02-15-2022, 12:46 PM
(02-15-2022, 11:53 AM)Smitty Wrote: Before the trade, assuming KP is out with an injury. Which is an easy assumption.
Your bench in the playoffs: Kleber, Green and Burke - (Frank)
After the trade your bench is Kleber, Bertans, Dinwiddie - (Green)
Most here have been hammering the opinion that we need Dragic or similar to be the third ballhandler/scorer off the bench. They got it.
Most here have been adamant that we need to add another BIG/Wing that can shoot. They got it.
I'm more bullish about this teams chances in the playoffs than I was a week ago. If nothing else, trading away KP has sparked something in Luka...?
I have seen multiple comments like this that it is reasonable to expect KP to be out with an injury during playoffs. I think this is exaggerated because he is gone and folks are trying to make themselves feel better about this shit burger. The reality is he has played over 60 percent of his available games, and many of the games he has missed were due to "precautions". I would argue he had a better than average chance of making it through the first playoff round healthy. We will never know now.
The ball handler plus offensive depth at the 4 were needs assuming KP was still here. With KP gone our biggest need probably shifted to a starting caliber center that can protect the rim and rebound. We have managed to limit this issue in some regular season games, but I expect this to be a bigger issue in the playoffs.
My expectations were that we would have a very low change of getting out of the first round without a healthy KP, and that thought has not changed after this trade.