Bassman wrote:Clearly this coaching staff doesn’t see much promise in Carey or Richards, and I somewhat agree. We’re not going to get the center we need in the draft. Trading Washington as part of a package almost seems inevitable, but at some point you have to make choices. Bridges stepped up and needs to be our 4, at least till such time that we’d have a big time BIG 4 that would allow Miles to shift to the 3 spot (and move or expire Hayward).
If Hayward is the key part of a deal for our center so be it. I know he adds a lot when he can play, but that is likely always going to be a percentage of the year due to frequent injuries. Also folks need to expect any deal we do is not going to bring us a perfect 5. Teams that have those keep them. Turner is not perfect but I think he brings a lot (if that is the deal). Others already mentioned could be good options. Or we get our center in FA (Noel perhaps?).
We are so used to being a bad team with no future, so we focus too much on our starting 5 players. We can have 8-9 really good players that fit really well together and be a strong team. PJ and Miles have already shown they can play together evidence by our two best lineups by Net Rating featured them together.
https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/advanced/?Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612766&sort=NET_RATING&dir=1&CF=MIN*G*60Personally, I am opposed to trading any decent asset for a Center, because we have cap space and a lottery pick to solve the issue. Hard to imagine a scenario where we trade PJ and 11 for a Center who makes us better than just keeping PJ, 11 and signing someone like Holmes, Noel or Theis.