KB21

BINGO! We wouldn't know how good Jalen is if we had kept our previous poor coach around. We have a great coach now, and Jalen's game blossomed in his one year with Quin. There is more in Jalen as well.

The reason the Spurs are being talked about is, outside of one of our insiders actually saying that SA is willing to move the picks, because they have the picks that can be moved. OKC is the only other team that I know of that can move picks in consecutive drafts like San Antonio can. For example, we can probably get picks from the Lakers, but because of the Stepien Rule, we would be looking at maybe picks in 2026, 2028, and 2030. How would that be a better deal than taking Vassell or even Johnson/Graham with a return of our picks along with 4 and 8? The Pelicans? Maybe that Lakers pick in 2025 will have significant value if James bolts town. So, let's say we make a deal with New Orleans and they give us the 21st pick this year, the Lakers pick in 25, and Milwaukee's pick in 26. Obviously, we would have to take back contracts, and I think the only way I would do this is if they include Herbert Jones in the deal as well. You seem to think there is an avenue where we can get multiple lottery picks back in a Trae trade.

There is no trade Trae scenario that will net you multiple potential high first round picks. He's not going to go to a bad team. He wants to win.

Players don't care where the draft pick will fall. They only care about winning, as they should. That's why asking them to tank a season or multiple seasons is atrocious.

So, you obviously think spending multiple years in the lottery is the way to win a championship.

The position of the picks isn't important. Having the picks is important. Would you rather have Markelle Fultz/Lonzo Ball, or would you rather have Donovan Mitchell/Bam Adebayo? Fultz and Ball were #1 and #2 in 2017. Mitchell and Bam were 13 and 14.

Imagine going to Jalen Johnson and asking him to play poorly for a year before he becomes a RFA so the team can be bad enough to get a top pick.

They didn't tank to get those picks.

The pro tanking guys have always had the belief that all you have to do is be bad, draft a top player, and you will suddenly be a championship team. It's so foolish!

Ask Detroit how helpful that is.

I'm a no on Ingram in any situation.

This is why teams who pick high in the lottery tend to continue to pick high in the lottery. Atlanta has a golden opportunity right now. They got lucky and won the lottery. They can take a future star in Sarr. There is no need to try and get a #1 pick in the next two drafts. It never works. It has never worked. It will never work.

“’Making our team worse’ is language that I would never use around our office,” Fields said. “I think that a competitive spirit is always gonna be at play. And that’s always going to be subjective. Maybe to you, we got worse. But to me, we got better.

It's damn near impossible for this team to suddenly become bad enough to be a bottom feeder as well with Jalen continuously improving, Kobe getting better, Okongwu getting better...etc.

See my sig. "Put it all together, and you get hopes and dreams of greatness -- but nothing remotely resembling assurances. Any objective look through NBA history suggests that "the Thunder model" is no model at all. Good luck with your tanking. If you get bad, you will get a high pick and you may even get a good player. But by far the most likely thing is that you'll be tanking again long before you make it to the promised land, or even the conference finals." -- Henry Abbott

With respect to those that do not want this discussion to continue, I am bowing out of it now.

You wanted an example of a team who built from being competitive to being a championship team. I gave you an example. I'll give you another example. Milwaukee. Two of the more recent championship teams. Neither tanked. Neither team had the #1 overall pick like the Hawks do now.

Denver Nuggets. Next?

It's because those picks are available to be dealt. OKC is the only other team that has that kind of draft capital. My scenario with the Spurs involves us getting a young, rising, two-way player in Vassell along with the picks. My scenario, we have Murray. We have Vassell. We have Johnson. We have Bufkin. We have Gueye. We have Bogi. We add, hypothetically, Sarr, Castle, and Holland to that. You have picks in immediate future drafts in this scenario now that can either be used to consolidate talent to add better talent or you use them to continue to bring in talents like Jalen Johnson who was the 20th pick in 2021. Then we have an elite coach in Quin Snyder who took a team that was essentially built around a 13th pick in Donovan Mitchell and a 27th pick, Mike Conley, and some mid career guys in Royce O'Neal and Joe Ingles and had one of the best teams in the West.

Warriors - Didn't tank. They were bad for 100 years before they lucked into Steph Curry with the 8th pick. Spurs - Didn't tank. Star players were hurt, and they lost because of that. They added Duncan to Robinson, Elliot...etc when they returned from injury. Are we really going to rehash an argument I've already won?

I'm not actively rooting for a trade. I'm coming up with possibilities to remain competitive and still have a chance to be in the playoffs if we trade Trae.

Do you like being this wrong? The is one guaranteed way to never win a championship. Tanking.

No. You don't need high lottery picks. You just need picks, a great culture where winning habits are developing, and great scouting/analytics.

OKC didn't tank either. They had 1 top 3 pick in this rebuild. SGA was acquired in a trade. Josh Giddey was the 8th pick. Jalen Williams was the 13th or 14th pick. Cason Wallace was the 12th pick. Got to love these fans who think bottoming out and being bad for the next 5-6 years is the best way to build a championship team. No one has ever blitzed their roster to bottom out and gone on to win a championship.

I mean, if you really want to start the tanking discussion back up, go ahead. I told all of you back when we did it foolishly in 2017 that it was far more likely that they would rebuild again before they ever became a championship level team. That's what tanking does. It's a foolish strategy that offers no benefit long term. See the 76ers.