mjkvol wrote:stormi wrote:Everybody has 'roleplayer utopia' until you ask for names.
Malik Monk, Tyus Jones and Kevin Love? This isn't getting you anywhere near a championship.
George is by far and away the best option available at our disposal.
He's an elite fit alongside Maxey and Embiid, and would be the first player in the Joel-era that wouldn't capitulate 20 point leads without someone there to hold his hand.
I guess you could max an injury prone OG (injured again btw) or an up and down Siakam.
Someone like Donovan Mitchell is an obvious All NBA talent in his prime with proven playoff ability. He would have synergy with Maxey and Embiid and the improvements he give the team in scoring and shot creation lowers the skill threshold you need from the wing.
But not only would we likely be outbid for him. Our fans have turned their noses up at him multiple times in the past stating that our backcourt would be too small.
So what are our other options?
We're clearly watching the passing of the guard before our eyes. Durant/Steph/Lebron unable to dominate the way they once did. It's sport first and foremost and youth, physicality and athleticism has been winning fast and frequent.
The time to get cute and experiment with roleplayers was six seasons ago when Joel Embiid was 24 years old.
The formula was there though. Simmons/Redick/Covington/Saric.
Maybe one season you transformed Simmons into a guard with a more well rounded game
And then maybe you transformed Covington into a star wing that could actually put the ball on the floor
or you transformed Saric into an advanced stretch four/big that didn't have TRex arms and could defend
or your transformed Redick into a movement shooter that wasn't a defensive liability
And then you tuned the recipe again and again until something finally clicked.
That's what the Bucks did with Ilyasova/Bledsoe/Brogdon into Portis/Holiday/Tucker and it's what the Celtics have been doing around Tatum and Brown; IT to Hayward and Kyrie to Kemba to White and Holiday -- Smart into Porzingis.
We let amateurs like Colangelo/Brown/Brand run rampant and we ended up anchoring Joel Embiid to the ultimate loser Tobias Harris with no further assets.
We're at the point now where going "all-in" might not even result in an ECF, and it's more than likely that we end up a Suns east type of team constantly compounding bad moves.
Paul George is a free asset and better than any name I'm seeing brought up here. You retain your capital and the valuable Clippers future picks, and you simply get to monitor what happens with Embiid and his health over coming years.
You get a wing that defends and shoots at a high level and with 5+ tradeable firsts in pocket to hold onto incase a real big fish becomes available.
Possibly a player that could be a running mate with Maxey for the next decade.
Best argument for George I've seen here yet, but I can't help but believe that your 'Suns east' description will be the end result. I only hope it doesn't completely decimate the future and chase Maxey out of here in yet another attempt to prolong this imaginary window.
The only path to veer away in that case then would be trading Embiid.
Suns east truly is when you're backed into a corner with no assets to look down the road towards.
At least if George/Embiid blow up, you can move Embiid for a haul and start again with your own draft pick capital + Maxey + Clippers assets. Sort of the way Utah blew it up while retooling simulataneously.
Unless you're bringing high end elite level roleplayers to the table and building a 2011 Mavs god-squad around Embiid littered with athletes, defenders and shooters it just feels like an utter waste of time to go bargain hunting.
Again I'm open to the idea. I just don't think we can get Avdija/Caruso/Brogden/Toppin in one summer, and we probably need something of the sort around Embiid and Maxey to compete with Boston and Denver.
