Completely unbiased view, we could be the Sacramento Kings for the next 5+ years or we could suck for the next 2-3 years and make the playoffs again after that.
Reasons to be the Kings or to have hope and make playoffs in 3 years: ownership is a big question mark. They pissed off Timvp already this year. Do they continue to meddle and be cheap or was this a one time my bad type of thing and they just let basketball people make basketball decisions? We don’t know
GM: we have no idea if Brian Wright is competent at his job. We also don’t know how much power he really has atm. He hasn’t really done anything that says that he is good or bad. He picked up LMAs option for no reason other than him to go to the Nets. He didn’t re-sign DDR but he didn’t trade him either. Is letting him walk for nothing a good move or a bad one? Will he re-sign him? Signing Gay to his deal was a bad one too. Poeltl was a good sign for a back up center. And White and DJ are under nice contracts. Is he capable of making a trade? Or do we just continue to lose our players for nothing. We don’t know.
Coaching : Pop has clearly not adapted well to the modern NBA. In an era of 3 ball he has gone iso midrange game. That in itself isn’t a killer but when we are constantly getting out scored by like 8 threes a game, that is hard to overcome. Defensively this team looks lost and has no idea how to play it. At some point that is on the coach. We don’t really have that many horses though and Pop will always rely on his vets over the young guys. Is this a good quality or a bad one? Dunno. How many years left does Pop have in him? Was this his last year? Is next year his last? Do we have any good assistant coaches left? How much coaching up can Pop really do with a team of no all stars and all
under 25? Is there a replacement plan at all for when Pop leaves. Dunno.
Players: we have zero players that are going to be all stars next year. We aren’t expected to sign one either. We will have the least amount of pure talent when going up against most nba teams. Our players range from B- to C- Will any of the youth evolve into something better than that? Odds are no but we don’t know. And for those who wish to have hope, maybe DJ and KJ learn how to shoot 3s, Poeltl learns how to shoot from beyond 3 feet, Lonnie becomes assertive, and White stays healthy. If all these things happen we will have a very fun and young team to watch. Kinda like last years Pelicans sans the obvious all star in Zion. Maybe we draft an athletic wing player or a mobile big who can defend and rim run. Maybe we draft a shooter who opens up the floor for our bench squad. Maybe we sign a good free agent or two and they fit in perfectly. But as of now, we have no idea if any of these things will happen
We are at a cross roads where potentially all 4 facets of our team goes south in ownership, GM, coaching, and players. This would set our franchise back atleast half a decade. At the same time we could have all the right people in place, find the right replacement for Pop and all the stars align and our youth takes gigantic leaps. maybe we win the lottery next year and draft a Luka type player. Our future is one that nobody knows and really if you’re optimistic or pessimistic you can’t say for 100% certainty that you are right.
P.S. we also have the worst future in our division