FanPost

Our Team, Our Season, Going Forward

First off, good luck to Battier and Brooks. I hope they enjoy the rest of their seasons in their new homes.

That said, I think we had a great trade deadline, both for now and in the future. There are a couple of major changes to our team that need to be taken into consideration in order to understand our current and future situation:

1) Terrence Williams will inevitably receive playing time now. I feel like DM traded away a starter and didn't make a move for another ( like G Wallace) because he wanted to create playing time for him. This has a couple of implications. Firstly, we can see what we have in this guy (which is a potential Andre Iguodala lite, on a rookie scale deal). Second, it creates more looks for us on offense in light of Budinger's probable new starting job (since he can put the ball on the floor, unlike Battier). Third, it takes the need for Williams to shoot (his weakest attribute) away, considering Dragic is a solid shooter, as is Lee, Miller and Patterson (with limited range).

2) We now have 7 players on their rookie deals, and roughly $25 million in expiring deals this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if we make a trade in the off-season moving some of these young parts to land a starting center.

3) We now own 3 draft picks for this year. If all three teams keep their current pace, it looks like we'll have the #12, #18 and #22 pick. We could parcel these togethers (either two of them, or all three) and move up in the draft, or we can trade the picks we've acquired with current young talent for a potential impact player.

4) Thabeet is a project, yes, but I wouldn't be surprised for him to start getting time within his first 5 games here, considering how quickly Jordan Hill was inserted into the rotation. If he is better than Jordan Hill, then we instantly are a better team considering his size.

5) If we are shooting for the playoffs instead of a better lotto pick this year, it's certainly not out of the question. Our schedule isn't mercilessly brutal, we have many x-factors that could turn out to be what we've been missing all season (that can be realized through possible contributions from Williams and Thabeet). Phoenix got worse by absorbing Brooks, unless he instantly turns it on, and Memphis is going to sorely miss Gay for the next 3 weeks of the stretch run, especially considering they're stuck with Mayo, whom they tried to trade away today.

To be short, I don't think we're waiting to strike oil in the draft; rather, I think we have the draft as an option, but will probably flip at least one of those picks and look to move some of our young talent for an impact big man in the summer, and offer money to a vet center as insurance (Dalembert comes to mind. I think Morey didn't trade for him because he can probably be had at a decent price in the offseason, so long as he doesn't run off to MIA or NY for less money). I think we're better poised for a run at the 7-8 seed, considering we're now more balanced and Thabeet / Williams can be game-changers. If they're not, we always have the summer to fix things.

No cursing in title. No pirated material, such as links to online game streams. Do not cut/paste entire sections of content from other websites. Thanks.

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