Your starting lineup doesn’t have a single established volume 3pt threat.

Donte. He was injured last year so his 3p% was bad but shot well over 80% from the stripe. He can shoot.

And you don’t need great 3pt shooting, you just need to break a zone. Removing Mitch goes a long way towards that.

Hart and DiVincenzo should not be starters on a championship team.

If only there were some evidence that Donte could start on a championship team, something like having already started on a championship team

iHart is a fine backup C and Sims is fine as a third stringer. Beyond that, Deuce is a third string PG on nearly every team in the NBA and has a career .475 TS% and a career 13.6 AST%. I love the guy but if Brunson misses time and he needs to start, we are fucked. Roby sucks.

Denver’s bench was Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, and Christian Braun. Two of those guys suck and one of them was forced to play PG.

*wing name* probably sucks too.

Again, the actual trade would probably be less. Throw Grimes in the starting unit and put DD on the bench and you’ll be fine.

You flesh the roster out more next year.

if not Embiid then who?

a) Bigfoot
b) Nessy
c) Sweet Princess Jowles
d) Godot

And I think there’s a disanalogy between processing and hybriding as strategies, Z-Man. Processing as practiced by the Hinkie Sixers and Presti Thunder is meant to give you so many assets such that you have the flexibility to build a championship team in a variety of ways—you have enough picks to trade for a star, or acquire your core via the draft, etc. The downside is that you subject your team and fan base to years of abject tanking and whatever knock-on effects it entails.

Moreover, it’s important to note that the Sixers didn’t win a chip yet because of a series of unforced errors post-Hinkie (the Harris contract, running Butler out of town, running the offense through Simmons, whatever the hell happened in the locker room with Simmons, hiring Doc.) That the Sixers have failed at processing does not mean that we should pass up on Embiid, simply because it’s not Embiid who has been the problem—it’s been the management, coaching, roster construction, and simple bad luck. They were a miracle Kawhi jumper away from the championship.

The hybrid strategy by contrast is wholly dedicated to one way of team-building: field a ”mezzanine” team until you find that 1A guy that brings you over the top (a la Toronto with Kawhi or Butler with Miami.) For a team that’s hybriding, refusing to acquire a top 5 player who, if he is reasonably healthy, gives you a very good shot at a title is antithetical to the whole logic of the strategy you’ve adopted. And surely Embiid is a guy who can bring you over the top if he’s healthy. Refusing to trade for Embiid when you’re doing what the Knicks are doing is akin to signing market-rate vets like Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams when you’re supposed to be bottoming out.

I get that he has risks, but pretty much any trade has risks. Again I ask: if not Embiid then who?

just with his field goal efficiency alone he gives his team at least a moment to get back after all those made baskets he accounts for…

where’s that coming from rama?

oh, and was watching nba today and saw luka running stairs…he was looking pretty lean…

maybe the mavs won’t stink again this year…

I think you are distorting way that the two posters used the “gutting” term. They meant trading away all of your assets for an all-in move, without having a championship-level roster. I agree with their use of the term “gutted” in that it is going all in on a player that leaves you with team that is highly unlikely to get to the NBA finals, let alone win a championship, especially if the roster that is left looks like what you posted. Brunson is a fringe all-star who is a significant liability on D. Randle is a fringe all-star and mercurial and not exactly a high-level playoff performer. Hart and DiVincenzo should not be starters on a championship team. Your starting lineup doesn’t have a single established volume 3pt threat. As to the bench, there is zero depth other than at C. iHart is a fine backup C and Sims is fine as a third stringer. Beyond that, Deuce is a third string PG on nearly every team in the NBA and has a career .475 TS% and a career 13.6 AST%. I love the guy but if Brunson misses time and he needs to start, we are fucked. Roby sucks. *wing name* probably sucks too.

When your team has three replacement-level players in the rotation and two bench players as starters, plus no dependable 3pt shooting and no assets left to acquire better players, then yeah, I think that qualifies as being gutted.

You can say someone’s past performance is not indicative of his future potential about any player who hasn’t succeeded yet. You could certainly say it about Keels too. It’s not really an argument, it’s more of a wish. It’s also not relevant that he’s a former first round pick. So is Ntilikina, and no one’s arguing to bring him back.

Not every player has been consistently injured. Windler has.