zaymon wrote:OrlandoNed wrote:swarlesbarkley wrote:
Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.
Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...
That doesn't mean building with only youth. Having a competitive context maintained with quality veteran starters integrated into player development has been at the center of how they approached both Toronto and Milwaukee.
In Toronto, when Masai and Weltman arrived, many pundits and tankers wanted them to blow it all up. But that's not what they did at all. For that, that FO took a lot of criticism from those people about how they were going to be a treadmill team etc. The same thing in Milwaukee. This FO have been about gradual stable improvement utilizing all three levers: trade, free agency and draft/development. They have utilized quality veteran acquisition to both continue an upward push while maintaining a competitive context for youth development.
1 Conley is not about adding the finishing touches to a contender. It is all about player development context and a continuous push forward. Having a good experienced PG has a tremendous impact on young players who need court organization and someone to absorb attention and create easy opportunities for them. Conley is one of the very best floor generals in the NBA.
2 The notion of timeline isn't real. NBA contract length and player movement makes sure of that. Every team utilizes veterans, especially teams that are transitioning out of the lottery bottom-out stage. The reality is that "young core's" are never kept together.
The best franchises at player development ALWAYS have quality starter level veterans to stabilize and maintain a competitive baseline. For a roster like the Magic, composed of multiple players that have shooting and playmaking issues, having an excellent floor general as vet anchor at the PG spot would be tremendous for Isaac, Fultz, Bamba, Iwundu and Gordon.
3 Financially it is very doable and the Magic can retain both Ross/Vuc.
4/5 If Fultz is ready, the Magic can also flip DJ asap for a wing. They can also use their MLE ($9.2m) if they choose to. A team with Conley at PG and Vucevic at C will be attractive to wings (including Ross).
6 The Magic will have all their draft picks moving forward. Plus they already have Fultz 20, Bamba 21, Isaac 21, Frazier 23, Iwundu 24 and Gordon 24. Already, 6 of 13 roster spots are filled with players below 24. Adding more youth isn't helping the youth that's there, in fact too much youth is detrimental. Staggering youth influx helps both development AND longterm fiscal viability as it spreads out when rookie scale contracts expand into full fledged NBA deals.