greg4012 wrote:AirP. wrote:I basically consider Butler, Bam, Herro, Nunn, and Robinson part of "the core", the players I'd like to build around and don't think you could easily upgrade from their roles, I'd like to see Dragic retained, Leonard retained at a much lower number and then the rest of the players utilized to upgrade the roster. Winslow has some very good attributes but with Butler on board, only defensively does he really fit in with him, I'd rather find some other team who is willing to roll the dice on Justise as a main ball handler and acquire a more proven good player(but it has to be a somewhat clear upgrade from current Justise, which will be difficult to do).
I fully agree with your assessment here, but you lose me with some of the moves you've indicated as being willing to make in this thread as a result of the assessment. I see things similar to you and do believe the commitment to the Butler window compels some leveraging of assets for a move now. But, I don't think we are (or should be) looking to make a move just for the sake of making ourselves marginally better if it compromises the flexibility (and ability) for a big boost in 2021. There are moves that can be made using some of our assets that allow for potential improvement without fully compromising the 2021 plan. Now, if we have an opportunity to make a move for a truly elite player, I'm fine with compromising 2021 for that.
Our disagreement comes down to this. How good does a team have to be to have a real chance to win a championship and we also may disagree on how good of a chance is a real chance, hence you wanting a truly elite player and I'm good with a very good player. I think 1 more solid vet scorer(basically an upgrade at the opposite big of Bam) without disrupting much of the roster puts Miami in the position to be a legit contender. I think J.Butler can create enough winning plays near the end of games on both sides of the ball to win more close games than he loses, so to me it's all about keeping the score close for the first 3 1/2 quarters of a game which to me means good defense plus consistent scoring. Miami has the potential to be great on offense and defense and from time to time they look incredible, but it's not consistent and with that we see large swings in the scores in halves or whole games. I'm just about moving as little potential as Miami has to, to add a more consistent scorer to the team which will help Miami and Butler get to those final minutes and have a real chance at winning without having to spend so much energy just to catch up. The biggest hurdle to doing this is maintaining magical cap space to add a top tier player when it should be possible to create the cap room that summer by offloading some of the talent or doing a sign and trade, much like Miami did with Butler this last year.
I'd personally just keep building towards being a better team, if you can maintain space for a max 2021 player sure, but I wouldn't just say no to becoming better the next 2 years because of it. Miami's not that far away from having a real chance, they just need more consistency that the young guys more than likely won't bring for a couple of years if they ever get consistent(some don't).
