3PieceSpicy

“May as well invest one more year” has been said in regard to keeping or trading Zion every single offseason for the last 5 offseasons

It’s the same thing every year. Comes in out of shape. Gets injured. Occasionally he comes back from injury and looks good but it doesn’t matter because we have lost too many games already. Occasionally he never comes back even though he was expected to. Sometimes he taps out right before the playoffs. It’s one variation of that every single year.

Zion’s got it made

Douche off the court. Never available on the court. Probably has 500 mill net worth and has never stepped on the court for a playoff game.

Yeah there are 32 other teams. Joel Dahmen, the Hojgaards, Ryan Fox, Bud Cauley are probably the most notable names

Cameron Champ is another interesting one as he’s usually top 3 in driving distance.

Lol, yeah I got one at 365 on there. I was 2nd by a yard at one point. I had a 370 ball just miss the grid by a foot. Admittedly though, there was a lot of wind that day. So I think my ball speed on those were only 166 or so.

Today, I cleared 170 ball speed, 8-10 times in a row. Which usually is a barrier for me. Just to hit it once in a session is usually a win.

Kind of calling out Spock more than anything. Baw hit today and only hit it 309 in the same conditions.

We could probably easily get Sabonis and it would raise our floor. I just think we’d become the Kings. 2 things I do like about him, limitations aside. Availability and no off the court horseshite.

The issue with that is.

Washington, Charlotte and the Jazz are equally trash franchises for the most part. Perhaps the Jazz are a slight tier above with Ainge in charge.

The NBA needs to crack down on player empowerment

If Cooper Flagg comes into the league and randomly starts acting like a douche and trying to call the shots, I don’t know why any team would ever try to draft or deal with a non European player.

Scottie finishes top 5 in majors, when jailed, while missing a caddy, while recovering from injury, etc.

He’s also younger than Spieth. I’ve got more confidence in the 2nd longest world number 1 streak guy than Spieth tbh.

All that being said, Trae Young is 1000 times the franchise player that Zion is

There we go. We are onto something. And tbh I think it could even move forward with Willie Green. The Zion situation has been a MAJOR distraction and deterrent to his development.

To be clear, I’m on board with a Malone/Jenkins hire and would prefer we go that direction. I just wouldn’t melt if they gave Willie a half a season without Griffin and Zion ruining things. Instead of having to construct some mythical system where Zion is available and engaged, perhaps WG can actually build a sustainable coaching plan/system around players that can be relied upon.

Here are my positive thoughts. The herd on this board is often very very wrong. And right now it’s bordering on a reddit style, fully melted down, echo chamber.

Here is just 1 example out of many. Most of this board thought we were a lock for 50 plus wins this season. How did that turn out?

2nd example. The majority of this board thought the Lakers tanked their future by trading for AD. Since then, they have won a Mickey Mouse ring, unearthed an All Star in Austin Reaves (without even spending a pick on him), and found a way to con the Mavs for Luka Doncic.

There are dozens of other examples, but I’ll stick to those for now.

Currently the board is raging for 2-3 common reasons.

A) potentially Keeping Willie Green. This isn’t even a done deal. But even if it is, Willie has only been able to coach the team he signed up for 10-15% of the time and we were at the top of the West for a portion of that rare time. He’s had to deal with the chaos of Zion not being reliable the entire time. Imagine trying to construct a plan offensively and defensively around your best player, that is often never there and a lot of times, barely gives notice that he won’t be there (IE: game 1 this season)

B) Potentially hiring Joe Dumars. I wish they had more of an open search, but this board seems willing to ignore very recent glaring mistakes Griffin has made and is overvaluing mistakes Dumars made 15-20 years ago. Perhaps he’s grown from those mistakes. Griffin, on the other hand, is days removed from his mistakes of actively tanking this organization. There is a significant chance that Dumars will be a better GM than Griffin. Especially if we are keeping Bryson Graham around, who reportedly is a big part of our scouting and drafting over the past several years.

C) potentially trading Zion. This dude has given us nothing for 6 years. Nothing on the court. Nothing off the court. He accepted the key to the city from Drew Brees and has done nothing but defile it. His talent is significant. However, his game style does not fit in the modern nba, even if he was more disciplined on and off the court.

Getting rid of Griff and Zion are positive culture moves. Addition by subtraction. Keeping Willie Green, if key players such as Trey Murphy and Herb Jones are on board, is likely also another positive culture move as he will finally get to coach the team without the stain/distractions of Griffin and Zion in the shadows.

People are also discounting that we have a chance to draft Cooper Flagg or even Dylan Harper this offseason. Can we pause the melt a bit until we at least learn our lottery position?

A lot of key members on this board, myself included have openly admitted to watching 10 or less games this season. Griffin and Zion already destroyed this team’s culture and fanbase.

Could we make a better step with a new GM? Sure. But I am willing to give Dumars a chance if he is the choice. He did not actively tank the Pelicans chances the last 6 years, David Griffin was the one responsible for those sins. Sports are a prime place for growth and redemption. Perhaps Joe Dumars has had the time to sit back, reflect, and this is his time for redemption.