spanishninja wrote:bwgood77 wrote:sunsbg wrote:Point Book + Mikal/Cam/Ayton is not a better team than current one. You still need at least a Rubio level PG to be top 4 team in WC. Once again, Haliburton would've been perfect. Biggest Jones blunder IMO.
No, it's not a better team now, but like Redick said on his pod, you need stars and role players, not just stars. But we likely are a better team 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years from now with a lot of cheap rookie contracts with a pretty nice young core.
Though even without the KD trade, I still would have made that no brainer CP3 and Shamet for Beal trade, Jae for Grayson Allen and Ayton for the best we could get...or the same Ayton deal and the 5 2nds for Jae.
I think Beal/Book/Bridges/Cam/Nurkic + Allen as 6th man, keep Payne, still get Royce O'Neale when available, etc would be good. Beal definitely could be secondary scorer and Bridges a solid 3rd guy that is highly valued around the league.
But yeah, we are probably better this year....and maybe next if KD stays healthy again.
in today's league, virtually nobody builds a team considering 5+ years from now, unless you are playing the forever tank game like Philly and OKC, and that doesn't always work. Even Houston wanted to accelerate their rebuild by bringing in FVV and Udoka.
And a Beal/Book/Bridge/Cam/Nurk lineup is most definitely not doing better than what we have. upside is much lower, and assuming Beal and Book would have been injured at the start of the season, there would have been no KD to carry us. Did we already forget how many games he singlehandedly kept us in when it was just him out there? Bridges and Cam weren't doing that, or are there people who still think Mikal is a legit 1st or even 2nd option on a good team?
This.
I also think KD is going to age pretty damn well, especially since he didn't gain a lot of mileage in between his GS days and Brooklyn, coming back from injury, etc.
With how perimeter oriented his game is (and the league has become), he's going to be an effective engine of any offense until he's 38/39. With his length, he'll be able to defend 4/5's pretty damn easily, whichever is the weaker one.
I can't believe some of y'all would rather roll with Bridges and Cam and future picks going into these playoffs with a behemoth like Denver (who we match up well against, and CAN beat IMO), old-ass GSW and Lakers, a dangerous Dallas, and young-ins like Minny and OKC.
You get KD 98/100 times and sleep well.