deNIEd wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Am I thrilled with what Petrie did this deadline, not entirely, but I'm pleased with it.
However, we CANNOT have the attitude that we are almost done rebuilding, and only 1 or 2 more pieces and we are there. Yes, if those one or two pieces is a Dwight/Horford/Okafor or Paul/Calderon/Rose type player, but chances are, they won't be. We have begun to head int he right direction in my mind, but we aren't close to contending, and we can't start beginning to contend until our team is perfect. Not, after Artest is signed, and add 2 more draft picks, type of a deal.
I don't think Petrie's done though. He doesn't think we're a contender right now. In fact after the Bibby trade was completed he pretty much told the Bee these last 29 games or whatever were pretty much an evaluation period for him. Do we have a young superstar? Not really. But we have some young talent, a lot, and I think he'll use this last part of the season to evaluate. The general consensus on Shelden is he can be a 10/10 player in his prime, well we'll get to see if he has the talent to exceed that or if he's an underachiever. Spencer should get a few more games with big minutes like he had a few nights ago. Beno will show whether he's a starting PG or a back up. Martin we already know what we got. But he'll use this period as a time to evaluate guys.
Also even if we had moved Ron we're not going to have a great pick anyway. We would've picked 8th at best, probably 9th or 10th(where we still have a shot to pick IMO). In the west, Memphis, Minnesota, Seattle, and the Clippers are all way more horrible. We wouldn't have been worse than a single one of those teams. In the East you got Miami, NY, and 2 other teams that are pretty much trash who I can't think of at the moment. We're looking at a 10-12 range pick either way because the West has such a talent level drop off between the good teams and the bad teams.
The better option regarding the pick may be looking into moving up 2 or 3 spots. I'm guessing NY might do it, or a team like the Clippers since Sterling is happy with mediocrity and has his hand in the cooky jar(so to speak... management/player personnel decisions) way too much. If they could get rid of a potential problem(NY) or add a decent player(LAC) they might just look into it.
We already have a bunch of young players anyway, so a Kleiza wouldn't have helped. He's not really better than Cisco IMO. Not a PG. We haven't even given Douby enough time at SG. He's not a PF. We have C, SF, and SG basically covered. So we should do whatever we can to get a good PG that's young. S&T for Calderon or trade up in the draft or something. But right now we need to evaluate Douby, Hawes, Williams, Cisco, Beno, etc. We also have 2 2nd rounders.
I think you're underrating Ron's impact on developing the young guys as well. It's well known he spent all offseason working out with Kevin, I remember reading in the Bee. He works out after practice with the younger guys. He recently said he's going to help Shelden get better and that he likes his game. Ron is able to accelerate guys' development and help them learn tricks they might not learn without him here, so if he helps our young guys become good instead of decent, or decent instead of mediocre, I'd say he's helping the future of the team.
