This is a wise outlook. I don’t know if I share the value retaining outlook on Lamelo. He seems like a sell high after good year guy and that’s why charlotte did… I hope im wrong and his rough start to his career is ready to be over and the undeniable talent at our biggest need is real.SameOldNudityDrew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 3:07 pmI'm feeling really ambivalent about it, but I'd like to respectully push back against the argument (not just here, but in general) that our future resources or assets are depleted.Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 2:20 pm Zach Kram on ESPN gives the Wolves a D+ for this move. And I hate to admit it, but he makes a pretty compelling case for it. To me it's clear this is a last gasp by the Connelly regime to win a title with Edwards. When the check comes due TC is going to be long gone, these moves pretty much set the stage for that. And there still has to be another move, we need to do something at the 4 and our resources are pretty much depleted. I still don't know why Rudy is still on the team.
It's absolutely true that we've traded away several future draft picks and we've given up pick swaps.
But I think it's best not to think about things in terms of future draft assets, but to more broadly think about this in terms of value.
If you look at it that way, we have converted the value of those picks into the value of players, just like, if you were to buy stock in something, you convert the value of your money (like draft picks) into the value of a stock. The picks may be gone or swap rights given up, but the players that we've got also have value that could potentially be converted back into other forms such as draft picks or other young players in the same way that if you buy stock, you might have less cash, but you can sell those shares at some point in the future and convert the value back into cash or some other form.
So if we really want to think about future assets, we need to think about the value of our players (in relation to their contracts) as well as our picks. Older players obviously lose their value over time to the point that they ultimately have no value when they can't play any more, like Mike Conley. Sometimes it's worth it to let the value of an player dissipate rather than trade him because you might need him in order to compete, which was the case with Mike. His value to us those first couple years after we got him was worth giving up on the court relative to what we could have converted his value back into at that time. That might also be the case with Rudy, given his age, or we may decide that we need to try to keep that investment in him as a player for awhile longer. Similarly, value can run out on a player if their contract runs up and you can't resign them, or they don't want to resign with you. If that happens with a player who has a lot of value, then you end up like OKC losing Durant for nothing. That was a massive loss in value, and it's exactly why teams look to trade players in the year or so before their contract is up if the player indicates they won't re-sign--they don't want to lose the value. But as long as you anticipate that happening, you can usually go ahead and trade a player for value. Depending on the circumstances, you often don't get as much value back as the player provides you on the court, especially if you're trading away a star. But with younger players who are good and/or on reasonable or team-friendly contracts, that's always value you can convert back into another form in the future.
And right now, we have a bunch of young, good players, signed for long deals on reasonable contracts. Ayo, Jaden, Lamelo, and Ant are just entering their primes, and other than Lamelo's injury history, they're all likely to have a lot of value that we could convert into some other form in the future. It's possible Beringer will as well, and maybe even TJ.
So, if you're concerned we don't have many future picks, don't worry too much. We can probably trade away those guys at some point in the future and get more. In the meantime, it's better to have good players who can win games and compete, to help those guys improve as much as possible to keep their value high, or, if needed, trade them for other assets (players or picks) whose value will appreciate, and, when we do make picks (because we DO still have some picks), to make sure that we convert them into real value by picking the right players and developing them well. This isn't to say picks don't matter. You don't want to make bad investments and lose the value, and the Dillingham trade is a good example of a terrible investment. But I think, overall, the place we're in right now in terms of players and contracts still has some good investments.
Sorry for getting a bit long here, but my point is that it's not about picks. It's about value. And if you think about it that way, we've just converted that value from one form to another, and the form we've converted it into (mostly young players entering their prime--not aging stars on supermax contracts) is likely to hold that value for many years.
I do think the value is there for any and Jaden and Ayo. It was obviously there in Naz. It might still be there in Rudy. That’s about it. And we have 6 years of no more picks to use to get value anymore. So it’s been converted. Now if it doesn’t convey to results the value severely diminishes…
