Every team in NBA probably makes that trade. PG was third in mvp or whatever and Kawhi coming off the finals. Now should they have mortgaged their future for PG? Absolutely not. Should they have let Kawhi have all these crazy exceptions? No. But on paper you were getting two top ten players. The shyt they've done after is whatever because we disagree on the value of guys like Brandon Boston and Diabate or KPJ. But reality is they're playing out the string till the picks are under their control again.
All I hear from Lawrence Frank now is "Wait until '26-'27, we'll have open cap space again". Which means he wants to attempt another 213 Era debacle and bring into two more "stars" who don't move the needle in any department and cost $50 million per season. And they'll f*ck the pics off again too once they get back in control of them. Probably only have one more year of Kawhi & Harden being productive so something has to give. Better hit on a pick and a productive G Leaguer soon.
-On the thread topic, OKC, Minny, Indy, Detroit, etc. drafted well, made good trades, developed players, and sucked a couple of years to get where they're at today. Bigger markets don't want to step back for a season, have a bad year, play some kids, and then build it back up. Its just a constant hunt for "who can we get, We need a ring now" culture. The problem is all the stars that carried that mentality are on their way out -Bron, Curry, KD, Kawhi, etc. Now who are you going to chase to try to bring in to keep the championship or bust season alive?
The unrestricted superstar free agent is almost a thing of the past and a ghost because any star worth a damn signed a max or supermax with their current team and it takes a bigtime trade to acquire them. Now you add in the new CBA and its aprons now the big market star chasers will have to pivot and start hitting on a pick or two and find a diamond in the rough out of the G League.
Even the mainstream media has to adjust. They said Lebron and Luka were now championship favorites but didn't take into account players 6-15 on their roster. Just roll the ball out and the Big 3 or Big 2 will do everything era is over with. If some rating drop for a couple of seasons then so be it. This was going to happen sooner or later no matter what. Still promoting Bron and Curry in 2025 told us the big name drop off was coming. Now its here