Trades and signings would have altered that.

But I'd have loved to see BI/Julius come up together, possibly with Zo and his two-way brilliance. I can see the rest getting shipped out in trades or signings.

I said at the time that skipping steps was a bad idea.

You take the known over the unknown, sure. But I think the signs were there for all those guys.

We'd have eventually built out a contending team. I just think Lebron was skipping ahead too much, and trading so many picks and swaps was a huge mistake

had we waited until FA and explored our options then, we'd have kept far more assets.

Even then, had we not done the Russ deal, we could have at least been in play for Spyda or Murray or something, with three picks to deal along with Kuz, KCP, etc.