Deivork wrote:hugepatsfan wrote:I think there's a definite sense of disapoontment with this offseason. For good reason. But if you take a step back, we are as good/better than the team we made last year's playoff run with. It may be only marginally better, but still...
Our starting 5 of Kemba/Smart/Brown/Tatum/Theis proved effective last playoffs. Thompson is a big upgrade over Kanter just by virtue of being a good enough defender to play. Teague should be able to replicate what Wanamaker brought to the table (better in some areas, tradeoff in others). Semi is back so that baseline production is back, even if no one is excited by it. Grant and Rob Williams got meaningful run and both are back. The only thing we've lost from last year's playoff run is the hobbled version of Hayward we got for a couple of games at the end.
We have a whole unit of 1st round picks to try out: Pritchard / Langford / Nesmith / G Williams / R Williams. I'd like to see if any of them can really emerge as full time, consistent rotation pieces. All of them have the talent/draft status where that's a reasonable hope/expectation. I'm not saying that they need to
I hope we generate a TPE for Hayward, but before we go rushing to use it, I'd like to go at least through the deadline and see what happens with that group of talented youngsters first. We can assess our team needs and best way to us the TPE from there.
If some/all of them flop/fail to continue development then we can use the TPE to try and fill in the gaps. If no one emerges on the wing then we can target that positon. If there's a lock of a good PF option you can target that. If Teague ends up being washed and Pritchard sucks you can go for a backup PG. Just roll with the punches.
But, if some/all of those guys really emerge, then we might need to pursue any depth player(s) at all. Instead, you stash it for next year and pursue big names. For instance, Jrue Holiday would have hypothetically fit into the Hayward TPE if we had it this year. Lt's pretend there's a player like that available next year. We can use the TPE to offer up total salary relif and then package some combination of those young players and picks.
Or look at what OKC did this year. They've collected tons of assets by taking on salary. If our young players emerge to where we have a good bench, then we can try to use the TPE to generate future assets that way.
I think the TPE should be relatively inexpensive to make happen and it opens up a ton of possibilities, even if it doesn't bear any fruit right away.
THANK YOU! Making some good sense of the offseason. Really agree on the TPE assessment.
I agree with the start of it, but I think it's the wrong approach with the TPE.
If our guys on rookie contracts end up not being able to contribute in a meaningful enough way, I don't think we take the TPE and see what kind of guys we can add for it to bolster the roster this season. It'd be a waste given that our bench is already so thin. I think you stash it for the off-season and just let the chips fall where they may this season and aim for maximum flexibility.
Alternatively if the young guys emerge, then I think it makes sense to start trying to leverage their value and the TPE to bring in a really impactful piece and make a genuine run at it this year. If Langford/Timelord/Grant drum up enough interest we could get a vet piece more ready to contribute that fits into that TPE.
