06-22-2024, 05:09 PM
(06-22-2024, 05:01 PM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: So, teams shut down their bad players to tank? Then why are we talking about him if a team like Portland wants to get off of him. What am I missing here?
No, but when they decide to tank they do prioritize the younger players for whom they can envision a future role.
And, I think just the fact that they were in a position to decide to tank after matching on Thybulle and giving out that latest Grant contract, even after it was clear Lillard wouldn't be with them (things a lot of national guys killed them for, btw) strongly suggests that the season didn't go as planned for them, imo. It's up to each of us to draw what conclusions about Thybulle and Grant we wish, but to date, I have seen nothing from Thybulle that makes me anything less than grateful Portland matched last summer. I'm less worried about it this time around because I believe he'd be coming into a situation with a much more established pecking order and probably wouldn't be given time to audition for quite as huge of a role (though your assertion that he might be better than Jones has me a little on edge - I hope he's not being viewed as an "instead of Jones" option).
I get that a similar argument can be and basically has been made about Grant, but personally, I don't think the players are even just one tier apart in quality. Still, it's all just our own bias/criteria/opinions.
I guess we're not going to agree, but I'm not worried about it. I wouldn't include a first round pick for Thybulle, personally. Even heavily protected, that would hurt, imho. Who knew it would take this long to be done with that awful Porzingis trade?