I knew when Bird suddenly stepped down that the Pacers were screwed. Bird saw the writing on the wall and didn't wanna stick around in a burning house.

A smart exec would have went to PG at the deadline and if he sensed any hesitation AT ALL from him, traded him for that kings ransom on the spot. That's how great organizations operate.

Since Bird hesitated, the Pacers and their fans like me are left holding the bag.

Good choice for him. He like what the 4th or 5th best player in the East lol

That would be so awesome. Ainge would be left with nothing. LMAO

I deleted that post I think it was fake

Damn. Well someone needs to put a woj twitter feed on this thread

What teams in the East have the infrastructure in place to form super teams?

What teams have that in the West?

It's not like Lebron waltzing onto an under 20-win Cleveland team and turning them into a Finals team. There is no Lebron available to be acquired. That means getting multiple stars, which means making your team as palatable to future stars as you can possibly make it. There is no team like that in the east. Milwaukee, maybe. That's it. Boston has ****ed the goat and is no longer in play.

What do you mean by infrastructure? Like another great player already there? In the East outside of Cleveland that would be Boston, Washington or Milwaukee. I think the 76ers are going to have a fun team here in the next year or two. It is pretty bleak for the East because everyone has moved or stayed West

Yeah, that's what I mean.

It's probably going to only get worse, too.

Well its alot easier to make it in the NFL because there is 4 or 5 times as many roster spots, you dont have as much international competition, and the number 1 thing you need to be successful in the NFL isnt always height

Hope he considers OKC. Could be a good piece there.

Tell OKC to go **** itself. Shouldn't have let go of Durant.

That was Judas Durant's decision, not theirs.

How could they have kept him? He was a free agent and decided to leave.

Not Minnesota's fault.

Sounds like Millsap is deciding between Minnesota and Denver, anyway. OKC did sneak up on everybody on the Paul George trade, but I don't see it happening again in free agency.

It's because you have two different answers to this question depending on which conference you are in: "if I want to be the best team in my conference overall for the next decade, what is the best course of action?". In the east, the answer is simple: tank, load up a young core, and wait Lebron out. Once Lebron gets older, it's wide open, and because the celts won't go all in, your team has just as good of chance as anyone else to be the team of the decade in the east. The sixers have done this well, and I think that's why Ainge won't trade any of his high picks, because he thinks this is the way to go.

On the other hand, the west has no such plan. The Warriors probably won't fall off in a year or two. They are going to be great for the foreseeable future. So if you are a western conference GM, the only answer to my original question is go all in and if you fail well at least you can tell your fan base you tried. The rockets and the wolves are perfect examples. Guys aren't getting any younger, so push all the chips in and go for it. Who cares if the wolves won't be able to keep a butler Wiggins towns core together in 3 years? Who cares if Chris Paul and harden fail ? There's no downside because your goal will still be to beat the Warriors in 5 years. The east doesn't have to worry about that, so they can play the long game.