CntOutSmrtCrazy wrote:doclinkin wrote: If we are talking about Porzingus being a bad deal, I’m saying that deal ultimately netted us JV, Key George, and Bagley, for a guy who was an hour away from opting out when the Clips deal fell thru.
We hear how Tyus was a wasted asset because we didn’t predict he’d jump for a minimum salary in the offseason, thus missed out on a couple 2RPs mid season. Ok. But round the long way they did get 2 seconds from the deal. And used them well. At least give them credit for the smart use of the assets they had.
Dawkins cult following strikes again. Lol so KP got us JV (huh), George (debatable), and Bagley (who cares).
Just facts.
Where prior front offices sold 2nd round picks or drafted players who were either no good or stayed stashed in Europe and never played for us, this group operates with a different philosophy. This squad hoards 2nd round picks, then freely spends them for movement in the draft and free agency.
JV was inked on a sign and trade for a 2nd rounder. George was acquired by jumping up 2 spots since intel had it that OKC was focused on them with 2RPs as the juice. Bilal was taken one spot early by shipping one of our surplus 2nd rounders. Those on this board argue that the play value of guys selected with 2nd round picks is next to worthless. Maybe. That same tracking data suggests you are more likely to get a hit the higher up you go in the 1st round. This group spends those late round small %'s on increasing their early round %'s to get a guy with better potential. They have been determined in tracking down the guys they like, spending those 'worthless' assets to assure themselves of taking the guy they targeted. They are smart in their use of this draft capital. And greedy in their accumulation of it.
We have 7 second round draft picks in the next 2 years.
But somehow they failed because they missed collecting 2 more? Rare that a player ever takes LESS than the market offers. That's the risk of free agency. Tyus taking less to play for a contender underlines the risk we might have taken of Porzingis hitting the market and netting us nothing.
Shrug. Anyway. Nitpick if you want. Seems to me they are clever in exploiting the system. Whether from cap space or late picks, they turned a guy who nearly slipped away for nothing into a basket of assets. Including a veteran role model for our front court high pick, plus one of the 3 rookies showing flashes of upside this year. Maybe that is a whole bunch of ham sammiches, but it is not nothing.
You can argue their scouting sucks. If you liked a guy who was picked lower down and can show receipts then feel free to make that case. But you can't argue they aren't proactive in both accumulating assets and making aggressive moves to snatch the players they like.
My argument is it is too soon to tell if they are any good at picking talent. Given that we have to lose for the next 2 years to get out from under the Wall-for-Westbrook deal, we can't know if the team record is artificially deflated by design or if we are durably sucky. Seems to me you can't fault the team for building with raw talent and playing them heavy minutes. Force-feeding the newbies minutes the way Deni probably should have been fed. And living with the losses.
Because we can't afford to pass up 2 chances at a franchise player. The team has been transparent that we are not trying to win right now. They've been open about it. And are finally tanking the way we should have years ago. Doing so without risking future assets, but raking them in.
I get it, any GM risks creating anti-fans who root for the team to fail after they trade away their player-crush. Go ahead let the haterade flow freely. Rage and tear your jersey. Crush all your bobblehead dolls. But facts are facts: Deni was not a franchise player. Nothing else matters. Our best chance at a long term winning record is luck in the lotto during a year when there is a bonafide star coming up. Landing a true franchise player means everything else they will have done is either justified or marginal. And frankly the collateral damage of hurting the feels of a few single-player stans is surely a bearable price for making the long play pay off.
