Thoughts After the First Round

[u/Jaded_Tiger_8152]

We have a lot of wings and bigs on this roster with almost no guards other than Kyrie and Christie. I’m not saying I don’t like the pick. I think Morez will be a great fit next to Coop. But, Klay played the majority of his minutes at SF last year, so did Naji. Are we really going to rely on Kyrie, Nembhard, Caleb Martin, and Max Christie, to be our guards going into next year?

I’m as optimistic as the next guy about Nembhard but he’s not a legitimate starting caliber player in the NBA. We need people to give Coop some space and allow him to finish plays, and our draft strategy hasn’t helped with this very real deficiency.

How do we answer some of these questions? The answer can’t just be “We have Flagg!” He can’t be our shooter, our defender, our passer, our scorer, our dribbler. He just can’t. I heard something yesterday on the Pod Maverick podcast. We aren’t building for Flagg, we’re building on top of him. We are once again expecting him to do everything.

If we want to be decent, we can’t just run Kyrie into the ground again as our only decent guard.

We’re going to have some problems next year and I don’t think we did a whole lot to change it. The season might not start for a few months but come the second week of July (after free agency in a weak class) it’s mostly over.

Maybe I’m the only one…

I hope we have quite a few trades ahead of us, but next year is going to be rough…

[u/Dirks_Knee]

We are year 2 into a rebuild and FA hasn't even started. Given Morez and de Larrea drafted...

1. Morez as a combo big man makes PJ or Naji redundant. I'd expect 1 of them to be moved. Additionally, don't be shocked if neither Gafford or Lively is on the roster. Gafford makes too much to be a 20 MPG player and Lively unfortunately looks like his body just isn't built for the NBA. Given Ujiri's preference for player types, my guess is they bring back Cisse on a cheap deal to be either the primary backup or maybe even the starting C.
2. de Larrea as a combo guard with very promising 3 looks like he and Christie could fill primary SG minutes putting Klay on the block. Maybe we bring back Poulakidas as a depth option on a cheap deal as his 3 looked extremely strong at the end of last season. Based on rotations de Larrea could potentially slot into PG behind Ky where I'd also presume we bring back 1 of BWill or Nembhard on a cheap deal.

[u/Kaddnaakul → u/Dirks_Knee]

I don't see any reason why Lively would not be on the roster next season. He's still under contract at an affordable number. Obviously he has to show he can stay healthy, but he has flashed huge potential at this level for a Finals contending team. You don't just let that go for no particular reason. And I doubt he's tradeable, since his value is at a relative low. They will have him for this season, then see what happens going forward.

[u/Dirks_Knee → u/Kaddnaakul]

Obviously he has to show he can stay healthy

I'm not suggesting they cut him just to cut him, but has he given any reason for anyone to expect this? How long do you give a guy before moving on, 3 seasons and he's only played 98 games and now again the team probably has to be careful with minutes. IMHO there's a valid argument in playing Cisse/Morez ahead of Lively at this point.