sunskerr wrote:I think comparing the 64 win team to this team is pretty pointless. That team was not gonna win any championship. A nice, "cute" team but they were maxed out cap wise and ceiling wise.
Now, this team also looks like it's not a winner either lol. The only difference is that one had its future draft picks and the other doesn't.
Our chance to win a championship quite frankly doesn't come down to any of this crap about trading for KD/Beal etc or losing the twins (the twins were not gonna move the needle come on people).
The problem was we didn't draft well from 2016-2020. Three busts in Bender/Chriss/Jackson, then wasting picks on Ayton and Smith. Having three chances to get a generational player next to Booker in Luka/SGA/Hali and missing on all three.
That's how you lock yourselves in to trading all your future picks for a 35 year old star when it becomes apparent you only have one dude who can score reliably in the playoffs and every other team has two.
Those years where book was still developing and ok with losing were the foundational years for today's team and our GMs consistently **** the bed when it came to the one area where the league lets you improve your roster for free.
The lack of draft picks will be our doom for the next decade if this team doesn't figure out how to play. I'll go as far as to say it's a 1 year window with KD getting older, Beal injury prone, and if you hate the minimum salary guys we got this past off-season, I got news for you minimum guys are usually even worse (see last years bench) so once those deals expire may help us.
Bender / Chriss / Jackson / Ayton / Smith
**** brutal ! Other than Ayton the rest got us worse returns than a 2nd round pick.