A coherent “strategy allows for a variety of tactics to accomplish it.

OKC’s strategy of “win trades” works because Presti is a master tactitian, not a master strategist. His tactic is “do whatever you can to outflank your opponent; in other words, evaluate talent better than the other guy.” He puts into place whatever he has to in order to get the best value for any asset he has. By the way, trading in a draft pick for a player is actually a “trade” or a transaction that is either “won” or “lost.”

We had one real opportunity to do something like that, and I screamed for it at the time: after the 2021 season, when Julius Randle made second team all NBA and was on a dirt cheap contract, and Portland was a desperate sucker trying to keep Damian Lillard happy, the ’21 playoffs proved we were nowhere near championship caliber, Leon should have traded Randle to Portland.

These are interesting musings. What should have Leon traded Randle to Portland for?

Otherwise you have to thread the needle in the hybrid method, with established commodities, which is much more difficult.

Correct. This is why “win trades” usually involves trading an established asset for future assets. You win trades by trading the thing that is likely to decline in value for the thing that is likely to appreciate. It happens— once in a blue moon somebody trades Luka Doncic for a pile of magic beans— but in general you’re “winning” the OKC SGA trades and the BOS Tatum/Brown trade because you’re hopping off the win curve and cashing in your aging stars for lottery tickets. You need to have the wisdom to know when your core needs to be liquidated, and not do things like Phil Jackson did.

In other words, the method seems to matter much less then whoever is making the decisions. Leon has, somewhat surprisingly, been OK. But few are as good as West at seeing what no one else can see.

There’s no way they knew he was going to be this good. Nobody did.

Well, I did say on the draft thread that we should take him instead of Mikal because his upside was “franchise player,” even if his floor was lower (lead guard who can’t shoot). Which isn’t to say I’m amazing, but that people can and do know such things – Jerry West being a great example. The true best way to build a winning team is simply to be able to see what others can’t – with Kobe, Kawhi, Giannis, Steph, SGA, etc. Whether through draft or trade, they all were highly undervalued players except by a very small group of people. You don’t have to get it right every time, but you have to get it right often enough to find a cornerstone in the window where you are tanking or have cap space. Otherwise you have to thread the needle in the hybrid method, with established commodities, which is much more difficult.

People say when the Kings make a move it’s usually their owner, not the GM, making the decision. But by people I mean Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons, so who knows.

That makes sense.

It’s possible Hunter will be good for them and the trade look reasonable in Hindsight, but even so, it’s not the sort of vale they should be trading for at the moment.