CoolBreeze44 wrote:I've been quiet all year about this, but it's time to make a statement. I'm constantly reading articles and listening to the NBA network. The summation of all the things I've heard or read tells me the Warriors wouldn't trade Wiggins back for DLO even up. And now they are going to take that #7 pick and probably package it with Wiseman and #14 and land a star veteran to make them a contender next year. Like it or not, they were very happy with Wiggins last year and see him as a very good 2-way player in the league. They really like his defense.
Cool - I've always thought the Warriors would have been content to get Wiggins for DLO straight up or perhaps in conjunction with a 2nd round pick. It was obvious that they were anxious to unload DLO and I doubt there were other teams banging on their door to get him - a poor defender and inefficient scorer with a max contract who was with his 3rd team in his first 5 seasons. I disliked the DLO deal more than I disliked DLO as a player. In my view, Rosas was fleeced. Gersson is a checkers player who decided to play chess with a chess master and it didn't end well for Gersson.
Nevertheless, we needed to move on from Wiggins. Moreover, I think Wiggins will regress. I always come back to KG's comment years ago to a former T-Wolf player who I met fishing at a resort in northern MN. Commenting on Wiggins, KG said, "he has no heart." The problem is that I'm not sure how much more heart DLO has, noting how lazy and often gets, even on the offensive end. But I did like the way DLO played at the end of last season when he returned from his surgery. If it were up to me, I'd aggressively shop him this summer and see if he can be packaged to acquire someone like Myles Turner. But we all know it's highly unlikely that Rosas will do that.
You asked in another post whether we can do any post-season damage with DLO on the team. As a threshold point, I'd say that I believe we can at least make the post season with DLO as our PG. That's a start and would be an achievement for this team. My answer to your question about doing damage in the post season is maybe. It really depends on who surrounds him and how much and how fast they develop. If Ant emerges as the superstar he has the potential to be and McDaniels ends up the defensive stalwart and all-star caliber player he has the potential to be, then I can see this team doing some damage in the playoffs with DLO. If those two guys start coming close to their potential while in their rookie deals, then the Wolves have the luxury of carrying DLO's inflated max contract and still being successful. That's especially true if KAT can continue to defend the way he did last season, which wasn't great but was fairly solid. Unfortunately, having DLO here on a max deal isn't ideal and that's probably an understatement.
Then there's the opportunity cost associated with the DLO deal. If not for the DLO deal, we'd have the 7th and 36th picks in this year's draft along with Wiggins' contract to match salaries. We'd also the flexibility to trade our 2022 1st round pick. Right now, we have no draft picks this year and can't trade our 2022 1st-round pick. But we do have DLO and he's certainly a talented offensive player. He also has the size to be a decent defender at his position. We just have to hope that a light bulb turns on in his head and puts him back on the track he appeared to be in his one allstar season with the Nets. I'd be depressed if that hope was all we had. But thankfully we have Ant and McDaniels. I was also happy with the development of Vanderbilt and Nowell last season. So I can still see this roster with only a minor tweak making the playoffs and perhaps even making a good show when their there.
