Why The Raptors Should Explore Trading Jakob Poeltl To The Knicks

[Brinbe]

This absolute need to prioritise lottery balls at the expense of player development of your actual young players is so freaking stupid and backwards, it's really not worth listening to anymore imo. We've seen plenty of teams build perfectly fine championship teams without needing to bottom out.

Yak isn't 40-years-old, he's 28 FFS. He's not gonna be washed up anytime soon and is on a fine contract. There is no need to rush trading him right now until we have another starting C ready to step in.

Purposefully handicapping Scottie's development or IQ or RJ's to chase a few more losses when it might not matter in the least is so asinine. Is this supposed to be RealGM, a place where people try to at least think like execs, or people thinking that 2K is somehow real life or something?

[Scase]

Why does this forum have a hard on for trading Poeltl? He's a decent defensive anchor on a reasonable contract. You guys were crying when we didn't have a center on this team a few years ago. FOH

No one has much of an issue with Jak himself, I'm sure we'd all love if he had any range at all, but for what he is that's not the issue.

The want to trade him, is because he will contribute to ultimately meaningless wins that will worsen our potential draft pick. He's unlikely to be a big part of the team when it is ready to compete due to his age, and his contract is solid value, and should be good enough to get a decent return.

If he is the difference between us getting a top 5 pick vs a top 10, I think he definitely needs to go. We are starved for high end talent, and the top 5 of next draft is looking pretty damn good.

Yep this is another reason you trade him now while his value is high....Its a win/win for us....You get some future draft captial and maybe a prospect to go along with it while also gaining possibly a higher 2025 pick (Which holds 10000000x more value than Yak would ever have)....

Whats the point of holding onto Yak whos not even going to be here long term with BBQ since hes pushing 30 years old....Only for us to be in the draft lottery anyways at the end of the year cause we are not good enough to win with Yak on the team.....And all he did through the year was make our draft odds worse with us drafting at 9-10 instead of 1-5....Make it make sense lol...

Development of Barnes/IQ is what people are throwing around....These players will develop with or without Yak here....If you need Yak to make Barnes/IQ better than why are we paying them?....There will be other Centers that come along through the draft that we could find late lottery or 2nd round...

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

[nivisi9]

trading poetl makes no sense. the team loses badly without a center and his contract is reasonable.

no they aren't.. losing ENOUGH is what will matter

Have you seen the teams worse then us?

There's likely already 8-9 teams as is, which means currently we are probably locked in the worst place to be -- play-in or just slightly outside of

Poeltl should be traded NOW, that's the smart plat for this "rebuild"

may already be a treadmill..

[nivisi9]

who are some of the ideal/most likely Poeltl trade partners later in the season?

Man having Koloko right now wouldve been perfect, I'm convinced he would've been our next development success story such a shame

[Clutch0z24]

No one has much of an issue with Jak himself, I'm sure we'd all love if he had any range at all, but for what he is that's not the issue.

The want to trade him, is because he will contribute to ultimately meaningless wins that will worsen our potential draft pick. He's unlikely to be a big part of the team when it is ready to compete due to his age, and his contract is solid value, and should be good enough to get a decent return.

If he is the difference between us getting a top 5 pick vs a top 10, I think he definitely needs to go. We are starved for high end talent, and the top 5 of next draft is looking pretty damn good.

Yep this is another reason you trade him now while his value is high....Its a win/win for us....You get some future draft captial and maybe a prospect to go along with it while also gaining possibly a higher 2025 pick (Which holds 10000000x more value than Yak would ever have)....

Whats the point of holding onto Yak whos not even going to be here long term with BBQ since hes pushing 30 years old....Only for us to be in the draft lottery anyways at the end of the year cause we are not good enough to win with Yak on the team.....And all he did through the year was make our draft odds worse with us drafting at 9-10 instead of 1-5....Make it make sense lol...

Development of Barnes/IQ is what people are throwing around....These players will develop with or without Yak here....If you need Yak to make Barnes/IQ better than why are we paying them?....There will be other Centers that come along through the draft that we could find late lottery or 2nd round...

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

I think thats just the thing people bring up for justifying a reason to holding onto Yak till hes 30+ and we can't net anything of value back for him and all he ever did in the span of holding onto him was 0 playoff appearances and tanked our draft picks...

[Scase]

Yep this is another reason you trade him now while his value is high....Its a win/win for us....You get some future draft captial and maybe a prospect to go along with it while also gaining possibly a higher 2025 pick (Which holds 10000000x more value than Yak would ever have)....

Whats the point of holding onto Yak whos not even going to be here long term with BBQ since hes pushing 30 years old....Only for us to be in the draft lottery anyways at the end of the year cause we are not good enough to win with Yak on the team.....And all he did through the year was make our draft odds worse with us drafting at 9-10 instead of 1-5....Make it make sense lol...

Development of Barnes/IQ is what people are throwing around....These players will develop with or without Yak here....If you need Yak to make Barnes/IQ better than why are we paying them?....There will be other Centers that come along through the draft that we could find late lottery or 2nd round...

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

I think thats just the thing people bring up for justifying a reason to holding onto Yak till hes 30+ and we can't net anything of value back for him and all he ever did in the span of holding onto him was 0 playoff appearances and tanked our draft picks...

All while calling him a "winning player", despite the fact that no team he's even been on has won a damn thing due to his impact. Like he's not a bad player by any stretch, but the level of hyperbole around here, about how important he is to the success of the franchise is **** insane.

[Michael Jordan]

It was painful to watch this team after Gasol left. Not having a center is frustrating even for a rebuilding team.

[agkagk]

No one has much of an issue with Jak himself, I'm sure we'd all love if he had any range at all, but for what he is that's not the issue.

The want to trade him, is because he will contribute to ultimately meaningless wins that will worsen our potential draft pick. He's unlikely to be a big part of the team when it is ready to compete due to his age, and his contract is solid value, and should be good enough to get a decent return.

If he is the difference between us getting a top 5 pick vs a top 10, I think he definitely needs to go. We are starved for high end talent, and the top 5 of next draft is looking pretty damn good.

Yep this is another reason you trade him now while his value is high....Its a win/win for us....You get some future draft captial and maybe a prospect to go along with it while also gaining possibly a higher 2025 pick (Which holds 10000000x more value than Yak would ever have)....

Whats the point of holding onto Yak whos not even going to be here long term with BBQ since hes pushing 30 years old....Only for us to be in the draft lottery anyways at the end of the year cause we are not good enough to win with Yak on the team.....And all he did through the year was make our draft odds worse with us drafting at 9-10 instead of 1-5....Make it make sense lol...

Development of Barnes/IQ is what people are throwing around....These players will develop with or without Yak here....If you need Yak to make Barnes/IQ better than why are we paying them?....There will be other Centers that come along through the draft that we could find late lottery or 2nd round...

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

Its near impossible to develop winning on court habits without playing next to winning vers.


Jakub and kelly are literally training the youngsters to read a play one second before it unfolds.

Detroit sucks for 20 years cause of spacing.

Their young kids just keep bumping into each other snd then right out of the league.


Just scottie watching jakub’s eyes and subtle movements is worth more than a couple late future picks.

[MoMan24]

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

I think thats just the thing people bring up for justifying a reason to holding onto Yak till hes 30+ and we can't net anything of value back for him and all he ever did in the span of holding onto him was 0 playoff appearances and tanked our draft picks...

All while calling him a "winning player", despite the fact that no team he's even been on has won a damn thing due to his impact. Like he's not a bad player by any stretch, but the level of hyperbole around here, about how important he is to the success of the franchise is **** insane.

I get what your saying but Yak is the 2nd most important player on our team currently simply due to him being our only real 5 man. If Yak goes down to injury we literally don't have another 5 man that protects the rim, rebounds the ball well on both ends, sets great screens and can be a good PnR partner for Scottie and IQ. Again it's not Yak, its that we have no replacement for him at all. After Yak our best rebounder and rim protector is Scottie. There has to be roster balance at least.

[2019nbachamps]

Poeltl and Brown need to go. Dudes here saying we won’t win much without Poeltl. We were the 6th worst team in the NBA before we began the rebuild.

[DelAbbot]

I don't understand why there is this argument Poeltl is crucial to our young player's development.

Remember 2021/2022? We had a bunch of young players like rookie Barnes, Achiuwa, Flynn, Banton - and Masai wasn't concerned about their development with a low-end big Khem Birch starting for us.

making up narratives once again.

some posters are just frightened at the thought of winning 25 games... oh wait.

[Scase]

Yep this is another reason you trade him now while his value is high....Its a win/win for us....You get some future draft captial and maybe a prospect to go along with it while also gaining possibly a higher 2025 pick (Which holds 10000000x more value than Yak would ever have)....

Whats the point of holding onto Yak whos not even going to be here long term with BBQ since hes pushing 30 years old....Only for us to be in the draft lottery anyways at the end of the year cause we are not good enough to win with Yak on the team.....And all he did through the year was make our draft odds worse with us drafting at 9-10 instead of 1-5....Make it make sense lol...

Development of Barnes/IQ is what people are throwing around....These players will develop with or without Yak here....If you need Yak to make Barnes/IQ better than why are we paying them?....There will be other Centers that come along through the draft that we could find late lottery or 2nd round...

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

Its near impossible to develop winning on court habits without playing next to winning vers.


Jakub and kelly are literally training the youngsters to read a play one second before it unfolds.

Detroit sucks for 20 years cause of spacing.

Their young kids just keep bumping into each other snd then right out of the league.


Just scottie watching jakub’s eyes and subtle movements is worth more than a couple late future picks.

WTF is this fanfic lmao. I can't with you people.

I think thats just the thing people bring up for justifying a reason to holding onto Yak till hes 30+ and we can't net anything of value back for him and all he ever did in the span of holding onto him was 0 playoff appearances and tanked our draft picks...

All while calling him a "winning player", despite the fact that no team he's even been on has won a damn thing due to his impact. Like he's not a bad player by any stretch, but the level of hyperbole around here, about how important he is to the success of the franchise is **** insane.

I get what your saying but Yak is the 2nd most important player on our team currently simply due to him being our only real 5 man. If Yak goes down to injury we literally don't have another 5 man that protects the rim, rebounds the ball well on both ends, sets great screens and can be a good PnR partner for Scottie and IQ. Again it's not Yak, its that we have no replacement for him at all. After Yak our best rebounder and rim protector is Scottie. There has to be roster balance at least.

I'm more than willing to run with Mogbo as our centre, he's built like a tank, has a 7'2 wingspan with a 9ft standing reach, rebounds like a monster, is incredibly efficient under the rim, protects the rim, is a good passer, has good hands, and is good defensively.

Jak has more value to this team as a trade chip, than a player. Whats the worst that happens, we lose games and get a great draft pick? Oh no.

[dTox]

For the right package, absolutely.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using RealGM mobile app

[Shakril]

I seriously doubt other FOs are interested in Poeltl over those being younger.
And BPM of Poeltl is only 0.7, while the other 2s are better.

Claxton has been in trade rumours since forever - nobody wants to pay the price
kessler is still on his rookie contract and the Jazz - a rebuilding team - is already shipping him

Thats all you need to know about those 2. Other FOs dont think they are more attractive/better than poeltl.

And San Antonio wasnt looking to trade Poeltl? You sounded like the other 2s are bad, but failed to realize our is worse?

After that answer i am questioning either your reading skills or intelligence.

Just to clarify:

Spurs were starting to rebuild and Poeltl asked to get traded. And it didnt took 4 years to trade him, just half a season. (from summer 22 to tradedeadline 23) If it were worse, Poeltl would be playing now for the minimum after his contract expired.

Claxton still hasnt been dealt to anyone. On the contrary, he got overpaid with 25mil per years which makes it him a less valuable assett. People made offers for Poeltl this offseason, not Claxton. Should also tell you who is seen as more valuable.

Kessler is still on his Rookie contract, but the Jazz decided he is expandable. What does tell you that a rebuilding teams is willing to part with a young player?

And you say, the situation with poeltl was worse?

[Shakril]

No one has much of an issue with Jak himself, I'm sure we'd all love if he had any range at all, but for what he is that's not the issue.

The want to trade him, is because he will contribute to ultimately meaningless wins that will worsen our potential draft pick. He's unlikely to be a big part of the team when it is ready to compete due to his age, and his contract is solid value, and should be good enough to get a decent return.

If he is the difference between us getting a top 5 pick vs a top 10, I think he definitely needs to go. We are starved for high end talent, and the top 5 of next draft is looking pretty damn good.

Yep this is another reason you trade him now while his value is high....Its a win/win for us....You get some future draft captial and maybe a prospect to go along with it while also gaining possibly a higher 2025 pick (Which holds 10000000x more value than Yak would ever have)....

Whats the point of holding onto Yak whos not even going to be here long term with BBQ since hes pushing 30 years old....Only for us to be in the draft lottery anyways at the end of the year cause we are not good enough to win with Yak on the team.....And all he did through the year was make our draft odds worse with us drafting at 9-10 instead of 1-5....Make it make sense lol...

Development of Barnes/IQ is what people are throwing around....These players will develop with or without Yak here....If you need Yak to make Barnes/IQ better than why are we paying them?....There will be other Centers that come along through the draft that we could find late lottery or 2nd round...

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

Lunacy is only, if you think players develop on their own. Yes they have to put in the work, but you also need veterans around you that can you teach and show all the little things. You need reliable players on the court, to make it easier for the young guys to play and learn and in this specific case, you prevent Barnes from getting bruised playing in the middle, let Poeltl do it.

So yes, without Yak or an equivalent C (we dont have), Barnes and the other young guys growth will suffer.

[Shakril]

who are some of the ideal/most likely Poeltl trade partners later in the season?

Man having Koloko right now wouldve been perfect, I'm convinced he would've been our next development success story such a shame

Knicks and Pelicans right now. Golden state to, but i doubt they will do it. And for the rest lets wait what the season brings. For example if Hartenstein doesnt work out, OKC will need another Center and will call again. Just as an example.

[Shakril]

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

I think thats just the thing people bring up for justifying a reason to holding onto Yak till hes 30+ and we can't net anything of value back for him and all he ever did in the span of holding onto him was 0 playoff appearances and tanked our draft picks...

All while calling him a "winning player", despite the fact that no team he's even been on has won a damn thing due to his impact. Like he's not a bad player by any stretch, but the level of hyperbole around here, about how important he is to the success of the franchise is **** insane.

Can you lie about Poeltl a little more? So that everyone sees that you just hate him for stupid reasons?.

Spurs: 2021/2022:

The first year, where Poeltl actually was the clear #1 Center on the team. DeRozean left, everybody expected this team to be really bad. They managed to get into the Play-In in a tough western conference. Murray, White and Poeltl made all a huge impact to achieve that goal. They overachieved. The year prior they also reached the play-in in a tough western conference.

Spurs 2022/2023:

Spurs ran it back, but the lack of talent outside of those 3 made the Spurs to make a rebuild. They traded White at the deadline, Murray in the summer, and Poeltl the deadline in year 23.

Raptors 2023:

His impact was felt immediatly. Raps made a run to the play-in and lost sadly in a most stupid way against the Bulls. (deRozeans daughter). Without him they may not even make the play-in. (assuming: the team stays the same)

Raptors 2023/2024:

Poeltls impact on the floor was felt every time he wasnt on the court - the defense collapsed. January 2024 was the best example for it.


So dont tell me he has no impact on winning. But he is no LeBron or other superstar, that can drag a team to success.

[MoMan24]

If Jak is the make it or break it on Scottie/IQ developing, then we signed the wrong guys. Simple as that, Jak is in no way at all, the level of player that you jeopardize the future of a franchise on, we already did it once, the last thing we need is to do it again.

Jak is not some magical player that will unlock the development of our players into superstars, the players themselves do it. The thought that without him, Scottie is going to be some shell of his possible potential is sheer and utter lunacy.

Its near impossible to develop winning on court habits without playing next to winning vers.


Jakub and kelly are literally training the youngsters to read a play one second before it unfolds.

Detroit sucks for 20 years cause of spacing.

Their young kids just keep bumping into each other snd then right out of the league.


Just scottie watching jakub’s eyes and subtle movements is worth more than a couple late future picks.

WTF is this fanfic lmao. I can't with you people.

All while calling him a "winning player", despite the fact that no team he's even been on has won a damn thing due to his impact. Like he's not a bad player by any stretch, but the level of hyperbole around here, about how important he is to the success of the franchise is **** insane.

I get what your saying but Yak is the 2nd most important player on our team currently simply due to him being our only real 5 man. If Yak goes down to injury we literally don't have another 5 man that protects the rim, rebounds the ball well on both ends, sets great screens and can be a good PnR partner for Scottie and IQ. Again it's not Yak, its that we have no replacement for him at all. After Yak our best rebounder and rim protector is Scottie. There has to be roster balance at least.

I'm more than willing to run with Mogbo as our centre, he's built like a tank, has a 7'2 wingspan with a 9ft standing reach, rebounds like a monster, is incredibly efficient under the rim, protects the rim, is a good passer, has good hands, and is good defensively.

Jak has more value to this team as a trade chip, than a player. Whats the worst that happens, we lose games and get a great draft pick? Oh no.

I love Mogbo and want to see him at the 5 at times but he can't paly that full time at all. The real reason to trade Yak and not replace his skillset is to handicap the roster and undermine its ability to be competitive. Trading Yak and not having a serviceable replacement is a blatant tank move cause I actually don't think Yaks trade market is that good. Now if you can get real value you trade Yak but I also think you need to replace his skillset to some degree.

[Scase]

I think thats just the thing people bring up for justifying a reason to holding onto Yak till hes 30+ and we can't net anything of value back for him and all he ever did in the span of holding onto him was 0 playoff appearances and tanked our draft picks...

All while calling him a "winning player", despite the fact that no team he's even been on has won a damn thing due to his impact. Like he's not a bad player by any stretch, but the level of hyperbole around here, about how important he is to the success of the franchise is **** insane.

Can you lie about Poeltl a little more? So that everyone sees that you just hate him for stupid reasons?.

Spurs: 2021/2022:

The first year, where Poeltl actually was the clear #1 Center on the team. DeRozean left, everybody expected this team to be really bad. They managed to get into the Play-In in a tough western conference. Murray, White and Poeltl made all a huge impact to achieve that goal. They overachieved. The year prior they also reached the play-in in a tough western conference.

Spurs 2022/2023:

Spurs ran it back, but the lack of talent outside of those 3 made the Spurs to make a rebuild. They traded White at the deadline, Murray in the summer, and Poeltl the deadline in year 23.

Raptors 2023:

His impact was felt immediatly. Raps made a run to the play-in and lost sadly in a most stupid way against the Bulls. (deRozeans daughter). Without him they may not even make the play-in. (assuming: the team stays the same)

Raptors 2023/2024:

Poeltls impact on the floor was felt every time he wasnt on the court - the defense collapsed. January 2024 was the best example for it.


So dont tell me he has no impact on winning. But he is no LeBron or other superstar, that can drag a team to success.

Thats's a whole lot of words to confirm that he's never been a major part of a team with a winning record.

2021-22 : 34-48
2022-23 SAS : 14-41 at the time of the trade
2022-23 TOR : 26-31 at the time of the trade, 41-41 at seasons end
2023-24 : 23-38 at the time he went down for the season

The best you could possibly argue was going 15-10 at the end of 22-23, but that's more of an outlier than anything, it also lacks the context that we only beat sub .500 teams for the majority of those wins.

Again, I'm not saying Jak is a bad player, far from it. I'm just not delusional enough to try and argue he is some make it or break it part of this roster or the development of the players.

You argue here that :

Lunacy is only, if you think players develop on their own. Yes they have to put in the work, but you also need veterans around you that can you teach and show all the little things. You need reliable players on the court, to make it easier for the young guys to play and learn and in this specific case, you prevent Barnes from getting bruised playing in the middle, let Poeltl do it.

So yes, without Yak or an equivalent C (we dont have), Barnes and the other young guys growth will suffer.

And yet right before you claim that :

Spurs were starting to rebuild and Poeltl asked to get traded.

And they traded him, rather quickly. So the the SAS leadership is so stupid to have traded a centre who is absolutely integral to the development of their players and the franchise as a whole?

SAS was fine trading him away when he was replaced by Zach Collins? An at the time, 25 year old who prior to the trade was averaging 9/6/2 on 20mpg.

So if we trade Jak away, our players won't develop and our team will suffer. But SAS was fine with that risk, and you want me to believe that you know better than one of the most successful sports franchises of the last like 30 years? Your level of fanboying for Jak is reaching new peaks.

We need a competent centre, a warm body, we don't need a player beyond that. It also COMPLETELY ignores that Jak wanted to be traded from SAS because he didn't want to be part of a rebuild. It also COMPLETELY ignores that he said the same thing about being traded here.

But we should keep him right?

[Scase]

Its near impossible to develop winning on court habits without playing next to winning vers.


Jakub and kelly are literally training the youngsters to read a play one second before it unfolds.

Detroit sucks for 20 years cause of spacing.

Their young kids just keep bumping into each other snd then right out of the league.


Just scottie watching jakub’s eyes and subtle movements is worth more than a couple late future picks.

WTF is this fanfic lmao. I can't with you people.

I get what your saying but Yak is the 2nd most important player on our team currently simply due to him being our only real 5 man. If Yak goes down to injury we literally don't have another 5 man that protects the rim, rebounds the ball well on both ends, sets great screens and can be a good PnR partner for Scottie and IQ. Again it's not Yak, its that we have no replacement for him at all. After Yak our best rebounder and rim protector is Scottie. There has to be roster balance at least.

I'm more than willing to run with Mogbo as our centre, he's built like a tank, has a 7'2 wingspan with a 9ft standing reach, rebounds like a monster, is incredibly efficient under the rim, protects the rim, is a good passer, has good hands, and is good defensively.

Jak has more value to this team as a trade chip, than a player. Whats the worst that happens, we lose games and get a great draft pick? Oh no.

I love Mogbo and want to see him at the 5 at times but he can't paly that full time at all. The real reason to trade Yak and not replace his skillset is to handicap the roster and undermine its ability to be competitive. Trading Yak and not having a serviceable replacement is a blatant tank move cause I actually don't think Yaks trade market is that good. Now if you can get real value you trade Yak but I also think you need to replace his skillset to some degree.

Now this I fully agree with, I'm not suggesting we trade Jak for a single SRP or something, but the arguments from people about how it would absolutely cripple the development of our players is not based in reality. If a good package is around, we shouldn't blink twice to trade him, if he stays put, I'm fine with sitting him out random games to stealth tank.

But in no way, shape, or form, should we be jeopardizing a prime opportunity to have a pick in what is looking to be one of the best drafts since 2003, which is the one who had minor players like Lebron, Wade, Melo, and Bosh drafted, for a mid tier starting C.

A top 5 pick in the upcoming draft would give us the opportunity to add a player at, or above Scotties skill ceiling. That is a franchise altering addition, you do not risk changing the trajectory of your entire franchise because of a player that is average at his position at best, and won't likely have anything to do with the team when they are looking to turn the corner.

You know what fosters the development of players on your team more than anything? Playing with other high skill players.