PushDaRock wrote:sidsid wrote:PushDaRock wrote:
Lillard was 33 at the time and averaging 33.2 ppg on 64.5 TS%, his play was still at an elite level.
George is turning 35 in 2 months and averaging 16.2 ppg on 54.3 TS%, his play has fallen off a cliff.
The situations are nowhere near comparable, Lillard was still an asset and the Blazers got value for him. George is the worst contract in Basketball.
The Sixers season has been a tire fire since it started and pretty much everyone has been checked out. It'll be interesting to see next year.
At the time, Dame's deal was thought to be, and likely still is, awful on the backend. That had significant risk. He still had a few year's before you got there and the assumed inevitable falloff would then make it an albatross. The assumption here is that Giannis is likely leaving/being traded after that window (which could be this offseason).
Dame is not getting a Jrue level player plus all the picks this offseason if he's being moved. The same way the Sixers aren't getting SGA and the Clippers entire future for Paul George now. Because they are 34 and declining.
Teams who want to take risks on declining star players won't have to pay a heavy price for them, and can likely even get compensated for it. Which works out for the more asset poor teams who never the less want to upgrade somewhere. These are the types of teams debating Zion and Ingram in terms of injury risk/contract, and then trade for them and assume the risk.
Of course Dame isn't getting that kind of return anymore, his play has declined and he's 2 years older. But I'm really not sure what your point is, Masai obviously would not have interest in Dame now either just as he would have no interest in Paul George. He had interest in Dame 2 years ago because he was still playing at an elite level and also 2 years younger than he is now, those 2 things obviously matter a lot.
You're trying to create some scenario in your head where Masai would trade for Paul George when nothing he's ever done has shown that type of willingness before. They're trying to win games next year and have a youngish core that they are trying to do with, how does adding George who will be 35 turning 36 and who's play has fallen off significantly help accomplish this goal?
He traded for an old, declining Marc Gasol, who's post game was already gone when we got him.
I know the idea here is that we're not contenders in our eyes and that would impact Masai's thinking too. But Embiid is as big of a declining risk too (not just because of age, but because of that knee) and Masai would absolutely be in the mix for him now. He'll absolutely still kick the tires on Durant this summer.
I don't think we can make the assumption that Masai has some patient, long timetable that he adheres to. We just pivoted from "years of rebuilding" to BI trade in the span of days at the deadline. And the advantage of really old guys is that they don't cost as much in assets. The selling point I think is the real weight on the scales for decision making.
