Lets use the big 3 of the Heat: Bosh never gave full value on his contract. They were aided by vets taking less to help fill out their roster but it would be easy to believe they could have downgraded Bosh/his contract to upgrade any of 4-8.

It is important for a championship team to have 2 guys that can score/create on their own. BI is 1. We assume Zion develops to be 2. If he does, we dont need a 3rd star. We need consistent 3 and D type guys to surround them.

Gotta be able to play switch D to go deep into playoffs. Jrue does that. We need to make sure whoever we have can do that.

Jrue is a fit for this team. We can replace him but it better be with another fit...I am not sure Beal is that. In fact, not many can play good D on multiple positions while also stroking the 3. Those guys are in high demand.

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Posted by TigerinATL

Member since Feb 2005

61435 posts

Posted on 2/14/20 at 8:21 am to Bronc

quote:
I mean I’m not sure who wants a team with two stars as opposed to three. Especially if you can do so and retain depth.

...having that 3rd reliable option is not insignificant.

I wish Jrue was better, or at least more consistent and less error prone on offense. But considering that Ingram is just OK on defense at best, I really think if we were to trade in Jrue for a similar level player that has more offensive skill and less defensive skill, we'd start ripping that guy for not being good enough on defense.

I only got to watch the game in bits and pieces last night, but looking at the box score, the Thunder guards weren't very efficient last night. Would having Jrue's replacement score 24 instead of 14 matter if the OKC guards scored 10 more points too? I'm not saying a Beal or McCollum is inherently worse, but I do think they're a potential slight net negative vs. Jrue because their strengths AND weaknesses overlap a lot with Ingram.

If you can get a Paul George or Klay Thompson as your #3 you do it, but that's not very likely because those guys are rare and don't change teams very often. So if we're talking about Jrue vs. Beal/McCollum, I just think people are viewing that through a lens of today's problems instead of trying to figure out what we'll need tomorrow.

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