02-03-2025, 12:31 PM
(02-03-2025, 12:21 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Agreed, except...Mobley is not who Davis is anymore in terms of mobility, and we haven't actually seen the Cleveland thing in the playoffs yet.
I kind of doubt the OKC model is going to be attempted the way many fans assume. I think Hartenstein was brought in to be the backup 5, basically. I think that team is much, much too smart to try to play those guys together too much.
Minnesota is a fair comparison, I think, only it had a better chance of working on offense than this does because KAT was a great shooter. And, for the record, I never thought that was a good way to build the Wolves, not for one second. Never did I have even a modicum of fear over facing that team in a playoff series. This Dallas front line will prove equally ineffective in the games that matter, should the team even reach those games. Davis is a 5 in the NBA to me.
I think the OKC model is a bit of a dart throw out of necessity, that succeeded. Draft capital is fun to dream about, but very few draft picks are ever true difference makers in the NBA.
The magic ingredient was getting Shai in the trade before his ceiling was recognized. The NBA is a superstar league and if you do not have one, competing at a high level is not possible.
Utah will be an interesting comparison to watch, with their massive draft capital over the next few years. They can use 20 first round picks, but if Utah has poor luck in the lottery and all they can collect is a variety of decent rotational and bench players, all those picks will functionally be for naught.