I don't think any of his deals are game changing, but they are calculated. We are losing capspace this offseason by eating Varejao's contract, but presumably Neil realizes no top teir free agent is signing here anyhow.
Aren't we only losing like 2 mil? 18 mil in capspace or 20... it's not going to change anything. Unless I read that wrong, since we are sparsing out Varejo's contract.
I loved that he made two moves: one to get better later in Dame's career arc (paying for Cleveland's 2018 pick) and one to get better now (Brian Roberts taking Tim Frazier's roster spot). Neither look like home runs, but both are good singles to get men on base, in a long game around Dame's career arc that will take eight years to play out.
Also, none of these moves confused me. Like, there are some moves where you're like "WTF are you trying to do?". But these moves show the clear, focused, SIMPLE game Neil is playing: get assets to make the team better when Dame is 29. Get assets to free up our draft pick in 2017 by making the playoffs in 2016. That 2017 pick gives us flexibility in the summer to get better through trade. Hell, we may see that 2017 pick (this summer if we make the playoffs) traded for another 2018-2020 first round pick and a light asset. Stock up on picks in OUR window from teams who don't value them properly yet.
