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They keep tried around Dirk and acquire good assets via several trades and free agency.
And finally, 2015 warriors didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They acquired Bogut, Iggy via trade and keep doing it around Curry. The injuries let them to get lottery picks over and over through 2010-2012 years. When the injuries stopped, they become the one.

Did i miss someone from the last 20 years?

When you find your guy, you just try to keep going with him. There is no start over, no tanking or trading valuable assets for youth.

The Lakers drafted Kobe, the Celtics drafted Pierce, the Heat drafted Wade, the Mavs drafted Dirk, and the Warriors drafted Curry, Klay, Draymond and Barnes. The 2004 Pistons are one of the very few exceptions to the rule. Again, champions are built through the draft 99% of the time.

And if you're pinning your hopes on repeating the outlier of the 2004 Pistons, good luck with that. Hoping for a miracle is not a strategy. Especially since offenses today are a lot better than 2004. Those Pistons were great for their era, but they never had to try to keep up with a team like the Warriors, Rockets or Cavs.

And we drafted Blake Griffin! Our golden boy. No need to look at the draft again. Because none of those teams you listed have looked back in the day. They built their team around those golden boys and won. Passion my friend, passion.

If you think that we need to tank for drafting finest prospects, it shows that you don't have enough faith on Blake too. So, you look for elsewhere, you are searching for that hope on another 19 years old kid. Well, i don't know what to say if that's the case.

If the Ballmer has enough passion, the franchise will fire it up. We just got great talent evaluater, a cap guru and smooth negotiator. When we need those elements we don't have to rely on Doc anymore, My only hope is that Blake could stay healthy all year to demonstrate us how high his ceiling is.

After i crossed the tanking option, my target scenario for future would be trading DJ before the february trade deadline for at least Crowder, cavs 2018 1st and filler instead of TT and his lunatic contract. Let Austin Rivers go or trade him for a cap relief if he opts-in, send Gallo and the cavs pick for cap relief and pitch for Paul George on 2018 Free Agency.

Beverley/Milos?
George/Sindarius
Crowder/Dekker
Griffin/Wesley
LAC 2018 1st(rim protecting stretch five)/Reed for room exception?

Very mobile, passer, defensive and shooting team with enough firepower to compete.

[Quake Griffin]

I disagree with the bold part. Let me just list some champions for you.
2004 pistons didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got rip, billups, wallace via trade.
Early 2000's lakers didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They got shaq via trade.
Spurs.... they never tank. One injuried season of admiral got them Duncan. It's just luck.
2008 Boston didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They trade their so called valuable high lottery draft pick to get Ray Allen. They acquire KG via trade too.
2006 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They add Shaq via trade.
2010-14 Miami didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. Their draft pick was a bust(beasley). They acquire LBJ and Bosh via Free Agency.
2011 Mavs didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They keep tried around Dirk and acquire good assets via several trades and free agency.
And finally, 2015 warriors didn't tank, they weren't come together via draft either. They acquired Bogut, Iggy via trade and keep doing it around Curry. The injuries let them to get lottery picks over and over through 2010-2012 years. When the injuries stopped, they become the one.

Did i miss someone from the last 20 years?

When you find your guy, you just try to keep going with him. There is no start over, no tanking or trading valuable assets for youth.

The Lakers drafted Kobe, the Celtics drafted Pierce, the Heat drafted Wade, the Mavs drafted Dirk, and the Warriors drafted Curry, Klay, Draymond and Barnes. The 2004 Pistons are one of the very few exceptions to the rule. Again, champions are built through the draft 99% of the time.

And if you're pinning your hopes on repeating the outlier of the 2004 Pistons, good luck with that. Hoping for a miracle is not a strategy. Especially since offenses today are a lot better than 2004. Those Pistons were great for their era, but they never had to try to keep up with a team like the Warriors, Rockets or Cavs.

And we drafted Blake Griffin! Our golden boy. No need to look at the draft again. Because none of those teams you listed have looked back in the day. They built their team around those golden boys and won. Passion my friend, passion.

If you think that we need to tank for drafting finest prospects, it shows that you don't have enough faith on Blake too. So, you look for elsewhere, you are searching for that hope on another 19 years old kid. Well, i don't know what to say if that's the case.

If the Ballmer has enough passion, the franchise will fire it up. We just got great talent evaluater, a cap guru and smooth negotiator. When we need those elements we don't have to rely on Doc anymore, My only hope is that Blake could stay healthy all year to demonstrate us how high his ceiling is.

After i crossed the tanking option, my target scenario for future would be trading DJ before the february trade deadline for at least Crowder, cavs 2018 1st and filler instead of TT and his lunatic contract. Let Austin Rivers go or trade him for a cap relief if he opts-in, send Gallo and the cavs pick for cap relief and pitch for Paul George on 2018 Free Agency.

Beverley/Milos?
George/Sindarius
Crowder/Dekker
Griffin/Wesley
LAC 2018 1st(rim protecting stretch five)/Reed for room exception?

Very mobile, passer, defensive and shooting team with enough firepower to compete.

Wait what?

You are against tanking but you are suggesting we tank for a chance at Paul George?
Isn't that exactly what MTV said when he said we should tank and go after PG 13?

The hell is going on here?

[QRich3]

Yeah DieHardFan has a great point against the "Spurs tanked for Duncan" and "Mavs drafted Dirk" crew. If you wanna base the Spurs winning titles in 2014 because of tanking in 1997, or the Mavs winning in 2011 because of a 1998 draft pick, Lakers winning in 2010 because of their 1996 draft, etc. then surely the Clippers are alright cause they already tanked in 2009 right?
Point being, what you need is to have ATG players in their prime, and throughout NBA history, those have been acquired either through the draft, free agency or trade. Tanking is not a more viable or easy strategy than the other two avenues, it just seems easier but it really is not.

Anyway, depending on what comes back today on Blake's knee, I could see a viable tank for a top 10 pick this year. Which might indeed be the way to go if Blake goes down for a long time.

The Paul George thing is interesting, I think he might rather go to the Lakers cause it seems he's set into making use of their marketing machine, but if the Lakers look horrible again and we look competitive, he has to at least think about it right? and if Gallo doesn't look like he's done, the Thunder have to prefer getting him and other pieces in a S&T than just letting George go for nothing right? But for that, Gallo has to look good and the team has to be competitive. If we're just as bad as the Lakers, he's definitely gonna go get that sweet endorsement money they can get him better than us.

[Quake Griffin]

Yeah DieHardFan has a great point against the "Spurs tanked for Duncan" and "Mavs drafted Dirk" crew. If you wanna base the Spurs winning titles in 2014 because of tanking in 1997, or the Mavs winning in 2011 because of a 1998 draft pick, Lakers winning in 2010 because of their 1996 draft, etc. then surely the Clippers are alright cause they already tanked in 2009 right?
Point being, what you need is to have ATG players in their prime, and throughout NBA history, those have been acquired either through the draft, free agency or trade. Tanking is not a more viable or easy strategy than the other two avenues, it just seems easier but it really is not.

Anyway, depending on what comes back today on Blake's knee, I could see a viable tank for a top 10 pick this year. Which might indeed be the way to go if Blake goes down for a long time.

The Paul George thing is interesting, I think he might rather go to the Lakers cause it seems he's set into making use of their marketing machine, but if the Lakers look horrible again and we look competitive, he has to at least think about it right? and if Gallo doesn't look like he's done, the Thunder have to prefer getting him and other pieces in a S&T than just letting George go for nothing right? But for that, Gallo has to look good and the team has to be competitive. If we're just as bad as the Lakers, he's definitely gonna go get that sweet endorsement money they can get him better than us.

He made two points but argued them as one: We don't need to tank (oddly enough, see his last post ) and that not all champions were not built through the draft (oddly enough, saying this current Warriors team wasnt built through the draft and then arguing extreme outliers.).

Those aren't the same points.

Dirk and Kobe both cut against the trade/FA theory. So do Pierce and Duncan. Dirk never was close to leaving and no matter how close Kobe, Pierce, or Duncan got, they never left their respective organizations. There's too many factors and it takes a lot to uproot an ATG player.

The argument (for me at least) is that punting the standard into the stratosphere and arguing from that isn't particularly fair or reasonable. If the standard is, "find Jordan or LeBron," then we certainly know that tanking isn't viable. ATG players skip drafts...multiple drafts. But if the question is simply, what is the best and most efficient way to infuse talent on your team year to year. I'd certainly say a lottery pick over paying for rain via trade/FA.

Is there truly a problem with getting a Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown (guys I'm presuming won't be Jordan or Bron) and adding them to your roster?

[QRich3]

Getting Brown or Tatum is very nice, but tanking for a chance at getting guys like them (a chance, not a guarantee) gets in the way of getting guys better than them in free agency. George being a good example.

Depending on what happens with Blake's knee, tanking might be a good choice, but let's not act like the pros/cons line isn't thin, or like tanking doesn't come with risks.

And no matter how hard we tank this year, we're not getting anywhere close to a top 3 lottery seed. That ship sailed on July 1st. If we're tanking, it'll probably be for a 6-10 seed. Much harder to find those guys there.

[Captain Ballmer]

He made two points but argued them as one: We don't need to tank (oddly enough, see his last post ) and that not all champions were not built through the draft (oddly enough, saying this current Warriors team wasnt built through the draft and then arguing extreme outliers.).

Those aren't the same points.

That may looks like two different points, but there is a correlation between them. Kinda cause and effect relation.

Please let me make myself clear with describing my thoughts in other way, I'm not aganist getting a high lotto pick. I would like that toy to have obviously, but not at cost of losing 50+ games in a year. We would lose too much for a very small chance of getting a better return. And in general, i look at tanking as a last result when you don't have your franchise guy but IMHO luckily we have one

at 2012, Sixers didn't have anyone since Iverson.
at 2013, Lakers didn't have someone after Kobe.
at 2014, Minny didn't have someone after Love.
at 2010, Cavs didn't have someone after the Decision.

so, instead of tanking, I would try to get that young talents with the assets i don't need(DJ-Lou) while i would respect my franchise guy and try to put him in a position to succeed just like other champions did in the past. I have already present the examples before.

In the second part, the phrase of "champions were not built through the draft" isn't belongs to mine. I was arguing about "And champions are pretty much always built through the draft. That means sometimes, you need to tank." phrase. Opposing MTV's idea shouldn't reflect directly what you said. It's a wrong inference.

As I mentioned, there is no champions tanked purposely for young talent when they already drafted their golden boy in the last 20 years.(Kobe-Duncan-Dirk-Pierce-Wade-LBJ-Curry)

GSW has built their main core via draft but they didn't tanked for it when they got Curry. It was just misfortuned injuries to Curry that keep them in the lottery till 2013. With a luck, they got Klay #11 and Draymond #35. not exactly tanking picks right?

[Quake Griffin]

Sprained MCL coming through with that Tanking Stimulus Package.

Will respond to the posts above later.


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[Quake Griffin]

Getting Brown or Tatum is very nice, but tanking for a chance at getting guys like them (a chance, not a guarantee) gets in the way of getting guys better than them in free agency. George being a good example.

Depending on what happens with Blake's knee, tanking might be a good choice, but let's not act like the pros/cons line isn't thin, or like tanking doesn't come with risks.

And no matter how hard we tank this year, we're not getting anywhere close to a top 3 lottery seed. That ship sailed on July 1st. If we're tanking, it'll probably be for a 6-10 seed. Much harder to find those guys there.

Not big on adding Paul George's prime years to the mix as if he's our savior. IMO, he is a supplement to a franchise with a good infrastructure (read: a number one star...Chef, Bron, Durant) there in place. There's absolutely no way I'd put any plans I have for my franchise on hold for "a chance" to sign him. If it works out that we can take a run at him? Fine. He'd be a fine addition. But I don't exactly have a boner for a George-Blake Tandem.

Kind of funny we are having this discussion about a guy who went in the 6-10 range.

The risk of trying to sign Paul George means if he doesn't come, you get nothing.
The risk of tanking means, you may not get the star you want but you may improve the overall talent pool in your franchise.

Further...cool, we get Paul George's age 29-33 seasons and then we spit him out as he declines. I'd rather focus on the draft and cultivating talent than limit myself to a four year window (that basically coincides with Blake's prime). So...4 years to get it all right and build a juggernaut to overtake Chef and Durant with 2 stars who aren't as good as them?

I'd rather play the long game....or tank and go after him in the offseason.
But to just play this out and go after him? Meh...nothnx.