Andre Roberstan wrote:righterwriter wrote:Andre Roberstan wrote:
Curry is Curry, but the team construction for OKC just flat doesn't make sense. They're small as is, and then they're adding another small guard? And removing their one 3/4 sized defender who actually has any semblance of offensive game?
What are they going to run? Curry/SGA/Caruso/Dort/Holmgren? All they have at that point is room exception to sign someone, and you can't tell me room exception and vet min are going to be enough to fill the holes on that roster.
In the broader sense, Chuck's right; this is way too large for people to actually critique as a whole. Same thing happens with most blowup threads (pipfan's are legendary). Break it down into discrete pieces and mention it's as part of a rebuild and you'll get more focused feedback. Though I doubt you'll find it encouraging; I'm not gonna sit here and write 8 paragraphs on why these teams wouldn't do this, but if you break it into discrete deals I think most teams' own posters will do it for me.
They are three separate deals. The Curry one is the most important one to focus on. If he gets traded, then Draymond would be next, but the pieces that are connected to his deal are not that important. Just wanted to include it because it would likely be inevitable. Feel free to ignore that part if its too much to process.
As far as not having a 3/4 defender, I think they can grab someone pretty easily in free agency. Lots of vets that are not quite good enough to get a big multi-year deal this offseason that would love to be a key guy deep into the playoffs. Here's a short list:
Taurean Prince
Saddiq Bey
Jae Crowder
Precious Achuwa
Nic Batum
If not, someone like Jared Vanderbilt is imminently gettable via trade.
BTW, I think referring to Curry's impact is being glossed over in your post. He's an All-NBA player that would unlock even more potential in this OKC squad due to his gravity, leadership, and knowledge of how to win when it gets hard in the playoffs. It's really all about him in a road game down 3-2 and going down by 10 points and knowing he's going to help get you through it and save your season. Him and SGA together with Holmgren getting wide open 3's would be pretty amazing to watch.
You're missing the point; because there are so many moving parts, most people won't approach them the whole thing in detail, because it's a lot of typing. Doesn't matter that it's 3 separate deals. I'm saying from my background in marketing that there's too much "friction" for you to get the kind of input you want because of the way people work. Not because of the way the deals are structured.
And re: those guys -- are they signing for the room exception or vet min? And do you want them in a playoff rotation? We have years of evidence that in the current NBA, you need to be able to go at least 8 deep with guys you trust, and I don't see a way to get there, ESPECIALLY considering you're making OKC's size issues exponentially worse. I think the deal's a non-starter.
Also, what are the Thunder trading for Jared Vanderbilt? Given all the guys they'd find tradable, by and large, are gone?
You say I'm glossing over Curry's impact. Trust me. I have nightmares about Curry's impact. I will never gloss over it. You are glossing over the very real, tangible issues that your roster construction brings up and hand-waving them away with "they can just get guys."
I'm not trying to "make it go viral", just to express a concept and see if some fans like it or don't like it for certain reasons. I'm also aware of keeping things as brief as possible to reach maximum people (also work in marketing), but I am old school so I prefer long form deep dives when it comes to basketball discussion. I'm sure there are lots of people who decide not to invest more than 30 seconds into anything they read online, but I'm not really targeting them and their 5-second quick take rebuttals.
As far as the SF/PFs I listed, I imagine at least one of them could be available for a 1-year deal on the room exception. That's based on selling the idea that they'd be a prominent player on what is certain to be a championship level team. It happens to nearly every front running team that they are able to add a cheap, good quality veteran on short term deal.
The Thunder could trade two of their young players for Vanderbilt, who has his new 4/44 deal kicking in now, but is buried on the bench on the Lakers. Dieng and K.Williams could get it done, as its basically a salary dump for the Lakers for two players on one-year guaranteed contracts. That's just one possibility of a guy they could go after.
I think their core, plus some vets chasing the ring, would be enough to go head to head with the core of any team in the league. If you go through past championship rosters, you'll see a lot of the guys who eventually became known as "prominent role players", but weren't thought of much the season before they became recognized. It's a good move for them and the team that signs them.
Just get your superstars and things will fall into place.
