Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[RDB]

But...I'd argue that if the Kyrie thing goes belly up (and, it's so far into the future that this probably true even if it does not), the need not to let that pick become a top pick will have a noticeable and significant influence on tons and tons of decisions leading up to that summer. 

When I criticize the last decade, I'm not talking about the couple of seasons immediately after the championship. I was one of the most vocally against letting Chandler/Barea walk, don't get me wrong. But what I'm talking about is what happened after hope was gone - the ridiculous "well, Dirk is still here, so they've got to TRY to compete." Insane. Wheel-spinning. Sometimes, you need to bottom out and start building the next thing. 

I understand your apprehension.  I would probably be more apprehensive prior to this off-season.  The “we just need 1 piece” attitude of the Mav’s of old drove me nuts.  I’m going to assume the positive that the Mav’s have seen the errors of their ways and have turned over a new leaf.  I haven’t seen a move this off-season that makes me believe the old ways are still in play.

I would also wager that there is no way we end up making the ‘27 pick and it will likely be gone by the end of next years FA.  However, I just see no need to be in a rush.  Let’s see what we have and not throw it against the wall and hope it sticks.  I think you and I agree here.

As far as frustrations about having “assets”, that is one of multiple things that I am happy about this off-season.  We kept Green, added 2 solid rookies, dumped a worthless Bertans, replaced a past his prime Bullock with a capable 3-D 24 year old Williams, replaced a bench cheerleader with a very high reward relative to the risk Exum, and have tried to move a no value McGee & an at best neutral value Hardaway.  We are younger, more athletic, and more capable defensively AND I believe, are in a much better position to operate from a position of strength next year.

If people thought this was a 1 year turnaround, they may have set expectations too high.  If people thought this was likely a two year process, I don’t see how anyone could be dissatisfied with what the team has done this off-season.  Personally, I haven’t felt this good about our 2-3 year window in a long time.  As F Gump said, we just need to string together a few of these types of off-seasons and we should have a foundation to make us serious players for whatever time Luka remains with the team.