Woj laid out how there will be plenty of unexpected teams throwing in the towel early this year for the chance to get to the top of a historic top heavy draft. Wembanyama and Henderson offer a top tier of players who are considered generational, and about 3 other players (Amen Thompson, Nick smith and whitmore) seem to be in a next tier of potential stars before a drop off. With those 5 players (outside of the top 2 it can always change) teams will be fighting to the bottom to at least ensure a top 5 pick with the greatest chance at a top 2. Without getting to convoluted here, I wanted to take a look at the tanking teams and next group of potential tankers who could potentially talk themselves into it early and what players might come available. Knicks will undoubtedly look to jump on these potential mid season trade targets.
Teams at the very bottom: spurs, thunder and Jazz
Spurs probably don’t have anyone left to move on from. Keldon Johnson is intriguing but he’s young enough to be part of their future without making a difference in the standings. SGA is the most obvious candidate. We will see about him. Jazz don’t have anyone left of interest for us.
Bad teams still rebuilding: Houston, Indiana, Detroit and Orlando. All of these teams will live and die with their young guys and already have a core in place. Eric Gordon will be moved but doesn’t have much appeal at this stage. Houston and Orlando don’t have any intriguing players who aren’t part of the core. Indiana is the big wildcard here. Turner and Hield seemed destined to end up elsewhere soon, but I’ll give you another darkhorse: Chris Duarte . Duarte is 25 and seems a little old for a complete rebuilding team led by Haliburton and Mathurin. Indiana will want a big fish in this draft. Duarte was a big Knicks target and Indiana snagged him for a team that was more win-now. He’s not worth unprotected picks, but Knicks could easily offer protected picks of some combination and Indiana would have to consider. A wing rotation with Barrett, Grimes and Duarte all being 2-way players is really intriguing for the future.
Other teams: Portland (Grant, Hart), Washington (Beal, Kuz), Charlotte (Hayward, Rozier), Sacramento (Fox, Sabonis).
Here are 4 more teams I can see bottoming out and putting the players above on the market. I left Lillard out because I still don’t see it with him. They may convince him the chance to draft wembanyama is too great and they will look to reload again next summer.
With all these teams and players in mind, the ones that really stand out are SGA for obvious reason, and Duarte at a next tier player who will cost less but the team will absolutely have interest in. Obviously a lot can change but this is the landscape as I see it before the season starts.
10/7/2022 10:23 AM