eh, i'm really not sure about that. we gave up less for AD than the clips did for PG. given that we've traded away any picks we kept, i really don't think we value them very much. and NO could have dealt AD elsewhere if we lowballed too far. we handled the AD trade fine, and it wasn't a given. the westbrook trade was bad, and the circumstances around it were a fiasco (pulling out of a deal that everyone thought was done, which may have implications for future trades, btw). rob's first summer was a train wreck, post-lebron. i thought the kawhi pursuit was dumb and said so at the time, but we made some decent saves on the back end and won a ring. i actually loved last summer's moves, tbh. just didn't work out for a variety of reasons. so, big mixed bag.
Of course it's ok to criticize the FO when you think they suck. It's also ok to support them when you think they did a good job. You said Rob lost every trade he ever made. I think he won the biggest trade. I still make that AD trade.
His only really terrible move so far has been the Westbrook trade. I think last year we could have made noise if it weren’t for the injuries because our team wasn’t made up of all vet minimums. If he makes a few more bad decisions this summer, then I will place him in the “needs to be replaced” category.
Letting AC Fresh go was terrible. Letting Schroder go for nothing was terrible (especially since we attached a pick to get him). Overpaying THT was terrible in light of going cheap on Caruso. I hate those moves much more than the Westbrook trade.
The Westbrook trade was a big fail in my opinion. But, from everything I've read, Rob had agreed in principle to trade for Buddy Hield and suddenly shifted at the last minute to Westbrook. It's possible he went back on his own word, but most reports indicate that LeBron and AD pushed for Westbrook instead of Hield.
Would Hield have been less of a fail to you? Just wondering. That seems like a much worse trade to me.
Caruso: I agree 100% but I'm convinced that was not a Rob basketball decision but a save ownership 30 million move. Schoeder: I agree 100%. Should have traded him the minute he turned down the extension. THT: imho, the verdict is still out on this one. Kid is still 21. He may yet become a bargain.
Not sure. Buddy might have crashed and burned here, or he might have flourished in LeBron's shadow. I will say that I would have preferred that risk to the certain failure of Westbrook and LeBron.
i didn't love the hield trade either (wanted barnes if we were dealing with them), but we would have been left with more options, and he might have thrived here. no way to know now. agree on all counts. i actually packed schroder's bag when he wouldn't accept a bench role, and i was very surprised we didn't move him after he turned down the extension. tht still might pan out. i'm also surprised at how quickly the fanbase turned on him. though i don't know why i'm surprised. that's on me.
Who is the GM? Rob or LeBron and AD? Rob gets paid to make the right moves, not the moves the players, who are terrible GMs, want. Listening to the players is why we ended up with the corpse of DJ. If they listened to them entirely we probably end up with some other old a** player they’re buddies with instead of Reaves as well. You also can’t be freaking promising players starting roles if they come here either, that’s the coach’s choice depending on how they play. Promising Schröder and Drummond starting roles was idiotic and forced issues. Who knows, if Shröder was a bench guard maybe he looks better, if Drummond is a bench big maybe he looks more competent like he does with Philly.
Haha oh yeah, he watched him in college with all his spare time. I added a bit more to my post in the edit, not sure if you agree with any of that or not. I’m tired of so many excuses being made for this team and this FO, they’ve shot themselves in the foot.
I agree with you in principle, but this is the cost of bringing in LeBron. I hate the Shadow-GM thing, but he got us another trophy so I'll have to deal with it until he's gone. And that's not an excuse, it's simply the reality of the situation.
You guys are giving THT leeway and saying it might work out but you are condemning Westbrook with Lebron as a sure thing to fail. However, the big three have only played 16 games together. It’s a long shot now because they’ve continued to have injury issues all season and compiled a lot of losses but I still haven’t given up on them altogether if they can get healthy. By that time it might be too late. But I want to see if they can actually work together.
THT is 21 and has played 1 year, really. russ is a highly paid vet who needed to be plug and play. the expectations should be wildly different.
We said "give them 20 games to see if they can play together" but they weren't able to play those 20 yet. It's sad, really. What is their record when all three played anyway?
I still hope you end up right on Westbrook. I'm on board with getting LeBron healthy and taking our chances in the playoffs.
They have played 16 games all together and they are 9 and 7. That would be 5th place in the West. Not as great as one would hope but decent. I mean they still need time to learn how to play with each other and hopefully they do it better without DJ in the starting lineup as he was in some of those.
Nah, nah. He didn't watch him on TV, playing at Oklahoma. He researched Reeves. You know, like a scout.
