07-23-2023, 09:13 AM
I have said this before, but this is the first time in a while I feel energized about our future. That is pretty crazy when Luka has been here for 5 years. Last year, I was looking at a future where we were not a serious contender but also a team that lacked assets and seeing a future where the young teams mature and get good. I thought we were in no mans land. My hope for the offseason is they would toe the line between the now and the future. That is a real difficult balance due to having an elite player already and limited assets heading into the offseason.
I still think there is work to do to land the plane for the present. In a tough west, they still have a up hill battle this upcoming year. Finding a true caliber starter who does things to fill the holes, would do wonders. I am just not sure they have an offer at this stage to find one of these guys.
As far as the future, their draft picks may fizzle out and Kyrie may be looking to get to LA in two years. Who knows. But for the first time they have targeted talented youth who I believe fit the ideal characteristics to fit around Luka. I love the Lively pick. Did I have Whitmore rated higher? Yep. Could Whitmore wind up averaging 25 points a game at some point? Probably. But the question I was asking of all these draft prospects is if their main skill was being able to score, were we ever going to get the most out of them when we have two dominant scorers already? There is only one ball.
Lastly, as I mentioned earlier without a trade, we are facing an uphill battle. But I think a lot of people are discounting how good a engaged Luka and Kyrie can be....especially if they learn to play off each other. I would not read much into their poor results together last year. It may not happen and Kyrie may decide to go somewhere else, but the game is not that hard when you have a top 5 player. Surround him with guys that allows your star to be a star and you are already better than half of the league. For the first time, they have targeted guys I have been hoping for for a long time. We will see if it works.
I still think there is work to do to land the plane for the present. In a tough west, they still have a up hill battle this upcoming year. Finding a true caliber starter who does things to fill the holes, would do wonders. I am just not sure they have an offer at this stage to find one of these guys.
As far as the future, their draft picks may fizzle out and Kyrie may be looking to get to LA in two years. Who knows. But for the first time they have targeted talented youth who I believe fit the ideal characteristics to fit around Luka. I love the Lively pick. Did I have Whitmore rated higher? Yep. Could Whitmore wind up averaging 25 points a game at some point? Probably. But the question I was asking of all these draft prospects is if their main skill was being able to score, were we ever going to get the most out of them when we have two dominant scorers already? There is only one ball.
Lastly, as I mentioned earlier without a trade, we are facing an uphill battle. But I think a lot of people are discounting how good a engaged Luka and Kyrie can be....especially if they learn to play off each other. I would not read much into their poor results together last year. It may not happen and Kyrie may decide to go somewhere else, but the game is not that hard when you have a top 5 player. Surround him with guys that allows your star to be a star and you are already better than half of the league. For the first time, they have targeted guys I have been hoping for for a long time. We will see if it works.
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