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I would add our 2019 pick to trade talks as long as it's top 10 protected.

Zizic + 2 first round picks + filler is a really good trade package. It lets us keep the BKN pick for drafting a player or for trading it for an all-star in the offseason.

I still think that our best use of the BKN pick will be trading it during the draft.
 
Good post. Even though Lebron is a score/assist wing he grew up with Jordan as his idol, and I've often thought the fact that he grew up watching the "ballstopper" era has held him back in some ways.

But with that said, what those ball movement systems really need is *depth of talent* on a team, especially athletic talent who can keep up a high pace. If there's anything Lebron's teams have lacked it's depth of talent. This year's team has a deep bench but is old, unathletic, and as I said in my previous post just not all that good once you get past Lebron and Love.

Once again, I would put it on the front office for not constructing the kind of team that would enable Lebron to better transition to a deep, effective ball movement team. Our failures in scouting and developing young players stands out here.

Those long 2s Jordan use to take influenced Lebron too. Lebrons gotta have the most foot on the line long 2 attempts in the league.
 
The bolded is just completely wrong. The Cavs have *one* incredible talent right now, and that's Lebron. Then we have a good talent, Kevin Love. (The jury is out on IT until we see how he recovers, so leaving him out here).

After those two? We have nobody who would be a starter on a good playoff team! 36 year old DWade (he turns 36 this week) can no longer handle starters minutes and although he is great at maximizing what talent he has left, has completely lost his athleticism. TT is basically a bench energy guy roleplayer and has declined some in any case. Jae Crowder could work in a great system with a great coach, but as we are seeing this year, talent-wise he is a bench role player. Jeff Green is Jeff Green -- good player but inconsistent, been some years since he started. Kyle Korver -- another 36 year old who is on the downside of his career, although he's still good off the bench. JR Smith has fallen off a cliff. Shump is Shump. Calderon is Calderon. etc.

This team has an unusual number of good bench role players, but without Kyrie it's obvious what a talent gap we have at the starter level. I mean, how many times have you looked at crunch time lineups for this team and said to yourself, Jesus fucking Christ, two or three of these guys shouldn't even be on the court!

Until IT comes fully back we have three positions (PG, SG, and center) where we are at a huge, massive disadvantage every night. Even if we get back last year's IT, we will still be at a massive *defensive* disadvantage at all three of those positions, although our offense should hopefully be humming.

This is a poorly constructed roster with major talent deficiencies and Lebron serves to conceal that. If you want to blame someone for our sitution, I would blame the FRONT OFFICE, which constructed the roster, before I would blame Lue.




Totally agree that Lue is not at the level of Stevens, Popovich, Kerr. But talent is the most important factor, it is way more important than coaching. Stevens could never get by Lue as long as he was held back by starting guys like Crowder who got exposed in the playoffs. Lue beat Kerr before Kerr got Kevin Durant. (Blatt would have beat Kerr too if not for injuries).

Even Popovich, who is still the best of the bunch -- with Kawhi Leonard injured the Spurs are right around our record, even though they have decent talent (Aldridge, Gasol, a bunch of very good role players like Green, Mills, Ginobli, etc.).

This team is 14 deep with rotation players but only 3 really are starting quality. The problem is almost all of them are fringe starters, basically could be the 5th to the 7th person in any rotation. That's where the problem lies, it's just too many guys to give enough minutes to get guys comfortable and in rhythm. Also guys are just too talented to leave them on the bench. At the end of the day the front office need to move some of the depth.

If the front office moves multiple guys to get guys to solidify our 4th and 5th starter spots, we will be better off. If we had a better coach I don't think it as big of a problem but Lue doesn't have the feel for in game adjustments to properly use everyone.

We might be giving up 3 guys who are worth 75 cents each and a draft pick to get one guy who is worth 85-95 cents.
 
I'd like to revisit the Danny Green trade talks with the Spurs; wonder what they'd want. Cedi is the obvious answer but I don't think I'd do that. Would certainly part with our 1st for him though.

The two Greens and a locked-in Crowder would give us some excellent length on the perimeter.

Try to put one over on the Bulls to get Robin Lopez and I think we'd be set.
 
I'd like to revisit the Danny Green trade talks with the Spurs; wonder what they'd want. Cedi is the obvious answer but I don't think I'd do that. Would certainly part with our 1st for him though.

The two Greens and a locked-in Crowder would give us some excellent length on the perimeter.

Try to put one over on the Bulls to get Robin Lopez and I think we'd be set.
I like your creative thinking.

Seems to be better than the front office’s current approach, which is waiting for some mythical trade offer for a star player to fall from the sky.
 
Seems to be better than the front office’s current approach, which is waiting for some mythical trade offer for a star player to fall from the sky.
What information do you have that says this is in fact the current front office's approach?
 
I'd like to revisit the Danny Green trade talks with the Spurs; wonder what they'd want. Cedi is the obvious answer but I don't think I'd do that. Would certainly part with our 1st for him though.

The two Greens and a locked-in Crowder would give us some excellent length on the perimeter.

Try to put one over on the Bulls to get Robin Lopez and I think we'd be set.

Personally I would keep an eye out to what the Lakers and Pistons do. I've seen some rumors of a Clarkson and Nance Jr for Avery Bradley and Stanley Johnson. I don't see the Lakers actually wanting Bradley because they want cap space in the offseason. Maybe we can throw in our 1st round pick to get Bradley and possibly Nance Jr.

Bradley could lock down the SG position that I think really need and Nance Jr could be a better version of TT for us.
 
I’d trade IT for Bradley.
Yeah, and then roll with a platoon of Rose/Calderon/Wade as your PGs?

Come on man. If IT ever gets acclimated and returns to his last year self I think our offense could be ridiculous. We're going to need that guy's scoring to help make up for Kyrie's absence whether anybody here wants to admit it or not.

That said, Bradley has been the guy I've wanted all along. If we're not going to risk a power play going for DJ, then winding up with a Bradley/Lopez return will REALLY shore up our holes. Hell, I'd even whoop maniacally if we ended up with Matthews/Dedmon.

The problem is that we need to find a team that to take any of the 3 "undesirables" off our hands. As others have speculated, a Dallas trade for Matthews would probably take care of two of them. And if we can convince the Bulls to take Shumpert + a 2nd and Zizic for Lopez we could dramatically overhaul the roster.

My current faith in our F.O. just isn't particularly strong at the moment and my faith in our coaching staff to successfully implement them is even lower. I just want to go to bed and wake up to learn that JR, TT, Shump and Lue are off this team replaced by any combination of the above + Fizdale...but I guess that's why we have dreams.
 
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I'd do TT, Shump, Zizic, our own first and a plethora of 2nds for Drummond and Bradley. I'd rather it be JR than Shump but I don't think any team is going to take that awful contract. Hell, I'm not convinced any team would take Tristan at this point. But Drummond's contract is pretty high if the team decides to tank/save some money.
 
Yeah, and then roll with a platoon of Rose/Calderon/Wade as your PGs?

Come on man. If IT ever gets acclimated and returns to his last year self I think our offense could be ridiculous. We're going to need that guy's scoring to help make up for Kyrie's absence whether anybody here wants to admit it or not.

That said, Bradley has been the guy I've wanted all along. If we're not going to risk a power play going for DJ, then winding up with a Bradley/Lopez return will REALLY shore up our holes. Hell, I'd even whoop maniacally if we ended up with Matthews/Dedmon.

The problem is that we need to find a team that to take any of the 3 "undesirables" off our hands. As others have speculated, a Dallas trade for Matthews would probably take care of two of them. And if we can convince the Bulls to take Shumpert + a 2nd and Zizic for Lopez we could dramatically overhaul the roster.

My current faith in our F.O. just isn't particularly strong at the moment and my faith in our coaching staff to successfully implement them is even lower. I just want to go to bed and wake up to learn that JR, TT, Shump and Lue are off this team replaced by any combination of the above + Fizdale...but I guess that's why we have dreams.

Don't think Pistons would trade Bradley.

Wes Matthews though is someone we should target.

If we get Robin Lopez and Wes Matthews for TT, Shump, Zizic and Our Own 2018 Pick, it would be a good haul imo.
 
I'd do TT, Shump, Zizic, our own first and a plethora of 2nds for Drummond and Bradley. I'd rather it be JR than Shump but I don't think any team is going to take that awful contract. Hell, I'm not convinced any team would take Tristan at this point. But Drummond's contract is pretty high if the team decides to tank/save some money.

Drummond has been playing like an All-Star and he is still very young with further scope for improvement. No way I see Pistons accepting a deal like that for Drummond. The best chance we had at getting Drummond was during the summer imo, when his value was low!
 
Don't think Pistons would trade Bradley.

Wes Matthews though is someone we should target.

If we get Robin Lopez and Wes Matthews for TT, Shump, Zizic and Our Own 2018 Pick, it would be a good haul imo.
I would agree with Matthews. I like Lopez, but how do you feel about Dedmon. He has added a 3 pt shot.
 
I would agree with Matthews. I like Lopez, but how do you feel about Dedmon. He has added a 3 pt shot.

That 3 point shot is far from being reliable though.

RoLo is a better player than Dedmon imo. RoLo especially is great at boxing out and setting up picks. Something we would need with how much PnRs we would run with LeBron and IT.
 
I'd do TT, Shump, Zizic, our own first and a plethora of 2nds for Drummond and Bradley. I'd rather it be JR than Shump but I don't think any team is going to take that awful contract. Hell, I'm not convinced any team would take Tristan at this point. But Drummond's contract is pretty high if the team decides to tank/save some money.
Why the hell would the pistons do that awful
 

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