but for 3.5 million dollars less, we got a guy who a) isn't as good, b) isn't a great fit, and c) has played zero minutes over the first quarter of the season.
Rob better make one hell of a trade chip out of Nunn. When the 15th rolls around, I want him being offered to every team for anyone who's between 6-6 and 6-8.
Dude! You read my mind. I literally was coming here to finally say it. THT is only 21 and of course has like 5 more years to develop and likely become a more impactful player and all star at some point. Is how we always think of this choice between them. But gawdamnit AC has more athleticism, more vertical and plays the game so well now both sides of the ball and with such intelligence and energy that he’s just a joy to watch. And he’s just entering his own prime and still getting better. THT may never catch him and be as impactful. That’s possible too, though unlikely, I guess. Even if and when he does I love watching AC as a fan MORE now and indefinitely into the future with them both continuing to improve their own particular skill sets. In hindsight having to make a choice between them I would have kept AC instead. He’s a better basketball player until THT proves otherwise. AC is more exciting as well with the plays he makes both sides of the ball and with his better vertical. The vertical is my observation. AC is an inch taller but THT has him with those freak arms. To me AC gets noticeably higher consistently over the rim on dunks.
Win now: AC Higher ceiling: THT by a mile Higher floor: AC Smarter: AC D: AC Fit: AC Scoring: THT Potential: THT Trade Value: THT I think AC is who he is and that's a key supporting piece on a championship team as a starter or first guard off the bench. I think he's reached his ceiling and that's fine, he should sustain this level for another 7 years or so. But the Lakers are betting on THT being a top 3 player and a star on a championship team in the next 2-3 years. I don't know if he can get there and I don't think we'll know until at least the midway point of next year. It's tough to compare until we see who THT is going to be. Then we can fairly debate this one and the Lowry deal, as well.
Just checked and AC is 27 and closer to 28. They're only listing him at 6'4" and 186. 3 pt % back down to 33% range for now. JSM makes good points. I got carried away simply from the fan's joy perspective watching of how each plays the game NOW. Bottom line we should have kept both and for the window of LeBron they would have gotten more out of AC if they kept him. But as he says, higher ceiling, scoring, potential and trade value are all on THT's side.
i agree with the assessment, especially trade value. as the market indicated, opposing gms can't seem to wrap their head around AC's impact. it's sort of an indictment of their evaluations, imo. everybody wants the home run and most go down swinging instead of get on base. anyway, yes, the obvious answer is BOTH. and the only thing that will make me stop whining about it is if we win a title without him here. 10 years from now i'll be after pelinka like frank costanza after steinbrenner.
We could have had all damn 3 of them …. think about THAT! Since these decisions happened after draft night. The Eagle! THT! Austin Reaves! Our perimeter D going forward …..
I don't think the problem was THT. The problem was Westbrook. If you get a 40m+ player, you can't have multiple getting 10m+. Plus, AC plays the same position than Westbrook. If they were to play together, you would have to bench THT. The 5 per salary would be: Russ, AC, THT, Lebron and AD. There's no shooting, we couldn't sustain that lineup. So among the 3, there's no space for one of them. You can even argue there's no space for THT if he plays together with Russ and Lebron. I think it was due to bad timing and place. As soon as they pulled the trigger on Russ, Caruso was gone. Then, just yesterday I watched a few minutes of the Bulls game. If you have a Caruso in your roster, you nurture him and make sure his space in the team is untouched. He's so smart. He makes a ton of plays that don't come in the stats. Just in a 2min span, he battles a off reb and makes the opponent player throw the ball out of bounds. Then he knocks the ball off LaMelo's hands and gets an offensive foul. Just smart play, defense and winning actions. Caruso will win more championships in his career, I'm pretty sure about that. Russ is the reason. So blame Lebron. Blame the FO. I hate this mf idea of big 3s and just filling the roster with names that make social media go crazy. Caruso is a closing lineup player of ANY team. Westbrook is a great player for non-contender teams. Bahhhh It's odd that veteran guys and GMs like Lebron and Pelinka still make dumb mistakes you would expect to see by other franchises like Knicks, Sixers or Clippers. Defense and chemistry are probably among the top 3 conditions to win a chip. And you throw that away in exchange of talent over fit. When did that work? I mean, c'mon...
disagree that three maxes precludes multiple 10+ million salaries (see bkn), but agree with the rest. especially the last part. players (and coaches), even really smart ones, have never done well playing gm. i think pelinka's primary gm skill appears to be a good one: he can get stars. it might be the most important one. but his strategy involves fully placating them, which might prevent ultimate success for all.
Brooklyn only have Harris (17m) between the maxes and the mini MLE. Warriors went through rough times managing their cap the past seasons. With 3 max you are over the cap and have a roster to fill. Plus all the tax implications. Owners are in this thing for money, not sports. And they prefer to make cost-control decisions while trying to win then assembling the best team to win at any cost. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't cut even 10% of their profit for a ring. Specially in a franchise like ours that will always make money, sell out arenas and be in the top tier of merchandising. It's business decisions, not sports I get it, it's logic. Of course that as a fan you want the best team and want them to spend some millions more, as they are already making so much profit. But they won't.
right, harris makes about what THT and AC would combined. and no, i don't root for jeanie buss's wallet.
i don't think we can know how much of this summer was rob, how much was jeanie, and how much was lebron/AD. so i just hold them all accountable.
No. That would be around 20mil. I also don't care about her financials. I'm sure she's already settled for a wealthy life. I'm just justifying what I believe have happened, so that we look at it more rationally rather than emotionally
THT makes 9.5 this year, caruso 8.6. so it's 18 versus joe harris's 17.5. but let's keep splitting hairs when my point is already made: three superstars doesn't prevent you from spending 20 million on two (or even one!) more players. if the goal is to make money, you don't even go over the luxury tax. if it's to win a championship, you blow past it while you have the opportunity. this isn't emotional; it's actually pretty rational. we have the 4th highest payroll in the league. 4 million behind the clippers, 7 million behind brooklyn, and 14 million (!) behind golden state. ironically, who are the teams currently favored to beat us even if we're healthy? how many of our problems stem from bad backcourt defense and a general lack of competitive spirit? how much of that is mitigated by simply retaining our most valuable role player at market value. we could have kept caruso, not signed nunn, and still had a lower payroll than the clippers, our in-town rival. tl;dr: what the hell did you trade jay buhner for?!
