mattao313 wrote:thesack12 wrote:mattao313 wrote:I'd be highly disappointed if we traded Kennard for any first. I personally wouldn't trade him for 10 either.
Why?
If Detroit wants to be in the contender conversation, Kennard should be no higher than their 4th best player. Detroit currently doesn't have player 1, 2, or 3 to plug into that equation yet. So honestly, if you can get a solid 1st for him now, what's the point in paying Kennard anywhere from $12-20 mil/season to keep him? Especially with the cap likely to take a massive dive.
It will take Detroit 3-4 years to be good again, and a LOT of things have to go right between now and then. By then Kennard will be 28-29 years old. Sure his skillset will age well, but his already creaky knees won't and he's always been limited athletically to start with.
Like bstien said hes a good solid player that seems to get better every year, you dont know what the pick is going to be hes still pretty young too. We honestly dont know what his knees will do he may come back and have no issues with them. At some point your going to have to pay guys just because he isnt on a rookie deal doesn't mean he cant still be a asset.
This team shouldn't be in the business of paying up for "solid" players. This team should be in the business of collecting assets and maintaining cap flexibility. Cap space and flexibility are going to become even more crucial and valuable with the looming drop in the salary cap.
His knees could just as easily be a hamper for him for the rest of his career, or even be all but shot already. Like you said, we don't know.
By moving Luke now, you also subtract the chance of potentially being put into a vice next summer when some GM makes Luke a massive offer which puts Detroit in a bad position of either overpaying to keep him or letting him go for nothing. It only takes 1 GM to ruin your plan.
In addition, its not like we are talking trading Kennard for peanuts here either. A top 10 pick holds a very good amount of value. Mitchell, MPJ, Sabonis, Adebayo, all immediately come to mind of being taken after pick 10 in recent drafts. I know people are down on this draft and its considered poor, that said Giannis was drafted #15 in a poor draft. There are always guys taken later on, that end up have you saying "damn I wish we would have drafted him."
Actually you are trading Luke for #10 + cap space/flexibility. Because the difference between the cost of Kennard on his 2nd contract & #10's rookie contract is likely to be substantial.
With or without Kennard this team's ceiling is 30 wins or so. Why give out a big contract to maintain status quo?