TheSuzerain wrote:Any time you ask yourself how we can use the #4 pick to fit in with our current players, you should put $1 in a jar.
Our core is terrible. White, Lavine, Lauri, WCJ. It's basura.
I'm not so down on them, and a full blown rebuild isn't particularly appealing (though more appealing than when they did the Jimmy trade because of the mass objections to being a "treadmill team").
In any event, I'm not down on White or LaVine as potentially starting level pieces on a good team. Both can shoot and create, LaVine's defense while bad has improved and White is "ok" on that end. They aren't team corner-stones, but you can have them on a strong team - even starting - if the other pieces are right.
I'm pretty down on Markkanen because I don't think the Niko-ish "shooting 4" has a real place in the modern NBA - you just guard them with a wing and there's no real offensive advantage, but there is a defensive liability. Maybe Lauri could develop into an offensive 5 for a D'Antoni team, but I'm not sure he can switch well enough on defense.
I'm similarly down on Carter Jr. (and I didn't want to draft him in the first place) because at the 5: (1) he's undersized against bigger players when they come up; (2) doesn't add a lot of "shot-altering" defensive presence; (3) is limited in his switch-ability (though he has some); (4) he's not a "plus" offensive player, generally; and (5) he hasn't developed a 3 that's good enough for opponents to have to respect. To me he's basically "just a guy" - the current version of "average Al" but without the 3 point shot or passing - kind of "dime a dozen" in the current NBA. But he also could be a starter on a strong team, like the Celtics with Kemba-Brown-Tatum-Hayward as the other 4 players - because of the general devaluation of the center position in the modern NBA.