Atlanta might blow up its roster

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Yeah, the only, ONLY, thing I'm envious about from Boston is Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens. Their roster can't touch ours in terms of talent or potential. Not even close, IMO. I'm also not worried about records or that they're the 3-seed right now. I give their title chances a whopping 0%. Would I like to have a team making the playoffs while rebuilding? Absolutely, but Minnesota plays in the blender that is the Western Conference. Other than Cleveland, every other team in the East would be average in the West. It's still a different beast, and this isn't anything like last year was.

Starting to feel like that time when there were some who preferred the Boston trade package for Love over anything. Overrated, overhyped, not even comparable to other options.

I'm envious about Danny Ainge, Brad Stevens, and the fact it's Boston, where expectations are high and there is a certain prestige associated with their franchise. So while they may not have a superstar now, they certainly have the ingredients to either draft one, sign one, or develop one.

The Wolves? I think KAT will be a superstar. Hell, he's damn near a star right now. Otherwise, I think we have a couple of other decent parts, but to Drew's point, who really trusts this franchise to turn those ingredients into a cohesive team that goes deep into the playoffs? We couldn't do it with KG (except for one year) and we couldn't do it with Love. And while KAT's been great, we continue to be a team that underachieves despite all the much-heralded upside we supposedly have on the roster.

And that's the point....Boston is winning consistently NOW and they don't even have their superstar yet. So while their chances of winning a title this year is 0%, I certainly give them a better chance than us in future years.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I was just thinking about how impressive Boston has been, especially with their turnaround, so it's interesting to see this thread.

Of course I'd rather have Towns than anybody on Boston's roster, but on the whole, they're obviously rebuilding MUCH better than we have. Just look at their record and watch some of their games. Comparing us and them is a textbook example of how teams are much more than the sum of their players.

Anybody can be a terrible team, get lucky, and have a chance to draft a good or even great player high in the draft. But that's no guarantee you will build a great TEAM. We're THE case study in the former. How many times have people said we've got our core moving forward after the KG era? Al, Love, Foye, Brewer, Rubio, Beasley, DWill, Flynn, all those freaking picks. And what did we have to show for it? Some of those players were busts, but Love was great statistically, and where did that get us? Even today, we're one of the worst teams in the league and we've got several high picked players going back 3 years now. We all seem pretty happy with a lot of the young guys we've got right now (me too, by the way, with some of them), but let's be honest with ourselves, what have they done for us yet? Not much. I'm really really excited for Towns moving forward, but other than that, I'm pretty much open to anything with this roster.

Boston, by contrast, hasn't had any of the high level picks we've had, and have still managed to turn things around faster and better than us, while still holding onto the future assets they got for Garnett and Pierce. They even committed what some of the hard-core tanking fans on this board think of as the cardinal sin of signing a free agent (Thomas) and he's been great for them. They're proof that you don't need to tank 10 years running and get lucky three drafts in a row to get Durant, Westbrook, and Harden in order to rebuild. We've been trying to do that, and look where it's gotten us so far.

To me, a lot of it comes down to Brad Stevens, but more than that, they've approached rebuilding as a TEAM project, whereas I think too many people treat rebuilding as if it's just a collection of individuals. Too often, we go so far as to call players "pieces" or "parts" which is kind of offensive if you think about it, without thinking about the whole. Do you need great players? Of course. But there's just so much more to it than that. They've re-established a culture of winning pretty quickly in Boston through coaching, player development, front office and team stability, and emphasizing moving the ball and team defense rather than on-on-one individual talent. Kudos to them. We should be thinking more like them, and part of the reason we have been through 10 years of hell now while rebuilding is that we've been approaching rebuilding thinking if we just lose enough games and get enough high draft picks we can assemble an all-star roster. How well has that worked out?

I'm happy with our team moving forward, but we have to be honest with ourselves--tanking for years to rebuild is not the only way or even necessarily the best way to do it.

This goes back to my earlier point (maybe not in this thread) that the group of players that win you the most games are the 25-32 year old guys in their prime. Aka the age group of players we just don't really have on our team. They have 8 of those players on their team. We have 4 and 1 is a rookie in Belly and another is Rudez who doesn't really play. So we have Dieng and Ricky as really the only two who fit in the category that seemingly has the biggest impact on W/L's. Add a couple guys in their prime around Wiggins and Towns and I think we have a much better record at this point, but we don't have those guys which is why we suck. If you swapped Prince and KG for Crowder and Johnson I think we'd have a much better record also, but we don't have those guys.

[MikkeMan]

How many of those picks are even top 10 though? Boston isn't giving up their Brooklyn picks for 30 year olds. They aren't giving up Smart for 30 year olds. Horford and Millsap are really good players, but they've hit the 30 year old mark and they're on either expiring or 1 year deals so nobody is giving them good 1st round picks just to possibly lose those guys. All these 1sts are probably in the 20's and why would Atlanta want a bunch of picks in the 20's to rebuild? If we wouldn't trade our top 5 pick for these guys why would these other teams be trading their good picks for these guys? This isn't for guys like Love or Cousins or Wall who are both all-stars and still a few years away from 30. Smart and Faried are the only two guys better than Dieng that you listed and Faried isn't on a discounted deal and Smart isn't gonna get traded for guys nearing the end of their prime in the next 2-3 years. I think you're way overvaluing these picks other teams are going to be throwing into their offers. They just aren't going to be good picks because of the contract situations of Horford and Millsap and Boston has shown how little having a bunch of non-top 10 picks actually helps rebuild a contender.

Phoenix traded Goran Dragic in last year of his contract for two protected 1st round picks. Denver gave Afflalo, Harrington and protected 1st round pick to get Iggy who was in last year of his contract. Typically teams that are trading their veteran stars in last year of their contract want at least some 1st round picks back. Even if they are top10 protected, they will still give team a change to find a potential star. Jimmy Butler, Isaiah Thomas, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Draymond Green, Kyle Lowry and Paul MIllsap were not drafted in top10 and they are now all stars.

I don't understand why Atlanta would want Dieng, Muhammad combination instead of Dallas 1st round pick Sullinger/Olynyk and Rozier/Hunter. Both Sullinger and Olynyk are younger than Dieng and thus have still more potential to improve. They have already also shown that they can be useful players for playoff team when Dieng and Muhammad have not yet played single minute in playoffs.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

Boston made out like a bandit when they traded away Rajon Rondo to Dallas. They got two firsts (one directly and one by trading Brandon Wright), one second and a late blossoming star in Jae Crowder.