I'd rather keep Ingram too. Cousin, Lebron and George is a very nice 3 punch combo but in 2-3 years if not sooner lebron will be done. in 4-6 years PG will be slowing down. My point, with Lonzo, Ingram, Lebron, and PG we are real good for the next 3-5 years but even better when PG and Lebron fad into retirement, older age Ingram and Ball are just entering their primes ages and we have great success for another decade. Losing Ingram means we don't have as solid as a foundation in the decade to come after LBJ & PG.
I think Ingram will be a better player than Cousins in the long run, and I don't think it's a good idea to tie so much money into those players long term. I think we need to mix young lower year players on rookie contracts in with Max high year players because it staggers costs. By the time your older max players are declining, your rookies will start to earn the bigger contracts. In that scenario, I think we're locking ourselves into a window with not enough investment in the future.
my argument is founded on a couple of assumptions: 1. no star is coming here alone 2. stars don't care about our youth, as they won't help them win now if you can buy these premises, it's not ingram or cousins--it's: lebron/george/cousins/ball/who cares or ingram/ball/kcp/lopez/randle one of those teams is...better.
Edit: I don't know why these images come out so large, I can't tell they are on my phone or iPad even. Can't figure out how to re-size them on my phone and I don't know why the image hosting site doesn't do it.
I agree and I think there's a chance he takes less than the max if he feels there's a good chance to create a contender.
Right, however, this is my only caveat to not trade Ingram. I understand it's Lebron, but if he bolts the next year, we're out of luck. I'd rather give up an unprotected first to get rid of Deng.
I've assumed since all this talk of 2 stars coming following the repeated months long reports and smoke of PG wanting to come home to L.A. surfaced and the front office has laid the groundwork already with the DAR / Moz trade and salary dump that it was going to happen. Other stars out there to potentially pair with PG and to my preference over LeBron. Westbrook? Cousins? Other that Magic and Rob can work? But have been reading around on the net still trying to figure out what getting my body ready for LeBron means because that is kind of expected by most here. OK we still have some great young players for the future even if it means Randle, Clarkson, maybe Zubac and other promising new guys just drafted are gone. With of course BI staying. But now out of the blue it seems you have "jumped the shark" with blowing up the whole roster, save for Lonzo, to bring in a 3rd star to appease his majesty ..... our new GM. "i think it's key to keep one young star, but yes, two would be better. but feet to the fire and lebron says i'm coming with paul george if you move one of ingram/ball for <insert current allstar>, i fold."
I understand that take. I'm just posing a question: what would it take for you to trade Ingram? Westbrook? Cousins? Klay Thompson?
I know you weren't talking to me, but i was coming into this thread to chime in on this very topic anyway. The list of guys I'd trade BI for in the scenario of getting another star to pair with Lebron is very short. AD, GA, KL, Durant, Steph. No to Harden, Westbrook, Klay, Cousins, Kyrie, etc.
Yikes, that's a tough one. Klay is a free agent in 2 years. While I love his game, I have a feeling he'll land in the taking max money and cruising cause he has his rings, rather than chasing another. Cousins, love the talent. But I think his mental makeup is something that is always a question on every GM's mind. Will this guy finally grow up? Will he just play basketball? Westbrook no doubt would be awesome. Obviously there will be questions about how he does with multiple players who possess the ball, and the team oriented style of ball movement. Out of all of them, Russ would be the most hungry and dangerous on a team with George, Lebron, and Zo. Zo Westbrook George Lebron Lopez