It’s an excellent conundrum. I was happy going into this season with plenty of guys that can prove themselves, I did NOT expect that to happen so fast. There’s a core of guys now that are establishing to be capable regular season winners (ie. over 42 wins a season as baseline).

I think that core is Haliburton, Mathurin, Nesmith and Nembhard, with only Haliburton being a guaranteed starter on a team that would step up to being a contender. So at that point the analysis has to be: What do we need to become play-off contenders, what would it take to win the ECF? To challenge the title?

That is where things become very complicated.

The three names I added to the core still need a couple of years to ‘mature’ and even now are not ‘guaranteed’. Turner and BB are what they are now, they could definitely be role players (starters) on a contending team. Jalen Smith and Toppin have potential to get to that status as well. So just keeping this group together going forward? Absolutely fine with it.

But, it will not be a strong play-off team. Whether we like it or not, you need to be able to stop a Giannis, a Tatum, an Embiid when it comes to play-off success. You also need a very reliable first option scorer. At the moment that is Haliburton, but putting a 30ppg guy next to him REALLY creates issues for the opposition. Just imagine what a peak Paul George or Kawhi would add to this team?

The question thus: Who is the next ‘peak PG or Kawhi?’.

I genuinely haven’t got a clue… If we take all complications out of the equation and go full dream mode, which player would really elevate us? It needs to be someone who can be effective off the ball and who can match up to the MVP candidates out there.

The dream would be to upgrade Turner to Embiid, but Embiid is 30 now, so even if he became available (which seems increasingly unlikely now Maxey is breaking through) do you really want to risk investing that much in a player who has a checkered injury history? What about adding Jaylen Brown? It might work… Edwards… saliva dribbling from mouth…

None of them are likely though and I am not sure there is a likely candidate out there. This is why talk of going after PG for a year or two is not as stupid as some people make it sound. You add experience and fill several needs, despite him being a step slower on defense. Can you imagine how PG mentoring Bennedict will influence his development?

So yeah, it is an excellent conundrum, but I genuinely don’t know who we could want to add.

Edit: Sorry, making this very long now… but another factor is: The more our younger guys play, the more valuable they become, the more likely it is we CAN swing for the fences. I wouldn’t want Harden here under any circumstance, but would the Sixers have turned down two firsts, Hield and Nesmith? I highly doubt it. A few years ago we wouldn’t have had anything to offer in those scenarios. That is huge praise for our FO getting shit together.

We are developing

IMO, we only have two players who are starter level right now Adding an all star only gives you three

During the PG Era, Larry Bird made one of his worst executive decisions by trading Danny Granger for Evan Turner. He did it to provide more bench scoring. Prior to the trade the Pacers had the best record in the NBA at 33-7. After the trade finished the second half of the season with a losing record and barely made it out the first round…

The moral of the story is that chemistry is real. Bringing in another “star” means bringing in an ego, someone who’s used to doing things a certain way.

Right now, we’re looking like a playoff team, and we already have wins against Giannis and Embiid. We also have a ton of cap space and are essentially playing with house money.

Don’t do anything brash, stay the course until the right move presents itself.

Mathurin has had his moments where he looks like that second star. Once he gets used to the pace and stops thinking too much he should look like the guy from that 2 game stretch where he killed it.

We don’t know what this team is capable of. Stay patient, have faith and trust the group. Mathurin showed flashes of his capability. I truly believe he can be that second option. We just need to wait.

We can’t do any big trade without shipping out Mathurin or Nembhard. That’s the realistic price.

If that player is Lauri and we can get him with mostly draft capital and Walker, pull the damn trigger.

I personally think Paul George would be the perfect number 2. He has history here. It’s been shity for his career since he left. His best years were here. He’s learned a good lesson that the grass isn’t always greener. He would be grateful and also fully understanding that he would be the Robin to tyreses batman. Plus he is crazy good defensively which we need and he’s also comfortable playing uptempo. clippers team should be fully blown up by mid season. I think we trade anything that isn’t Haliburton Turner Mathurin or Nesmith. Personally I think this makes us a potential east champs. If we can get him this year maybe try next off-season. But I’m fine keeping who we have

The hope was to draft a future all star. I’m not ruling Mathurin out yet but it will take a long time. Walker doesn’t even play, not sure if he’s a bust but I’m not counting on him. If we want to win now we certainly need to trade, but there’s no need to rush.