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.