Would not have signed ET, Crabbe, Meyers, Ezeli. Would have used the money on more players on smaller deals that would have given us movable assets.
Such as? Here is a list of all the free agents that signed that summer. Let me know if you see one that you would have done. https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2016/6/30/12052290/nba-free-agent-signings-tracker-2016-rumors
I don't think LeBron fits the specifications. "used the money on more players on smaller deals that would have given us movable assets"
Without going through revisionist history, there are several names on that list who would either be off the books now, or tradable assets, who would have given us what ET has
First off, I thought the strategy was what we should've done going into the off-season. Keep the RFA's and get the best possible free agents with the cap space before you sign them. Second of all, you aren't just bidding against yourself in restricted free agency. The threat of players taking the Qualifying Offer plays a big factor. For example, look at Nerlens Noel this year on Dallas. He took the QO and because of that becomes an unrestricted free agent with no bird rights (if traded). It killed his value as an "asset". Looking back it does suck that none of the 3 RFA's really worked out and that it would have been better if they did take the QO as bad as that sounds but during that summer it would've seemed like a bad thing. Can you imagine how bad Olshey would get killed if Harkless left for nothing after doing pretty well last season because we didn't work out a deal for him? As for Crabbe, Paul Allen himself said he matched that with no hesitation. If that is what your owner wants you have to do it. Yes, it would be great if all those guys had team options and shorter deals but when you consider someone a positive asset it makes sense to lock them up. Anyway, as for the question in this thread: I looked at every single free agent signed that summer. Dedmon was mentioned in this thread already but would he really make a difference? I'd rather have Ed I think. Sure, we could have gone after Barnes but would he have chosen us over Dallas since he got a max offer from them, who knows? There are literally no other realistic guys that would have been on the team and making a real difference right now. That was really depressing. I just wish Turner was an Olshey value signing special instead of the contract he got.
Said from the beginning...Fournier. I didn't think he would get that much but he could shoot and that fit this team.
Who knows what would have happened. We're not winning a 'Ship' with Fournier but I think he fits in here a lot better than ET which makes everyone else's jobs that much easier. Imagine an actual wing shooting a career 38% from '3' and how much easier the game becomes for Dame/CJ. It's the biggest hole on this roster.
I thought Ezeli was a fine risk. Didn't pan out, of course, but it was a reasonable gamble and had minimal risk. I also think the Harkless deal was fine, even as we stand today. He was worth it last year and while he's struggled this year, it's perfectly conceivable that he'll bounce back next year. His contract is not really something that I consider a problem holding the team back. It's Crabbe, Turner and Leonard that are hard to understand, for me.
So most of you would have angled to keep cap space when that has proven to give us jack shit, how clever.
I would have probably have signed Harkless but let Meyers and Crabbe go. Crabbe was limited and had reached his peak. Even I wondered why we gave him that contract. Then I would have signed as many roster fillers as possible hoping to get lucky. My bad move would have been signing Biyombo I just know it!
