Orion Bailey
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Thinking long term., I think I might have turned the corner in thinking the draft can still help us.
I didn't say this last year because I was sold on NO's philosophy of" keeping it all on the same age timeline"
But thinking alot more about it, I have changed my stance, especially when looking at some of the past championship teams. They usually have a mix of young potential, savy vets, and stars in their prime.
There are many smart people on here and after reading some thoughts and ideas, I think I might have a long term plan that should work out money wise. We wont be winning anything this year anyhow, no matter what type of moves we make, so I think the best thing to do is not get hasty and try to make some sort of big time move now ,but continue the smaller calculated moves with a long term process/goal in mind.
I am hoping this is also what NO is thinking... or at least along the lines of...
Anyhow, here it goes.
Phi is likely to be a top three draft this upcoming season in a deep draft full of centers and power forwards.
They already have a plethora of big men, so they either need to dump the big men they have to draft smart in this upcoming draft or they need to just trade the pic for a player of need... like Crabbe.
I propose NO goes to Phi and offers Crabbe/Cleve 1stfor their 1st.
Looking at the draft, I think there are several guys that will end up with more potential and better careers than either Nerlens or Okafor will turn out to be. They are both more one dimensional and guys like Ayton and Bamba look to be legit two way players that this team could sorely need. If we cant nail them down because they go first, then we could zero in on Porter for our small forward of the future. and work on the PF/C in another move.
So two scenarios here:
We trade Crabbe, & CLE 1st to PHI for their better of BRKLN or their own, which one of them should nail down a top 4. We then draft Bamba/Ayton or Porter.
Moving Crabbe, should then free up money to resign Plumlee and we can then trade if needed.
If we draft Bamba/Ayton, then we look like this:
Dame/Napier
CJ/Turner
Harkless/Turner/Layman
Aminu/Davis/Vonleh
Plumlee/(Bamba/Ayton)/Leonard.
Obviously too many bigs.
The next move to make after the draft when trade season begins would be to improve our PF position and so I think we do something like this:
Leonard/Aminu/Plumlee/Vonleh for DMC in a sign and trade deal
Dame/Napier
CJ/Tuner
Harkless/Turner/Layman
DMC/Davis
Plumlee/(Bamba/Ayton)
Fill in the rest with MLE's.
Now. If we don't land one of those two Centers and go the SF route in Porter, then we look like this:
Dame/Napier
CJ/Turner
Harkless/Porter/Turner/Layman
Aminu/Davis/Vonleh
Plumlee/Leonard/Davis
The next step would be to do something like this:
Layman/Aminu/Harkless/Leonard for DMC and we look like this:
Dame/Napier
CJ/Turner
Turner/Porter
DMC/VOnleh
Plumlee/Davis
Fill in the rest with MLE...
I don't know if all of this is possible, because there are ALOT of tangibles, but we are the second youngest team in the league, so to say we are too old for a solid top drat pick to not come in and make an immediate impact is out of the question isn't realistic, and will only help our long term future. So Far, NO has shown his best skill is the draft, hands down, sop why not play the cards to maximize your skill set?
This upcoming draft is full of 5-6 immediate impact players with several of them being two way bigs that are project stars of the NBA. I do not see why we cant trade up to get into the mix. Even if we have to over pay, we need to dump some salary anyhow.
I forgot to mention that Ezeli is actually a good trade chip for a team at the cap threshold looking to make space, so that is a playing card as well.
I don't think we should use our draft picks in a trade unless its to move up in the draft. But I think our best long term play is to put together a package to move up into the lottery.
We don't have to tank to do this, we need to trade. And then if we end up in the lottery anyhow, we have two quality draft spots to fill out the needs of the team and thus make other underachieves more expendable to us.
I am all in for making a move to get us into the lottery and no longer want to see a trade for a vet right now. Especially when that vet may leave in a year. Lets get the young stud from the draft first and then reassess and look for that last missing piece with the remaining potential assets we have going into next off seasons trade timeline.
Lets go for the lottery in a trade, not an all star.
Thoughts?
I didn't say this last year because I was sold on NO's philosophy of" keeping it all on the same age timeline"
But thinking alot more about it, I have changed my stance, especially when looking at some of the past championship teams. They usually have a mix of young potential, savy vets, and stars in their prime.
There are many smart people on here and after reading some thoughts and ideas, I think I might have a long term plan that should work out money wise. We wont be winning anything this year anyhow, no matter what type of moves we make, so I think the best thing to do is not get hasty and try to make some sort of big time move now ,but continue the smaller calculated moves with a long term process/goal in mind.
I am hoping this is also what NO is thinking... or at least along the lines of...
Anyhow, here it goes.
Phi is likely to be a top three draft this upcoming season in a deep draft full of centers and power forwards.
They already have a plethora of big men, so they either need to dump the big men they have to draft smart in this upcoming draft or they need to just trade the pic for a player of need... like Crabbe.
I propose NO goes to Phi and offers Crabbe/Cleve 1stfor their 1st.
Looking at the draft, I think there are several guys that will end up with more potential and better careers than either Nerlens or Okafor will turn out to be. They are both more one dimensional and guys like Ayton and Bamba look to be legit two way players that this team could sorely need. If we cant nail them down because they go first, then we could zero in on Porter for our small forward of the future. and work on the PF/C in another move.
So two scenarios here:
We trade Crabbe, & CLE 1st to PHI for their better of BRKLN or their own, which one of them should nail down a top 4. We then draft Bamba/Ayton or Porter.
Moving Crabbe, should then free up money to resign Plumlee and we can then trade if needed.
If we draft Bamba/Ayton, then we look like this:
Dame/Napier
CJ/Turner
Harkless/Turner/Layman
Aminu/Davis/Vonleh
Plumlee/(Bamba/Ayton)/Leonard.
Obviously too many bigs.
The next move to make after the draft when trade season begins would be to improve our PF position and so I think we do something like this:
Leonard/Aminu/Plumlee/Vonleh for DMC in a sign and trade deal
Dame/Napier
CJ/Tuner
Harkless/Turner/Layman
DMC/Davis
Plumlee/(Bamba/Ayton)
Fill in the rest with MLE's.
Now. If we don't land one of those two Centers and go the SF route in Porter, then we look like this:
Dame/Napier
CJ/Turner
Harkless/Porter/Turner/Layman
Aminu/Davis/Vonleh
Plumlee/Leonard/Davis
The next step would be to do something like this:
Layman/Aminu/Harkless/Leonard for DMC and we look like this:
Dame/Napier
CJ/Turner
Turner/Porter
DMC/VOnleh
Plumlee/Davis
Fill in the rest with MLE...
I don't know if all of this is possible, because there are ALOT of tangibles, but we are the second youngest team in the league, so to say we are too old for a solid top drat pick to not come in and make an immediate impact is out of the question isn't realistic, and will only help our long term future. So Far, NO has shown his best skill is the draft, hands down, sop why not play the cards to maximize your skill set?
This upcoming draft is full of 5-6 immediate impact players with several of them being two way bigs that are project stars of the NBA. I do not see why we cant trade up to get into the mix. Even if we have to over pay, we need to dump some salary anyhow.
I forgot to mention that Ezeli is actually a good trade chip for a team at the cap threshold looking to make space, so that is a playing card as well.
I don't think we should use our draft picks in a trade unless its to move up in the draft. But I think our best long term play is to put together a package to move up into the lottery.
We don't have to tank to do this, we need to trade. And then if we end up in the lottery anyhow, we have two quality draft spots to fill out the needs of the team and thus make other underachieves more expendable to us.
I am all in for making a move to get us into the lottery and no longer want to see a trade for a vet right now. Especially when that vet may leave in a year. Lets get the young stud from the draft first and then reassess and look for that last missing piece with the remaining potential assets we have going into next off seasons trade timeline.
Lets go for the lottery in a trade, not an all star.
Thoughts?


but yes we need to be thinking longer term. The window to even win a championship won't be open for anyone the next coming years sans a couple super teams.