I do think Hernangomez may improve a lot, perhaps especially with the motivation provided by a change of scenery; but, even if he does, I still think his game may turn out to be empty calories, so to speak.

Who mediocre to bad coaches choose to play is never going to be a good argument on the quality of any given player. “This terrible organization that doesn’t know how to value players well didn’t play him, so he must not be that great!”

I’m not a fan of “appeals to authority” period, but especially not with this organization as the “authority” in question.

You didn’t even bother to read my post correctly. I said “He wasn’t playing because he couldn’t beat out Kanter or O’Quinn, which isn’t the same as being bad.” Unless you are saying he is bad, which I think you aren’t, then you agree with me that he was good (at least on offense). You insulted me for no reason, which is annoying…

But we don’t win with Kanter in the line up, and I don’t think we would win with Hernangomez either, because the defense of both is bad. So I am not losing sleep over trading him. O’Quinn on the other, hand, can defend and score. We were beating Detroit yesterday when he was in the lineup (but our subs couldn’t hold the lead) and Detroit isn’t a horrible team now that what’s his name is back from injury. O’Quinn is the center to keep.

I’m honestly tired of the apologism for trading Hernangomez, it was a stupid deal period. If we draft the next Draymond Green in 2021 and Hernangomez never plays another minute in the NBA it was still a stupid trade.

What’s amazing is that every single thing you said is wrong.

Without getting into too much detail, his per 36 is 17 points, 13 rebounds on a 58%TS and 21% rebound rate. He is putting up similar numbers to Kanter, but at 1/10 the cost. If he were playing 36 minutes, you’d see his value, but he’s not, so instead people talk about how he wasn’t worth much. His D is better than Kanter’s – not saying much, but still. He is a valuable player, but we treated him like shit because of… Practice or something. Terrible, terrible trade. Bad cap management. Just plain fucking bad.

Point is, he’s a rotation player on an amazing contract, and we traded him for bupkis.

Basically this sort of argument is about potential, because players like Hernangomez are usually kept for potential and potential is like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.

I think he was traded not because he was bad, but because he asked to be traded.

He was traded because he asked to be traded because he wasn’t playing because he was bad.

And then you realize that he’s not bad, especially on his contract, and the whole house of cards falls. Fire Hornacek.

But major credit to ND for an amazing win