The only way to tank this team is to ship Fox.
I don't agree that a Process is the best approach and Atlanta and Phoenix are bearing that out.
Let's just see if Monte is a good GM.
Atlanta had a few seasons where they didint really try to win. Or at least the moves they made wasnt short sighted win now moves during that time. This year they made win now moves after couple of years of gaining future assets and drafting high and those win now moves turned into competitive team.
Of coruce the biggest component is Trae Young (who I had pre draft WAY higher than Bagley, even higher than Ayton). You need players like that and its statistically much more likely to get them drafting top 3 compared to 9-12.
I'm all for a new approach but what do you imagine that would look like? Teams acquire talent either via the draft, free agency, or trades. Identifying talent is crucial to getting good value with all three. I also think there's a couple clear examples this year of how important coaching is to a team's success. New York went from one of the worst teams in the league to the #4 seed in the East this season after they added a former Coach of the Year. Atlanta looked like they would struggle to sneak into the playoffs with a sub 500 record until they made a coaching change which catapulted them into the Eastern Conference Finals (and potentially further). The other big success story this year has been Phoenix which found the missing piece to fast track their youth movement was a Hall of Fame PG to run Monty Williams' offense. None of these teams got much production from their 2020 lottery picks but they all had a foundation in place of players they drafted in previous years combined with some key free agent signings and a coach who knew how to use the roster.
I think it's pretty obvious that we would benefit by placing a much greater emphasis on defensive consistency while also acquiring talent which is capable of executing a defensive game plan for more than a few sporadic stretches. Regardless of how we win though, I don't see how we get anywhere until we have a front office who can identify talent at any point in the draft and a coaching staff that maximizes the talent we do have. Many of the teams in the playoffs this year are led by players drafted 9th or lower. With roster sizes so small in the NBA any team in the league can transform from chronic failure to success over a span of a year or two with a few significant moves. What we can't do is continue making 1 good move and 3 bad ones every year. As long as our smart signings and hirings are outnumbered by the poor ones we're going to continue muddling along not getting anywhere.
You are right. You need good talent and good coaching. We dont have good coaching at the moment and clearly need that top level talent. The supporting players are great (Hali, Barnes, Hield, Holmes), the bench easily good enough but we just need that top level talent. One wing defender wont turn us from 30-38 win team into a 40-50 win team. Statistically only top level players would have that amount of effect in to your team (plus good coaching).
Free agency wont net us a top guy, trades wont net us a top guy due to their lack of interest to sign with us long term and our lack of additional assets to use in trades. My point is that if the need of top talent is acknowledged, we put ourselves in a horrible position year after year after year by drafting outside of that top 3 where its statistically proven to find top level guys much more likely.
Coaching is important. Talent evaluation is important. Trusting that your organisation is so much better than others that it will find the game changer in a draft from 9-12 range is a long shot if you look at the data. We've been trusting in that for so long and imo a big reason why we've been horrible for ridiculously long is due to that type of thinking and way of operating
