The thing is, most serious ppl on dt will agree with this but they arent hiding this. I think the argument is we dont have the access and knowledge about injuries. So we stay away from trying to value AS MUCH
Dean love your work but just strongly disagree with your Zion take here. You argue Zion can't lead teams historically but how many players like Scoot have led their teams to championships? And thats the absolute best case scenario in a return in a trade for the Pelicans.
I just don't think in terms of return or in terms of salary allocation they can come to anything remotely close to a healthy Zion. Maybe he never stays healthy (this is the more likely outcome) but in terms of maximizing their title odds over the next 5 years I'd still make the bet on Zion rather than giving up on him. We've seen the Pelicans without Zion on the floor and its just not a team capable of winning a title - and that would still be the case if you put in Scoot instead
Scoot is for sure a heavy underdog to be as good as healthy Zion, but he is going to be much cheaper and much more likely to be healthy and available.
The issue with Zion isn't that he is a bad player, it's that he isn't worth the money and injury risk because he is much closer to a Blake Griffin than a LeBron.
I'd rather clear his salary from the books and try to build something without him than keep hoping that eventually he pays off while eating a huge % of the cap.
The thing is, most serious ppl on dt will agree with this but they arent hiding this. I think the argument is we dont have the access and knowledge about injuries. So we stay away from trying to value AS MUCH
That's where I disagree with DT. They see low info and think upside when they should be tempering expectations due to risk.
You don't need to be a medical expert. Just look at historical comps and it doesn't look great.
Dean love your work but just strongly disagree with your Zion take here. You argue Zion can't lead teams historically but how many players like Scoot have led their teams to championships? And thats the absolute best case scenario in a return in a trade for the Pelicans.
I just don't think in terms of return or in terms of salary allocation they can come to anything remotely close to a healthy Zion. Maybe he never stays healthy (this is the more likely outcome) but in terms of maximizing their title odds over the next 5 years I'd still make the bet on Zion rather than giving up on him. We've seen the Pelicans without Zion on the floor and its just not a team capable of winning a title - and that would still be the case if you put in Scoot instead
Scoot is for sure a heavy underdog to be as good as healthy Zion, but he is going to be much cheaper and much more likely to be healthy and available.
The issue with Zion isn't that he is a bad player, it's that he isn't worth the money and injury risk because he is much closer to a Blake Griffin than a LeBron.
I'd rather clear his salary from the books and try to build something without him than keep hoping that eventually he pays off while eating a huge % of the cap.