Thanks for the thoughtful replies. It being the dog days of the off-season, some what-if conversations can help, perhaps.
I have thought more about BKN's planning, in light of O's comments.
In looking at where they are, I'm not sure they would want to be locked into ANYTHING on their roster. What are they trying to do? Their roster is ugly. Is their best plan to tank all out for a top-4 2026 pick, and try to make some young players into future stars? But I don't see any key foundation player on their roster yet. They do have a lot of raw young material to churn through and hope to find lightning in a bottle. Am I missing anything?
Their payroll future is not challenging at all, and they have the potential to sell/rent space (ie, take someone else's contract for a price) for several years until they find some blooming stars to build around. But the soonest they draft one of those looks like 2026 or 2028, and then it takes a few years from there to develop, and that's the soonest. It could easily take longer.
I also wonder if 2026 is going to be ANOTHER draft (like 2025) where they try to get multiple players (to have multiple shots at hitting big somehow). Do they have players on their roster now who might be enough in demand at the TDL to trade for another pick? (From a different angle, do any of the Mavs players offer potential trade-matching salary for them to use in a TDL trade to then land a pick?)
APPLICATION? What does signing CT mean to them? I see him being retained to be an asset to trade at some point, I guess. (And obviously, to be a trade asset, the contract size is a HUGE part of the value, right?) Is he good enough to mess up their tanking for a 2026 pick? Are they trying hard to find a sign-and-trade taker for him, behind the scenes, so they don't have to be saddled with his salary? Do they HIGHLY care if they lose him? Or is he actually seen as a future star in BKN?
I have thought more about BKN's planning, in light of O's comments.
In looking at where they are, I'm not sure they would want to be locked into ANYTHING on their roster. What are they trying to do? Their roster is ugly. Is their best plan to tank all out for a top-4 2026 pick, and try to make some young players into future stars? But I don't see any key foundation player on their roster yet. They do have a lot of raw young material to churn through and hope to find lightning in a bottle. Am I missing anything?
Their payroll future is not challenging at all, and they have the potential to sell/rent space (ie, take someone else's contract for a price) for several years until they find some blooming stars to build around. But the soonest they draft one of those looks like 2026 or 2028, and then it takes a few years from there to develop, and that's the soonest. It could easily take longer.
I also wonder if 2026 is going to be ANOTHER draft (like 2025) where they try to get multiple players (to have multiple shots at hitting big somehow). Do they have players on their roster now who might be enough in demand at the TDL to trade for another pick? (From a different angle, do any of the Mavs players offer potential trade-matching salary for them to use in a TDL trade to then land a pick?)
APPLICATION? What does signing CT mean to them? I see him being retained to be an asset to trade at some point, I guess. (And obviously, to be a trade asset, the contract size is a HUGE part of the value, right?) Is he good enough to mess up their tanking for a 2026 pick? Are they trying hard to find a sign-and-trade taker for him, behind the scenes, so they don't have to be saddled with his salary? Do they HIGHLY care if they lose him? Or is he actually seen as a future star in BKN?
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