Duffman100 wrote:ciueli wrote:Everyone here defending Jak should go look at every other team's roster and realize the vast majority of the teams in the league have one of:
- a player (or players) around as good as Jak making less money.
- a player way better than Jak.
Some teams have both.
The only teams in the league I found with starting Cs clearly worse than us were Chicago, Washington, and Charlotte. Jak is not our long term answer at C, he's entering his year 29 season and should be traded as he does not fit the timeline of the core being built around.
Please provide a list.
Warriors - Looney (similar production, much cheaper).
Clippers - Zubac (similar, younger, cheaper).
Suns - Nurkic (similar, cheaper and even he's considered a bad contract)
Celtics - Porzingis, Horford.
Bucks - Lopez, Portis.
Nuggets - Jokic.
Heat - Bam.
Lakers - AD.
Knicks - Hartenstein (Similar, arguably had a better year than Jak, paid less than half what Jak is getting, probably won't get much more than the MLE in free agency).
Blazers - Ayton (Overpaid, but younger and arguably better, at least he's not a liability at the FT line).
Wolves - Gobert, Towns.
Mavs - Gafford (actually had a pretty good year, he's younger and makes less than Jak).
Pels - Jonas (similar production, better in some ways, makes less, probably an MLE type this offseason).
Cavs - Allen, Mobley.
Grizzlies - JJJ.
76ers - Embiid.
OCK - Chet.
Hawks - Capela (This is close, I'd take Capela as he is a better rebounder, a weak spot for the Raptors right now, Atlanta was 6th in the NBA in rebounds this season, Raptors were 24th, they also have Okongwu who is young and cheaper).
Rockets - Sengun.
Nets - Claxton (Younger, I saw a lot of posts on this board saying they'd rather have him than Jak, he's a better shot blocker and rebounder than Jak, we'll see what he gets paid this offseason).
Kings - Sabonis.
Pacers - Turner.
Spurs - Wemby.
Pistons - Duren.
Magic - Isaac.
Jazz - Kessler.
So we can see how many of those players are on rookie deals, how many are set for a massive raise this offseason, how many were signed years before.
The point is we have probably one of the worst C rotations for the money we're paying in the entire league, $32M/year paid to Jakob Poeltl and Kelly Olynk. The core of BBQ is set, that means improvement in the staring 5 really needs to come from upgrades to SF and C, it makes sense to trade Jak given his age not aligning with the rest of the core.
Of course, he won't be traded because of politics and optics, along with the inevitable push by management to make the play-in tournament in 2024-25, but he should be. He has glaring holes in his game, and he isn't better at the traditional big man stuff than a lot of other players in the league who make less money.
You know who is ahead of him? Pascal, OG and Dennis. Three players who are NOT on our team anymore. With our current roster, you really think he would be 8th in minutes?