Building/re-building

8on · Post #1 » by **8on** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:41 pm

I have a couple of thoughts on where we are in comparison to other building/re-building teams.

I always like to make the following lists: Contenders, Trending Upward, Trending Downward, and Bottom Tier. The teams trending upward can make the playoffs within a year or three, while teams trending downward are more likely to fall out of the playoff race, blow up their current teams, etc.

Here's my version of that.

(all unranked within category)

Contenders (should be self-explanatory)
Golden State
San Antonio
Cleveland
Oklahoma City

Trending Upward
Indiana
Dallas
Orlando
Atlanta
Boston
Miami
Charlotte
Detroit
Utah
Clippers (and I say this only because their record is good enough)
Toronto
Chicago (same as the Clippers)

Trending Downward
Washington
New York
Milwaukee
Memphis
Houston
Phoenix
Portland
Denver
Sacramento
New Orleans

Bottom Tier
Brooklyn
Philly
LA Lakers
Minnesota

Thoughts on the other young teams:

New Orleans - what happened?

Orlando - admittedly looking nice

Milwaukee - honestly, which would you prefer as a Bucks fan: Milwaukee with Brandon Knight, or Milwaukee this year?

Utah - I don't know if Gobert would have been better for us, but he can really play. Props to them.

Portland - outside of two great guards, not nearly enough. Youth improvement is not going to be substantial. They'll have to find someone. maybe Mason Plumlee can be that guy.

Minnesota - not there yet.

Conclusions
1) there isn't a young team that's way ahead of us. Orlando and Boston aren't contenders. I don't know when they will be, but it's not any time soon.

2) Have we made the best of limited options? Well, let me ask you this: how many of those teams would love to have Brandon Knight as their point guard? Minnesota, Utah, and Milwaukee all could use him, and it's possible Orlando and New Orleans would prefer him, too.

3) My most important conclusion: assume we don't have Brandon Knight. Make a list of your favorite guys under 28 years old. Remove any All-Stars, players who would go in the first three rounds of a fantasy draft, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis, and Andrew Wiggins. Now Eric Bledsoe needs at least one more scorer to get the Suns to 100 PPG.

Who are your one or two guys? If they're Devin Booker and T.J. Warren, I understand, but we'll have to see how that goes. It hasn't yielded playoff-caliber results yet. If you think we need outside help, who is it? If it's not Brandon Knight, who?

Until we answer that question, we won't break the ranks we're in. Neither, by the way, will those other teams.

King4Day · Post #2 » by **King4Day** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:01 pm

Just some side bars here.

I disagree that OKC is elite. I have them on the second tier of teams. Not good enough to win a title.
Chicago is not trending upward IMO. They are downward and are a big losing stretch away from possibly making some significant moves.
Charlotte (my 2nd fav team) is trending down IMO. They keep making the wrong draft picks and are unable to land a star.
Minnesota should be trending upward despite their record. Wiggins and Towns are great building blocks amongst other young players.

Considering we are currently stuck with Knight, Bledsoe, Chandler, and Morris' contracts, I don't like where we're at.

I said it before and I'll say it again, while trading for Bledsoe at the time seemed great, it was the primary reason why we ended up changing course from full rebuild to contending and rebuilding.
Say what you want about McDonough, but he drafted as well as you could considering the late lottery picks he's had.

I think his biggest obstacle has been Sarver and the 'compete now' mode. Without that, he probably keeps the Lakers pick.
I think some are overvaluing our players. I don't think Knight could net us a 1st since the league is saturated with Guards.

Booker and Warren pretty much have to be the 'one or two guys' since we have nobody else outside of Len (who isn't showing big enough strides to make me think he was the correct pick over Noel (I didn't think he was on draft night either).
Your placement of us is accurate. We are trending downward and, unless Sarver finally gives in, there's no hope for the future in sight unless we just get really lucky, ala Kawai Leonard

saintEscaton · Post #3 » by **saintEscaton** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 5:44 am

Its time to rebuild the rebuild

pidi · Post #4 » by **pidi** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 9:26 am

It's time to think about what went that wrong? Why is the chemistry still Not there and what happend to our young guys. The only two that have some game are warren and Booker.. what happend to Len, goodwin. Why is Teletovic Not gets it going. Something must went wrong.

Is it the coaching staff? Is it Hornacek? I don't know. But giving up the Season again sucks.

If you want to rebuild Do it now..

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Worm122 · Post #5 » by **Worm122** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 11:23 am

I think we should trade Morris and tank because this draft is not stacked will be good players until 12 pick

King4Day · Post #6 » by **King4Day** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 3:03 pm

Worm122 wrote:I think we should trade Morris and tank because this draft is not stacked will be good players until 12 pick

I don't think we'll have to trade Morris to tank