I've long sung the THJ's praises but I still have no clue if he's in the long term plans for this team. Is Luka, KP, THJ, JRich, Maxi and DFS a championship team? That kind of feels like a team that challenges for conference titles but not championships. Can you sign THJ to a contract that is easily tradeable should the opportunity arise? If I'm him, I'm probably going to want to start off at 19M a year (his current salary). Is another team willing to overpay him and try to re-elevate his role like the Knicks did on his last contract or the Mavs did with Parsons/Barnes? TDL is probably our best chance of extracting value from him if he isn't part of the grand scheme.
And while I admire that he's turned himself from a contract dump that was part of the price to get KP into someone who earns that contract, what I start to think about is why couldn't we do that with an even more talented guy. Since Hield is a popular name here, imagine what he could do with Luka's and KP's gravity. Could he be coached up to be a serviceable defender? What would a THJ-like bump make Hield's offensive percentages and numbers? Carlisle has long had success in doing this with the 4/5 spot (Wright, Mahinmi, Powell, now WCS).
And while I admire that he's turned himself from a contract dump that was part of the price to get KP into someone who earns that contract, what I start to think about is why couldn't we do that with an even more talented guy. Since Hield is a popular name here, imagine what he could do with Luka's and KP's gravity. Could he be coached up to be a serviceable defender? What would a THJ-like bump make Hield's offensive percentages and numbers? Carlisle has long had success in doing this with the 4/5 spot (Wright, Mahinmi, Powell, now WCS).