With the improved play since Beal's Dec 29 return and now tied in losses with the 5th seed in West, tied in record with 6th, we may feel we should not be selling on Grayson and take a chance on extending him the max extension.
Our only hope may be to get fortunate with the buyout market. It's clear we need more depth. Even if you buy in that Allen is a starting core player with big 3 and Nurk, you still have no depth after Gordon. The buyout market may be our only hope (as well as someone like Bol Bol developing into a reliable rotational player).
What I am concerned about with Allen as a core player. Match ups with the top 4 teams in the West.
4th seed: Clips - KD can match up with Kawhi. Who takes George? Grayson nor Beal or Book are good defensive match ups for George.
3rd seed: Nuggets - Again some lengthy wings with Gordon, Porter Jr., making it tough for a perimeter unit like KD, Book, Beal, Allen to get the needed length and size to match up.
1st seed: Wolves - Edwards, KAT, McDaniels. KD is the only who has the length there to match up with those types.
For Grayson to be justified as a starter and core player being a 4 times his salary increase investment, you'd like to see him be able to defend and match up. The way the team is built, we're going to have to force teams to make adjustments to us. We're smaller on the perimeter but we are so lethal when on that teams can't defend us. Our best hope is that teams can't double us, so even though we can't defend their big wings they can't defend our 3 guard core of Allen/Beal/Book. So they make an adjustment to our guards vs us making an adjustment to their bigger wing.
