Scase wrote:RoteSchroder wrote:Scase wrote:Very well said. Only thing I would add to it, is with building the car before having the engine, if that pick doesn't result in the engine, the fall back is what? Trade the wheels, and 3 seats to get the engine, but have a car you can't drive?
The trade much like the jak one, in a vacuum is not bad. The player isn't the problem, the timing again, is. I've said this elsewhere, but had we grabbed a top 5-10 pick this year and next, and then we had a chance to pickup a player like BI cheap, I'd be all over it. I'm just tired of this FO constantly trying to force the issue, they need to stop trying to make fetch happen. No idea if anyone will get that reference lol.
I'm pro-tank, but not really a doomsday type of guy. Honestly, I don't think fans, management or owners have the patience for a 3-5 year rebuild, and if it ends up into a Philly/Detroit/Hawks/Charlotte/etc. type situation, it would basically be torture for the fanbase (MLSE will gladly take the money earned from false hope).
If we don't get the "engine" with the 2025 pick, that kind of shows the downfall of tanking doesn't it? As opposed to getting a guaranteed borderline star who was a #2 pick. We're basically hoping for at least an Ingram level player with our top 5 pick and if we're lucky, a high-end all-star. Look at Ace Bailey vs Ingram..Ace doesn't have that much on-ball creation ability, will he really end up being better than Ingram? Harper, the consensus #2, struggles to finish in traffic and has a low release point on his jumpers like his brother. That could lead to some inconsistencies in the NBA. Ron in the G-league has had three 30+ point games in the last month, one game with 11 threes, yet he's still wildly inconsistent. Dylan's 3 point shooting is also very up and down, can he develop better consistency with that shooting form?
Opportunities also don't necessary appear when you want it to. In two years, BI will likely have settled down with another team or be expensive to trade for or be injury prone to the point where you don't even want him. The situation for players needs to be right..too old and we only have a short window. We could squander our assets like teams did with Durant. If the player is good with no real problems and we have to pay a fortune. We bought very low on BI.
I have had to say this many times, so I'll say it again.
The purpose of the pick isn't just getting a high level player, it is getting a high level player that you have under strict contract control for the better part of a decade. It is having a high impact player on a contract making less than 15mil a year. That kind of contract gives you flexibility to add players like BI and get good teams built. But you don't go out and get the BI player before you have the other parts of the car as in the above analogy.
And so what if the opportunities don't appear when you want them to, whatever happened to Masai and his endless patience? You add a top 5 pick to the roster w/o BI and you still have a solid core to move forward with and grow. This is just another instance of putting the cart before the horse. I'm glad the cost for acquiring BI was low, but as I already stated, the issue is not the asset cost, or even the player, but rather the timing. The KD trade would've been bad cause we would have gutted our roster and not have enough players to field a competitive team. The BI trade is bad because we don't have a good enough team to add him to, adding BI is supposed to be the cherry on the sundae move, not the first 2 scoops of vanilla.
A lot of it seems circumstantial, we have contract control for almost a decade, but also a lot of players need to be developed for almost a decade. We could be just developing players for other teams. Powell, Siakam and Derozan all weren’t at their peaks in Toronto. RJ didn’t work out for the Knicks, Ingram didn’t work out for the Lakers.
Also, if BI gets healthy, he’s our best player. He’s a part of the sundae, not the cherry. The risk is essentially his health. This would be the equivalent of trading for Lowry.
Lowry was 26, not an established player and supposedly a headcase. Ingram is 27, an established player, but injury prone.
Both were traded for mid-level picks.