Posted by nixluva:
Solace I'm not disagreeing with you on Oden. I said he "may be the only lock" in this group. The chances of geting an Oden are slim and you need a lot of luck. At most you have a few others who truly stand out from the crowd and have the kind of singular impact that an elite player has. This is really what people mean when they talk about building thru the draft. We're not just talking about a player that can be a very good player in this league. We're talking about players that lift their teams to deep playoff runs every year.
In regards to the players we do have, I think we have managed to not only draft very good players but to add youing studs like Curry and Zach. Many here want to downgrade what kind of players these guys can be, but I think they are going to have a big impact on the success of this team. You say we're only setup for the playoffs but not an NBA Title. I don't think you're being fair to this team. We have yet to see how good some of these guys are gonna get. They don't all have to be Superstars in order for them to help us rise to the top of the East.
Just use your minds eye to look down the road and see us playing with guys like Chandler and Nichols in there? They already show the promise of being the kind of 2 way players with skill, size and athleiticism we need. Lee, Balk and Mardy are guys that already show they can help this team. Imagine them as they move along and improve. I don't think we take a back seat to any of the young teams in terms of depth and quality of talent.
Well, like has been mentioned many other times, there are other teams in the league with lots of good youth and most of them aren't going anywhere, because unfortunately, you don't get wins just because you have the younger team. I also think a lot of those teams youth compare favorably or equally to ours. That being said, I think there are a few young pieces that are nice: Lee, Balkman, Nichols (ok, you caught me; I like the kid) and Collins. I honestly don't know where Nate and Chandler fit in, but on some teams they might be pieces too. So, here's the thing. if you told me that our core was Lee, Balkman, Nichols, Collins, Nate and Chandler and we had no huge vet contracts on the team, I would be ecstatic. Ecstatic. Did you hear me? Ecstatic. But we have huge deals in Zack, Curry, Marbury, Craw, Q, JJ1, JJ2, JJ3 (ok maybe not).
I'd even be okay with listing Curry in our core (as much as I hate his defense), so make that: Curry, Lee, Balkman, Chandler, Nichols, Collins, Nate. Off the top of my head that's around $18-$20 million guaranteed. If we ran that team out there every night, we had the cap room and not the vets, I'd be very satisfied. The problem I see is the vets we do have prevent the kids from fully developing, and because we're not under the cap while we have all these kids on rookie contracts, we miss our one major shot to get a major player via free agency. And that's it... the downside to the Zach Randolph trade (and every other Isiah trade). We may have had to let Lee go via free agency, but like it or not... we may have had a shot at LeBron, Wade, etc... which would be a much more powerful piece than Cancerbury and Zach. That's why I'm disappointed with the team. I think our team is one piece away. Unfortunately, I feel that that piece is LeBron James and I don't see how to acquire the piece except by high draft picks and cap room.
At the end of the day, when the Marburys and Zachs expire years down the road, even if Isiah doesn't add more expensive pieces, we'll have guys like Lee on the $10 million contracts. So, in the end, we'll be back to the same cycle... the same cycle that has proven to be a failure for multiple GMs and was a similar trap that the previous GM fell into.
So, I dunno. I like the youth, so that gets some points with me. I don't like the vets and their huge contracts are going to be the reason why we hit a wall. Now we haven't neared that wall yet, so there's some excitement, but I see us peaking around 45-48 wins in 2-3 years. Some would be incredibly happy with 48 wins. Not me. I want a championship. The fact remains, the odds are against any one of our young guys becoming a franchise player. Very against. Just about everyone you put in the list earlier (with the exception of a few guys like Frye) has a better chance of becoming a franchise player than any kid on our roster. And that's not hating. That's just how it is
