They didn’t look like a franchise heading in the right direction and the worst case scenario for them, in my opinion, would have been turning into the Western version of the Atlanta Hawks with some reasonably good young players taking up all of their cap space, no bench (they didn’t even have a SG this year), not close to contending, and no easy ways to get better.

With Favors/Kanter they are at least potentially in the position to do a real re-build. I don’t know what they odds are that in five years the team is winning more than 45 games and Favors and Kanter are both playing well for them, but I like where they are as a franchise, at this moment, a lot better then where Washington is, for example.

They traded for players who were cheaper and better fits and still got a nice player in the draft.

Personally I’d rank them ahead of Dallas, to pick one of the Bs.

For that matter I think you’re too kind to Washington and Sacramento (though I have no idea who Washington *should* have selected at #6, that was a tough pick). I could honestly see putting San Antonio ahead of one of those teams, even with your hesitations about the move, because they got a decent prospect for a player that they weren’t sure they could resign.