Welcome back to Chainmail! Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful questions. We got to chat about potential Buddy Hield trades, Monte McNair’s staff, future coaching candidates, Marvin Bagley’s value, site feedback, and much, much more!<\/p>\n
Before we get into your questions, we do want to thank our sponsor for the mailbag,\u00a0Carter Imports!<\/a>\u00a0Carter Imports is a Sacramento-based company that imports some of the very best\u00a0Extra Virgin Olive Oil<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cretan Thyme Honey<\/a>\u00a0available in the world today. There has never been a better time to support one of our own than right now!<\/p>\n Now, let’s jump into some answers, shall we?<\/p>\n McNair likes Buddy. Buddy likes Philly. Does he stay or go?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Tim<\/strong>: If I was a betting man (which I’m not. I don’t know how to do sports betting or play the lottery or any of that nonsense), I would put a lot of money on Buddy wearing another uniform next season. He was publicly unhappy during his contract negotiations, he was publicly unhappy throughout the season with the coaching staff, and he was publicly unhappy with his role and playing time at the end of the season. Buddy is not subtle, and if he isn’t moved, I believe things will turn very ugly, very quickly.<\/p>\n From a best trade partner perspective, Philly kind of sucks. They only have terrible contracts and middling assets, other than Matisse Thybulle, who seems to valuable to swap for Buddy. The Sixers also might pursue much bigger fish than Hield, such as Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n Will<\/strong>: I don’t think there’s going to be an off-season move that really fits for the Kings and a move for Buddy Hield. With our assumption that McNair took the job on the contingency that Luke Walton has to stick around for an indefinite amount of time, I think it’ll go something like this: McNair attempt to fix the relationship between Buddy and Walton by impressing upon Walton that they need to pick up the pace and stop putting Buddy in low-efficiency situations and telling Buddy that if he’s still unhappy, in time, he’ll swap him to a new team. Around the All-Star Break,\u00a0 Buddy’s stock is reasonably higher than last season and a team at the deadline who really needs that shooting pays through the nose to get him. McNair is only going to get a three month window between now and the start of the season and I don’t think that allows for enough time for him to negotiate all the way through and acceptable trade scenario. By waiting till the break, it puts pressure on teams that want Buddy to up their offers, especially if they’re struggling around the break. It gives Buddy a chance to showcase, Walton more rope to hang himself. There will always be a need for Hield’s services, and McNair knows the difference between being aggressive and rushing the job. Don’t be surprised if Buddy starts next season with the Kings and finishes in the playoffs somewhere else.<\/p>\n What is Bagley’s likely trade value at this moment? Is he healthy?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Tim<\/strong>: Marvin Bagley’s trade value is low enough that moving on from him is all but impossible at this point. For example, if you called the New Orleans Pelicans and offered them Bagley for the 13th pick straight up, I think they turn you down. His potential is too important for this team to deal away for a non-lottery pick.<\/p>\n His health is a complete mystery to everyone. The team’s announcements around his injuries have always been odd, and that level of oddity only increases depending on how much of a conspiracy theorist you are at any given moment. I can confidently say that no new injuries have been announced, and that’s about it.<\/p>\n Will<\/strong>: Yeah, there is just no plausible deal that amounts to Marvin Bagley being traded right now. If I had to pin it? Maybe a low first rounder this year? Like Pick 29 and a future second rounder? The combination of his health and proximity to a new contract just really kills anything that gets close.<\/p>\n The 2021 season is over. McNair has been at the helm for one year. What would you call success? What would you call failure? What signs would give you hope? What signs would concern you?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Tim<\/strong>: The failure\/concerns probably fall under the same category for me. I very much do not want to see the Kings make a desperate push for the 8th seed as they’ve been doing for the last few years. The roster isn’t good enough to make it, nor are the team’s assets of a high enough quality to be swapped for the kind of talent that will be needed to close that gap. Don’t trade Buddy Hield for Tobias Harris or Kevin Love or Blake Griffin. Don’t sacrifice picks for average to above-average veterans. If those are the kinds of moves Monte McNair is making, color me concerned.<\/p>\n Success will be dictate by individual moves and the results of those moves, not be a win-loss record. I want to see McNair cash out veterans (Hield, Bogdanovic, Bjelica, Holmes, etc.) for young contributors (Turner, Gordon, Ball, etc.) and\/or draft picks or unproven young contributors. This team needs to reset around De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley. If McNair can start to build that core, I’ll be very pleased, even if that means winning 25 games next year.<\/p>\n Will<\/strong>: The bar for success is pretty much laying on the ground right now. Reasonably, if McNair makes any sort of moves, doesn’t get outright burnt in those moves and there’s any individual improvement from De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley, it’s a successful season. Maybe not a massive coup and it certainly wouldn’t leave me excited necessarily but “don’t fuck it completely up” is the bar for success. What would give me actual hope is seeing some of our bigger contracts moved for young assets or draft picks, or at least converting them to players on big expiring deals for draft compensation. I would really like to see that average age drop and our core pieces to stay relatively healthy. For Fox and Bagley, that would be 70 games + of playing together. After the seasons done, hearing Walton is gone and seeing a list of young, intelligent coaches are being rumored for the job. That would give me that tingling feeling like the ship is finally turning around.<\/p>\n Next season is going to suck from a “watching basketball” perspective. The only ways to make it worse are for McNair to say Walton is going to coach out his contract, for McNair to really get swindled or for him to make an all out swing for a playoff spot by giving up picks. He would pretty much have to go against his word or show that he is really only a puppet for the ownership\/advisors.<\/p>\n From MauricePWhipporwill:<\/span><\/p>\nFrom 1951:<\/h5>\n
From RikSmits:<\/h5>\n
From SMF-PDXConnection<\/h5>\n