5 Things to Learn from the Finals
1. Don’t Be Afraid to Restart
Restart: The worst nightmare for fans of every NBA playoff team. The Memphis Grizzlies have had a great run of moderate success. It should continue if Mike Conley re-signs. Furthermore, if he opts to leave, they may need to hit the “reset” button.
Their core is aging and has shown how limited it is when it comes to being considered championship contenders. With next year’s pick being top-five protected, they need to decide if trying to make the playoffs without Conley is really worth it.
When Cleveland lost LeBron in 2010, they used two lottery picks the next offseason on Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, two key parts of their Finals run.
The next three years, they used lottery picks Dion Waiters, Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins to acquire more vital players for their championship run.
After the “We Believe” era ended, the Warriors used middle to late lottery picks on Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Harrison Barnes. In addition, they used later picks to find gems such as Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green.
Some teams recently have started over and experienced a quick rebuild. Portland lost four of their five starters from last year and reached the fifth seed in a “rebuilding” year. T
hree years after trading Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo. Boston has two playoff appearances with plenty of young players and assets, putting them in prime position to trade for an All-Star.
Minnesota traded Kevin Love and now has a scary young core of Andrew Wiggins (part of Kevin Love deal)-Karl Anthony Towns (No. 1 pick last year)-Zach LaVine (lottery pick in 2014) and whatever they do with the No. 5 pick.
If Conley leaves, the Memphis Grizzlies need to look at rebuilding. If they can flip Randolph, Allen, and Gasol into young players and assets, their future could be brighter.
While there may be suffering, acquiring lottery pick talent that could translate into stars like Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry could be worth the pain.