“RUN IT BACK!” / Monte needs to fix this.
- Thread starter SLAB
- Start date
That would be a logical impossibility, so no, I am not saying that. What I am saying is that the Kings had sufficient assets to make such a trade, but perhaps were looking in the wrong corners of the market. In this instance, PJ Washington had a reputation as a relatively poor defender, which might cause both Mike Brown and Monte McNair to look elsewhere. The problem here is that Charlotte has had such a poorly coached team for the past ten years, who can tell what their players can do? A case in point: Cody Martin is the twin brother of Caleb Martin. Once Caleb was released by the Hornets, he was snatched up by Pat Reilly and became a staple on the Miami Heat, which went to the Finals last season. Meanwhile, after five seasons in Charlotte, Cody looks like an also-ran. Likewise, Malik Monk proved to be a hell of a player once he was released by the Hornets and signed on with the Lakers. By his own admission, only two teams were interested: LA and Dallas, in part because of LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Lakers, and Jason Kidd on the Mavericks, who had just come from the Lakers.
There are not that many good coaches in the NBA, in my opinion. But trying to assess poorly coached players is key to a GM's success.
There are not that many good coaches in the NBA, in my opinion. But trying to assess poorly coached players is key to a GM's success.
Or, perhaps, the other team liked other assets better for whatever reason. We've seen it before where a couple of teams make offers and the trade completed doesn't seem like the "best" one in our eyes for whatever reason. Years/salary remaining on the returning player(s)? Specific draft capital? Trade familiarity with certain GMs and not others? Taking a player's desire for destination into account? Others?
You get the idea. People sometimes skewer a team with no justification other than "I think they should have made this trade" with no idea if it was attempted and rejected by the other team for whatever reason(s) they had.
And yes, you are correct that sometimes a player may struggle at a certain location and then thrives under new coaching or with new teammates. Or sometimes they just have to mature and develop new skills, which would have happened anyways. I'm not discounting that. But you can't always bank that the "leap" in performance will be taken. Shoot, you can say the same for a lot of college players drafted that never develop into an NBA ready player, too.
You get the idea. People sometimes skewer a team with no justification other than "I think they should have made this trade" with no idea if it was attempted and rejected by the other team for whatever reason(s) they had.
And yes, you are correct that sometimes a player may struggle at a certain location and then thrives under new coaching or with new teammates. Or sometimes they just have to mature and develop new skills, which would have happened anyways. I'm not discounting that. But you can't always bank that the "leap" in performance will be taken. Shoot, you can say the same for a lot of college players drafted that never develop into an NBA ready player, too.
I think two of those players are not like the other 
When Grant was playing behind Lillard and was a secondary scorer, he averaged (per 36 minutes)…
.228 USG%
.606 TS%
.523 2P%
.401 3P%
.813 FT%
8.9 2PA
5.8 3PA
5.5 FTA
20.7 PTS
2.4 AST
1.3 AST/TO
That’s a very solid, efficient secondary scorer who doesn’t suck up a ton of usage (allowing Fox, Sabonis, Monk, Murray, etc. to still play an important role). And on top of being an efficient secondary scorer with manageable usage, he brings a lot of other attributes that are attractive to us.
2024-25 = 21.1% of cap
2025-26 = 20.6% of cap
2026-27 = 20.0% of cap
2027-28 = 19.4% of cap
0-6 year max players make 25% of the cap, 7-9 year max players make 30% of the cap, and 10+ year max player make 35% of the cap. As you can see, he’s not paid like a star. He’s paid as a really good starter and that’s what he is.
Grant’s obviously a little older than our core. He just turned 30 a couple months ago, but one thing he has going for him is the tread on his tires. He’s only played 19,603 career minutes thus far. As a comparison, Barnes will be turning 32 in a month but has played 31,036 career minutes. In fact, Sabonis has about the same amount of career minutes as Grant (17,981). I think that bodes well for him regarding how he’ll age.
When Grant was playing behind Lillard and was a secondary scorer, he averaged (per 36 minutes)…
.228 USG%
.606 TS%
.523 2P%
.401 3P%
.813 FT%
8.9 2PA
5.8 3PA
5.5 FTA
20.7 PTS
2.4 AST
1.3 AST/TO
That’s a very solid, efficient secondary scorer who doesn’t suck up a ton of usage (allowing Fox, Sabonis, Monk, Murray, etc. to still play an important role). And on top of being an efficient secondary scorer with manageable usage, he brings a lot of other attributes that are attractive to us.
- His shooting & volume allows him to punish defenders that pack the paint on Fox & Sabonis.
- His length & athleticism allow us to better matchup against bigger/longer teams preventing obvious mismatches from the start
- He has great defensive potential as he was unquestionably a great defender with DEN but that defense has taken a step back as he was asked to be “the guy” on lottery/bottom feeder teams. Playing on a competitive, playoff team that is coached by Mike Brown where that team is not asking him to be “the guy” could very well result in a reemergence in his defense. At the very least, I could see him put in defensive effort similarly to how Fox plays defense (4th quarter, playoffs, etc.). Let’s put it this way, would you rather have a player that plays average defense through the game but plays great defense in the 4th quarter and in the playoffs, or would you rather have a player that plays above average defense all year long? The former technically raises the team’s ceiling and that’s important come playoff time when effort and intensity is obviously elevated across the board.
2024-25 = 21.1% of cap
2025-26 = 20.6% of cap
2026-27 = 20.0% of cap
2027-28 = 19.4% of cap
0-6 year max players make 25% of the cap, 7-9 year max players make 30% of the cap, and 10+ year max player make 35% of the cap. As you can see, he’s not paid like a star. He’s paid as a really good starter and that’s what he is.
Grant’s obviously a little older than our core. He just turned 30 a couple months ago, but one thing he has going for him is the tread on his tires. He’s only played 19,603 career minutes thus far. As a comparison, Barnes will be turning 32 in a month but has played 31,036 career minutes. In fact, Sabonis has about the same amount of career minutes as Grant (17,981). I think that bodes well for him regarding how he’ll age.
I think two of those players are not like the other
When Grant was playing behind Lillard and was a secondary scorer, he averaged (per 36 minutes)…
.228 USG%
.606 TS%
.523 2P%
.401 3P%
.813 FT%
8.9 2PA
5.8 3PA
5.5 FTA
20.7 PTS
2.4 AST
1.3 AST/TO
That’s a very solid, efficient secondary scorer who doesn’t suck up a ton of usage (allowing Fox, Sabonis, Monk, Murray, etc. to still play an important role). And on top of being an efficient secondary scorer with manageable usage, he brings a lot of other attributes that are attractive to us.
2024-25 = 21.1% of cap
2025-26 = 20.6% of cap
2026-27 = 20.0% of cap
2027-28 = 19.4% of cap
0-6 year max players make 25% of the cap, 7-9 year max players make 30% of the cap, and 10+ year max player make 35% of the cap. As you can see, he’s not paid like a star. He’s paid as a really good starter and that’s what he is.
Grant’s obviously a little older than our core. He just turned 30 a couple months ago, but one thing he has going for him is the tread on his tires. He’s only played 19,603 career minutes thus far. As a comparison, Barnes will be turning 32 in a month but has played 31,036 career minutes. In fact, Sabonis has about the same amount of career minutes as Grant (17,981). I think that bodes well for him regarding how he’ll age.
When Grant was playing behind Lillard and was a secondary scorer, he averaged (per 36 minutes)…
.228 USG%
.606 TS%
.523 2P%
.401 3P%
.813 FT%
8.9 2PA
5.8 3PA
5.5 FTA
20.7 PTS
2.4 AST
1.3 AST/TO
That’s a very solid, efficient secondary scorer who doesn’t suck up a ton of usage (allowing Fox, Sabonis, Monk, Murray, etc. to still play an important role). And on top of being an efficient secondary scorer with manageable usage, he brings a lot of other attributes that are attractive to us.
- His shooting & volume allows him to punish defenders that pack the paint on Fox & Sabonis.
- His length & athleticism allow us to better matchup against bigger/longer teams preventing obvious mismatches from the start
- He has great defensive potential as he was unquestionably a great defender with DEN but that defense has taken a step back as he was asked to be “the guy” on lottery/bottom feeder teams. Playing on a competitive, playoff team that is coached by Mike Brown where that team is not asking him to be “the guy” could very well result in a reemergence in his defense. At the very least, I could see him put in defensive effort similarly to how Fox plays defense (4th quarter, playoffs, etc.). Let’s put it this way, would you rather have a player that plays average defense through the game but plays great defense in the 4th quarter and in the playoffs, or would you rather have a player that plays above average defense all year long? The former technically raises the team’s ceiling and that’s important come playoff time when effort and intensity is obviously elevated across the board.
2024-25 = 21.1% of cap
2025-26 = 20.6% of cap
2026-27 = 20.0% of cap
2027-28 = 19.4% of cap
0-6 year max players make 25% of the cap, 7-9 year max players make 30% of the cap, and 10+ year max player make 35% of the cap. As you can see, he’s not paid like a star. He’s paid as a really good starter and that’s what he is.
Grant’s obviously a little older than our core. He just turned 30 a couple months ago, but one thing he has going for him is the tread on his tires. He’s only played 19,603 career minutes thus far. As a comparison, Barnes will be turning 32 in a month but has played 31,036 career minutes. In fact, Sabonis has about the same amount of career minutes as Grant (17,981). I think that bodes well for him regarding how he’ll age.
I think the idea I like most with Grant is potentially consolidating Huerter-HB (not pick 13) into a deal for him. And that way, you fully open up Keon to be the starter and we get to see if Davion and Keon's late season push were actually real or not.
The issue for them is that Beal still has his no trade clause and is sorta so bad at this point that he doesn’t really have much value anyways. Nothing that their new owner has said really indicates that he’s going to try building up draft assets any time soon either. If anything they’re going to hold onto Booker forever and keep trying to reshuffle the pieces around him as much as they possibly can.
Yeah, that Beal contract is horrendous. We'll see but it sounded like they were almost at the phase where Booker was putting pressure on them. Kind of like Embiid has been doing with Philly for awhile now. Once that happens you either do what the Mavs and Suns did or just start your rebuild then and there because you're just going to lose value when the stars start whining. Beal had a pretty good season IMO. 18, 5, and 5 on great efficiency. The issue was his early season health. Now the hope has to be Bud doesn't figure it out. My concern is he'll probably be better at running a 3 headed monster and putting those 3 and D guys in a better spot to succeed unlike Vogel.
My preference would be for Monte to keep the #13 pick and draft a gem. I think there will be plenty of players capable of being higher level starters or rotation players at #13. Monte just needs to identify a few and pick the best one (hopefully) available at #13.
After drafting BPA, I would try my hardest to re-sign Monk, as I see him as part of the core. I would hold onto Fox, Sabonis and Keegan as our core (unless a no-brainer upgrade deal comes along). I see these 4 as our core (if we are able to re-sign Monk) moving forward.
Next, I would like to see Monte make smaller moves with Huerter and/or HB and filler to find an underrated/undervalued upgrade at PF/SF like Grant Williams, Patrick Williams, Jonathan Issac, or DeAndre Hunter instead of trying to make the big splashy move for a Kuzma, Grant, BI, Beal or LaVine.
Going into next year, I would like MB to give Keegan the greenlight to be #2 option on offense over Domas. Keegan progressing into the clear #1B or #2 option is the only way I see this team transforming into a championship contender, outside of Monte stealing an absolute stud in the draft. Then we would need to see continued growth of Keon, Davion, Colby and more consistency from Lyles. I think this blue print could get us into the 50 win plateau and a top 6 playoff seed next year.
After drafting BPA, I would try my hardest to re-sign Monk, as I see him as part of the core. I would hold onto Fox, Sabonis and Keegan as our core (unless a no-brainer upgrade deal comes along). I see these 4 as our core (if we are able to re-sign Monk) moving forward.
Next, I would like to see Monte make smaller moves with Huerter and/or HB and filler to find an underrated/undervalued upgrade at PF/SF like Grant Williams, Patrick Williams, Jonathan Issac, or DeAndre Hunter instead of trying to make the big splashy move for a Kuzma, Grant, BI, Beal or LaVine.
Going into next year, I would like MB to give Keegan the greenlight to be #2 option on offense over Domas. Keegan progressing into the clear #1B or #2 option is the only way I see this team transforming into a championship contender, outside of Monte stealing an absolute stud in the draft. Then we would need to see continued growth of Keon, Davion, Colby and more consistency from Lyles. I think this blue print could get us into the 50 win plateau and a top 6 playoff seed next year.
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I agree with so many of the points made about our position and talent needs, but there's another element I want Monte to factor in as he makes adjustments. I want a catalyst... someone who is less concerned about keeping the harmony than he is about being a team that wins. I want someone who will hold his teammates (and coaches) accountable, call them out when they're taking plays off, and demand better. We have some of this in Monk and Lyles, and lots of leading by example by Domas, but we don't have anyone currently who's going to get in someone's face when they're bricking another 3PA against a losing team. Cohesiveness can come as the season goes on, but performance has to come first.