Finally a little fun

Aloha,

The last couple of games have been a pleasure to watch. It kind of reminds me of watching the baby Lakers before LeBron. This team is playing incredibly hard from the vets down to 19 year old Max they are a joy to watch.

I never believed this team was as bad as its record. It took a perfect storm of this being a brand new team, a tough opening schedule, LeBron missing time early and an inexplicable team wide shooting slump to land us at 2-10. We are more like our record since then.

I have said all along that would be up to the others to determine how far this team could go and the others have been stepping up. And you knew the shooting would improve. While no one is a sniper they were much better career shooters than they demonstrated early.

You have to start with Thomas Bryant. Since he stepped in for AD in that Denver game he has been averaging 16.25 points, 9.9 rebounds. He is shooting over 50% from 3 and over 70% from the field. In only 28 minutes. That’s better than all but a few starting center in the league. This team needs to run to be successful. There are not many centers that run the floor better than AD. Thomas is one of them. Maybe the only one.

Then look at Austin who is the kind of glue guy every successful team needs. Lonnie has had more ups than downs. He had been playing hurt for awhile and they are finally resting him, which is smart.

Dennis is now playing how Rob hoped he would. Russ is a leading 6th man candidate and guys like Gabriel, Brown Jr and JTA play with a ton of energy. We have even seen the Heat version of Nunn the last few games and the T-Wolves version of PatBev.

This has led me to believe if we could solve our small forward problem and with reasonable health we could be pretty good. Now maybe not championship good, the parity in the west is an illusion, created by more key injuries to important players than I can remember. There are several teams if healthy would beat us, even with an upgrade at the 3. And a miracle block buster trade is not going to happen.

Still my wish is to build a contender as soon as possible and if we play our cards right it could be next year. Money will be a problem but if we found a 3 and D wing on a reasonable contract would go a long way in that direction. OG Anunoby would be the perfect guy and I would give up both 1st round picks for him and Lonnie for himZ He is an elite 3 and D guy. While as late as last year he was on the block, he had been playing so well that they may not trade him. And he is under contract for 18 mil. Plus he would actually still be in his prime when the 2027 pick is due. As they say a bird in the hand…

This next year might be the year it’s worth staying under the tax apron that being estimated to be around 162 mil. If we did that not only would we have 35 mil in cap space but a full MLE and a bi annual exception to use. That’s why I’m against bring back long term salary except for a guy like OG.

While we will not be able to keep everyone we have bird rights on Austin, early bird rights on both Gabriel and Nunn. I would love to keep several players. There is Thomas, Dennis, Lonnie, and Troy all would be great to keep. We have bird right with Russ as well but he is playing well and will probably receive better offers then I would be willing to give him.

The rest of the year will give us a better idea of the guys we should try to keep. And if they all play their way out of our budget at least we might make a little noise in the playoffs.