Scoot McGroot wrote:Colbinii wrote:Scoot McGroot wrote:
Yeah. I can see that for sure. I just think it's the specific 3 that’s the issue. If Durant were 2-3 years younger? If Beal were healthier? The general idea? Probably easily. But just the exact specific situation right now? Eek.
Yeah, but you can sort of nit-pick every core.
Miami has an aging Butler and two non-elite impact players in Rozier/Herro who are undersized and on long-term deals.
Houston looks nice and all but Jabari Smith Jr, Alpren Sengun and Amen Thompson are their two highly-regrded prospects and none of them have any realistic chance at being as good as Booker/Current Durant.
Indiana made a trade for Pascal but he is technically a Free Agent and was Haliburton truly hurt or does he have some clear limitations as a core piece in the post-season?
It's easy to say "If Beal were healthier and Durant were younger" but you can nit-pick every team in the NBA, hoping their player(s) were younger, healthier or better.
I do agree though that the Phoenix Suns don't have a Top 5 or Top 10 roster/position, but if your goal is to win a title in the next 2 seasons, I think they are in the Top 10.
Well, yeah, you can nitpick every core. I would assume that if you were valuing the possibility of swapping your team with this one, you’d likely be nitpicking both cores to the extreme?
And even if they’re in the “top 10”, how many teams are willing to trade their entire situation for a probably closer to 10 in the top 10 chance at a championship, but with the likelihood that there’s no rebuilding or bouncing back from it if you don’t win, which you likely won’t?
Because no one asked:
Just on winning a title in the next 2-3 years alone you for sure take Boston, Milwaukee, Denver, OKC, Minnesota, and probably Dallas.
Then, you have teams with a more or less equal chance of winning a title but with significantly higher long-term upside: Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Dallas, if you don't put them in the category above.
There's at least 8 that have an equal or better chance of winning a title in the next 2-3 years and basically all of them have much higher long-term upside.
From there you've got both LA teams, Miami, and maybe (generously) Golden State in the same category of teams with aging star(s) who are health-dependent.