Ghost of Kleine wrote:BobbieL wrote:Ghost of Kleine wrote:
But that is still drastically underseelling Booker's value in a Houston trade man! At minimum, it should be some combination of 2-3 young athletic core players AND the 3 1sts back! Maybe only two 1sts IF the 25' Houston pick jumps into the top 3. Not getting back Ameeen Thompson or Sengun is understandable. But Booker's current consensus value is around 2-3 promising, exciting, young, athletic, high potential talents, and 3-4 quality 1sts (at least two solid lottery of the 4). Don't let anyone mislead or convince you that it's less.
Suree the picks are very important, but the pick swaps that Jones imbecilically gave away like freakin "Oprah on her talk shows" make it eextraordinarily difficult if not nearly impossible to initiate a proper rebuild in even years, as multiple other teams hold control over our picks. UNLESS we do one of two things:
1- We accumulate young talent/ fillers (trade assets) towards either acquiring other teams' picks for the 26' and 28' draft??? This is still difficult as we'd have to try and accurately project a team's likelihood of collapse, resulting in a premium pick outcome. But if Ishbia hires the right legitimate GM and front office personnel, we should be able to do it. Also, pouring money into the acquisition of top-tier scouts and actual talent consultants. In successfully utilizing this strategy, we'll not only sidestep the poorer " least of" late firsts by drafting from the other teams' acquired premium 1sts, but those late "Least of" 1sts can be used to target supplementary depth or utility pieces.
2- We make sure we actually do get some combination of young, athletic core players on cost-controlled contracts to build out our roster around Booker and then utilize the accumulated cap space from the KD trade, etc to add higher value free agents now and espeecially in 2027. Or possibly even trading some of those acquired pieces for key players/other draft assets (for even years, to offset those pick swaps while additionally working towards being more competitive in the process??
I think the trade above getting Dillon Brooks plus the other players/picks was the best option for Durant
With Durant - they probably don't need Brooks
With Eason, they probably can move on from Smith
Two first round picks
But there needs to be more money so probably Jock L and somebody like Whitmore
I am not the biggest fan of Brooks but I think he would be that player next to Booker, like Crowder, - who is the tough guy, instigator type player.
Agreed! I do like Brooks as an agitator to give us an "edge" that we've sorely lacked for a long time now! And although I'm still on the J Green train, and would take him back as a centerpiece salary inclusion, because I do think he'll absolutely break out and become a star player soon. Even if people don't prefer him, He'd still give us a desirable large salary trade piece to flip elsewhere for other players. Maybe J Green/ 2 CLE 1sts to Brooklyn for Cam Johnson. Or perhaps to Orlando for Isaac/ Anthony/ DEN 25' 1st (25)/ ORL 26' 2nd.
I'd prefer Green just to move him to a third team but I also wouldn't mind Brooks. I'm pretty low on Green and I think he's kind of a rich man's Jordan Clarkson. He's still young and could still break out as you mentioned but I don't really like how he plays. I don't value him that highly but another team might and I'd rather get back decent assets than retain Green on our team. That said neither of the trades you proposed are that exciting but I guess I prefer the second because of the draft capital and I also kinda like Anthony but less so Isaac. I love CamJo but it's crazy to think he's only been in the league like 6 years and he'll be 30 next season
I'm not that keen to trade a young talent in Green for a guy turning 30 in March next year.
I certainly wouldnt but I could see Bartlestein trying to swing a KD/Ja/OG 3-way with whatever other pieces shuffling around.
