re: I have a hard time believing Griffin will do what needs to be done.

I've written a few times that I'm okay looking at this season as data collection for where the franchise goes next.

We'll see about the playoffs but, to my mind, a lot of the data is in. The starting line up, on a good sample size, doesn't work. It is one of the few starting line-ups for a winning team in recent NBA history to post a negative +/- rating for the season.

What's more we know different combos do work, notably ones that don't feature Zion, BI and CJ playing together.

The crossroads we are reaching is whether to pay Brandon Ingram a max contract and what that means for the future of Trey Murphy and the franchise as a whole. You may have to pick one. I also think the data is clear that it is highly problematic to feature two stars--the players who get the most money and take the most shots--and neither of them shoot 3-pointers. I think the likelihood of building a contending team centered around two non-3-point shooters is virtually nil in today's NBA.

This is a hard reality to face. It means either Zion or Brandon has to go. Z has shown himself to be a force, but if he gets injured you are the Bucks without Giannis or the Mavs without Luka, and until this year he got hurt a lot more than those guys. Brandon is a very good all-around player. But he's a one-time all star who is not a great defender and is going to be looking for a max contract after next year.

I think giving Brandon that contract would be a significant mistake. We've seen, albeit in a small-sample size, how the team would play with Trey in Brandon's slot. That version of the Pels gets up 35-40 3 point attempts a night and looks like a modern NBA offense. The offense with Zion, CJ and Brandon often looks clunky, has been flat out terrible in crunch time, and doesn't feature enough 3-point shooting night to night to keep up with the elite teams in the league.

Change is hard. But I think we should face up to it sooner rather than later.