I really don't think Neil is done. I would be surprised if we don't make some kind of deal. I think we will wait until after summer league though.
Kaman is productive still. Blake looked solid in LA, no so much in GS. Both are stopgaps. Neil said he would be creative and opportunistic which I think got a lot of people's hopes up. The young guys better step it up.
I don't think Olshey should have ever used the phrase "move the needle." It's what we're all looking for now... and we're not getting it.
Echoes of Pritchard saying that he had a deal in place for a "significant player in this league?" (Or somesuch...I can't remember the exact wording anymore.)
Was it like a shock to some of you guys that we didn't have much cap flexibility this year in a saturated market?
Apparently. I think some of them figured we were going to sign Melo with the MLE, or maybe they don't understand that there's a salary cap?
Felton put them over the hump. I'm going to bookmark this post. Dallas will be better than us.....HAHA
No one said or expected we would get Melo. Who the F would want him anyway? This is a strawman argument, and you know it. Yes we get that all Neil had were 2 exceptions to work with. And given THAT I still give him a C+. Last year he pulled a few rabbits out of an empty hat. This year, not so much. Meh. I like Blakey a lot, and love his ability to hit the big 3, but he is mediocre a backup PG, nothing more.. If Kaman were not so injury prone, I would grade higher. Kaman can be a stud if he plays, but that is iffy given his history.
I'm not sure were done. I remember last year everyone though our offseason was wrapped up. It was announced we signed Mo Williams and everybody was shocked.
Last year we didn't have an empty hat, as you said. We had cap space. We were able to acquire Lopez and Robinson because we had cap flexibility. This year we did not. We had zero cap flexibility, so we were left with only the MLE and BAE. So I will say to you what I said to ToB: if not Kaman and Blake, who would you have signed with those options? It's not a huge mystery. We can look around the league and see what guys signed for. We know Channing Frye got 8 million per year. We know Paul Pierce wants around 10 million per year. We know Spencer Hawes turned us down to sign the exact same deal with the Clippers. This isn't like trades, where you have no idea what was offered or what was accepted. We know exactly what we could offer, and we know exactly what these guys have signed for (or will sign for.) So unless you are a proponent of doing nothing, which is what ToB was basically saying, then I don't see how you can hate the addition of two veteran players that fill holes in our lineup. Is Kaman exciting? Hell no. Is Steve Blake exciting? Nope, but they were fairly inexpensive, they wanted to play here, and they help strengthen our bench. I'm okay with that. The offseason isn't over, and I think Neil still has something up his sleeve. I guess we'll see.
Solid B at midterm... could slide +/- if a "trade coming soon" ticks the needle either way. If N.O. aces the final with a really nice trade it could be an A. Everything so far looks to help the bench and that is encouraging.
