fanboyslim

I give up.

I'm literally saying that!! I'm not sure why you're arguing with me! My concern (my only concern, as I said in my original post) is that by the time JJJ and our next couple of high picks start showing what they can be JV will be more than 30 and in search of a new contract. It is what it is.

Yes, we have been successful on the court, I'm not one of those that say you can't be successful if you don't win championships. Making the playofs consistently, building a team culture and strengthening the ties with the city are also important. But you can't seriously tell me that the franchise has been successful in building for the future. It's not just Thabeet, we've missed on every single 1st round pick between Conley and JJJ, and that's on the picks we didn't give away like candy. You can make mistakes in the draft, every team does, but you can't sustain success without getting younger players with the potential to replace your aging stars and stay for a long period of time. The best way to get and keep young players is either through the draft or by trading for them while on rookie contracts. We've failed miserably at that. But hey, I'll be the first to cheer if we manage to turn around this team in a year or two. I'm just pessimistic.

Absolutely, better late than never. Unfortunately it's going to take us years to overcome the existing damage. It's a pity that we couldn't get anyone under a rookie contract other than Dorsey in the recent trades.

Good, because that's not what I'm proposing. Read again what I'm actually saying. Besides, the really dumb strategy is to waste picks for 10+ years so you end up with a core whose wheels are going to fall off within 3-4 years of each other and no promising young players read to take over. Following this strategy is what has put the team in a position in which we are forced to hope that a 19 year old or whoever we pick in the next 2-3 drafts will become a superstar. Because hoping that anyone else we have in this roster becomes one is not exactly a winning strategy either.

Come on, Smit, you're not seriously comparing JV with Abdul-Jabbar, are you? Jabbar played at elite level into his late 30s and was a top 3 all time great. JV's production will most likely age like Marc's. And again, that doesn't mean we can't keep JV for the ride. Let's just not marry him.

I picked the wrong game to go to sleep early. 😢

Worry not. If you get season tickets you get a free pacemaker.

Doumbouya is a very interesting prospect but he is also very raw, still in his first year in the French pro league and with just OK production. I wouldn't mind picking him and let him stay a year or two more in Europe, I suspect if we bring him in next season he'll be lost in the woods.

The problem with JV (and it's my only issue with trading for him, since I know and like him since before he came to the NBA) is that his age is not well aligned with JJJ's, and more importantly, with the likely high draft picks we'll get in the next 2-3 years. He's not likely to be around or play at a top level by the time the new guys grow up into the elite players we need them to be to contend. That doesn't mean we have to drop him like a hot potato at the first chance. He can absolutely be a core part of the team in the transition period and he has the right skills and personal traits to help with the young guys' growth process, but we need to be careful not to tie a lot of long term money if we renew him after his current contract. We don't want to get to the point when we have to max a budding superstar or two and find out we have half of our cap tied in legacy contracts (and end like the Thunder when they traded Harden). It would be a different situation if we had received one or two good players on rookie contracts in this season's trades, as that might have accelerated our next window of contention and align it with JV's prime. Sadly, we didn't and here we are.

You can’t tell me that we’re playing Holiday on purpose and not tanking.

Of course it had to be clone.

Interesting choice of lineup by JB. Oh, we’re down 7, wonder how that happened.

Watching Parsons try to defend the perimeter is like watching a chicken try to befriend a pitbull. It’s cute for a while, then all of a sudden there’s blood everywhere.

Don’t worry, Parsons is here to save the day