OhayoKD wrote:The more I think about this, the dumber it seems. Why did we trade Durant for a 26 year old non-star and picks.
Very first glance thoughts
1) the probability he wasn't happy (not that this equals an obligation to trade, but is relevant)
2) he's expensive (and tied up as expensive)
3) He's in his age 34 season
4) He's missed a very significant amount of time since 2019 (and a pretty significant chunk since 2014)
5) the franchise maybe didn't believe greatly in the title upside of the present core
6) Bridges may not be an all-star but he's got a career +5.2 on-off. Noisy measure, I don't know what a better impact stat of choice that goes over multiple years is but ... I think there's indication that he's impactful.
7) There are also a couple of other rotation pieces from what has been a somewhat serious contender in the last couple of years. I don't know what the market is for them (and Johnson is young enough that he, like Bridges, could be useful in the medium to long term) but I guess they could be flipped for more value on the new timeline. In a small sample Johnson's production and on-off this year is promising for what that's worth.
8) "picks" as I presently read is 4x unprotected first rounders and a later end (i.e. Paul gone, Durant likely gone etc) pick swap.
9) those later picks are likely to accumulate more value because the team is denied the earlier picks, so will find it harder to rebuild.
I could be wrong (entirely open to that), this isn't zero-sum and as I say this is very first glance ... but that doesn't look like a terrible haul if you can look past the lack of a star name, scorer, all-star in return.
(edit: possible 10: without a great calibrations for the cap and value these days, my sense in that Bridges would be considered underpaid/good value - something the team could benefit from directly or in any return if they flip him)
