Originally Posted by
kisada
Good question, something i've been pondering a lot.
Listing off the best assets kinda (and guys i think most useful to spurs) - Picks 12/13 + virtually any combination of the young guys on the bench + harrell. Most here aren't gonna know who sindarius thornwell, cj williams, or ty wallace are but they really gave the team some solid playtime when everyone went down, and they strike me as legit pop type players. As far as the rest: dekker sucks, austin rivers is a good player now but he will want $$, and both jordan/bradley are essentially free agents to be. Just not a lot of wealth stored for the clippers. Lou's good but if the spurs trade kawhi are they going full rebuild? Or retool? Because lou is only good if you go the latter.
And of course tobias harris is the best asset they have but he's the guy you want to put next to kawhi, not take away from him. Moving him puts the team even more at risk that leonard will peace because you want him to have as many good players around him as possible. You want the core to be kawhi/harris/bev/lou/jordan/gallo because that core has some serious synergy and spacing.
But if you trade harris + 12 or 13, or all 3 then you're in some deep shit if kawhi leaves. Or if he's just not the same player. Like man I love this guy but this really feels like a deal that will set your team back many years if you overpay. The much safer option is to just not make any trade at all and see if you can get two potential stars in a deep draft. Then when the time comes re-sign harris and set your core as harris + last year's and this year's rookie crop. West really changed how this team operates and i have 100% faith he'll not only continue finding good, young talent, but also force doc rivers to play them. So if we don't pursue kawhi, i think we're just as well off, if not better off, because at some point the team will be overflowing with assets.
BTW the other reason i'm not too thrilled with a kawhi trade is because doncic seems to be up for grabs and trading up to get him is something i definitely think the team should pursue. This draft is critical in so many ways because it's so deep and burning picks in a trade will look monumentally stupid. Especially as of very recently when the guys in the 12-13 range are getting some serious hype and teams are getting really antsy about trying to get them.