Ku's Lotto Team Post Mortems
Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2018 12:15 pm
Golden State Warriors
Most GMs go through some growing pains when they first enter the league (Dr. Kavarga and Wombat haven’t but I’m still going through mine 30 seasons in) and state of the Dubs reflects Samsonians. The Benjamin, Kowal, and Biyombo deals will still be around next season. They’ll have to pay Bolton or hope for sign and trade. No matter what they’ll need to hunker down for a rebuild.
Cause of death: Inherited disease and misguided spending
Charlotte Bobcats
The Bobcats look like the rebuilding team they are. They have some old guys on oversized contracts. They have a couple of young studs in Kuzma and Hart. They are all set to continue rebuilding. Worthy of note here is that Kuzma and Hart are both SGs. This likely won’t be a problem because they will be probably both be traded for prime time players.
Cause of death: Rebuilding
Portland Trailblazers
The Blazers are awash in young players with potential. They, of course, have their stockpile of lotto picks but they also have a few young free agency grabs of interest (Spann and Garrido), and a couple of non-lotto prospects in Reading and Barger. This seems like a team well poised to pull off a nice rebuild. I don’t think I have ever written about myself in such a positive light.
Cause of death: Youth
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs have four yellow/green players, three prime green/greens and Roland Petit. This team is in an awkward spot because they were unable to trade Dirk. It seems unlikely they are able to set up a sign and trade. Do they just let him walk so they can go full rebuild? Unfortunately that looks like the most sensible path forward.
Cause of death: Stuck in the middle
Oklahoma City Thunder
Unfortunately for the Blazers, their perennial division basement neighbor set up about as well as they are for their rebuild. GM Banana avoided making any mistakes his first year in the league. The recipe is simple, draft well, make an occasional move with an eye on the future, and wait. With Sexton hitting RFA this offseason, hopefully Banana can stick to the plan.
Cause of death: Youth
Phoenix Suns
How the Suns won 6 in a row after trading Love is a mystery to me. We have seen this before with teams that rebuild after winning for a long time though (see the Warriors post Kemp). The game makes their pathetic looking teams win games for reasons I can only speculate. The Suns have some weird deals on their books and no super promising prospects so probably the best thing to do is just tank for a few seasons.
Cause of death: Rebuilding
Los Angeles Clippers
GM ClipShow only made one misguided move last offseason by signing Derrick Rose for only slightly more than the Blazers offered him (yes, I am a little bitter about this even though I’m better off for it). The timing is off with their young prospects so it will be interesting to see how the rebuild goes. Emmitt hits RFA this year but Brooks just wrapped up his rookie season.
Cause of death: Inherited disease and misguided spending
Brooklyn Nets
I already wrote a whole article on this team so I’m not going to belabor the point. They have a ton of talent on their roster relative to the other teams we’ve discussed so far. They also have some great young prospects. With Medina hitting free agency they will have some big choices to make.
Cause of death: Poor fit
Miami Heat
They are kind of a mash of a lot of the teams I’ve already talked about. They couldn’t sell their star big man for anything. They have a couple of interesting prime role player type guys on midrange long term deals. They have two great prospects but one hits RFA this year and the other just finished his rookie year. Overall, it seems like the scale is tipping towards competing sooner rather than later. Look for them to be aggressive in the trade and free agent markets.
Cause of death: Stuck in the middle
San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs have been stockpiling young talent for 6 seasons. This season they finally made a splash for trading for soon-to-be 31 year old UFA Buddy Pedraza. Considering what they gave up to get Buddy, I’m going to assume they are going to try to resign him. Which is risky because they won’t want to give a guy that old a long contract. Victor Newman hits RFA this season. We’ll see what they market is for him and whether the Spurs can afford to keep him.
Cause of death: Rebuild
New Orleans Pelicans
The Pellies went all in this year, assembling a squad of wiley veterans around their core big men in their primes in McNary and Winkler. They will most likely try to pull the same trick in free agency this upcoming offseason and hope for better results.
Cause of death: Old age
Indiana Pacers
The Pacers assembled a really nice squad from essentially nothing. They just made good signing after good signing. They developed Judd Williams. They made a nice little trade for Marcus Smart. Truly remarkable. Unless they make some trades, they’ll bring back roughly the same squad next year. Considering they won 47 games and most of their players aren’t too old, that is a good thing. Considering they missed the playoffs, that is concerning.
Cause of death: A brutal Eastern Conference
Chicago Bulls
The Bulls have a lot of talent as well and also won 47 games. With Desantis and DSJ both at 27 years of age and Leroy Haugh performing well in the third year of his career, they still have a rock solid core and future.The question is can they move on from Rustbrook and find a real SF. Haugh did okay playing out of position and Westbrook was still productive in 33 minutes a game but they have to find a way to move on to the next stage either by signing a good SF and resigning Vern or by signing and trading Vernon and finding a profitable landing spot for DSJ
Cause of death: Failure to transition
Toronto Raptors
The Raptors look like they’ve arrived. Ironside was an All-star in only his third year in the league. Joffrey looks good. Russell and Giannis are balling. They just need one more year. Right?
Cause of death: Arriving at the party early
Most GMs go through some growing pains when they first enter the league (Dr. Kavarga and Wombat haven’t but I’m still going through mine 30 seasons in) and state of the Dubs reflects Samsonians. The Benjamin, Kowal, and Biyombo deals will still be around next season. They’ll have to pay Bolton or hope for sign and trade. No matter what they’ll need to hunker down for a rebuild.
Cause of death: Inherited disease and misguided spending
Charlotte Bobcats
The Bobcats look like the rebuilding team they are. They have some old guys on oversized contracts. They have a couple of young studs in Kuzma and Hart. They are all set to continue rebuilding. Worthy of note here is that Kuzma and Hart are both SGs. This likely won’t be a problem because they will be probably both be traded for prime time players.
Cause of death: Rebuilding
Portland Trailblazers
The Blazers are awash in young players with potential. They, of course, have their stockpile of lotto picks but they also have a few young free agency grabs of interest (Spann and Garrido), and a couple of non-lotto prospects in Reading and Barger. This seems like a team well poised to pull off a nice rebuild. I don’t think I have ever written about myself in such a positive light.
Cause of death: Youth
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs have four yellow/green players, three prime green/greens and Roland Petit. This team is in an awkward spot because they were unable to trade Dirk. It seems unlikely they are able to set up a sign and trade. Do they just let him walk so they can go full rebuild? Unfortunately that looks like the most sensible path forward.
Cause of death: Stuck in the middle
Oklahoma City Thunder
Unfortunately for the Blazers, their perennial division basement neighbor set up about as well as they are for their rebuild. GM Banana avoided making any mistakes his first year in the league. The recipe is simple, draft well, make an occasional move with an eye on the future, and wait. With Sexton hitting RFA this offseason, hopefully Banana can stick to the plan.
Cause of death: Youth
Phoenix Suns
How the Suns won 6 in a row after trading Love is a mystery to me. We have seen this before with teams that rebuild after winning for a long time though (see the Warriors post Kemp). The game makes their pathetic looking teams win games for reasons I can only speculate. The Suns have some weird deals on their books and no super promising prospects so probably the best thing to do is just tank for a few seasons.
Cause of death: Rebuilding
Los Angeles Clippers
GM ClipShow only made one misguided move last offseason by signing Derrick Rose for only slightly more than the Blazers offered him (yes, I am a little bitter about this even though I’m better off for it). The timing is off with their young prospects so it will be interesting to see how the rebuild goes. Emmitt hits RFA this year but Brooks just wrapped up his rookie season.
Cause of death: Inherited disease and misguided spending
Brooklyn Nets
I already wrote a whole article on this team so I’m not going to belabor the point. They have a ton of talent on their roster relative to the other teams we’ve discussed so far. They also have some great young prospects. With Medina hitting free agency they will have some big choices to make.
Cause of death: Poor fit
Miami Heat
They are kind of a mash of a lot of the teams I’ve already talked about. They couldn’t sell their star big man for anything. They have a couple of interesting prime role player type guys on midrange long term deals. They have two great prospects but one hits RFA this year and the other just finished his rookie year. Overall, it seems like the scale is tipping towards competing sooner rather than later. Look for them to be aggressive in the trade and free agent markets.
Cause of death: Stuck in the middle
San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs have been stockpiling young talent for 6 seasons. This season they finally made a splash for trading for soon-to-be 31 year old UFA Buddy Pedraza. Considering what they gave up to get Buddy, I’m going to assume they are going to try to resign him. Which is risky because they won’t want to give a guy that old a long contract. Victor Newman hits RFA this season. We’ll see what they market is for him and whether the Spurs can afford to keep him.
Cause of death: Rebuild
New Orleans Pelicans
The Pellies went all in this year, assembling a squad of wiley veterans around their core big men in their primes in McNary and Winkler. They will most likely try to pull the same trick in free agency this upcoming offseason and hope for better results.
Cause of death: Old age
Indiana Pacers
The Pacers assembled a really nice squad from essentially nothing. They just made good signing after good signing. They developed Judd Williams. They made a nice little trade for Marcus Smart. Truly remarkable. Unless they make some trades, they’ll bring back roughly the same squad next year. Considering they won 47 games and most of their players aren’t too old, that is a good thing. Considering they missed the playoffs, that is concerning.
Cause of death: A brutal Eastern Conference
Chicago Bulls
The Bulls have a lot of talent as well and also won 47 games. With Desantis and DSJ both at 27 years of age and Leroy Haugh performing well in the third year of his career, they still have a rock solid core and future.The question is can they move on from Rustbrook and find a real SF. Haugh did okay playing out of position and Westbrook was still productive in 33 minutes a game but they have to find a way to move on to the next stage either by signing a good SF and resigning Vern or by signing and trading Vernon and finding a profitable landing spot for DSJ
Cause of death: Failure to transition
Toronto Raptors
The Raptors look like they’ve arrived. Ironside was an All-star in only his third year in the league. Joffrey looks good. Russell and Giannis are balling. They just need one more year. Right?
Cause of death: Arriving at the party early