og15 wrote:Is there a better star or better group of players that George can be traded for to make the team a stronger contender? Remember, this is who George can be traded for with 1 guaranteed year left on his contract and with no confirmation to the team he’s going to that he will re-sign. Sure he could be traded for someone like Westbrook, but who wants that? One I can think of would be someone like Embiid for example if Philly decides they are choosing Simmons over him, George would be a guy to trade for that fits better with Simmons. Of course with him, there’s the injury concerns.
Changes should be made, there are players who can be re-signed and then used for trades (Harrell, Morris, Green), and Shamet can be used as a package with those players to get other players if the trade makes sense. There’s free agency obviously, the roster isn’t stuck how it is, and even with his faults, George is still a better 2nd option than 90% of the teams in the league have.
I'm not specifically in favor of moving Paul George, but I guess we just don't know the answer to your first question. There's a pretty high chance IMO the answer is no, but I don't think 'No' is going to be the starting point for the FO when they review the season and how they want to proceed from here. It's dependent on another team with a certain situation that makes for a good trade partner, and that situation might not exist- or it might.
We have a lot of talent signed on reasonable contracts, which should mean in general we have assets to potentially improve the team. We have talent, but we lacked chemistry and our play on the floor never really measured up to the talent- especially in the playoffs.
So to me, within the closed doors of the war room, you start with a totally blank whiteboard and proceed from there. I remember reading a Jerry West article months ago where he said that the groundwork for many personnel moves actually comes months in advance, and through timing or circumstance finally happen to come to fruition later at some point. So I think in his mind there will be certain possibilities to be explored, some more likely than others, and we'll see what kind of plan they come up with. I do think West thinks and acts very purposefully- he has a game plan in mind and doesn't just try to incrementally improve here and there and hope it works out. The biggest piece is Kawhi, I think it's a given that we will be keeping him and trying to extend him as soon as possible. Everything else comes after that, what's the best way to build a team around him and win a title? And then if its Kawhi and PG, what's the best roster to have around them, and how do we get there?
Another thing to keep in mind, often its the fringe moves that end up adding up to something really significant. Zubac was acquired in an afterthought trade by the Lakers to clear cap space, we acquired a Miami 1st and Harkless in the same type of deal. Zubac has become a major rotation player for us, and the extra Miami #1 helped net us Paul George. So who knows what else might come our way, even if we don't have a ton of cap maneuverability. Also, we might do very little over the offseason, but mainly because West has some potential moves in mind that he believes will pan out at the midseason trade deadline. Somehow he seems to be very good not only at evaluating talent but reading the tea leaves on potential future opportunities (which goes back to his statement about groundwork for moves often being months or years in advance.)
I guess the TLDR version of my post is that I trust our FO with Jerry West, trust they won't be sitting on their asses, trust that they're going to flip over every rock to try to build a championship roster, and trust with Ballmer that money won't be the obstacle if it comes to that. The final result of this season was horrible, but it doesn't change what I think of the current Clipper front office.
