Trade Targets (postcript on yesterday-other teams)

[Cooleyo47]

My thought is that Kidd will be able to rally the troops as long as the other young guys don't get rattled.

Even with the other injuries to bigs, what was a 11-12 man rotation is now shortened to 8-9 and will keep the team competitive. Healthy doses of Duds, Marshall, Middleton, and Ilyasova, when he returns.

Get ready to watch a whole lot of small ball.

That, or Edens and Lasry order a fire sale.

[Badgerlander]

The team will do well with Giannis at PF, IMO. But at the end of the day, we got 22-25 really valuable minutes out of Jabari. I know people like to say "advanced stats, we will be better" but I don't buy it. Usually Kidd was only playing Jabari in situations where he was doing well.

Then you look at the psychological side of this. The team and fanbase have to be crushed right now. Does it really make sense to massively push for the 8th seed on the backs of ZaZa and Ersan? Especially when one of our two franchise cornerstones faces an uncertain future depending on his rehab?

I just think Wes and Marc are smart enough to know they've got a window here now to tank.

I agree, I doubt that we will be better either. We've already tried Ersan, Middleton, and Dudley in the starting lineup and they all sucked with Knight running the point. Somebody has to take on those shots and lately in the second half its mostly been Knight with the starters and Zaza from the bench.

We aren't going to tank though. We already have our bench playing more minutes than anyone else so our young starting lineup has been just a smokescreen and how can we possibly be worse than half of the east? Brooklyn has half the team on the block, Bosh went down with a calf injury that could be weeks right after McBob went down for the Heat, Detroit and NYK are in shambles, the Hornets are trying to make a move that will take time to adjust, Indy is 2-8 over their last 10, I just don't see it.

[Cooleyo47]

Unfortunate tweet from Kyler but not unexpected.

The question is whether last night's injury changes anything.

Didn't want to say it last night, but the thought that this gives them a casual-fan reason to punt on the season had occurred to me.

Unfortunate that this team was starting to generate buzz. The casual fan was beginning to get intrigued.

[ReasonablySober]

I wish that people would wrap their heads around the fact that playoff experience for a young team largely means exactly dick. There isn't some magical dust that gets sprinkled on you if you're a 7th seed that makes you a 3rd seed the following year. Unless you have a genuine superstar, you're probably more likely to miss them.

I hope to hell that our New Overlords don't put some kind of premium on an 8th seed. It means absolutely nothing.

[emunney]

So I think most people probably agree that losing Jabari doesn't help us lose more games this season. That said, I think that we have an opportunity to use that perception, which is probably more widely held outside of this board, to aggressively pursue the league's premier young talent base. We know that we're not going to out-tank the Sixers, but I firmly believe that we would not sacrifice attendance if we traded our cagey, steady vets for try-hard young guys and picks. And I think we've got to try to make a play for a major young talent who can play for us this year.

The key is to be able to plausibly market a tear-down as "We are going to compete for a championship and we are pursuing the league's premier young talent base." That means we call the Celtics about Marcus Smart. We call the Jazz about Exum. Maybe we don't have what it takes to get those guys. That's fine. Cody Zeller, McGary, Crabbe, Schroeder, Bullock, Ryan Kelly, O'Quinn... get 3-4 of these young, smart, skilled, team-oriented guys and convince people that when Jabari comes back, he'll be joining a cohesive young rotation, another high lotto pick, a burgeoning all-star do-everything 7 footer, and a franchise actively demonstrating its asipirations.

[ampd]

The team will do well with Giannis at PF, IMO. But at the end of the day, we got 22-25 really valuable minutes out of Jabari. I know people like to say "advanced stats, we will be better" but I don't buy it. Usually Kidd was only playing Jabari in situations where he was doing well.

Then you look at the psychological side of this. The team and fanbase have to be crushed right now. Does it really make sense to massively push for the 8th seed on the backs of ZaZa and Ersan? Especially when one of our two franchise cornerstones faces an uncertain future depending on his rehab?

I just think Wes and Marc are smart enough to know they've got a window here now to tank.

I think the biggest effect is limiting the ceiling of the team this year. If Jabari is out for the rest of the year, we're eliminating a guy who was improving and might have been much better and more impactful by the end of the season.

With that said, we still have Giannis (who has been improving over the season as well), along with Ersan returning to take a lot of Jabari's minutes. It would really only take Ersan returning at something like the level he was playing at along with Middleton shooting more like he did last season to keep us playing at the level we have been or even higher. Even Larry being able to play 5-10 more good minutes at C would represent a sizable improvement.

It's another question entirely about whether we ought to pursue this direction though. I tend to believe our old guys still don't really have much value, and won't be all that easy to trade without including assets.

It's possible to tear this thing down by dealing knight, ersan, etc, but it would have to be mostly salary dumps with very little in the way of picks or assets coming back, and I'm not sure gutting this thing 76ers style to try for the bottom half of the top 10 is that good of an idea either.

[paulpressey25]

^^^Most of us on here were damn conflicted about the early success of this team. I'm in massive depression over Jabari's long term health right now, so why not make lemonade out of this.

"Winning Takes Even More Balls". Can we raise another $5k.

[LUKE23]

I think it will be tough to get into the lottery even if it is our intention (and I don't believe it will be). 9th seed is currently 10-17. Brooklyn and Miami, currently 7th and 8th, could have key guys go down at any time for extended periods, and both teams aren't good besides. This is the worst East I can remember even with how weak it's been in recent years.

[Ron Swanson]

The team will do well with Giannis at PF, IMO. But at the end of the day, we got 22-25 really valuable minutes out of Jabari. I know people like to say "advanced stats, we will be better" but I don't buy it. Usually Kidd was only playing Jabari in situations where he was doing well.

Then you look at the psychological side of this. The team and fanbase have to be crushed right now. Does it really make sense to massively push for the 8th seed on the backs of ZaZa and Ersan? Especially when one of our two franchise cornerstones faces an uncertain future depending on his rehab?

I just think Wes and Marc are smart enough to know they've got a window here now to tank.

The people saying that are most likely the people that thought last year's team would be better than the 2012-13 squad based on those same "advanced stats" because we no longer were saddled with the swag twins. I don't buy it either.

Jabari's offensive efficiency more than made up for his sub-par defense when he saw the court. This is a big blow to our offense. More Knight and Giannis iso's are only going to bring their efficiency down without another go-to scorer.

As for potential moves, I think the plan all along was to reevaluate this team at the deadline and trim down the roster by selling off a few veteran players, so I don't see much changing in the short term. I think we see a wing dealt when/if Inglis gets healthy and gets the garbage time minutes.

I'm gonna go ahead and call that Dudley won't be on the team come March. Other than that, I don't see many logical moves on the horizon. Injuries have muddied the trade waters for us.

[Cooleyo47]

^^^Most of us on here were damn conflicted about the early success of this team.

Absolutely... We were all so prepared for an obvious tank job, but the make up of this team made them really easy to root for.

[Dimitraa]

Nuggets are one of most actives in deadline?As sellers or buyers?

If we try to tank only ones we need to trade is Ersan and Zaza.These two if they get traded imo would lead to many more losses.Of course trading Knight now that he is in peak value would be the best but no way it happens.
It's not too late to tank but other teams also must step it up.If Brooklyn gets Lance I predict such a trainwreck that I doubt they make the playoffs.

[drew881]

^^^Most of us on here were damn conflicted about the early success of this team. I'm in massive depression over Jabari's long term health right now, so why not make lemonade out of this.

"Winning Takes Even More Balls". Can we raise another $5k.

I'd rather use 5k on a billboard against Gimbel or the Journal. Put it across the street from them.

[imithanos]

Zaza is a good backup player, but because of Larry's poor performances he has to take starter's PT and that exploits his weaknesses.

Jabari's injury hurts our mood and enthusiasm more than the team's short term success. I just hope he doesn't hurt the team's long term plan too. And his progress of course.

PS. 1/3 of the season and we've seen already Randle, Gordon and Jabari injuries. Very unlucky rookie year so far.

[Badgerlander]

I think it will be tough to get into the lottery even if it is our intention (and I don't believe it will be). 9th seed is currently 10-17. Brooklyn and Miami, currently 7th and 8th, could have key guys go down at any time for extended periods, and both teams aren't good besides. This is the worst East I can remember even with how weak it's been in recent years.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/PBPjasonlieser/status/544901175855042561[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat/status/544924235681259521[/tweet]

[Bucks_MacGyver]

I think it will be tough to get into the lottery even if it is our intention (and I don't believe it will be). 9th seed is currently 10-17. Brooklyn and Miami, currently 7th and 8th, could have key guys go down at any time for extended periods, and both teams aren't good besides. This is the worst East I can remember even with how weak it's been in recent years.

Even more worse than the swag twin year.

[AussieBuck]

We need some Amare or Boozer.

[mlloyd10]

Would anyone trade a lottery protected 1st for Monroe - With Parker going down and our FO looking for the future, while wanting to make the Playoffs. Would this make sense?

[JayMKE]

Would anyone trade a lottery protected 1st for Monroe - With Parker going down and our FO looking for the future, while wanting to make the Playoffs. Would this make sense?

hell no

monroe is a rental, never giving up a 1st

[Prince12]

We need some Amare or Boozer.

ill take boozer if its in his contract to paint his hairline on every 2nd game.

[Ron Swanson]

I'm firing up the Clint Capela bandwagon once more. Rockets just assigned him to the D-league again. What do we need to offer them to get it done? Middleton + Zaza for TPE + Capela?