winforlose wrote:frankenwolf wrote:winforlose wrote:The core of the team for the Ant window is Ant, Jaden, Naz, and NAW. We need to find players to fit around that.
Who fits that timeline better than KAT? Trade Rudy or others. Yes, KAT is the (currently) biggest piece of the salary pie, but come on. How in the He() are you going to replace what he does?
Again, we are talking about the 25-26 season. Karl’s birthday is 11/15/95. Rudy’s birthday is June 26 1992. In 2025 Karl will be 30 and Rudy will 33. Ant was born August 5, 2001. Ant will be 24. Fastforward two years to Ant’s prime. Ant at 26 will be playing with a 32 soon to be 33 Karl (the age at which big men with knee issues tend to decline is 33.) and a 35 year old Rudy. You are asking who can replace what Karl does, prime Naz. You saw the leaps he took year to year, do you think he peaked? Jaden and NAW will both be better offensively and defensively with those extra years and the continuity. You don’t salary dump Karl, you trade him for a blue chip. You don’t salary dump Rudy you try to resign him to a cheaper deal. A core of 26 year old Ant, 27 year old Jaden, 28 year old Naz, and 29 year old NAW sounds pretty good to me. Also you hope that Minott and Miller have developed behind them, you get some nice players back for the Karl deal, and you have some cheap free agents. The new CBA doesn’t let us keep everyone, dumping younger guys to keep older guys seems like a troubling recipe.
I don't worry that much about the ages thing. Sure in theory, it would be great to have an entire team of guys who are 25, but that's not reality.
Nothing is guaranteed in the future, so I'm not lessening my chances to contend today to keep an imaginary window open longer.
If you can trade KAT for Evan Mobley or Scottie Barnes, then sure. But I don't think you're going to get the player of the caliber you think we will considering his age and injury history.