Not at all. I just mean in terms of overall contribution. And it's not about building a defensive team, or an offensive team, it's just about building a winning team however that works.
And my contention regarding Clifford is that as of now the level of projection to even have him mentioned as a rotation piece on a contender is wild, wild, wild. Not impossible, not even improbable that he fits in for some role, be it bench or otherwise. Heck, he could turn out to be the greatest player in NBA history! But waaaaaaay too much projection for having played one NBA game.
And I'm going to stick with my argument that if Keegan is the second-biggest overall contributor on your team, you're really not going to be a contender. Third, yep, can see it. Second, nope. You just need two star-level players above Keegan's level to get there.
I think we can accept that there are different ways to build an NBA contender. If you're going to build around Sabonis, you're not going to be building a team that has a stifling paint defense. You just aren't. You have to pick another way. Fortunately, Sabonis is an outstanding rebounder, a very good and efficient scorer, and a very good playmaker. He can very easily be one of the two star players that slot in above Keegan in the contribution list - but yes, that does limit the way you construct your team.
If you are dead-set on "must-be-greatest-defensive-team-ever-or-bust" then...well, we're already in blow-it-up territory for sure. And Domas has to go. If you're willing to explore other means - and for the love of all that is holy I don't mean getting more high-scoring, no-defense SGs to add to our list!!! - then selling on Sabonis seems like shooting yourself in the foot. You had a #2 guy, but you let him go because you weren't creative enough to build around him, and you just gave up and started over. Add 3-5 years to the purgatory, I guess.
This is...bleak. Keegan is the only guy close to a sure thing on this entire depth chart (and again, I think his ceiling is #3). We're relying on Nique and his one game of NBA experience taking a Hali turn, and we're relying on two more guys on the frontline that have as of yet also shown exactly nothing. You need a superstar PF (maybe Cam Boozer could eventually fill that role?) and a #2 guy to slot in at C (no clue who or how) and a bunch of luck on top of that.
This is why I would really like to keep Domas (and if we can find a way to make the role work, LaVine) so we aren't just going back to basically square one.
I agree that Tatum and Brown are the absolute ceiling of Murray/Clifford. But if Murray/Clifford come in at 70% of that - if! - that's still those guys being your #3/#4 (#2/#3 tops, but...), and you need two stars ahead of them. In the NBA, what I would consider a 30% drop off from a star is just not a star anymore.
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