If we keep playing the way we are, our current players aren't gonna take us where we want to go either, which is my point.
I have my doubts as well, but he's a top 15-20 player and if we aren't going anywhere with the current squad, might as well shake it up.
ideally you shake it up by getting rid of guys that clearly don't contribute or make your team worse. but apparently the logic is to give up hou's 6th man of the year and best defensive player for a player that doesn't make up for both losses by himself
If we have a bottom 10 defense (like we currently have) then Tucker's not contributing. Butler obviously can replace Gordon's production on offense. If we get our act together on defense and Tucker is our MVP on that end like he was last year, then I'd be against including him for Butler.
Tucker does what he does. not even sure why people are even trying to still downplay his importance. the real surprise is for everyone who thought losing "easily replaceable" pieces like ariza/moute coupled with jeff b would go virtually unnoticed with their replacements. defense is worse? well obviously when you add lesser defensive pieces, the results will then reflect that. not exactly that difficult to understand
If our defense is trash with Tucker, that makes him more expendable. Last year he was critical, and before the season started I was staunchly against including him for Butler (you can look up the posts). I've explained why I'd include him for Butler if our defense is trash 10-20 games into the season, so I won't do it again. Regarding your second point, I never considered them easily replaceable, so I will not provide a retort since it does not address me. I will say that based on the personnel we have, we should still have a top 10 defense, 15 at minimum.
i'm all for a knee jerk reaction to the start of the season which gets Jimmy Butler here. Why? because at least he'll play defense.
I have little doubt that MDA cannot coach an Ex Diva Melo and a current Diva Butler, but it is worth the entertainment. And Chris Paul getting all heated up once in a while because of his ultra competitive nature. Jimmy Harden goes meh, I just wanna ball, y'all doing your own things.
YOLO, you know I'm with you generally. But here's a comment/observation I might make after 3 games that perhaps changes my opinion a bit. Albeit VERY early still, Tucker's clear value that you and I see might (well definitely is, but to what degree) be very variable depending on who is around him and the capabilities of the rest of the players overall. Meaning, absolutely he's important, but perhaps exponentially less important without the right supporting players around him. When he's playing more minutes with Melo, with Ennis, with MCW, etc, does Tucker go from a B+ player to a C- player?? Or is he still a B player? On top of that, is the league continuing to evolve, to a state where you'd think Tucker would be more important, but that level of more importance might have peaked, as there's every year more and more 6'9 plus guys that are SFs masquerading as PFs that have more offensive game, can grab some boards and play d, while also being more and more 7'0 guys that can do the same. Meaning Tucker's tweener'ness value is being attached from both directions, in a sense.
And what makes you think Butler can replace two guys, cause you guys are talking about Tucker, but not EG. If we make this trade, it is literally just 4 players who can compete.
If we're using this view, wouldn't this apply to the rest of the guys like CC, Harden as well then? As in this is the potential domino effect when you have the wrong surrounding players to compliment these guys. We've started off the year with a number of throwback harden backdoor defensive plays. something that wasn't as prevalent a year ago. CC is being viewed as a drop off in posts. the overall team is just different in so many seemingly bad aspects as noted and its not good
Nothing?? I was responding to a quote, not suggestion we do a EG+Tucker for Butler trade. I have not formed a conclusion on that at the moment.
Obviously to a degree, but this is more about the individual role player's specific skill sets and the degree of the drop. Well not Harden. Not CP3. I mean sure, Harden can be hidden a bit more defensively when there are other great defenders around him. But Tucker's value is his defensive versatility. So its very relevant to him. CC... offensively, probably. Defensively I think he's pretty much as valuable in most scenarios.
i had another post that if the switch everything scheme continues not work with this team they may just have to alter it in someway. it fit the personnel a year ago. now, not so much. it may have to come down to that bc what we've seen in the games so far is brutal
