Skin wrote:mr2good wrote:NotACat wrote:It's also worked out for Denver. Utah and Denver should be our models because they're similarFA destinations, or at least before those 2 teams got real good.
Yeah this is a good line of thinking when trying to give Magic fans hope for the future. We're not going to tank this year unless we get overrun with injuries, so pushing for the playoffs to show future free agents that we're becoming a more desirable destination is the current play. We will need to nail one of these upcoming mid lotto picks and make a good FA signing or trade to get this whole organization back into a winning culture, which Weltman has done in the past.
The problem with this strategy is that Toronto has always been pretenders. No one ever puts them in legitimate consideration to be NBA Champions and I feel like they are at their peak of what they will ever become. After this year, Kawhi is moving on and the Raptors will be left with questionable future.
You need stars to win in this league. The honest fan simply has to tell themselves that the only way the Magic are getting out of this is that they will have to hit on finding a star with a late lottery pick and get lucky on someone who no one saw coming.
There are only 2 ways a treadmill team can find a star.
1. The smart option: bottom out and tank PROPERLY
2. The dumb option: slum it in the teens at the ass end of the lotto/1st round cannon fodder zone for an indefinite amount of seasons and pray for a miracle or dumb luck to drop a star into our lap like Giannis, Mitchell, Jokic, Hayward, Gobert, Butler etc.