RealGM

I know it's obviously tough to remove attachment, and perhaps you are not familiar with these teams and their rosters, but I'm curious of the responses.

Surely the answer is yes, yes, and yes...

For me it's maybe (Minn), I don't think so but it's close (Denver), hell no (Philly) and absolutely (Milwaukee).

My criteria would just be the best player so I'd have to take Giannis, Jokic, Towns (and a fit Embiid) ahead of Booker.

Mulhollanddrive wrote:My criteria would just be the best player so I'd have to take Giannis, Jokic, Towns (and a fit Embiid) ahead of Booker.

If you were doing it solely on best player I'd probably agree with you except for Embiid. I don't know how you throw him in there with his injury history, I can't see him having much of a career at all. With someone like Bledsoe, you could ignore the possibility of future injury as it really could go that way with a little bit of luck. But with Joel, it will be a medical miracle of the highest order for him to have anything resembling a solid career.

I'm not a huge fan of Denver's roster. I really like jokic but I dont like what he's surrounded by right now.
Bucks- giannis obviously has top 5 potential and he's already a beast. Similar to the nuggets I'm not a fan of what he's surrounded by. Jabari's acl looks like it'll be a problem throughout his career. Middleton came back from a bad injury too. The rest is role players.
Wolves-yes. Towns, Wiggins, Levine, and another lotto pick this year. They're ahead in their rebuild compared to us.

Sixers- its hard to answer without seeing Ben play in the NBA. I loved embiid last year. He made the Sixer's my second team to watch. He was dominant when he played. If were taking assets into account, they own the Lakers and kings pocks in the next few years along with their own. Gun to my head I probably keep ours since our best guy doesn't have injury issues and we've already seen chriss look really good in the NBA.

If we strike gold in the draft this year it could vault us into the Convo with these other teams.

Yes, maybe (probably not), yes, yes.

Basically comes down to the upside of the best player on the team. KAT, Embiid and Giannis all at their ceiling are championship winning players. Bugger would I know where to place my bets on development. Probably on Giannis based how much he's grown already.

Minnesota: Yes. Projected top 6 pick this year, one of the next dominant big men in KAT, and two young athletic developing scorers in Wiggins and LaVine. Kris Dunn could still eventually play like a top 5 pick if Thibs develops him well, Ricky should fetch decent trade value, and Tyus could turn into a solid backup. If not for KAT, I'd probably keep the Suns though.

Denver: Nah. I value Jokic above anyone on the Suns, but the only players outside of him that I value much are Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, and Juancho, but they don't strike me much as future stars. Mudiay is arguably valuable, but I'm not a fan of his at all, and the rest of their team is aging veteran scorers that may not be there in the next year or two and have been keeping them on the treadmill.

Philly: Most likely yes. On talent in a vacuum they're ahead of us, and in terms of assets they're ahead of us, but Joel Embiid has played like 30 games in 3 seasons, Simmons hasn't played a game yet, Saric is a 23 year old rookie that plays the same position as Simmons, TJ will be probably peak as a fun backup for a good team, Okafor is basically worthless, and everyone else is pretty underwhelming and not worth much. Then again, they have the potential to end up with 2 top 7 picks this year (or the Lakers' pick next year) and own the rights Sacramento's 2019 pick, so that's a lot of talent they can pack on.

Milwuakee: Yes. Mostly because Giannis has one of the highest ceilings in the league, Middleton is underrated and still looked solid after coming back from his injury, and Thon has a lot of potential to develop while still looking pretty good toward the end of the year (assuming his age is real lol). I like Jabari too, but his 2nd ACL tear scares me a lot for his future athleticism and injury concerns. Brogdon was very solid as a rookie, however I don't see a lot of upside in his game right now. If Thon develops into a consistent stretch 5 threat, Giannis is going to be unstoppable when he gets into the paint.

I will say I think we have as much potential as anyone though, these guys are just a bit ahead of us. Booker had stretches this season where he looked like an efficient volume scorer and looks like he can be an all star in the future. TJ started out this season averaging 20 through the first 11 games before his injury and finished the season strong. There aren't a lot of guys in the league at Chriss' size that can run the floor, live above the rim, shoot the 3, and block shots like he does, and he's still very raw despite contributing pretty well toward the end of his rookie year. Bender didn't get a lot of burn this year, but he flashed a lot of versatility between being able to switch out on the perimeter successfully on defense, run the floor, hit some 3s, and make plays for others at 7 feet tall, and he's still younger than a lot of incoming freshmen this year. Ulis looks like he can develop into one of the best backup PGs in the league after finishing the season extremely strong. Plus we're adding a top 5 pick in a very good draft this year. Just gotta hope everyone develops like we expect.

Yes for Minn, no for Denver, no for Phil (to many questions based on mindset for them), and maybe for Milwuakee.

Nope.

Minnesota and Milwaukee for sure. 50/50 on Denver but I agree that Jokic > anyone on our roster. Regarding Philly I'll get back to you after the lottery but they could have a killer lineup next year:

Lowry
Monk
Covington
Simmons
Embiid

DirtyDez wrote:Minnesota and Milwaukee for sure. 50/50 on Denver but I agree that Jokic > anyone on our roster. Regarding Philly I'll get back to you after the lottery but they could have a killer lineup next year:

Lowry
Monk
Covington
Simmons
Embiid

With Saric, TJ and Luwawu off the bench. And then of course they could have two top 5 picks so could possibly add another PG or someone else. Imagine had they taken KP instead of Okafor. Of course their big question is health.

I will report you if you ever make another thread like this.

Nah.

sunsbum wrote:I will report you if you ever make another thread like this.

Funny thing is I almost deleted moments after I created but before I knew it there were three responses. It's just one of those big trade ideas like St used to do, putting the Wolves and Suns entire rosters into the trade machine and posting the link.

Plus so many itch for that star, and you got the Freak, Embiid, who if can stay healthy looked like he could be a top 5 player in the league, and Towns as well. Then many consider Jokic better than Towns, and the Nuggets are already on the cusp of the playoffs.

It's hard for me to even answer though because it's too hard to remove attachment.

Wolves - Yes
Nuggets - No
Sixers - No
Bucks - Yes

Hard to lose that attachment to Booker though.

Yes, no, no, yes

Wolves - Yes
Nuggets - No
Sixers - Yes
Bucks - No

Wolves - Yes
Nuggets - No
Sixers - Close yes
Bucks - Close no

lilfishi22 wrote:Wolves - Yes
Nuggets - No
Sixers - Close yes
Bucks - Close no

Philly could have two top-5 picks next year along with Sac's 19' unprotected pick. The ghost of Hinkie lives on.