I've said it before and I'll say it again: CAP SPACE IS OVERRATED

Oooh, look at all this flexibility we have. whoop de fucking do.

Meanwhile:

Vince Carter to the Magic
Artest to the Lakers*
Shaq to the Cavs
Sheed to the Celtics*

*rumored to be happening, wouldn't be surprised if it goes down like this.


CP3 to the Blazers. Pritch, make it happen some how. Only way we compete on this stage and this level.




Meanwhile, we've built up and saved up to clear contracts for two years...for what?



If you build it, they will come (the guys to put you to the top). If you don't build it and just clear money what you are left with is paying an overescalated price and locking in a guy who recently played well in a contract year.














You build to win NOW, not in 2 years. Make splashes...now we're left in a pretty bad free agent pool looking at players we already have positions.

 

rabble rabble rabble

 

Its the goddamn truth! We need to land a top 10-15 player on the upswing on his career. Consolidation trade to make it happen. do it pritch. Or get Battier. That would be >>>>>>>>> Hedo.

 

You're completely entitled to your opinion, but just how many pro/con Turkoglu threads do we need? (yes a I realize you are not explicitly focused on just Turkoglu in your post).

I just think people are jumping the gun on judging the likely Turk pickup when there's still a strong likelihood of a consolidation trade on its heels.

 

This is more of a rant of saving cap space for 2 years when the FA pool doesn't have an actual big-money target (i.e. LeBronze).

 

Well.. building teams through free agency will never turn you into a winner. You end up overpaying for guys, unless it's once-in-a-lifetime player like LeBron. But banking on that by freeing up cap space is a real long shot for a lot of NBA teams.

Most championship teams build through the draft, and get their core players out of the draft, while adding role players through free agency.

 

the funny thing is, of all those big name guys you have moving, i only think one really helps their team(and that could even be questionable).

vince is a lateral move for orlando especially since they lose lee and hedo.
shaq to cleveland doesn't really help either. for all the positives(post offense) there are negative(defense, clogging the lane).
artest to the lakers is meaningless if they don't bring odom back, and he doesn't fit as well as ariza anyway, so i don't see a real improvement there.

sheed to the celtics(if it happens) is the only one i'd call a real upgrade but that could change if sheed stays content just to coast through games. he doesn't help them all that much if he takes 45% of his shots from 3 point range again.

 

Which championship team has built through the draft? I guess Orlando with Dwight, then adding Rashard Lewis..but that was a more freak occurance than anything IMO. Spurs too I suppose but they are run like Clockwork and it was a freak occurance they even landed Duncan due to Robinson's one year injury.

Championship teams are built on blockbuster trades. Shaq to the Lakers. Shaq to Miami. Gasol to LA. KG to Boston.

 

LOL.......all that and then you throw out Battier? Fuck

 

Ariza has struggled against bigger bodies. That and how much more talent Artest has plus how he could look better playing here are enough reasons to sign him.

 

Lakers: Kobe
Spurs: Duncan and Parker
Houston: Olajuwon, Horry and Cassell
Lakers: Magic
Celtics: Bird and McHale
Bulls: Jordan and Pippen
Heat: Wade

All homegrown players that teams have had since they were rookies. And then you add role players through free agency.

 

Wow, are we still in the 80s. The 90-2000s teams you mentioned....Duncan was only in SA because D-Rob was out for an ENTIRE year and they sucked shit. And Wade's Heat was only good when Shaq went to Miami..they aren't contenders anymore and probably won't be unless another lopsided trade comes their way.

 

spurs got duncan, manu, and parker through the draft. that seemed to workout alright for them.

really, just look through all the playoff teams from last season. 13 of the 16 drafted their best player(14 of the 16 if you count paul pierce for the celtics since garnett was out).

spurs - duncan, parker, manu
rockets - yao
mavs - dirk, howard
blazers - roy, aldridge
lakers - kobe
nuggets - carmelo
hornets - paul
jazz - deron
sixers - igoudala
cavs - lebron
magic - dwight
heat - wade
bulls - rose, gordon

the exceptions are the hawks(who still drafted josh smith, marvin williams, al horford), celtics(rondo, pierce, and perkins from the draft), and detroit(stucky and prince).

in general the foundations of good teams are built through the draft. the extra pieces (if) needed are added through free agency and trade.

 

Of course, but we already have our guys from the drafts....then we essentially sat still and waited for cap space for two years instead of being agressive in getting more good talent on the team.

Most of the guys that put a team over tend to be added through trades, not through cap space flexibility. That's how LOTTO teams try to build but then they overpay for players.

You get better by trading EXPIRING CONTRACTS (yeah, we had a HUGE one) or consolidating young talent to a team with a superstar that is not getting anywhere and wants to save money. Not by clearing 10 million in cap space in 2 years and hoping to roll the dice with free agency.

I'm not disatissfied with our current team, I'm just saying the whole plan of "clearing cap space for a 09 Plan" is pretty bullshit, which is why I was NEVER a fan of this 09 Plan.

 

And none of those guys signed as Free Agents (well maybe some Detroit guys did) or were the product of cap space flexibility. Alot of them were dumped by teams IN ORDER to save money. Saving money for cap space is what losing teams do. winning teams trade their contracts.

 

the more talented that artest seemingly has isn't really used all that well. talentwise he's definitely an upgrade, but ariza fits the team much better. i think in that end that balances out to make it basically a lateral move.

 

Our success (championship wise) depends on Oden.

Hedo is just a good piece that allows us to reach that window faster.

 

One of the Lakers weaknesses was an extra scoring threat when Kobe and Gasol sat out. Ariza only seems valuable because he had a great playoff run in a contract year...this makes them more dangerous than last IMO.