Maybe not.
If you find yourself educating "most fans" then perhaps it is fine to admit it may not be the best trade.
If both 1st round picks take 4 years, we're looking at 5 years from now for the 1st 2026 pick. . Hagel would be the youngest top 6, and he'd be over 30. Maybe those players come in and be useful top 9 players or better players, or maybe it does nothing for them. The biggest thing Tampa needs to do is recognize when this is finished and trade the player assets they have before it's too late. Not everybody has to be a lifer. But right now picks where players are joining your team 5-6 years out,(adding 4 years to their draft) aren't more important if you still think you can compete for 3 years.
I mean sure, but when has a team gotten two firsts and a second for players like this? Even if they aren’t top ten picks this is very good value for Seattle.
and honestly, nobody actually knows. Lots of times there have been 2-3 engagements with other teams for other players that just didn't go anywhere and never get reported. That said, this looks a lot like who JBB wanted, two solid depth forwards for picks.
Theres this common theme that most of the Tampa roster is 35 and over but really Glendening and Gourde are the only two "old" ones, Heddy is 34 to be faiiiiir, Kuch is 31 and Pointer is 28, Hagel, etc... you can fault Julien for some misses like Jeannot (really don't know what the expectation was there) for sure but he has also made some very shrewd moves like Hagel and Sergachev, which look to extend this window more. The glaring issue is they really need to find someone to be next in line on defense.
While I understand the sentiment I think you can already look at this as, at a minimum, "not a Jeannot trade". Its not like Gourde and Bjork had one good season they're banking on like Jeannot, they actually played significant depth roles on championship teams and know the job.
