Scoot can potentially turn us into a contender in three or four years, when coupled with a more mature Sharpe and other good young players. He's the best point guard prospect in a while... since Kyrie Irving, probably (maybe Simmons if you considered him a PG coming out of college).
Dame and Siakam and Grant... that's not even close to contender status. Sharpe isn't even a plus-starter level player yet, and his career arc doesn't match up well with that core, who are 32, 29. and 29 years old. They are also due about $110m (assuming Grant gets $26m) in the upcoming year, with the salary cap being around $134m, and the tax level being around $162m. Presumably we'd look to extend Siakam, too, to ensure he doesn't walk. In 2026-27, those three guys might be making $133m combined ($58m for Dame, $45m for Siakam, $35m for Grant) at ages 35, 32, and 32.
That is painting ourselves into a corner, salary-wise, with guys that have no upside... and depending on what it takes to get Pascal, we are in some combination of a bad salary cap situation (due to having Nurk and/or Simons), a lack of size, a lack of depth, and/or a lack of quality young guys (where Sharpe is a decade younger than the core, and we don't have any other prospect of consequence).
I can't believe that anyone thinks this is a good way to build a winning basketball team in the NBA, but I couldn't believe that anyone thought our team would be any good the last couple of years, either, so I guess I just don't understand the power of stubborn optimism.
