SmellingColors wrote:Definitely. I'm not saying he will put it together. Nobody knows for certain. But if you want to become a winning franchise you have to learn to develop the talent you see in front of you. You can't just give up on a kid that could be special because he had a really rough year. Developing is not pretty, but it can be worth it. You get franchise cornerstones out of it.
I agree. This is what the Spurs do year after year. Draft a talented player, let them mature as a player and learn the system, then give them some time on court to practice what they teach.
I guess what I'm also saying is who are we getting for McLemore? John Henson? A guy who has a number of weaknesses in his game that we would have to develop as well? Maybe Henson is better than McLemore right now, maybe he'll be significantly better in the future, or maybe McLemore will be. I don't know, but if I'm the FO and I've seen McLemore, I drafted McLemore, and I've seen his progress and the potential I stick with the guy I picked and continue investing time into him.
This is what front office personnel get paid to do right? It's totally subjective. For me, I would trade McLemore for a player like Henson because Henson helps to hide some of our deficiencies now and still has room for improvement -- he's a prospect still. We need a weak side shot blocker because opposing teams get into the lane too easily, and Cousins is not really a threat to block/alter shots. We just drafted another player at the same position (and mostly redundant skills) as Bmac in Stauskas that allows us the flexibility to ship Ben away if the right deal comes along. Whereas none of our 4's are really shot blockers + mid range shooters at all. They are all one or the other, with exception of JT of course, but contract.
One last point is that the way to win in the league is to do something different and do it well. Do something that exploits other teams. Something they can't defend or replicate. If we could put out a guard lineup of 6'6" and 6'5" that can rain around arguably the most skilled big man in the NBA, why not go after that? That's what I see in McLemore/Stauskas around Cousins. Add Livingston to the bunch at 6'7" and that guard rotation is huge. I don't wanna give up on that possibility for John Henson.
I'm on board with adding a guard like Livingston, who will help our back court defensively. But, this is where our philosophy on building the team differs. I question why we'd need to start Ben and Stauskas, both of whom are defensive liabilities, rather than improving the 4 position? We have 2 great low post scorers and Stauskas will likely be our safety valve for when they get doubled (IT as well if he's still around). I think our inability to stop anyone on defense led to a lot of our close losses last year and that's where we need the most improvement. That's why a player like Josh Smith keeps coming up.
