What's new
By:

Are we appreciating the FO enough?

HermanG

HermanG

Well-Known Member
2025 Award Winner
So imagine we make the most passive plan ever and decided to just hold the roster as it is for 2 years with only major moves outside of draft being Lauri and Sexton R&E to frontloaded contracts. That would also result in two additional high picks as the team is not currently constructed to compete in the West.

In that scenario, 2 years from now we could have
- Lauri and Sexton tied up to team friendly contracts for the next 3-4 years
- Top prospect (own pick) from 2026 entering his rookie year
- Top prospect (own pick) from 2025 entering his sophomore year
- Two other prospects from 2025 using Cleveland and Minny picks entering year 2
- Walker and Lofton entering year 5
- Key, TH and Brice entering year 4
- Cody, Collier and Flip entering year 3
- Plenty of cap space with both JCs out at that point, Lauri and Sexton on those assumed friendly deals and so many rookie contracts in the books
- all the picks we currently own in 2027 and beyond, plus any we might add along the way, so plenty of assets. That means all our own picks and 5 picks from LAL, Minny and Cleveland combined (all 5 extra picks in 2027 and 2029, few of them lightly protected).

Even if we cannot deal JCs for positive return, they will be FA and out of the building at that point giving us 40M cap room for that offseason.

Obviously there will be changes in the roster and trades made during that time period, so that isnt actually what we will have, but its still pretty impressive. I feel like we are not giving the FO the flowers they deserve.
 
Last edited:
So far over the last 2 years it has been a mixed bag with committing to the tank the second half of the season but as long as they don't try to pull any win now moves then I'm happy. Right now we are setting up nicely to be bottom 2 in the west with hopefully player development as the primary focus. In a few days we may even be a firm bottom of the west after the spurs and blazers make a few more moves. I love the Avdija and Clingan additions for the blazers so they are suddenly a deep well rounded team.
 
The past 2 years have been such a waste though. The team's going nowhere. Any "winning culture" gained is wasted cos the team is no where near ready to compete.

Had we tanked properly we could be looking at a much better team than we currently have with better rookies and 2nd year players. (granted, we got both Cody and Collier at great bargains relative to most mocks).

We now need to commit fully to developing these kids instead of giving valuable playing time to players who won't be here in 2 years.
 
The Midnight said:
The past 2 years have been such a waste though. The team's going nowhere. Any "winning culture" gained is wasted cos the team is no where near ready to compete.

Had we tanked properly we could be looking at a much better team than we currently have with better rookies and 2nd year players. (granted, we got both Cody and Collier at great bargains relative to most mocks).

We now need to commit fully to developing these kids instead of giving valuable playing time to players who won't be here in 2 years.
Click to expand...

The next step that is vital is making sure that Hardy doesn't have many veteran options that he can play over the young guys because we know he will regardless of how well they are playing. We are pretty much stuck with Clarkson but lets not compound that mistake by signing a few other vets that will end up playing over our youngsters.
 
The Midnight said:
The past 2 years have been such a waste though. The team's going nowhere. Any "winning culture" gained is wasted cos the team is no where near ready to compete.

Had we tanked properly we could be looking at a much better team than we currently have with better rookies and 2nd year players. (granted, we got both Cody and Collier at great bargains relative to most mocks).

We now need to commit fully to developing these kids instead of giving valuable playing time to players who won't be here in 2 years.
Click to expand...
Just never know how things would have or will turn out though

Let's say we properly tanked the last two years and now have Anthony black and stephon castle or something.

Then this upcoming season we aren't set up as good to tank and we miss out on the 2025 top prospects. Then Black and Castle never turn into anything special.

Vs we half *** tanked and ended up with Hendricks and Williams and now are set up perfectly to tank next year and we end up with flagg. Then Hendricks and Williams end up being better than Black and Castle anyways (very possible) and we have a much better team.

The plan and the moves didn't make a lot of sense. I wanted us to tank hard for wemby. The way we did things the last 2 years looked stupid. But it still might all work out for the best.

There is a song that says "sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers"

Maybe this rebuild is going to work to perfection.

Sent from my CPH2451 using Tapatalk
 
We shall see. A lot of us were mad when Ochai was included in the KO trade but if that's what it took and Collier ends up being a stud the FO will look like geniuses. The other trade many of us disliked was the Simone but if Flip or Procida produce well we'll be happy about that as well.

A lot of the other stuff seems like no-brainer home runs - the Mitchell and Rudy trades, getting Williams at 10 and keeping our two other picks to draft guys have talent without trading any picks, and the fact last year's draft seems to have produced also. And signing Sexton to a nice contract as well. For trading our two best players not long ago we've already got a strong roster with more depth; I think we're stuck with Lewis Jr. for another season though.
 
sip said:
The next step that is vital is making sure that Hardy doesn't have many veteran options that he can play over the young guys because we know he will regardless of how well they are playing. We are pretty much stuck with Clarkson but lets not compound that mistake by signing a few other vets that will end up playing over our youngsters.
Click to expand...
The problem is Ainge just couldn't help it at times and take on these reclaimation projects, THT, Collins, etc.

The gain we get is minimal and they take up playing time for our young guys.
 
The Midnight said:
The past 2 years have been such a waste though. The team's going nowhere. Any "winning culture" gained is wasted cos the team is no where near ready to compete.

Had we tanked properly we could be looking at a much better team than we currently have with better rookies and 2nd year players. (granted, we got both Cody and Collier at great bargains relative to most mocks).

We now need to commit fully to developing these kids instead of giving valuable playing time to players who won't be here in 2 years.
Click to expand...
A waste? So you hate the last 6 players we drafted?
 
The Midnight said:
The past 2 years have been such a waste though. The team's going nowhere. Any "winning culture" gained is wasted cos the team is no where near ready to compete.

Had we tanked properly we could be looking at a much better team than we currently have with better rookies and 2nd year players. (granted, we got both Cody and Collier at great bargains relative to most mocks).

We now need to commit fully to developing these kids instead of giving valuable playing time to players who won't be here in 2 years.
Click to expand...
I feel ya on the not tanking properly the last two years, but I’ve also thought about the fact that next years draft is so good that as long as you have a top 5 pick it’s like having the #1 pick in just about any other year. Had we tanked properly, maybe we are looking at a much worse pick
 
The Midnight said:
The problem is Ainge just couldn't help it at times and take on these reclaimation projects, THT, Collins, etc.

The gain we get is minimal and they take up playing time for our young guys.
Click to expand...
The problem is that you can't float along well below the salary cap anymore, there is a pretty sizable minimum salary you have to reach which makes carrying a roster of 1st and 2nd year players more difficult.
 
The Midnight said:
Last year we could have gotten better players. Or traded down for additional assets to get the same players.

This year luckily we got some real bargains.
Click to expand...
Let me ask you this:

Would you rather add a superstar prospect to a depleted team with no young talent or a team with say, 8 young guys?

The thing is once you get "that guy" the clock starts ticking for the 8 years you are guaranteed to have him.
 
HermanG said:
Let me ask you this:

Would you rather add a superstar prospect to a depleted team with no young talent or a team with say, 8 young guys?

The thing is once you get "that guy" the clock starts ticking for the 8 years you are guaranteed to have him.
Click to expand...
“That guy” still takes time to develop too though.

Bigger issue is we just can’t get “that guy” without proper tanking.
 
framer said:
The problem is that you can't float along well below the salary cap anymore, there is a pretty sizable minimum salary you have to reach which makes carrying a roster of 1st and 2nd year players more difficult.
Click to expand...
This is one of the dumbest excuses for missteps. It’s so easy to hit the floor and do so in a smarter way than taking on the Collins and THTs of the world.
 
The Midnight said:
“That guy” still takes time to develop too though.

Bigger issue is we just can’t get “that guy” without proper tanking.
Click to expand...
You didnt answer the question.

The point was you dont want to add "that guy" as your first piece. Youd rather add him with a foundation already in place.

Wemby might next season be too good already for SAS to get another top pick. And if they get 1 more, I would bet thats the last one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top