Building Around Cooper: A Backward-Looking Thought Experiment

[DallasMaverick]

Its easy to say go get more offensive creators and get more shooters and then PJ will be great again.  The problem is they have limited assets to go add those pieces.  The best asset is a lottery pick which even if they hit may take a couple of years to get there.  After that they have a TPE and the full MLE.  There are limits to what they can do with that.  Kyrie should help some, but I'm not expecting him to be the same player when he gets back and even less so by the time this team is ready to contend.  This team traded away AD with no talent coming back.  Its going to take some time for them to get back to where we want.  That is why I think they should be very open to converting guys like PJ, Gafford, Klay and even Naji into assets or younger players where possible.

So, what if Kyrie is the full version of himself?  The multi-all-star version?  The same level as he was before the injury?

Wouldn't the team be a contender, as constructed?