If only there was a team that wanted Melo that had two first round picks burning a hole in their pocket back when Melo was available for a sign and trade…

The shame is that Jax was dealt the perfect hand for the tear-it-down strategy. All he had to do was not re-sign Melo.

Alas…

He was missing 2 first round picks in his first 3 years. That’s not ideal. It’s a disaster.

1) He overdid it. He did not try to sign good young players (like Khris Middleton) to keep tanking.

2) The draft balances the power in the league, but it was seen as the 76ers were taking unfair advantage out of it. I believe that Adam Silver made some comments to pressure the 76ers not to keep with the tank, and that resulted in Hinkie’s firing.

The real solution would be to get rid of the draft, put a lottery wheel or something else into play, and let the cap rules be the only balance to the NBA. Keeping a system that rewards tanking, which is disliked by fans and frowned upon by the NBA, does not make sense to me. Still, the success ratio of tanking teams seems low enough that this system will stay in place until FOs figure it out.

Brand was traded after his second season, no?

Elton Brand for Tyson is the obvious one.

That MCW trade was quite ballsy and possibly unprecedented. Has any 1st year player ever been traded immediately after winning ROY? (Not including Webber, who asked out). Like Hinkie or hate him, but you have to admit that he pushed the envelope quite far.

Few Rookies of the Year were like MCW. He was a particularly bad Rookie of the Year. Most Rookies of the Year are really good players. Would it shock you if the Bucks traded Brogdon this year? No, right? Because Brogdon was also a particularly bad ROY. The guys that don’t get traded in their second year are the studs. MCW was clearly not a stud. He just came out in a terrible top end of the draft where the best players all took time to develop.

Hinkie’s two glaring flaws were admitting to his plan and curiously drafting 3 centers in league going small.

I still like Okafor and I can’t believe that they didn’t just trade the pick. It made no sense to draft Okafor there. Definitely the worst move Hinkie ever made. Just trade the pick!

There are situations when tanking makes sense – Not when you have a young, hungry team playing .500 ball with a revitalized coach and new management . . . that’s only a couple of pieces away from being a top four seed in the conference.

Sure, add Kevin Durant and Steph Curry to the Hawks and they’re a top four seed in the conference, too. It doesn’t mean anything to say that the Knicks are two really good players away from being a good team when there is no realistic way of them getting said players.

The shame is that Jax was dealt the perfect hand for the tear-it-down strategy. All he had to do was not re-sign Melo.

Alas…

Even better, sign and trade Melo! It was all right there, ready for the taking!