I give them props for a proper rebuilding strategy that brought talent and assets to a team that had none when they started it, but it’s annoying that they never get called up on it the same way the outrage hits the Sixers. They didn’t even have rookies getting injured for entire seasons, they were just hot garbage and are somehow not viewed as a disgrace because of what, giving Mozgov and Deng big deals to “try to get better”?

They kept a lightly protected draft pick three years in a row and parlayed that into DAR, Ingram, and Ball. They only surrendered the pick when it was late-ish lottery.

They weaseled their way out of the Mozgov contract using DAR, which I maintain was a stupid process move but looks like it will pay off. This also netted them a potentially productive player in Kuzma.

They watched as LeBron’s Cleveland situation became untenable and were sitting pretty with cap space and assets thanks solely to the aforementioned, purely lucky, reasons.

Now Deng is giving them a somewhat significant discount to buy him out. I wonder if Joakim Noah will do the same just kidding hahahahahahahaha.

Through it all they’ve still managed to do a ton of stupid shit (their entire non-LeBron offseason, basically) and yet they’ll still probably get another top-15 or so player. They might have a non-zero chance at a championship if their young guys come along. Why don’t our stupid decisions turn out like this?

Well, at least I have the Mets.

Houston would be well positioned but Paul is likely to decline a lot even before that; the Celtics have their own issues with Horford, Kyrie’s health and Hayward is also 28 already. The east will probably be between the Celtics and Sixers for the next 5-6 years, but it’s probably that the best player in the conference will be Giannis and the Bucks core is at least interesting enough to make some noise.

The west tho will be very confusing. The Jazz are probably staying relevant but difficult to see them becoming contenders, the same goes for the Thunder and probably Blazers and Nuggets. The west will still be much better than the east for 3-4 years but it will be a mess. There’s a chance for teams like the Mavericks and the Suns to make major leaps to be in the conversation in not so much time.