12-14-2021, 10:45 PM
(12-14-2021, 10:21 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: There's some truth to this, and I'm as guilty as anyone. But, two things:
1) I still think they're a lot closer than you do. I'm nowhere remotely close to a "blow it up" frame of mind, unless you consider ending the hellish Porzingis experiment a blow up. So, if I'm in their shoes I'm still trying to make this team work, and that calls for pickiness in terms of fit, I think.
2) Irving is an extreme case. Ben Simmons has had problems with his team just as newsworthy as Irving's but, idk...I feel like I understand where he's coming from, even if I don't agree with how he's handling himself. Kyrie Irving is so batshit insane that it scares me. I don't blame others for looking past those things, because hey, they might be right to do so. The dude is a top 10 player in the NBA, imo. But for me, it's all just too scary.
But trading KP *is* "blowing it up."
There are three players whom I think the Mavs have to get out from under their salary - KP, THJ, and Powell. But KP and THJ are part of the current core, for darn sure. I'm not in favor of keeping KP, but I think that THJ and Powell are actually the greater priorities. KP, if he has any value, is the player who has the most possibility of bringing back something of real value.
The problem with this roster is that, aside from Luka's big deal starting next year, the highly-paid players are not part of the future. I think that there are tons of promising players on reasonable deals who probably are part of future - I'd say Brunson if his salary wasn't about to detonate, but more specifically DFS, Maxi, Smokes, Green, Moses Brown. We've even seen some flashes from Sterling Brown, and don't forget Omoruyi, who I think might become something. Bullock might arguably be salvageable. WCS is not a big deal in the long run because we can let him walk this summer. But it's that we have money tied up in a guy in THJ who isn't getting the job done, Powell, who is completely useless aside from towel-waving and community service, and KP, whose greatest issues are (given his improvement this year) his salary, his health, and that he's still too hard to build around.
We need difference makers and starters. I'm not sure it's going to be possible to do that on-court with trades, which means this is already at least something of a lost year (we aren't going to be able to field a team capable of making the 2nd round this year). I think there's going to have to be some creativity with clearing room for next summer and/or the summer after, with the draft, and with the internal development of our promising players.