Yeah, I’m further down on Castle than most people I think (though this convo is making me rethink that) - if this draft class wasn’t a nightmare, I think Castle would have way less buzz.
I don’t disagree on the Fox/Harper thing in that they have a use case for both, but, like, is Harper going to be maximized in his career by playing 12 minutes a game behind Fox this year? If they extend Fox, for the next 3-4? Fox is just, like, pretty good. He’s like the…9th best PG this year? I don’t see that getting better.
Yeah I think the only way Harper makes a lot of sense is if they don’t extend Fox. And if they don’t extend Fox then that trade was really bad.
Fox is still only 27 years old. It’s not like we are talking about a player at the tail end of his career ready to hand the reins over to a talented rookie.
Maybe there is just a world where you play both together. I guess it isn’t that far fetched. Harper measured well yesterday. If they don’t trade the pick, they have to do it. You still have to take the talent rather than fit.
Yeah they’re in a weird spot. Wemby is gonna be an MVP candidate conditional on health for the next decade but the roster is pretty barren aside from that. They don’t really have any super juicy draft assets that are going to convey any time soon. Fox is a legit playoff starter (for now) but he’s also not a value on the kind of contracts he might think he deserves. So the challenge is rapidly building out a capable roster without emptying yourself of future assets.
This used to be the kind of thing the Spurs were excellent at but I think they’ve clearly struggled at it in the last, I dk, half decade?
I might be inclined to deal Fox for some younger propsect(s) who will hopefully hit a similar upside but (1) I can imagine Wemby being very against that and (2) I’m not sure Fox is the kind of guy anybody would make that deal for. Like, would the Pistons take Fox for Holland and Ausar? Probably not, right?
you pick the best player, period end of story. deaaron fox should not be changing your plans. he’s nowhere close to being good enough for that. if both are good then you play them both or trade one
If you stay at #2 of course. But the question is do you (1) package a deal for the #2 pick to move back and get multiple picks or (2) package it in a trade to get a more ready-made player for Wemby or (3) stay put.
You’ve got +2 Fox for a couple years and hopefully Wemby is ready to go for the playoffs next year at which point he’ll be something like the best player in the NBA. If they have a couple more top 50 pieces they can win a title. If they have a bunch of league average dudes, they can hope for a playoffs this crazy propelling them to a Finals but would be at best like 4th? 5th? in title odds?
And then there’s where they are, which is Wemby + Fox and maybe 1 other league average dude in their playoffs starting 5?
Windy mentioned SAS (and Houston and maybe Dallas) are potential trade destination for Giannis. If I’m the Bucks, I’d definitely shop around to jump start the rebuild. Houston have a lot of assets, Dallas have Flagg and not sure what SAS has aside from #2 pick.
What OKC does in this playoffs will probably affect their level of aggression in making a Giannis-type deal too. If OKC loses in the second round as a 1 seed for the second straight year, I could see them more aggressively making a play to do something big.
If OKC wins a title, they may be less inclined to make that sort of deal.
Maybe, but I think Presti will probably conclude that it’s clear that this team as presently constructed is not a dynasty and I think a GM with that on the table will be pretty ruthless pursuing that.
OTOH I do think other teams will try really hard to avoid that outcome. I’d guess 93% of GMs out there understand what a potential threat OKC is right now.
