2026 NBA draft thread

[myconsumerclub]

I think in team building having very useful starting caliber players in the $15-$20m range is critical. PJ is the starter with Flagg at the forward spots in my mind. IF they somehow move up with lottery luck and get Dybantsa, Boozer, or Wilson, that’s the only thing that changes my mind on starter. Having him as the #1 back up forward plus his small ball 5 ability make him still incredibly valuable. He’s only 27, so he’s got plenty of good bball left and with cost certainty moving forward. Fearless, tough, he’s a keeper.  I can’t see a trade where you get back matching production or value. I do like Bagley as a stretch big off the bench.  I’m not paying him a lot of money to stay, though. BWill is not a keeper. With Nembhard here, it’s time to move on. C is a big question. I’d hope Lively gets fixed. If not, what a waste of a draft pick that was. To me, Gafford is not nearly the value PJ is, so a C upgrade isn’t a bad idea unless Lively is 100% and giving me 65+ games. In that event, if you can keep Cisse and Bagley at 1/2 the cost of Gaff (or even less) and draft a big, I’d trade Gafford for a pick for sure if the opportunity arose.

I have to agree with you that Gafford's value has dipped a lot and PJ brings a lot more to the table but I doubt we get a top 4 pick and that is based on past results. If we get any of the top forwards in the front of the draft we would definitely need to trade PJ off because he is being paid starters wages and would not be getting played starters minutes over our new core. 

If that happened we could draft a PG at 30 and look to find someone with size to groom at the 5 with our later pick. There may even be many 5's who do not get drafted that we could test out and maybe find another Cisse with slightly more to offer given the depth of this draft. I tend to think use our last pick on a 3 point assassin or another PG to double your odds of getting a find just because your likely to find a center that is worth getting on board among the undrafted.

Bagley along with Moussa is a nice package to provide depth when and if our injured get injured again. I think it would be credible depth with defense stretching capability. I just pray Lively is back to being the impressive beast at the 5 he was prior to missing most of the season.

Could you get a nice young PG for PJ and Gafford if that was our situation? Kyrie and Ryan are a nice combo but another young PG that stands out with some size is sort of a necessary player to add IMHO.