spikeslovechild wrote:If Okafor is traded for the third pick I'm done. Not going to watch BC destroy another team brick by brick.
BTW, Dunn/Murray/Hield/Brown all have more flaws to their game then Okafor but of course that never gets talked about because they are the next shiny thing.
Heck, Dunn and Hield are 2-3 years older.
There is simply not enough time for all of these guys to get minutes.
We have 3 centers. All of which need minutes to continue to grow. Embiid isn't ready for full time so he's probably about a 20 minutes a night guy. Noel, we need to find out what we have in him before paying him...or if we even want to. At forward with have Simmons. Probably Saric. Grant and Holmes and for small stretches Covington. All competing for minutes.
and then there is the "style" fit issues. Jah needs a slow it down, methodical half court system. The large bulk of our players aren't currently built for that and perhaps never will be.
Then there is the value issue. Noel's value lowers the more he plays and closer he gets to his extention. Embiid has **** all value. Saric could turn coat and stay in Europe if traded to somewhere he doesn't want to be. Hell, he should do that anyway if I was his agent. And we are selling him on loyalty and how much we want him here to get him over sooner...to turn around and trade him is just "bad optics". Jah has 3 more years left, is still rather young, not AS injury prone (I think his knee issues are general rookie wear and tear), and ironically due to our tanking could still have potential despite a lackluster season (in some regards).
SO yeah Okafor is probably a better player than Dunn and Hield. But not for us. This idea that we can just stockpile guys with no thought of cohesion is legit what got us here. It was probably the most legit knock against Hinkie. BPA is awesome and I even used it to advocate for Simmons over Ingram (I think he is a much easier fit than a methodical post up big so that changes things). but eventually, you end up holding many of your players back and stunting their growth..and eventual value. We do not have the leverage people would like to think we have. Teams with a glut of guys generally lose talent wise with trades. Most of the time, you are getting a lesser player or asset with the idea mainly being that while overall the guy(s) you got aren't better than the guy(s) you gave but overall the mix is better now.
A top 5 pick, weak draft or not, is probably the best we are going to get for one of our bigs. Everyone knows one has to go, Everyone knows one WILL go. So they aren't going to up the ante too much. Its like when teams trade guys prior to FA, because they know the alternative is worse than whatever package they settle for. The longer we keep the logjam, the worst our bigs will look, the less happy they are, and the lower their value gets (as they approach FA especially). This idea that Jah's value would remain the same as he struggles to get space with Simmons and Noel as two of his outlets, or Noel's value will somehow rise in a situation in which he is pulled from the rim to guard perimeter guys and his blocks suffer as a result. Or that we will basically give Simmons NO room to operate and Embiid gets scrap minutes to even see what he is. All because of "pride" and this lust to constantly body people in trades is counterproductive at the end of the day.
I am not saying just trade dudes for scraps. Hell I'm not even saying trade Okafor in particular...but someone has to go...and a top 5 pick isn't the worst return.
Luckily Boston doesn't have as much leverage either as they are rebuffed from getting all stars...but they could still just take Dunn..and then move Smart or Bradley for bigs.