The "How are Aldridge, Batum, Lopez, and Matthews Doing?" Thread

I refuse to believe that you are seriously asking this question.

 

You make it sound like NBA ownership/management are a bunch of saints and those wicked players are a bunch of blood sucking savages. Teams have and will continue to fuck over players just as quickly as is in their best interests.

If anybody is entitled to the lion's share of the money the league generates, it should be the actual athletes that people pay to watch. If an owner is dumb enough to forfeit some of his sizable profits unnecessarily to a player, I say more power to the player. I don't see why fans would begrudge them for it, and if they do, well, fuck the fans. Fans aren't going to be there when Matthews' mom gets cancer or grandkid wants to get a degree.

 

Stat check!

LaMarcus Aldridge: 51 GP / 29.7 MPG / 16.9 PPG / 8.3 RPG / 1.5 APG / 1 BPG / 0.3 SPG / 1.3 TOPG - Shooting: .500/.000/.844

Nic Batum: 45 GP / 35.3 MPG / 14.7 PPG / 6.5 RPG / 5.5 APG / 0.6 BPG / o.9 SPG / 3.2 TOPG - Shooting: .410/.350/.846

Robin Lopez: 57 GP / 25.8 MPG / 9.6 PPG / 6.6 RPG / 1.4 APG / 1.4 BPG / 0.2 SPG / 1.6 TOPG - Shooting: .537/.814 (No 3s taken)

Wes Matthews: 52 GP / 33.2 MPG / 12 PPG / 2.9 RPG / 1.9 APG / 0.3 BPG / 1 SPG / 1 TOPG - Shooting: .381/.344/.848

 

I find it disturbing that self-reflection and honest self-assessment is that hard for you or anyone else to comprehend.

Absolutely not. There are greedy idiots on both sides of the fence. The fact that I didn't mention one side doesn't mean I'm letting them off the hook. I'm only talking about Wes here.

And yet, you know that's exactly what happens time and time again. Average players go from fan favorite to scapegoat as soon as they become [massively] overpaid. Joe Johnson is set for life, assuming he hasn't blown all his money, which probably isn't a safe assumption, but he'll never be able to mention his name in public without snickers or outright insults.

Wes seems intelligent enough to not need the extra $10M this year to cover things like that. Gotta separate greed from necessity, yo. Things might just work out better in the long-run if you're more honest with yourself.

 

And didn't Wes tear his Achilles against the Mavs?

 

Dude do you really expect that Wes, or anyone for that matter, would turn down a deal like that when they're coming off an injury that has essentially ended careers?

This might be his last contract ever. He needed to make money while he still could. and I think you're forgetting that Wes actually did take less money. The Kings offered him max money and he initially committed to Dallas for less. Cuban maxed him after Jordan reneged.

 

By greedy professional athlete, I assume you mean 'he's not a complete idiot'. Because only a complete idiot would turn down a max contract for a 1-year deal in which the league could discover that his injury would keep him from getting back to his previous level of play. If my employer offered me $55 million, I wouldn't counter with asking for a $1 million chance to prove myself.

 

It amazes me that people have such an inability to think beyond the immediate cash grab. People commit suicide over the sort of negative response an athlete in Wes' position receives for accepting the contract that he can't live up to.

 

Or he can justify it by remembering that he was underpaid for the past few years, so he's just getting what he earned.

 

Their per-minute production is on par with their career per minute averages, save for Wessy who's down a bit (for obvious reasons), and Nic who's up a bit (for obviou$ rea$on$); they are all at their peak or just heading down off of it. They who we thought they were, and they are performing how we'd expect them to perform.

I like our new guys.

 

Revisionist history at its finest. For the first half of his last contract, he was considered overpaid. It averaged out about right. He's now being paid far above the level he earned, right when he can't come anywhere near earning it. I'm sure his self-worth is through the roof right now.

 

No, he would have been considered overpaid as a backup at the time of him signing that contract, but he ended up being our starter because Roy went down. His contract was very reasonable for a starting shooting guard.

I'm just not sure what your beef is. You say that it was a cash grab, but you're flat wrong. A cash grab would have been taking the Kings offer. They were willing to max him from the beginning. He agreed to take less money so Dallas could sign Jordan. After DJ backed out, Cuban rewarded him with a max deal. You honestly think he should have said, "nah I'm cool. Don't give me more money." If you think his contract is ridiculous, that's fine. I sure wouldn't have signed him to that deal, but that's on Cuban. That's not Wes' fault. Not even a little bit.

 

You make no sense sometimes, with your one-off interpretations of common terms. No one said anything about grabbing the most cash.

No, I said it because I don't believe it... You're ignoring the bigger picture of what I said. Take the 1-year "rehab" deal, be fully embraced by the fan base, and make even more overall a year later with the much bigger contracts coming along this summer. The only reason not to do so is if Wes didn't believe he could come back healthy, in which case he was robbing the Mavs in the first place.

 

I don't know many players that willingly take a one year deal when there are multi-year offers available. That just makes no sense.

I guess I don't understand you. The world works one way, and you're complaining because you think Wes should have operated differently? In any kind of business, doesn't matter if it's basketball or banking or car sales or selling ice cream, people are always trying to get the best deal possible. What you're asking goes against common sense. Why would anyone do what you're saying? Would you have taken a one-year deal?

Steph Curry is making a little over $11 million this year. Is that fair? I don't see the fans crying in outrage because Curry isn't being paid fair market value for someone with the best PER in recent history. The guy should be making $20 million per year, easily, but he's making half that. Where are the fan's crying about the other side of your argument? Curry took what was available when it was offered to him, and now he's getting screwed because he's easily worth double that, but Wes should have taken a one-year deal because he needs to worry what the fans think?

 

Fuck the fans. I hang out with fans online, and those motherfuckers are NUTS!

 

Also, I don't think you understand what a "cash grab" is. It's about motivation, not about the "most" cash as you put it. A studio putting out a crappy sequal to cash in on a popular name, or a video game rushing out an unfinished product only to release content in a DLC for more money, that's what is commonly referred to as a "cash grab."

If Wes was motivated by money, he would have chosen Sacramento. That would have been a cash grab. Going for the money, rather than trying to join a winner, would have been a cash grab. He tried to sign with Dallas for less money so he could be in a position to win. He wanted to help Dallas sign DJ. He clearly wasn't motivated entirely by money.

 

Yeah, Wes was more fortunate than guys locked into first-round contracts (or even the guys drafted in the 2nd round). Wes got a pretty fat deal from us after a decent rookie year, while guys like Steph Curry and Blake Griffin were stuck with rookie-level contracts.

 

If you are going to take a position that makes little sense in the real world you shouldn't make definitive statements that are clearly unprovable.

Your last sentence is basically an insult to Wes. The funny part is that I don't for a minute believe HE didn't think he could come back healthy. I think Wes might believe he'll be the first person to live to 200.

We're the ones who knew he'd never be the same.

 

Wes admitted himself at the beginning of last season that he always rushed a return to the court after an injury...and now he's kind of done it again in Dallas. Wes will never stop trying to be ironman and I wouldn't doubt anyone that tells him will just get tuned out. I really want him as an assistant coach when his contract with Dallas is over. I think he'll be ready by then

 

It's an insult to anyone whose primary motivation is money.

If Wes didn't doubt he'd come back 100% healthy, then taking less money for a year wouldn't have been much of a gamble. Don't you think he'll make a hell of a lot more this summer with the new salary cap, and a year of increasingly healthy and productive play, then he made last summer with the uncertainty of whether he'd ever be effective again?

I've turned down many contracts when I didn't feel I was the right person for the job. Yes, I could have used the money, but so could the person looking for getting the best work done.