Post#16 » by hands11 » Sun Oct 6, 2013 7:24 pm
Pen, he has followed the plan.
Adding vets was always a part of it. If there is any one thing in all that he details in "the plan", that they might have deviated from, it was adding Nene. They wanted vets, but on shorter cheaper contracts. But he never said he would never do that, he only said he would try to avoid it.
But they needed a Nene and they needed to move on from McGee so it was a decent risk at the time, given what they needed and given how good Nene is. He should be a lot healthier this year. I think it should look like a good move once the season get started. Wall and now Beal needed some vets around them and they needed a stud up front. The combo of Nene and Okafor has helped there.
How you build a hockey team is slightly different then a basketball team. Reading the plan, it look like it was outlined to build a hockey team since it reference winning the Stanly Cup. A BB implementation might require some tweaks while the basic approach stays the same.
On a BB team, while you need depth, it more important to land really good starters. I think we have two young ones to grow around in Wall and Beal. Ves should look better this year but pretty much everyone here agrees #6 was to high for him. So its really going to come down to Otto regarding did they use their top picks wisely.
Kevin and Booker look like good picks for where they were taken. Singleton doesn't. But those were lower picks. But if Kevin can take a step up this year, that's going to make that group look a lot better.
Drafting is a an important part of the plan and from what we can see right now, its a pretty mixed bag regarding what they got out of it. Wall and Beal seems like great assets ( home runs ) but unless Ves and Otto yield positive output, they are going to pull the grade way down in how well they did. Specially if Len become the center they needed. But you can still be a good owner and rebuild a team to a top team, even if you blow some picks. It sucks, but its not the end of the world. Landing the right FA next can make up for some of that.
Ted is a good communicator. I appreciate that. Some here think he is full of it. I don't. I think he always said they would sink and it would be tough times while rebuilding. That was honest and its what needed to be done. He also always said they were building around Wall. They have. They stuck with Wall though the tough times and even extended him early, against what some here wanted. We will see who was right before long. I was on board with wanting him cheaper but I get what they did and why and its looking like a smart move so far. Time will tell.
The vast majority of what he outlines, he has followed through with.
Like I said initially, should be interesting to see how he stacks up against other owners over time and how the franchise is viewed from the outside. So far, the feedback they are getting seems to show they are headed in the right direction. When you get top players like KD saying they would play for you, you are doing something right. I no longer hear people commenting the franchise is a mess, a circus or full on boneheads. Actually, I hear positive comments from players inside and out. The Ws will follow. I fully expect the Ws to come this year as do many others. Will even more come after that ? That will depend on future moves they haven't made yet.
The aren't done. More work to do. But things have already gotten a lot better. They are on the right path and they haven't tied their hands to do even better.
