Gradey, Walter & Brown. Who plays?

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

I give it a week or two until Brown's knee mysteriously flares up again.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

You gotta put Brown higher in the my so called life Peking Order than Jakobe. He can go rot in the gleague or whatever.

Walter wouldn't rot in the GLeague, it would be similar to what was done with Gradey. He'll have a chance to build momentum and next year he'd be a rotation player.

The only reason Brown should be given minutes is so he can build trade value. He was a good player for a championship level team and another team will likely want him.

Brown is higher in the pecking order than Jakobe and thus is the preferred candidate for minutes. Yeah we may trade him, sure, or if we're tanking maybe hold him out.

[TorontoBaller]

who ever plays the best defense must start

That’s ochai

[billy_hoyle]

Personally given we have our 1st + Port#2, I would be fine if we just tried to keep building up the future pipeline.

We know if we move Brown a player or 2 are coming back. One we likely waive or move to another team. Other we keep. If we could get a 1st in 2027....lottery protected...fine by me.

Try this year by trading Brown and Boucher to add more assets to 2027/2028.

At least this year the product on the court is exciting to watch all while you can see improvements across the board. And might actually have a pipeline of kids coming year after year as cheap contracts are always going to he welcome.

I'm all for future 1sts...I'm just personally doubtful someone is going to trade that far out for what would obviously be a short term Playoff run rental of Bruce/and more so a tax savings team. Generally those teams are ones facing a rebuild by the time 27-28' are rolling around.

I understand you said lottery protection but I just don't see a team that can see a rebuild on the horizon wanting to ever risk having a year where they've clearly taken a few steps back and be stuck having to give up their pick to further prolong it when they'd so obviously just tank the season and then it converts to 2nds which a couple of seconds in 29'+ really isn't all that impactful.

Which is again why I think a move like "Rui" where we get the slightly better & younger rotation piece as a result of taking on additional year(s) of salary OR it's to a rival tank team that wants to shed ok players like Cam Johnson, Jon Collins, Robert Williams, etc but then they're the teams wanting us to add some sort of pick, that hopefully we'd offer a collection of SRPs with instead BUT again I could see our FO willing to add the IND pick if they believe it's a good, solid younger-ish player that they'd expect to be a part of the next 3 or so years of growing. I think they continue to try to find guys in that 24-27ish age bracket that are gonna contribute pretty much asap. Again this not something I hope they do, it's just what I think the FO will do. I think they're trying to actively re-shape the roster, not put it further down the road.

I think Masai seeing Indy uneven play this year keeps that Indy pick in 2026 in case there is a serious implosion.

Jmo

You're not wrong, but that goes the other way too.

I think other GMs might start eyeing up that pick like it's a possible golden ticket.

Does Jabari Smith Jr need a change of scenery? Houston looking pretty stacked right now, can they pay everyone? Indy 1st and Boucher?

[HangTime]

You can play all of them.

Spread out the mintues, and they can give a higher level of intensity.

[Appostis]

....wait... you're serious?

It's Dick(most likely) and Ochai(outside chance).

The only freaking way it's not those two is if they are showcasing Brown for trades or the tank has got real.

What are you smoking OP?

[JB7]

It's a tank season. They will find some reason to sit some guys. So as Brown, Walter and eventually Barnes & IQ come back, expect others to sit for injury reasons. Yak, Gradey & Ochai haven't had a good rest yet, and RJ could probably use another rest.

[causal_fan]

Don't Worry - New injuries & the trade deadline should help.

[FunkaRaptor]

It's not Big Walter Energy and it's not Big Brown Energy.

It's Big Gradey Energy.

[Tofubeque]

I say Brown can take Garrett Temple’s minutes.

[Kingsway_fan]

Walter, Shead etc need to be down at the 905 Raptors for long stints... when we are close to full strength, even sooner ...