Cronin's thoughts are most likely going to be worthless if we lose that Pelicans pick and can't tank well. I think if we end up with the 8th pick and the Pelicans pick ends up with Charlotte that Cronin will be taken out of the GM spot after the draft lottery and they'll have a replacement ready when they announce that Joe won't retain the interim GM position. Then I think all bets are off. Maybe that new GM will be a big Dame fan and sells all of our young talent to build around him but maybe they want to make a move towards the future and they'll trade Dame for a couple of young stars with all star potential or a young all star and some picks.
I do think that the Vulcans' indifference in regards to how competitive we are could result in Joe having the interim tag removed even if all of his trade deadline moves end up being a clusterfuck. In that case I think if we only end up with a mid lotto selection that's ours to work with, Joe might still target both Grant and whoever he thinks is the most talented player that falls to us. He could do so by trading our second rounder to the Bulls or just sending them cash to take the conditions off of our first rounder for next year.
Then he could draft someone like Murray, Duren or Sharpe, re-sign Ant and Nurk, pick up the option on Hart, decline the option on Bledsoe and then trade a couple of lightly protected future firsts for Jerami Grant who would use up the big TPE.
We would be better next season. Dame, Ant, Hart, Grant, Nurk, Nas, Winslow, Duren, Keon would be better than what we had to begin this season, not in terms of talent but in terms of fit for Chauncey's philosophies. At the same time in this scenario we will have squandered the opportunity we had when we decided to trade four out of our seven best players. Honestly we'll have traded CJ, Norm, RoCo and Larry for Grant, a lot of very iffy future prospects, the ability to tank and appeasing the penny pinching desires of the Vulcans.
