Totally agree. It doesn’t make sense to sell Bridges for a rebuilding package when a lot of their picks are owned by HOU.
I think them moving off Finney-Smith may be more likely considering he’ll be 31 at the start of next year. I’m wondering if they’d be interested in a Huerter for Finney-Smith type trade in the offseason? Huerter will be 26 at the start of next season and will have 2 years remaining on his deal. While Finney-Smith will essentially be an expiring (I’m not expecting him to pickup his player option for the 2025-26 season).
You could then promote Ellis to the starting SG spot and have a roster of…
PG - Fox / Mitchell
SG - Ellis / Monk / Jones
SF - Murray / Barnes / Duarte
PF - Finney-Smith / Vezenkov
C - Sabonis / Lyles
Fox, Ellis, Murray, and Finney-Smith would be a lot of defense, length, and versatility around Sabonis while still being to effectively space the floor. And it still leaves the door open for Murray to grow into that go-to option. Then you have a very deep bench led by Monk and Barnes as your bench scorers (what a luxury).
I kind of like this idea because I think it addresses our weaknesses (size, length, & defense at SG and PF) without touching any of our future 1sts. It would mainly be about Murray developing at that point, and if he doesn’t develop into the go-to option we need, we’d still be able to leverage those 1sts to try and trade for that player.