closg00 wrote:Kelly is having a great season despite the Suns being mediocre
He's pretty much playing exactly the same as he did for us except he has the green light to shoot a bit more. His points per minute are therefore up a bit, but so are his turnovers. The one notable improvement is that he is shooting 35% from 3-point range. He shot just 31% for us in his final year here (after shooting 34% the year before).
It's a shame we didn't keep him. If EG was competent, he would have traded Porter for more cap relief instead of for Parker and Portis. That would have generated sufficient breathing room to keep Oubre through the season. This year, we could have generated enough luxtax room to retain Oubre if we bought out Howard (rather than trading for Miles) and refrained from signing Ish. It would have left the team without much PG play, but it would probably be best for the development of Troy Brown to thrust him into that role. Also, without using the MLE on Smith, maybe we could have acquired T.J. McConnell for the $3.5M that Indy paid instead of acquiring IT.
Our roster this year could have been:
PG Brown/McConnell/Payton
SG Beal/McRae/Mathews
SF Oubre/Brown/Schofield
PF Hachimura/Bertans
C Bryant/Wagner/Mahinmi
That's an infinitely better defense - particularly if Mahinmi plays center. And don't get me started on how things would look if we drafted Brandon Clarke instead of Hachimura. It would be a damn good team other than a play-making hole at PG. And we just happen to have an elite playmaking PG waiting to make his return.