FarBeyondDriven wrote:BoogieTime wrote:FarBeyondDriven wrote:I am never in favor of trades when a comparable talent is there to be drafted. Why trade for Mitchell or TimeLord with their injury history when we could get Missi or Bona who both impressed big time on the first day of the combine and both provide the exact things we need the most i.e. rim running, pick n pop, shot blocking and energy playing next to Sabonis or as backup centers? #13 might be high for them but what if we can trade back a little and pick up more assets in the process and still nab one of them?
Or why trade for the oft-injured Isaac when Ighodaro, da Silva, Salaun, Buzelis, Holmes, Klintman, Grant-Foster or Lewis are available at #13 or after trading back?
For that matter, why sign Monk when imho, straight up better players in McCain and Knecht might be available at #13? I always prefer to build through the draft. Players can grow up in your culture, they're cheaper, they establish roots in the community and are more apt to stay long-term. Us fans get to watch them develop, gel with the team and blossom. It's much more fun.
Besides, as others have pointed out, we've got nearly the worst assets to attack needs via trade of perhaps any team in the league.
What’s needed next to Sabonis is spacing and the lane cleared, not lob threats on O. Mitchell and Timelord have been bandied as Sabonis partners?
Straight up better players than Monk who have never played?
I agree about Isaac. Team needs concrete results not guesses at this juncture probably - injury history is one.
Straight up better players than a finalist for 6th man who is the teams emotional leader and putting up ~20/7 in starters minutes at the actual NBA level.
They are prospects
Sabonis can't defend and isn't a shot-blocker. We need size at the 4/5 alongside him that can handle those tougher defensive assignments. You're correct, in the past, with Sabonis unable to stretch the floor himself, having another big that couldn't stretch the floor next to him would clog the lane and wouldn't be good for Sabonis or the team as a whole.
Sabonis has now back to back seasons shooting a respectable 37% from three albeit on low volume. I'd like to see his attempts increase and more pick and pops from 15-18 feet as well. So Sabonis would be the one helping to spread the floor allowing another big to exist alongside him. And as important, when Sabonis is resting we'd have an actual center on the floor.
Yeah, better players than Monk. He is vastly overrated on here. They are the two best off-ball players in the draft. They would make people forget about Monk in a hurry. It's very possible they're both off the board making it a moot point. If we were pretenders with Monk making $10 million I'm not sure why paying him more helps us. If he can be replaced by more talented players for much cheaper that seems like a major win. 6MOY is won by guys on good teams that get starter usage. I'm confident Monk can be easily replaced whether it's by a draft pick or by in-house candidates.
Keon Ellis, with added playing time in April after Monk went down averaged 11-4-2 shooting 47% from three. We were good enough to remain in the hunt. Three times he got similar usage (12 FGA) Monk usually gets and he put up
19-5-6 (17 FGA)
16-6-1 (12 FGA)
26-6-5 (17 FGA)
I'm not saying Ellis is as good as Monk but it just shows how easy it is to replace that production and how overrated Monk is on here.
Yes, Sabonis can defend and has some of the best defensive metrics on the team actually. He doesn't block shots.
He's a good mid range and three point shooter, putting another player in the dunker's spot is still not optimal for him. And to boot, you still want Sabonis defensively playing center, you just want a shot blocker with him. You dont need Sabonis chasing 4s on the perimeter
The team didn't look good at all without Malik to end the season, and players, like Sabonis publicly, have shared that not only is Monk a good and improving pro, not prospect, but he's pretty important to team leadership. Sabonis cited Malik as the emotional leader. Being "pretenders" is fine, getting a lot worse potentially without Malik isnt.
