I realize he's valuable. I have some questions about a 20 year old kid being able to take down lebron or just waiting till he's good and the rest of our team falls by the wayside waiting for him to develop though. I think with a good enough team around him he could develop and be a piece though.
We have these picks and players now and are on the cusp. Could fultz be that missing piece? Sure but I'm not 100 percent sold. Having Butler might be better.
Nobody takes down Lebron James.
The question is - who even has a shot to beat the Cavs during Lebron's window except for the Superteam GS Warriors?
Some other stats for you to chew on for past #1 pick guards:
Year 1 Derrick Rose 16.8 ppg
Year 2 Derrick Rose 20.8 ppg
Year 1 Kyrie Irving 18.5 ppg
Year 2 Kyrie Irving 22.5 ppg
Year 1 Markell Fultz ?? ppg
Year 2 Markell Fultz ?? ppg
You do the math.
The team has already "fell off the wayside" dude. We signed Horford to entice Durant....didn't happen. We couldn't even get away with playing Al at the 4 bc he can't run out and defend stretch 4's and does not have the legs to move with them. He's not the player I thought he would be in the playoffs against the Cavs.
Even with a healthy IT we still would have gotten crushed, maybe even worse. Adding Hayward is not going to get us over the Cavs....like you said.
IT/AB/Smart could all walk next summer and all will be wanting expensive contracts. It is suicida; to pay them, especially with Fultz and Jaylen, so we should trade them this summer to get most value and not risk letting them walk.
IMO DA will make the smart choice and take this team in a new direction. Personally, I woulld be looking to trade the entire starting lineup and get max value for them. Horford bothers me, if he falls off next season or anything happens then we get stuck with that contract.