MAVS NEWS: Luka Is Hurt, But is Trudging On | DLive's Mom Passes Away| Maxi OUT

[F Gump]

1 But which moves were moves in the wrong direction? I don't think they were necessarily making moves in a wrong direction.

2 Their problem for 5 years was that they had really no direction. Wanting to be contenders, but not putting everything in to be one.

3 Not tanking or developing on the other hand.

1-2 I think those sentences accurately summarize your whole post, and I disagree with both.That is, I think they did have a defined direction, but I think they failed in doing it properly.

1-2 I think their goal was to get 2 stars who could complement each other and build around. Luka was the 1st. Where they failed was thinking KP would be the 2nd, and by going all-in on him, that was their wrong direction move. They thought they were getting Anthony Davis 2.0, and instead they got a KD wanna-be who was extra tall for a shooter, but not an elite shot, and not interested in dominating in the middle. And brittle. Their analysis and evaluation was a total fail, in their over-eagerness to get the 2nd star.

IMO They certainly had a plan, and were all-in. But their lack of proper evaluation killed them.
 
In that same vein, I think the Kyrie acquisition was the next stab at the same plan. I don't think he was brought in to be a short-term band-aid, but instead they simply see him as the 2nd star they need, with the intention to make it work well and to ride it out as long as possible. In time we'll see if they did better this go-round than with KP.

3 Tanking and development?

The fact that they (wrongly) thought they had their 2 stars kept them from tanking. They spent picks on who they thought was the 2nd star. And I do think they tanked more this year than anyone knew, so they get some credit for that from me -- but they really cut it tight, in keeping the pick, which I thought was dumb because it was so needless.

But it doesn't excuse the fact they failed to develop at the bottom of the roster, and have an expert development team to make things happen. Those were several wasted years they can never get back. And they never got a talent expert and negotiator until this year, which was inexcusable as there's no cap on hiring experts.