Here's what the team would look like....

[hakeemfaan]

But Kukoc was a far better player than Porzingis will ever be.

That’s missing my point.  I never compared KP to Kukoc. Kukoc was being compared to MJ and if he could at least replace some of the things MJ provided in his absence.  

I am trying to say you can’t just say we can’t win without someone without at least having some sort of a comparable entity. If you are replacing KP with Maxi then you won’t win. If you replace KP with CJ you might be even better. Heck can someone confidently claim this team wouldn’t be better with Baynes if KP can’t bring defense every night?  

As I said the real question should be what  would the interest be for KP if he were an UFA and wanted the same salary. IMO there wouldn’t be much interest. That should tell you where to correctly place him.