There's nothing to say that we wont have a bright future with this team either. I don't like how there are many around ready to assume that we don't have a future, that we sold it for short term success. This isn't a one year wonder, we have quite a wide window of excellent basketball. Our current young core is quite promising, we have at least a five year window to rebuild our young core around our veterans. That's 5 years at the least of draft picks (some are traded away) and trade opportunities to keep the ball rolling after our stars talent degrade to a point of unproductivity. We have plenty of time to make a progressive transition.
It's going to be tough, though. It's going to be tough to have any sustained success after KG, Paul, and Ray leave. We're going to be filling the team in with picks in the 25 - 30 range, and signing MLE or less free agents. It's not even certain that we make our draft picks, as we traded away next year's pick, and Danny has already talked about using this year's pick in a trade for somebody that can help us win now. Looking to free agency, even after Ray expires, we won't have cap room; the only hope to revitalize the franchise is if we can package Ray in some sort of sign-and-trade for an impact free agent in the future.
Rondo has the chance to be an excellent player. The rest of our guys are going to be somewhere in the mediocre-to-above-average range. I don't think that will be enough to stay competitive beyond the "big three" era. I'd be happy for Danny to prove me wrong, of course, but I'm skeptical that it's possible. I think this team should maximize its resources for it's 3 - 5 year run, and worry about the future when it gets here.
It's tough for everyone, just as there's talent on the lottery there's talent everywhere else in the draft. You simply have to be "lucky" and make the right choices. Many lottery picks amount to nothing, so it's a gamble just the same going the youth route. When you see the opportunity to win you need to take it period, and even if we had the #1 pick last year I would've traded it away if it meant getting us the team we have now, or just Garnett for that matter. I'm still not sold on Oden, we don't know how he'll translate his game to the NBA. We don't know if his career will be injury plagued. There are too many unknowns. Our future is just as bright as any in the league.
Look at the Hawks and Knicks, littered with first round and lottery picks... and I don't see them going anywhere with that group of people. Not now, not later. Look at Chicago.
The NBA is a league of the now instead of the league of the future. The reason for this is because resources are limited, both in roster space and money. Just as "hard" as it'll be for us after our veterans leave us, it'll be just as hard for those young teams to amount to anything because teams can't keep pilling up projects and prospects hoping that one year every one of them comes through together and they make a serious run at the championship.
That's why I said that the progressive transition we'll see through the following 5+ years will be without a doubt the best way to handle a team. You still have some young exciting players, and you collect some draft choices for now, make trades that can help both now and in the future, and when our Paul Pierce and Garnett go away, you play the free-agency. I really can't see any better way to go about it.
A core of Rondo, Pierce, Jefferson, and Oden would be exciting, but how long will it take for that group to become a champioship caliber team? Two years? Three years? Five years? Are we sure they would become one? There has to be a balance, and I think we have it right now. Great veterans and a couple of young players that are competent. It would be a different matter if you could stash all these young guys somewhere and make a competent veteran and talented team year after year, but it's not possible in this league. We can't stash potential and bring it up when they're ready for the NBA.
So just as some see a dire future, I see a future as bright as any. And having a guy like Rondo 5+ years from now, with the promising future he seems to be showing, I don't see us having many problems rebuilding after all of this is said and done; let's just hope that Danny plays the draft right, makes smart trades, and plays the free-agency well and that's true for every team in the league.
Anyways, just as skeptical as you are of our future beyond the big three, I'm just as skeptical of the future of the young teams in the NBA currently, and just as skeptical that a team of Rondo, Pierce, Big Al, and Oden would amount to anything. There's a timing factor to consider, would Pierce still be playing high level when these guys decided to play at their peak? Would their peak be good enough? Would Rondo have progressed the same without the veteran presence he's enjoyed this year? Is Oden the real deal? If Pierce was traded for prospects, would they amount to anything? If they amount to anything, would they amount to it at the right time? I sure as heck don't know. And I really don't want to find out. One thing I'm not skeptical about is that our current group of players will win championships for the next 5 years or at the least have a chance to do so every year.
Very few teams, if any, have enjoyed success from purely building the team up through the draft. That's why we need to be in a position to win with our veterans and play the free-agency wisely when they leave while hoping to get lucky in the draft through the next 5+ years (and everyone is in that boat).