Like if Cody didn't look like the worst player in the league and Taylor had shown some real steps/promise instead of breaking his leg I could get much more hopeful I suppose. Key looks like he may have taken a step after a slow start but he needed to take a leap to help accelerate the timeline. Its looking more like a 2-3 year tank which means go ahead and sell off what you need to to make sure you are bottom 4-5 for a few years.
Yup...outside of the initial Gobert/Mitchell trades, the only thing that has really gone right is the moves around the margin. Dunn, Simone, Juzang, Svi, Eubanks, even Potter. That's great, but a few years late when that would have made massive impact. I wouldn't say the draft has gone horribly, but it needed to go extremely well (I suppose it still can with lotto luck) to build with Lauri in mind. If we hit on the lotto, I would be OK with trying to trade for a second star and then we might be in business. I think it's fine to go either direction. If we do not have lotto luck, I would look at trying our luck again in 2026 and likely moving Lauri. Not only does Lauri pose risk to our tank, but if we keep putting him in the worst situation possible to succeed there's a lot of downside risk to keeping him on that contract. One bad year is fine, two off years and suddenly you've got to worry about how that massive contract is perceived.