Dan Z wrote:madvillian wrote:HomoSapien wrote:
The Lauri trade stings, especially as we watch Vuc brick three-pointer after three-pointer. I wanted Lauri coming out of that draft and thought he looked like a franchise cornerstone after his first two seasons. But after that, he dropped the ball. He stopped progressing, looked passive, and oftentimes took steps backward. Maybe some blame goes to our coaching or even to Zach, but I think a large part of the blame is on Lauri. Sometimes guys just need a change of scenery, and Lauri seems to be an example of that.
The big lesson to learn from this is that we need to be more patient with our young guys. Most of the board wanted to trade Coby and let Ayo walk in free-agency. Can you imagine how suicidal this fanbase would be if that's what happened? I think Pat has been extremely disappointing, but at this point we might as well be patient with him and hope he's just a slow developer.
As for Carter, I still think he's awful. The guy is perpetually injured and though he's seen as a defender was regularly giving up season highs to the opposing center while he was here. The issue wasn't trading him. That was the right call. The issue was including such poorly protected picks.
I'm a pretty similar mindset. Carter was no big loss, although as a decent young and cheapish player it was a lose nonetheless. The real crime was including the draft capital and then resigning Vuc when it was obvious (even at the time many fans saw it) he should have been dealt before his deal expired and we paid through the roof for a 40 win ceiling.
My issues with the Vucevic trade are two things:
The protections on the picks. I bet that both the Bulls and Magic made that trade thinking that the Bulls would make the playoffs that season. With that in mind why not protect the first pick just in case things go badly? I bet the Magic still make the deal.
And two...AK chose Vuc over Lauri. I know this is hindsight, but he gave up on a young big, with potential, for a vet who is (or was) a good player but not a star. On top of that he cost assets to acquire. The better bet, IMO, is try to figure out how to maximize what Lauri can do (as he's already on your team and had moments where he played well).
If I remember correctly, AKME were really close to trading Lauri for Ball that deadline too. If we would've walked away with Vuc, Ball, and Theis I think we would have felt pretty awesome about our deadline. Ball really was the key to it all. And totally agree on the protections. It really should have either been one pick with top 5 protections or two picks with like top 10-12 protections.