zaymon wrote:Skybox wrote:eyriq wrote:It's the natural progression of a rebuild.
We'll see what action he takes this summer...nothing natural to me about "do nothing, do nothing, mastermind a summer with more cap space than anyone-and do nothing, then (drum roll) ...DO EVERYTHING all at once"
Sounds great to me, but I don't see it. You know I'm down for a five trade summer, but I'm not holding my breath.
This is how best teams operate most of the time. You accumulate assets and use it when you want to open your window. Use it too early and you will end up not good enough, without assets and without option to maneuver.
The critique of Celtics early was that they didnt make moves. The critique of OKC was that they accumulate assets for too long and tank seasons when SGA is ready to win. Sounds familiar ?
Presti had boat of assets that were attractive for other teams. He still has.
OKC only sucked for two years, they went from 48-28 record to 40-42 record in span of 4 seasons. By the time they were already good, they would have been much better if Chet's leg didn't blew up during summer, as he missed entire rookie year.
OKC even today has Heat's first round pick without protection, in theory they can get Flagg and win championship in same season.
They also have Clippers pick, 76ers first round pick if it falls from top 6, they have Jazz top 8 protected pick for 2026, Nuggets top 5 protected pick in 2027, draft pick swap with Dallas in 2028, Nuggets top 5 protected pick in 2029 etc. It's borderline crazy how many assets they still have.
They can literally box Nuggets into a corner and ask for Jokić trade just to give them picks back so Nuggets can start rebuild before 2030 in same season when they make a play for Giannis. If they want to get crazy they can create biggest superteam nba has ever seen with amount of assets they possess.
Salary cap hell? Sure, but ultimate goal is to win championship(s), not build 6 years of contending team that might get lucky and wins once.
Because of aprons & repetitive luxury tax every team only has 5-6 years championship window regardless before salary situation forces them in sellout.
But that's not point about Weltman. Point is, after not doing single trade for 4 years, after refusing to call other teams, Weltman is now in position where he needs to make several trades. Only type of trades he did in past 8 years were sellout trades and minor transactions.
Aside from Vučević trade, he pretty much lost all trades he did.
Vučević for Carter, 8th pick ( Franz) and Jett Howard.
Aaron Gordon for corpses of Gary Harris, RJ Hampton and 25th pick.
Evan Fournier for nothing.
Markelle Fultz trade- loss
Bol Bol, Mo Bamba, Fultz all held until their value was zero. Now it's same situation with Jett Howard.
Holding onto Nuggets pick for 2 years despite fact we knew that pick has more value year in advance than in year it will manifest because "mystery box" syndrome and lure of potential that can be everything ( but most likely nothing ).
Afer 8 years we know what Weltman's biggest problem is. Reactive, inert and slow decision making.
After last 5 years of throwing smokescreens, pretending he has some grand masterplan (Jabari Smith parade ) , ignoring phone calls from other FOs, pretending this whole tight lipped strategy will gain him some mystique his "masterplan" is exposed.
Basically every single serious nba mind can see through Magic roster and see from a mile away how unbalanced and poorly constructed roster is.
Now good luck finding trade partners after thinking you are smartest kid in a room, after teacher told other kids you are just autistic weirdo.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon