2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[mvossman]

A couple of reminders before I get to my main point...

The silliness of the Powell/KP pairing has produced a net rating of 8.5 in their 19 games together since 11/15.  The stench of the first month of the season has probably wrongly influenced too many of us to believe these two can't co-exist.  The recent trend is positive.

A reminder for those who only looked at Harris's 3% for the current season and deduced he's not a floor spacer.  He has a higher career 3% than Hardaway.

Now to my point.  Yes, you would start Harris (or Simmons) in the front court next to KP.  That would leave Luka, DFS and _______ as the other starters with __________ either being Brunson or Bullock.  Harris is THJ-esque in his defensive prowess, but a much better ball handler and initiator.  If he starts you probably have to return Brunson to the bench.  Is that a good strategy for retention?  Probably not.  But, if you start Brunson, Harris and Luka, you have the same defensive issue you had when Hardaway was starting.  The protected pick in 23 might interest me if it was unprotected, but this trade doesn't jive with Kidd's effort to improve the D.

Simmons next to KP on the other hand, would probably make us the best D in the league (KP, Simmons, DFS, RB and Luka).  You don't have to worry about how Brunson will feel being moved to the bench because he was part of the deal.  I think we overrate Maxi around here and it seems Chriss could be on a path to replace much of what Maxi does.  Removing THJ and Brunson would kill our bench scoring.  You'd have to stagger Luka and Simmons and neither playing alongside Frank, Green and Sterling provides enough three point shooting to make the roll ability of either Powell or Chriss useful.  We would definitely need to draft or sign another ball-handler who can hit a three and hope Green turns into a knock-down outside shooter himself.  I don't think a Simmons deal makes us better in 2022.  The question is can you build around KP/Simmons/DFS and Luka and be better in the long term?

Harris is not a good defender.  He is not DFS/Maxi level.  But he is also not THJ bad.  He is roughly average.  I do agree he makes putting Brunson in the starting lineup less sense.  Honestly its hard to see upgrading this roster and wanting either THJ or Brunson in the starting lineup.  In an ideal world we ship THJ out and keep Brunson as 6th man, but I don't think he stays for that.

There is some overrating of Maxi.  I'm one of the biggest culprits.  If made a list of who I want to keep on the team, he would come in third behind Luka and DFS.  But its a huge stretch to suggest Chriss can come close to replacing him.  Maxi is a better more versatile defender, and his ability to stretch the floor allows him to fit into so many lineups.  Chriss would be a Powell replacement, not a Maxi one.

As for Simmons, I can't imagine Morey pulling the trigger for Brunson/THJ/Maxi.  That is just not the kind of package I see them going after.  I also have a lot of concerns about having both KP and Simmons.  We are already restructuring our offense presumably to make KP happy to the apparent detriment of performance.  What are going to do when we add Simmons into the mix?  We already have a lot of folks wanting to ship KP out because of availability risk or fit concerns or both.  It seems like adding Simmons just doubles down on all of that risk and fit issues.