In Which Direction Should the Team Go?

[Shabazz]

I think this season is lost, but curious what the rest of the group thinks. This assumes no trade for a superstar is available.

Without knowing what his constraints were, the fact is we lost in embarrassing fashion last season and James Jones not only didn't make any upgrades to the roster, he let a valuable rotation piece stay home for 3+ months without replacing him. I think the burden this put on the rest of the group is being felt right now. He blew it (assuming he was allowed to make any moves).

At this point, I think if everything went perfectly, we'd have to claw our way back to even get to the 5th or 6th seed and this team is just not winning 4 straight road series with this version of CP3. And we know everything just doesn't go perfectly. There's bound to be additional challenges down the road.

IMO, every move we make at this point should be with an eye towards next season. We're toast.

[bIGDRAWLS0072]

Shake it up...

[SunsRIt]

I’m confused. We are still down 6 of our top 8 players. How is this season lost?

[Goob]

We are missing players and when they get back we should have enough to make a run at the playoffs. Not sure I understand the season is over with talks with 37 games left in the season.

Ton can happen.

[Shabazz]

I’m confused. We are still down 6 of our top 8 players. How is this season lost?

Because we're in 12th, Book is out for at least another 2 weeks, and by the time this team gets fully healthy and finally gets a Jae replacement we need everything to go perfectly just to get back to the 5th seed. More likely, we're in the play-in and bounced in round 1.

CP is literally out with a non-contact "hip soreness" injury. He's regressed badly since his 37th birthday.

A good management team assesses the situation honestly. It doesn't put it's hope into nebulous things like continuity and internal development saving the day.

[The Bobster]

I probably wait until the offseason and then look to make the appropriate changes. Hopefully they can get healthy, get their shit together, get something for Crowder and maybe do something the second half of the season.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I don’t like either option. I’m not blowing it up or making significant sacrifices to marginally improve this roster for this season.

The title window for this team as currently constructed closed after losing to the Mavs. However, this team is good enough when healthy to make a deep run if they catch the right breaks.

So, given the weird ownership situation and injuries, I think it’s best to ride this core for the rest of this season.

[Shabazz]

We also have $25M in expiring deals which will be very difficult to replace if we don’t move them for longer-term salary this season. We’ll still likely only have the TPMLE to use and the only expiring player we’d possibly use bird rights on is Torrey, but he’s a UFA and not worth getting in a bidding war over.

[Shabazz]

I don’t like either option. I’m not blowing it up or making significant sacrifices to marginally improve this roster for this season.

The title window for this team as currently constructed closed after losing to the Mavs. However, this team is good enough when healthy to make a deep run if they catch the right breaks.

So, given the weird ownership situation and injuries, I think it’s best to ride this core for the rest of this season.

I didn’t say blow it up. I said retool. Which could mean trading Crowder for future assets or young players. Maybe it also means moving Ayton for depth.

I don’t expect JJ to trade CP3.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I’d absolutely be on board with trading Ayton for an actual #2, but I don’t think that’s realistic for a few reasons.

Trading Crowder isn’t re-tooling, IMO.

[Split T]

I’d just make sure any move is done with next year in mind. Going all in on this year seems foolish at this point. But I’d be willing to reconsider up until the deadline. Let’s see where we are at when Booker comes back and how we look afterwards. Hopefully we have a nice stretch of games before the deadline. I’m leaning towards retool, but I think that probably has to happen in the summer.

[ShelC]

I think the tank talk is dumb and something the fan accounts on social are using for content because there's nothing else to talk about right now. Unless there is some strategy/longer term play from the front office or new ownership we don't know about, I don't think we'll waste a year of Book's prime and one of CP's final years.

At full strength, we're still a top team - maybe not a true contender but very competitive. I think it might be hard to make a major trade in the middle of the year that can put us in contention, so any potential "shake up" would come in the offseason.

Any shorter term trade(s) involving roleplayers should be done with an eye towards the future. I'd be willing to take on Fournier's longterm money if Toppin comes with him. Get a veteran ballhandler/shotmaker along with a young, athletic offensive minded big. But I'd also try and combine that with a Crowder for PJ Tucker trade (who is having trouble fitting in with Philly) even tho he's older with another 2 years on the deal. I don't love Tucker but he's a good Crowder replacement who can help now and give us with Crowder was giving us with 3s, defense and some bulk up front.

[carey]

Tucker is washed. I like the guy and would have gladly taken him back as little as two years ago. Now? He is still decent on defense but is an absolute zero on offense. Like you are playing 4 on 5 on one side when he’s on the floor. We already have our mini versions of that problem in Okogie and Craig.

[ShelC]

I'm just worried there are only a few specific teams that would want/need Crowder and won't be giving up real valuable assets for him. If Tucker's shot has abandoned him then yea, hard pass. He would be redundant on offense with TC, Lee and Okogie but that's our how our offense is build right now.

I'd almost be willing to give up a 1st to get a deal done for Toppin.

[Mori Chu]

We aren't going to tank. Shel said it right; we have too many veterans and guys ready to compete now, and we wouldn't be able to make any good "tank" style moves right now anyway. I think they're going to make a few moves at the deadline, try to put a competitive team on the floor, but also keep an eye on next season. As in, I don't think we go "all in" and trade away 5 future 1sts to try to win this year, or something silly like that. I think trading Crowder for a future asset would be wise, like a pick and/or a young player.

In terms of trades, I like a lot of the Toronto trades being bounced around. I also wouldn't mind trading for somebody like Kuzma who could help us win now and could replace CamJ / Jae. Or maybe taking a chance on a low-value asset like Fultz, somebody to give us a post-CP3 plan to run our offense.

[Superbone]

I really think the ownership transition is hurting us right now. I'm not sure it's going to resolve in time.

[Drewsprocket]

I don’t think there is much denying it. The quasi owners are calling the shots behind closed doors. It’s fair to think the season is awash and we’re witnessing a soft tank or sneak tank under the opportunity of injury. And JJ has to be operating under their private directives.

[In2ition]

Perhaps you've seen more than I have, to come to this conclusion, but I haven't actually seen enough to know that this is definitely the case. It feels like the new owners have been stymied from making the trades to fix the roster holes.

[Split T]

I think none of us really know. Our FO has just been very stagnant and we’re all trying to come up with a reason why. Maybe it’s Sarver, maybe it’s that he’s suspended, maybe it’s that ownership is switching hands, maybe it’s just all JJ, or maybe it’s some combination of those things…For all we know it could be something entirely different. I could be wrong but I don’t think any of us has any sort of inside connection. All we know is we’re in a weird situation and I think we’re all a bit anxious about what happens next.

[Drewsprocket]

I have no insider info. This is merely an observation of evolving situation considering where we are at now in terms of standings, looming trade deadline, injuries, and the changing of ownership. We’ve got what, two more weeks of losing to do and we’re already on the outside looking in? You think Ownership doesn’t have an opinion on this season knowing who’s coming up draft wise?