The road ahead

Aloha,

Well it’s that time again, and as I look at the road ahead, like last year, I’m not optimistic. It’s a pretty dark road indeed. Last year After the front off shed the key members of our number 1 ranked defense my main concern was defense. This year the defense should be improved after they have a chance to gel but now I’m concerned with the offense.

Like I have written before, everything will fall on the shoulders of the other guys. Regardless of whether there is a trade or not, several of the new guys will have to step up in order for this team to even make the play in.
Even if a star were to shake loose and we landed him, the supporting cast would have play above their perceived ceilings.

But we are at a cross roads at this stage what I see is a couple years of mediocrity followed by another painful rebuild. I hope I am wrong. I would love to eat a big plate of roasted crow but I’m not optimistic. When you look at our options it’s not really encouraging. Why? Because the way the front office has bungled the roster, next year there will be another new roster.

Now next year if we don’t make a trade we will have about 35 mil in cap space, and if done right we could possibly have the full MLE available as well as the bi annual exception. That’s 49 mil in spending power. Currently there is only 8 teams with projected cap space and the Lakers are the only team that’s not rebuilding. While 35 mil won’t get you a super star there is a number of quality players that we could sign. Jamari Grant, Trent Jr and Kuz come to mind. But there will probably be a trade and that cap space will disappear.

There is a lot of talk about a Turner/Heild trade. I personally think this would be a bad trade at the Pacers current asking price. While Turner is an upgrade over Bryant and Jones, he doesn’t address our biggest needs. A 3 and D wing with size is our number one need. Because AD is one of the 3 best centers in the NBA I look at Turner as a luxury. His trouble defending defending the wing will result with AD playing a lot of center and like with the Pacers reduce his minutes like with the Pacers. A unprotected first is a lot to pay for what he brings to the table. As for Buddy, he is a great shooter but he completely one dimensional and probably would be coming off the bench as well. He is over paid at 20 mil. While there are a few teams that could use both of them. I think it’s telling that nobody has been rumored to be talking with the spacers. That’s because of the asking price. If the Pacers want to move they will have to lower their asking price.

I’m glad that Rob is finally taking his time . It’s important to see see how this group does before making a trade. Why even make a trade if the supporting cast isn’t performing. Like I stated earlier, even landing a super star will not matter if the other can’t support the stars at a championship level.

So I will be watching hoping for the best. We have a tough opening schedule. The only good news, is it seems like the biggest upsets seem to happen early. Every year there are bad teams that have decent starts. So I’m rooting that several of these young guys have breakouts like Malik had, because that’s what it will take.