u/Humblerbee

This year due to the plethora of injuries, for most of the time we saw Sharpe play, he was forced to step into a much larger, on-ball creator role, and for many it exposed issues with his weaker handle, lack of passing, and shaky shooting. Many fans, who were hoping for a star breakout season for Sharpe, were sorely disappointed- he took on that huge thirty percent usage and maintained his efficiency, it just is volume scoring on middling efficiency and not much else.

However, Sharpe remains elite when it comes to efficiency at the rim and on the fast break, as a guard he grades out like a seven footer in terms of how well he converts in the restricted area or in the open court. Christian Braun had a very disappointing playoffs this year, but previously, he was an extremely important cog in the Nuggets system as evidenced by his massive contract, and it was because he ran the court relentlessly, so he was a deadly target for Jokic on the fast break, and in the half court he would cut and be an incredible play finishing complementary piece.

I’m not saying Sharpe has to be a role player, but it is clear that Deni is THE guy on this team now, and if Sharpe is going to play off of him, rather than standing idly on the weak side waiting to play “your turn, my turn” as a secondary creator who just wants to create off the dribble from behind the arc and eventually get forced into a midrange stepback, let’s get Sharpe running! Have him do cardio like Camara, Camara led the league in miles run this season, if Sharpe pulled that off it’d be an incredibly positive indicator of commitment to playing within the offense rather than playing for himself.

IDK I think the best case scenario for Sharpe is he just gets better at all the things he has been bad at and turns into late blooming Anthony Edwards, but the “realistic” best case scenario is he realizes his strengths and weaknesses and is self-aware enough to tailor his game to maximize the impact of his strengths and miminize how much his weaknesses are brought to bear. I remember the Heatles and how Wade played off of LeBron as an off-ball cutter and threat with his athleticism as a guard still applying rim pressure and the incredible wink-wink chemistry those two had in the open court and going downhill, if Deni is already Temu LeBron, could Sharpe be the Great Value Wade of those Heatles in terms of in that secondary role?

TL;DR - Sharpe no dribble good, make him run off ball, Sharpe catching with an open lane=good offense

There has been a lot of discussion about how we can make upgrades to make us more immediately competitive and what kind of “big splashes” might be available, as Dundon put it, in terms of chasing success while we have Deni on his cheap deal and the vet talent on the tail end of their career. However in that same presser, Dundon mentioned that if the right deals didn’t materialize, they would be just as open to building for continued growth and longer term success. Basically they said they were keeping their options open, they want to win-now, but won’t force the issue if the right value isn’t there.

So if we can’t find that right deal, what does planning for the future look like, assuming the “splash” trades are off the table, what is the path to success if you assume the window isn’t now, but coming up?

The team does have some picks and draft assets like the swaps, but won’t be much of FA players, at least as currently constructed because as the vet money comes off the books, they’ll need to turn around and give that money to our young guys for their new deals, obviously we can rely on bird rights to keep them as we run up the tax bill, but Deni is gonna need a fat paycheck, and no way you can convince Scoot or Clingan to take less than Sharpe & Camara got, they’ll all be north of twenty mil a year.

Obviously the best path to future contention is just if our young core improves and outperforms expectations, so on some level the path is just “we need our guys to pop”, but assuming current trajectories and given that you’ve been able to watch all of their careers thus far, what in your eyes are choices the team could make to improve the odds of our future success?

What would you do, if given total GM control and told that we want to focus on our future timeline rather than push in the chips, how would you build for long term success off the base we have now?

Are there any particular targets you want the team to kick the tires on, at the right price?

Thinking of some names that might potentially be available- not an exhaustive list at all, just coming up with random guys off the top of the dome, if you have any suggestions please throw them in the comments:

Giannis
Mobley
Kawhi
MPJ
Murphy
Zion
Gordon
Anunoby
KAT
Randle
Herro
Bridges
AD
DeRozan
Sabonis

Secondly, what is the “right price” where you wouldn’t LOVE it, but would stomach the deal? Essentially as fans we always tend to overvalue our own assets and undervalue others, but for a trade to happen both teams have to say yes- what is the price you’d be willing to offer that you think they might say yes to?

[[Erinis, Gloom Stalker]] + [[Street Urchin]] is the commander pair I’m referring to, and the quality I’m seeking is commanders that can be interactive on-demand; that is, I don’t want Toxrill or High Perfect Morcant style “nobody gets to keep a board” or Vren style removal tribal, my goal isn’t to make interaction my primary gameplan or something that I’m automatically jamming, but rather a political tool I reliably have on my belt to pull out when the situation calls for it.

That is, the threat of Erinis being able to pull the trigger in response to opponents action acts as a tremendous deterrent and bargaining tool. The way Magda can pull out a silver bullet as the situation demands, and often good pilots use that to their advantage through table talk to situationally problem solve and bargain to be allowed to keep their board state and allow their activation through to get answers to an opponent threatening a win, etc. Erinis has less of a toolbox and instead is just a gat in the command zone ready to turn every game into a Mexican standoff, but it has a similar level of reactivity, and that’s my goal, is finding commanders that are highly interactive without mandating that interaction and becoming untenable for opponents to play the game, à la Tergrid decks et al.

What commanders would you recommend that are reactively or politically interactive without being miserable to play into?