SWedd523 wrote:fatlever wrote:right or wrong - they believe melo and melo are 1a and 1b scoring options. adding another similar 1c score first wing was obviously not their preference. outside of vj, i dont think there was a good fit. a do-it-all pf would have been great. oh well...so they choose the konnector pieces.
now, we can debate - should they give melo another chance. i'm 50/50. but if you draft ace/tre/fears - you probably need to blow it up. they weren't ready to bail on melo. so they are gonna ride their 200+ mil franchise guy another season. worst case, 2026 draft is stacked. you ditch melo, go for a better 1a type and start over. this is melo's last chance, imo.
And I fall squarely into the "wrong" camp where they have basically forced themselves into a corner where their only option is to hope Melo turns it around and becomes that star or tear it down.
Let's just use your scenario and say Melo can't stay healthy, never transcends, they hang around 20-25 wins again and decide to blow it up.
My response becomes: why the **** are you drafting connectors then?
Wouldn't it make more sense to keep swinging for star potential? Isn't that the entire point of tanking and bottoming out and the lottery? So what if you don't find a star. If they do draft a star, at worst it's another player to take pressure off Melo and potentially supplant him as the centerpiece in the event he gets traded or can't be the main guy. At worst you're doing your rebuild again anyway. No team tanks with the intention of finding a connector.
Let's take the other scenario and say Melo stays healthy and continues playing like his averages have been the last few years.
Do you think Melo/Miller/Kon is going to be a team worth building? I certainly don't. That's a 40-45 win team at best. So then my response is the same: Why the **** are you drafting connectors like your roster has its core when you're either hurtling towards the mediocrity they preach against or a scenario where they trade Melo and start yet another rebuild.
In either scenario, they've reduced their options to 1. Hope Melo stays healthy and transcends or 2. Admit defeat and trade away their centerpieces.
i think the clear answer is... they didnt like ace and i think that's a reasonable conclusion given them many question marks about him predraft. might be wrong, but was defensible at the time to pass on ace.
so it was tre or kon
again... trading up to 3 was my choice. or trading with wiz and taking tre/kon.
