And I guess you have to factor if Butler would stay in SAS (Texas roots) but I don't think Butler is the type of guy to play for Pop. This FA period was already going to be crazy and now it's bonkers if Kawhi does indeed want out. SAS can arm themselves again. Insane.
True, even though, they won't find a guy as good as Kawhi for today imo. Simmons and Ingram have both a ton of potential, but especially if they trade Kawhi for Ingram (which is the likely scenario imo) they won't be able to compete with the best teams. At that point they should probably trade LMA too and rebuild.
The thing is... they are third in the west without Kawhi. If they got a Randle/Ingram, do you think they would be worse or better? Better is the answer and they are YOUNG with upside. Murray is improving with LMA and other vets showing them the ropes.
They're still third but kinda falling (and actually just few games ahead of the 8th spot), they won like 3 games in their last 10...maybe they were just tired, they had various injuries and they're still very old so, who knows, but i just don't see this roster being able to compete with Warriors, Rockets, Cavs, Celtics with a guy like Ingram in Kawhi's spot...unless Ingram makes a terrific jump in few months.
I just edited the post cause i was looking at the standings and yeah, a couple of games ahead of the last spots to make the playoffs...personally, i think they'll still make them easily unless they decide to tank (which is unlikely imo) but, not sure they'll home court advantage this time. Would be interesting to compare the schedule of all the teams behind the Warriors.
When did Durant stop playing even when he was medically cleared? Much as I'm not a KD fan KD 3x the player kawhi is. KD is one of the league leaders in minutes played prior to GSW Kawhi is the league leader in DNP-rest AND he still got injured. Now he is medically cleared to play but actually took himself out of the season. This is worse than Tmac, Tmac at least had surgery this b**** just refused to play.
They both ended up sucking but if both were 100% healthy and motivated Portions would be a really good player, his first year his defense and tip dunks were great if he kept that up he might have been better than Kawhi, Kawhi didnt have the playmaking Parsons had. If anything Kawhi's recent bout of injuries (shades of Penny Hardaway) and cancerous behavior is telling us Morey dodged yet another bullet when he didnt draft Kawhi.
Morey does not know how to draft. How can he draft Marcus Morris over Kawhi? How? I am ready to give Morey a Big F if he is unable to negotiate 100 million contract pay cut in July. Rockets have 19 million cap space. How can he afford 3 free agents starters and 4 good free agents bench in July? He has no plan at all this summer. Why not give Capela contract extension summer 2017?
I hope they don't fall to be opposite of us 1st rd. I could see Kawhi returning for playoffs. We should still win but a longer first round could hurt when fatigue is an issue in later rounds.
All BS. Owner doesn't want to risk Kawhi in a year where he doesn't believe he can win. Better pick doesn't hurt. Kawhi is annoyed, Pops will not tank. They got Duncan by tanking. I think they just decided to go the Morey route of rebuilding this time - which is stupid, because almost no one else has done it successfully.
Pop when asked if he would add Kawhi in the lineup if he wants to come back: "I'm not going to discuss that with you"
