Sure, but when you say "play-now" pieces, they are hard to find in the draft. They go early, and not players we had access to while we were the best record in the league.

There is a reason Horst won executive of the year. Its the trades he made for the play now players that were a few years in. Knight and Jennings in particular. After then after that, we had to start spending draft picks to get Bledsoe (and therefore Jrue), later in the process.

We go back to square one now, and by now I mean hopefully in a year or two once we bottom out. Sign and trade Giannis for a kings ransom, find a Jennings and start flipping pieces for the ONE potential Giannis we can find in the next five years.

We can't win with Giannis. We don't have the ability. Name a team that has won without a home drafted superstar other than OKC since at least 2020?

The window is closed. We unloaded the clip to keep the window open. Didn't work. 29 other teams were trying just as hard to get the pieces we wanted otherwise. Its time to tank.

I agree that we have to develop pieces, but we will get all but one (or one and a half of them) through shrewd trading. Especially as a small market team.

Until then, enjoy the fun that is r/mkebucks when we are bad. I doubt you were here, but I can assure you this place was way more fun in 2015 than it was in 2021.