Two 2nd-Round Picks & A Fax Machine

It's Tough Being On Top, Everybody Wants To Prove Themselves Against You & You're Still Working To Be The Best Version Of Yourself Despite Being Atop The Mountain At That Particular Time... The Los Angeles Lakers, As One Of The Greatest Sports Teams Ever, Have Had To Learn That Lesson Again This Season In Some Rather Unfamiliar Circumstances For Everybody. If You Could Put LeBron James, Anthony Davis & Talen Horton-Tucker Aside And Somehow Get Off Of Everyone Else's Contracts To Actually Build A Team That Works In LA, Rob Pelinka Would Probably Do It In A Heartbeat. Yet You Can't Do That Due To A Myriad Of Reasons, The Biggest One Being That This Ain't Basketball GM Dawgie, The Lakers Would Do Well To Add A Good Young Guard Like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander As The Future Cornerstone Next To AD, While Also Getting LBJ A Guy Who He Can Win With Right Now.

The NBA Created An Amazing System In The Draft Lottery, Where The Worst Teams In The League Are Rewarded With First Dibs On The Incoming Crop Of Young Talent... What The League Couldn't Predict Was The Ineptitude Of Some Teams As It Would Pertain To Player Scouting Leading Up To Said Draft, When You Have The 2nd Pick In Arguably The Greatest Ever Draft Class & Miss Out On Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony & Dwayne Wade Is A Crime Unto Itself (They Selected Darko Miličić After LeBron Went Second By The Way). The Detroit Pistons Have Had To Endure That L For A While Now & It's High Time They Begun To Look Beyond The Draft For Their Saving Grace... Jerami Grant Was Another Great Free-Agency Pick-Up Through A System They've Mastered Out In The Motor City - Throw Big Money At An Undervalued Guy & Turn Him Into A Trade Asset - This Time Around It's Happened Far Sooner Than Even They Would've Expected, With Saddiq Bey Also Breaking Out Into A Future Franchise Cornerstone, Allowing You To Do Some Pre-Free Agency Trades To Build Round This New Engine That You've Unearthed. The Eastern Conference Is Always Open Enough For A Team To Go From Atop Of The Draft Lottery To The 7-9 Spot In The Very Next Season, Something That The Pistons Would Certainly Love To See Happen To Their Team, Who Couldn't Seem To Get Right, Until Now.

What Do You Give A Team That's Just Been On A Dynastic Half Decade Winning Run, Right As They Seem To Be Primed For The Inevitable Catastrophic Fall? How About 2 Seasons To Rehabilitate Your Fatigued Superstars, A Plethora Of Good Young Potential Role-Players To Develop & The Centrepiece That They Never Had At An Age Where They Can Mould Him Into The Teams Style Of Play... I Guess It Truly Is The Warrior's Way. This Is Like Tim Duncan Landing In San Antonio While The Admiral Is Still In Town & Able To Help The Big Fundamental Get Over The Hump To Go On And Build His Own Dynasty. It May Be The Perfect Time To Cash In On The Kansas Jayhawk Twins Andrew Wiggins & Kelly Oubre Twins To Allow The Youngers Like Jordan Poole, Nico Mannion & Eric Pascall To Play More In This Closing Period Down The Stretch... You Get Back Some Cap Flexibility For Next Season, Along With Some Draft Assets & An Increased Opportunity To See What Your Young Guys Can Do When It Really Matters Come Play-In Tournament / Playoff Time, Giving You All The Data You Need To Build Your Next Championship Winning Team & Go On Another Dynastic Run.

It's Often Been Said That, "Man Makes Plans & God Laughs", Due To Man's Inability To See As God Sees... When The Minnesota Timberwolves Traded Away All-Star Franchise Cornerstone Kevin Love For Anthony Bennett & Andrew Wiggins, Two Consecutive Number 1 Pick Canadians, They Rightly Felt As If They Too Had A Future As Bright As Cleveland's With Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love & A Returning King LeBron James... Yeah, We All Know How This Movie Panned Out, But The T'Wolves Do Still Have The Editorial Rights To Correct This Narrative Before It's All Said And Done. Trading For D'Angelo Russell To Appease Karl-Anthony Towns Was A Great Call Buy The Team In Many Aspects, Yet The Reality Of D-Lo's Fragility / Shortcomings As A 1A Guy To A Growingly Unsettled (And Often Unavailable) KAT, Coupled In With The Rise Of Anthony Edwards As A Future Franchise Cornerstone Allows The Wolves Room To Entertain Deals Where They Move On From KAT Now & Get Back Young Players Who They Like, Before Rehabilitating D-Lo & Moving Him On For Whatever Asset You Can Get Back For Him... Essentially Writing An End To This Sorry Tale & Ushering In The Dawn Of A New Minnesota.

When You've Blatantly Been Robbed Of Your Franchises Greatest Shot At Winning The Coveted NBA Title & Seeming Never Been Able To Get Right Since, Yet You Keep On Trying... You Deserve To Be Called The "Kings"! One Day The Sacramento Kings Will Get An Opportunity To Right Those Wrongs And I For One Pray That They Grab It With Both Hands & Feet. Even When They've Shot Themselves In The Foot By Not Building Around A Cornerstone Like DaMarcus Cousins When They Still Had Him, Lucking Out On A Transcendental Player Like De'Aaron Fox May Have Been Undeserved In The Eyes Of Many, Yet The Kings Now Have A Second Chance To Correct The Mistakes They Made During The Foundational Of Boogie's Stay In Sac-Town. Tyrese Halliburton Is The Perfect Complimentary Guard For Swipa Da Fox, Due To His 6'5 Frame & Off-Ball Upside, This Has Made Buddy Hield & His $ 24,4m Contract Rather Redundant For The Kings And They May Have To Give Up Their 1st Round Pick This Season (With Some Light Protections) To Get Off Of Hield's Albatross Contract & Get The Flexibility To Build Around Fox, Halliburton & Marvin Bagley III As Their Young Core Moving Forward, Due To Harrison Barnes Being Signed Through On $ 22,2m For The Next 3 Years (Which Is The Next Salary-Dump Deal They Will Have To Work Out Soon Enough).

There Are Certain Franchises That Seem To Regularly Suffer The Ignominy Of Being Well Revered For Their Talent Scouting, Draft Selections & Personnel Development, While Also Being Largely Heralded As Perennial Underperformers When It Pertains To Actual Winning Off The Court. On Paper, The Orlando Magic Always Look Like A Decent 7-12 Team That Can Maybe Make The Playoffs One Season & Just Miss Out On The Big Dance In The Very Next Installment... They Have Some Very Nice Young Talent In Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac & Mo Bamba, Yet They Still Lack A Designated Go-To Scorer Who Fits In With That Young Core To Build Upon Moving Forward. Nikola Vucevic Is Their Best Player & Biggest Trade Asset At The Moment, Cashing In On Him May Next Orlando A Young Scorer & Some Draft Assets For The Rebuild, While Moving An All-Star Level Performer Like Vucevic, Who Is Now 30, Into A Winning Situation After Having Seemingly Been On The Trade Block For Half Of His Career In Orlando.

Tanking Is No Longer An Exact Science, Teams Can No Longer Guarantee That Their Picks Will Land In The Top 3 Even When They Intentionally Go Out To Be The Worst Team In The League, We As Fans Can't Even Tell When The Team Is About To Blow-It-Up Anymore Either... The Oklahoma City Thunder Went From Being A 5th Seed In The Toughest Conference One Season, To A Team With An Actual Shot At Landing A Top-3 Pick In This Year's Heavily Loaded Draft, All In The Course Of 1 Off-Season That Saw Over 6 Contributing Members Of The Squad Moved On For Some Rebuilding Assets In The Form Of Bad/ Expiring Contracts & Some Draft Picks (Of Which They Have Plenty). The Biggest Asset In OKC However, Has To Be 22 Year Old Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Who They Got Back As A Sweetener In The Paul George To LA Blockbuster Trade; Do They Now Look To Flip Him On, With A Year Left On His Deal Next Season, Or Do They Identify Some Complimentary Pieces To Build Around Him & Begin Spending That Draft Capital To Get The Thunder Back To Relevance Again...

Is It Conceivable To Think That A Teams Decision To Trade Away An “Unwanted” Star For Another “Handle With Care” Elite Talent In An Attempt To Appease Their Remaining Star Player, Could End Up With No Genuine Stars On Their Books When All Is Said And Done? I Didn’t Think So, Yet The Zardo’s Will Always Find A Way To Pull Off The Nigh Impossible, Often To Their Own Detriment As An Organization. Bradley Beal Will Want Out If This Losing Continues, So Too Will Russell Westbrook As Neither Of Their Talents Are Befitting Of Being On A Perennial Lottery Bound Team, While Their True Peers Are Competing To The Latter Rounds Of The Playoff & Trying To Win A ‘Ship. Either Washington Do Some Business To Better The Situation Now, Going Into Next Season, Or Begin To Prepare For The Big Blow Up By Trading Away Beal While His Stock Is At It’s All-Time Peak In A Season When He’s Averaging 32 Points On A Team Thats Unlikely To Even See 30 Wins This Season... As The Washington Wizards, You Let John Wall Down, Now You Can’t Afford To Let Bradley Or Russell Down, As It May Lead To You Staying Down The Pecking Order In The LEASTern Conference For The Next Couple Of Years.

There Are A Few Basketball Team Identifies That Have Lasted Long After The Players Had Left The Game; The Original Big 3 Celtics Led By Bird, Magic's Showtime Lakers, The Bad Boy Pistons & Mike's Boisterous Bulls Teams Of The Early To Mid 90's All Come To Mind, Mainly Due To How They Won At The Highest Level & Left An Indelible Mark On The Game... One Team That Will Often End Up Being Given An Honourable Mention On That Highly Prestigious List, Is The Grit & Grind Memphis Grizzlies Era... Mike Conley, Tony Allen, Zach Randolph & Marc Gasol All Helped To Create An Amazing Ball-Club That Earned Legendary Status Despite Never Winning A Ring Together, All Due To The Manner In Which They Put Aside Their Personal Accomplishments For The Good Of The Whole Unit's Wins.

Coming Off The Back Of Such An Amazing Run At The Upper End Of The Table Often Comes With Some Years Of Losing & Underperformances, Yet Memphis Have Somehow Managed To Avoid Having To Endure Any Of That For Far Too Long. Almost Immediately After The End Of One Era, Ja Morant & Jaren Jackson Jr. Are Now Ushering In The Dawn Of A New Day In Memphis... Doubling Down On A Tried & Trusted Recipe, While Adding Some New Sauce For Added Measure, We Are Now Witnessing The Birth Of A New Legend Out In The Heart Of Grit & Grind Nation.

The Bigger They Come, The Harder They Fall... For The Chicago Bulls, As One Of The Most Recognisable Sports Teams In The World, Falling From The Lofty Heights Of Regular Ticketed Championship Parades To The Highlight Of Your Teams Season Being Regular Trips To Madison Square Garden For The Yearly Draft Is A Bit Much To Stomach. There Has Been Much Said & Written About The GarPax Regime Who Oversaw This Transition Into Mediocrity From The Michael Jordan Years To Now... With A New Wave Of Change Sweeping Through The Bulls Organizational Structures, You Now Have The First Black GM In Bulls History Marc Eversley Running The Show Alongside Former NCAA Championship Winning Coach (Florida Gators) & Former OKC Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan Calling The Plays From The Sidelines, Who Bulls Fans Have Now Gotten Behind In Yet Another Rebuild... This Time, They Pray That It Really Is The Last Time.

With Coby White Breaking Out Into A Potential Star Of The Future In The Guard Position, What Do You Do About Zach LaVine Now That His Resale Value Is At An All-Time High? There Is Also The Question Of Laurie Markkanen & Where His Best Position Is, Or If He Even Fits In With The Rebuild Long-Term When You Consider The Strides That Patrick Williams Has Already Made This Season As A 19 Year Old Rookie In A Very Tough Situation... Whichever Way You Look At It, There Are A Lot Of Decisions To Be Made Out In Chicago Over The Next Few Trade Deadlines, If They Are To Every Fully Complete This Rebuild.