CardsFan88
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Maybe, maybe not. The problem with that pick was that it is protected. So if memory serves correct, it was top 5 this year, and top 3 next year...While a 6th this year or a 4th next year could net a good player, odds are it wouldn't be this year, and next year who knows. The Lakers management appears to be a shell of what it once was, but players, at least besides Lebron and Howard, still will want to play there. Also as we all know the NBA draft has few 'sure things'. If it's not top 1-2-3, and even then, many years those picks don't garner much. In the NBA, you want 1st round picks, because they give you a shot, the best shot, at getting better...cheaply. But unless the next Lebron is coming out, and you have the 1st overall, they are all crapshoots, and this rarely happens.
So it's worth something, but hard to gauge. It is an asset, which makes it tough to lose, but I don't think we should thinking like we automatically lost something golden. In the end we might lose out on the 10th pick or something.
Knight is a good player, and we have to remember while we might be pressed in the future, we aren't pressed right now, like we were with Dragic.
IT, if it is true that he caused problems, then we should be glad we got rid of him. Either way, we signed him this offseason and got a 1st round pick out of it.
We were prepared to sign Dragic this offseason, and he'll get no more, and maybe less then Dragic got. So, capspace net wise, we spun our wheels, got a younger player, who isn't pissed at us, and potentially even another year after this one to decide, like we did with Bledsoe. We might have walked into a situation that isn't settled, but we got out of a situation that was settled with Dragic, and not in the way that would of benefited us.
The Bledsoe situation doesn't bother me. In a perfect world it would be great not to have such situations, but in the end, that's all just a mental job on ourselves. If we keep it cool and steady, and not worry, and handle the pressure, we can benefit from it, and again, it still buys us more time over Dragic.
...and again, as much as I loved Dragic, since the day we drafted him, our team is not going anywhere and with the stacked west, odds are we'd be battling for a low seed for the rest of the time Dragic is in his prime. Meanwhile Knight is still years away from his prime. So we traded a guy getting towards the end of his prime for a guy who is pretty equal in talent and is years away from his prime.
To go off the analogy I used earlier, Dragic threw a bag of lemons at McD and in 48 hours or so he made some mean lemonade. We got rid of some malcontents, added picks, and talent.
Now I hope our famous staff can work some magic on Granger. If we can turn him around, then this trade gets even better.
Didn't we get Noles as well plus some others? Maybe McD makes some more moves with some of these guys in the offseason. Maybe some play a role. We'll see.
We also need to see the capspace. I'm not sure what Granger is making, and all that, but we did get rid of IT's manageable contract, but it still is something we should put towards something else. Plus now we won't lose Plumlee or sign him which imo would of been a mistake... plus he was unhappy if rumors are true.
McD has been churning the roster, and some guys were upset, and now that's gone. Unless Knight shows up pissed off, and Green gets madder, that's gone.
Plus I really, really want to see more T.J. Warren. Three starting point guards created a domino effect where he didn't have minutes, and hopefully these deals remove that domino effect and create the minutes for him.
Ennis is a good talent and sucks to lose him, but it seems McD decided to take a guy having a breakout season in Knight and have all these other moves be made then hanging onto Ennis. Either way, he was a late first round pick, so getting anything from that pick is a plus.
It would of been nice to get a superstar in the front court, but we kept flexibility and our level of assets while being able to move out the dead wood and will keep, perhaps even improve our chances to get that down the line.
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