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Those are fair points. I honestly didn't know Buddy was that young. I guess I assumed he came in the league a year or two before Fox. But I forgot about his time in New Orleans. I just don't think a bench of "Ross, Bamba, Iwundu, Aminu, MCW, Okeke" pushes us into the top 5 In the East and I'm just not sure how the bench is improved unless you have a proven star.

I agree with the general sentiment of a lot of this post but just a couple of things: Buddy Hield is about 100 days younger than Evan Fournier. He's not young, he entered the league at 24. Bamba is never going to be anything like Jokic. And nobody else in the league is anything like Jokic really. Honestly Vuc is one of the closest guys out there in terms of a 7 footer who can shoot, post up and pass. (Though he's not nearly as good a passer on the move and he can't handle nearly as well). But I think it's a mistake to look at Jokic and think 'all Centers need to be like that' teams win in so many different ways and trying to copy Jokic who is a legit 1 of 1 player is only going to end badly. Aminu isn't really injury prone. This is the worst injury he's ever had. Before this season he averaged like 74 games a season. I get why you'd want him gone but I don't think 18 games is a long enough time to evaluate him. There's every chance he'll be a solid player next year and an asset moving forward.

I think what more than anything that Heat article highlights to me is that a middling team is only ever a couple of smart moves from being a contender. Now sure we don't have Pat Riley pulling the strings nor do we have a championship winning future HOFer out there whispering into the ear of a star about to be a free agent. But our refusal to tank. Our trust in our roster. These are correct steps on the path to being a respected organisation. People hated giving Vuc that new contract and I get that. But how would it look to future free agents if we didn't resign our first All Star since Dwight off the back of our first playoff appearance since Dwight. Miami has a reputation from years and years of being a winning culture, we don't have that yet but we have to start somewhere. You can't admire that about Miami while simultaneously lament the fact that we've commited to trying to win. Sure it's only 2 8 seed playoff appearances but that's progress. Playoff appearances make us more attractive to free agents immediately. Think about Toronto. 5 or 6 years ago nobody thought they were a model franchise. Since then they've won a championship, had a COTY and we hired their second in command. There's every chance 3 years from now we're exactly where we currently are. But maybe Chuma Okeke is a future all star, or maybe we draft a future all star this year, or maybe Fultz is that guy and Isaac gets healthy. Just because things don't seem hopeful at the moment doesn't mean hope isn't right around the corner. Things change fast in the NBA. ...This post got a lot more 'motivational talk'-y than I intended...