SixersSince82 wrote:Texas Chuck wrote:I mean this seems super obvious to me, but also completely foreign to most of you, so maybe I'm the one way off basse.
But when you tell me a team selling a star player should look to trade for their own picks back rather than getting known high picks/prospects now, you are saying they should intentionally suck for the next 4-5 years and then hope they win the lottery with their own picks.
Just sorry, but that's a terrible sales pitch to a GM/governor/fanbase. Like just absolutely terrible. In order to recoup the value for your star you have to fail for years.
Never ever would I choose that path. Especially not as the GM who gets fired after doing all that losing to get the value.
Better to trade your player for actual value, accept the sunk cost of your own picks being gone and being able to start trying to both accumulate talent and assemble a team. Here you have to intentionally not bring in players who help develop these future picks increasing the likelihood they bust.
But I'm too aggressive for simply pointing out the Spurs don't hold the Hawks hostage here so ignore me. All your wildest dreams will come true.
I think you're just overstating it a bit. Having picks is valuable. Having picks that you can control can be more valuable. They could choose to go for the hard tank. Or they could choose to keep chasing the play-in only now they'd get to keep those late lottery picks and kind of split the baby, by being semi-competitive AND semi-rebuild.
Yes having picks is better than not.
But the choice here isn't between picks and no picks. It's being asked to take back picks that get more valuable the worse you are. So you can't both get better and get good assets for your star player. You either punt value on the return because you insisted on your own picks back or you went through years of misery.
The Hawks picks are a sunk cost. They are now just another asset. One actually less valuable to the Hawks not more valuable. Because you don't have to forgo improving your team to get value unless you take back your own picks.
Spurs have immediate value they could send in a Trae trade. Hawks far better off taking that.