Just Checkin
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Honestly I don't see what's the point in lamenting over last summer. Yes, it wasn't optimal, but there's nothing that can be done about it now.
Come on, man. It's been well-documented on this board that we didn't exactly do our due diligence in shopping around this summer when trying to offload Jack. We effectively took the first deal on the table and let Danny Ainge bend us over. We more than likely didn't have to give up all the assets we did to offload Jack, and I think it's ridiculous to overlook that when having one or two of those assets now could really help us out.
After all, we just saw KJ McDaniels, a guy many of us would have liked the Cavs to grab, be traded for a fucking second-rounder that we didn't have because Griffin gave them all away this summer. I get that he's put together a nice team (although LeBron coming back certainly helped), but he's also pretty much just given rival GMs exactly what they wanted in every trade. The only GM I feel like he worked over was Phil Jackson, and even that one has been contingent on JR Smith somehow choosing this point in his career to develop a basketball IQ higher than a potato.
I like some of what Griffin has done, but I don't think he deserves a free pass just because he was lucky enough to have LeBron James sign with his team in the offseason. LeBron would have came back regardless of who was running this team. He wasn't sitting there going, "Hey, who's in charge of the Cavs now? David Griffin? Well, I was going to re-sign with the Heat, but in that case, sign me the fuck up!"
Its such a tired discussion and its kind of embarassing that its still being had while our team is about to make a run for the Finals. But damn, if we only had Zeller still, wed be unstoppable!
That was kind of my point.
Beyond Zeller, don't you think it would have been nice to have a first-round pick at this deadline when lots of quality players were basically given away for that or less? Say we do the Jack deal but keep our 2016 pick. All of a sudden we have a 2015 first we can throw into deals. That could have addressed one of our holes and brought us a quality rotation player.
And you can joke about Zeller, but what happens if Mozgov gets hurt or is in foul trouble? I'd sure as hell rather have Zeller to step onto the court than Haywood or nothing, which are our current alternatives.
It's not that I wouldn't like to have any of those things in a perfect world. It's just that the topic is 7 months old and our team is about to make a title run, and we're still talking about Tyler Zeller who isn't really very good. I mean, there is 0% chance that he ends up being the difference between a title and not winning a title. Furthermore, the fact that forum members seem to think they are league executives and know exactly what is needed for deals, and that we still could have gotten what we wanted if we waited (i.e. the anti-Love brigade that thinks we could have gotten him for pennies on the dollar because..."we had so much leverage!!") is just irritating to me.
This isn't really a rip on you or even disagreeing with you that it'd be nice to have an extra 1st round pick or even Zeller. It's just me being tired of hearing about something that won't matter much in the end.
While I don't disagree this is beating a dead horse. But it is totally frustrating to watch the 76ers take on 12+ million for a 1st only and yet we gave the Celtics- Zeller AND a 1st to take on 8 Million (they took Thornton, not Jack here-we paid the nets an additional Karasev for the diff in Thornton and Jack). It is like we didn't even call the Sixers up.
And you are incorrect on how good Zeller is at this point. He would have made a great addition to this big man core.
http://www.basketball-reference.com...y4=2015&p4=koufoko01&y5=2015&p5=plumlma01&p6=
While he is not the defensive presence of most of those on that list--he is the best floor spacing offensive player (he would pair very well playing with Mozgov for sure). And his ORting/DRting differential is off the charts good. His Win Shares per 48 minutes is also off the charts good (ytd it is even better than Love's by a decent amount).
But it is what it is now.....
I think you missed the point... Ainge got them essentially for cap relief. That is terrific.
Isn't the 1st the 76ers received the Lakers 1st? That is VERY likely to be a great pick. I believe top-5 protected this year, with lessening protection after that.