2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

I get it.

That's fair

 

he's certainly lost a little cache in the abeer3 world, but i'm willing to wait a few months to pull out the pitchfork.

nobody wants to hear it, but i think this is an ownership issue as much as anything.

 

The FO deserves a bunch of criticism.

I can't defend them.

Ownership is cheap. Lol

 

I’m right there with you on ownership.

 

when i heard rambis was suggesting lineup changes, i knew our problems were huge.

 

They still finished in the play in game with all those defenders though. To keep it all the way a buck. That team sucked without Lebron or AD last year too. Slightly worse than this group. We went 3-8 without Lebron at the end of the season, and had to win 5 straight to end the campaign.

I get it, everybody wants to find a reason for a disappointing season. It's real simple IMO..Our two best players haven't played together much, over the last two seasons. It is what it is. We are not like the other teams either, our two best players aren't just All Stars..they were top 5 in the NBA when we won the chip. Unfortunately they haven't been healthy . There is this attempt to say " Oh...if we just had this guy, or that one, things would be different"!! Meh...no it wouldn't, without these two dudes, doing their thing at a high level, we would still be just average regardless. I just hope to see them get another crack at it, at least one more time. I'd rather see them go into the final month close to 100 percent, than limping into the playoffs like last year. If not...maybe it wasn’t meant to be...damn shame if that's the case.

 

That's not what I posted at all. I think Lebron and AD being hurt, is the real problem period.

Yes..I think Vogel could have done better with what he had, for two years in a row now.

Yes I think the FO could have made a couple of better personnel decisions.

No.. I don't think either overcomes Lebron and AD being hurt.

Change the coach, acquire different players, if James and Davis are hurt next season, it's going to be the exact same thing next season.

There aren't any teams winning Championships, without their two best players. If I'm wrong on that please point them out.

 

So your first comment was " Dude we get it..you blame Vogel"? I didn't knock Vogel at all. Saying that the defense and players that fit his scheme, are irrelevant if the main dudes are out, isn't knocking Frank. I'm curious as to what you think the FO and ownership, could have done to negate LeBron and AD being injured. I mean considering the situation we were in cap wise and all this offseason.

 

As I said in my post, I didn't think coaching was the issue. I point to having the top rated defense, to illustrate my point. For whatever reason it gets taken as Vogel bashing. That's not the intent of that statement. I followed it up with changing the coach isn't going to make any difference

I got you...still I was curious about the moves you thought that the Owner and FO made, that contributed to this mess. It's a common theme around lately. I just wanted to hear your take on these moves specifically.

 

concentrating all of our salary in three players. it didn't improve the product on the floor (almost inarguably made it worse, despite your frequent protests), and it locked us into the structure for at least two years when we had a lot of escape options before. the FO needed to put their foot down on lebron and AD's obviously amateur management.

 

Ok...Well Lebron's amateur management brought us AD, and helped assemble the Championship roster.

Then his amateur management lead to bringing in Dennis and Trez. That team as you say was a better product. However without the architect and his prize pupil, that team failed.

This season is failing, because the architect and his prize pupil, have again been on the shelf a lot. I don't know if they make it to the end of the season, in the same fashion as last year. That's still to be determined. Until that is established one way or the other. I agree with the owner, it's impossible to judge these moves either way, without seeing the envisioned product.

I'm not sure what all these escape options, you feel that we had were honestly. Our options were limited, we were already going to be over the salary cap, if we simply brought everyone back. Nobody wanted Kuz and Kcp..we shopped them all season. Even the Wizards panned that trade initially. Folks didn't want Dennis back, he had the nerve to ask for 20 million.

We made a play for Russ, the guy was on a two year deal with an opt out. I don't have a problem with that. Maybe James was listening to his body and thinking, "I'm not going to be able to do this much longer".

Nothing was going to work IMO if James and Davis weren't at full tilt. They aren't getting traded, so we would have still been left with marginal upgrade materials.

If we're at the top of the standings today, and those two are banged up going into the playoffs. We are vulnerable in the 1st round, definitely not getting to the Finals. On the flipside, if we're are the 8th seed, and they are healthy. I don't think a team in the West could beat the Lakers in a 7 game series. With the exact same roster we have right now. So...it's all still to be determined IMO.

 

the wiz rooked us. squeezed a first out of us on top of three useful players on market value contracts for a guy who's been a hot potato for years now. they could rook us because our shadow gms worked the back channels to make it even possible.

and how does lebron get credit for schroder or harrell?

our options were much more open with several smaller contracts to deal. you know that. everyone knows that. you can't make an argument that we've looked better with russ, so flexibility wins. the pieces we dealt out for russ could easily bring back a better return or returns. again, sort of hard to deny this at this point.

hell, each of the three guys we sent out grades out as well or better than russ in all advanced metrics. each of them! caruso, your favorite whipping boy, is better pretty much any way you slice it! so what's harder: dealing a league average player who makes nearly 50 million per? or dealing a league average player making less than 1/3 of that? what's better? a roster full of league average players around your two stars? or a roster with two stars, a highly paid league average player, and a bunch of sub-average to unplayable vet mins?

 

Lebron said he wanted to play with Dennis and Trez is a klutch client. Now on that broadshot you posted about the rest....
Meh...flailing at the wind here chief. There is nothing substantial there to say that
1. This team would be any better , with all of the players you mentioned. They were all here last season. Advanced metrics and all, those metrics got rendered moot, by James and Davis being hurt correct?

2. It's pure conjecture on your point about what better pieces could have been brought back with those pieces too. We were about to give up two guys and that 1st rd pick for Buddy Hield.

3. I still don't think signing Causo to a 30 million dollar cap hit was a great idea. I think Jeannie and the FO agreed.

4. Caruso coming back if he did, wasn't going to change anything this season, a lot like him being here didn't change anything last season. He's out for two months right now btw.

It all sounds like a bunch of Russ hate to me there. You didn't like the trade, that's cool. I haven't seen the lineup envisioned that prompted this trade much. Only having 16 out of 51 games and counting, with all 3 players on the court, isnt enough for me to say that Russ was a mistake at all.

It's still all about the main two guys. It is also, yet to be determined how this season plays out too. Let's revisit this conversation at the end of the season.

 

i'm definitely flailing at a lot of wind.

 

The beauty of live sports is that all the games will most definitely be played. Final analysis comes after that.