shack009 said:
Also Lively, Martin, and Gafford should not play again this season. PJ and Klay probably not either. This season is shot. Need to get as healthy as possible for next season.
Let Naji and Christie get as much work with the ball as possible, because we'll probably need to see a lot of it next season.
Lots of people going to need to be healthy and playing good ball until Kyrie gets back.
Next season is shot also. Not enough people have brought this sad fact up, but the truth is that Kyrie will never be that guy again. He will be a 34 year old coming off an ACL tear the next time we see him on a court. That doesn't mean he has to retire, but we will never see this All-Star version of Kyrie on a court ever again. If deployed properly, he could play out his age 34-37 seasons (assuming he wants to go that long) in a tertiary shooting role and probably still be effective. I would love to see him with Luka in LA.
The reality is that this whole organization is shot at this point. Objectively they should look to move AD this summer and reclaim whatever draft picks they can. Same for all of the other players on the roster (PJ, Lively, Gafford, Christie, etc...). In particular I would go to the teams that own your picks (CHA, OKC, SA, BKN) and see what if anything they might want. No player off limits. If you can get out of the summer getting some of your picks back, plus squeeze out any additional draft capital the roster has to offer, then you can bottom out and start the rebuild immediately instead of waiting until 2031-2032.