Oh, I totally agree. But as I said, I think it only really impacts Paul. It sounds like I might be in the minority, but I do believe that we'll be able to trade Crabbe by next season's trade deadline if not sooner. To BNM's point about the repeater tax, I fully expect Olshey to make moves to make sure that's not an issue. It might cost us draft picks, which are never good to lose (and ties into the "bad business" comment). But regardless of Crabbe's contract, this past summer was the last summer we'd have cap space for the remainder of Dame's contract. So with that perspective I guess I would begrudgingly rather have Crabbe than have nothing.
Curry, Harden, Westbrook, Dame, CP3 , Irving, Thomas, CONley, Wall Top 5 any given night take one over the other. If I were to draft today I would take all the aforementioned PG's over Conley. People sleep on Kyrie, dudes a flat out winner.
When a team is $4 million above the luxury tax threshold, there are other penalties that kick in. There is more to it than money out of PA's wallet. These penalties can affect a team’s ability to acquire more talented players. A team $4 million above the luxury tax: 1) Cannot use the Bi-Annual exception 2) Have a smaller Mid-Level exception 3) Can offer contracts no longer than three years, while other teams can offer four. 4) Cannot receive a player in a sign-and-trade transaction if their team salary is above the apron at the conclusion of the trade 5) Do not have the same protections under the Gilbert Arenas provision. Under the Arenas provision other teams can offer restricted free agents salaries starting at the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception. If a team with the right of first refusal does not have Early Bird rights to the player and is over the apron, it will have only the smaller Taxpayer Mid-Level exception at its disposal, and cannot match an offer for the full Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception. 6) Do not receive a distribution from the league wide tax fund. In short, the Blazers are now fucked. If I am a GM of another team, I would make it very costly for the Blazers to dump salary.
Perhaps. We'll have to see how it all plays out, but even though I don't have much faith in Olshey's ability to target and sign the right FAs, I do think he can manage the team so as not to be over the lux tax. If it's that important we should easily be able to shed salary through the value contracts of Aminu/Davis (neither of which I would consider to be much of a loss). And I'm sure there are a handful of teams that would love to take on Meyers, despite the fact* we all** hate him. Beyond that we have a VERY valuable Harkless (whom I'd hate to trade, and if it's done solely because Crabbe is un-moveable then I'll quickly recant all of these posts). *Not an actual fact. **We don't ALL hate him.
Lowry should probably be on that list ahead of Conley too, and depending on my system I might even take Wall over Conley as well. So there you have it, barely a top 10 point guard in the league, making the leagues highest salary. I was sitting here thinking about where he would rank overall and realized I wouldn't even put him in the top 25, so I decided to go and look at ESPN's latest NBA ranks to see where they put him. Turns out he's one spot behind our very own CJ McCollum, which puts Conley at #27. Which I think could be considered generous. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/nbarank27 According to ESPN - Lowry, Wall, Irving, Dame, Harden, CP3, Westbrook, and Curry (in descending order) are all better point guards than Conley. And according to them Thomas is only 2 spots behind Conley at #29. Also either I missed the thread, or people (like me) don't care that much for ESPN anymore. However this didn't go unnoticed... http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/nbarank10_2016
Lets assume no matter who you choose, they are on a 5 year, 153 million dollar contract. You are starting a team from scratch and have no other players on your roster thus far. Disregarding any injuries to any players this current season, who would you choose to be the guy on a max contract? Mike Conley Carmelo Anthony Kevin Love Isaiah Thomas Demar Derozan Marc Gasol Hassan Whiteside Kristaps Porzingis Gordon Hayward Steven Adams Rudy Gobert
He averaged 25 points and 5 assists during last years playoffs. Of course James helped a team that was otherwise fairly weak, but that's what happens when you add the best player in the world to a basketball team. Then of course there was this shot.
Not denying his ability to score. But how much did he win before LeBron returned. You called Kyrie a flat out winner, how many times did he lead the Cavs to the playoffs without LeBron? Or even a .500 record? You change the subject to fit your point a lot on these boards. How about you just answer the question? Kyrie is far from a winner. A lot of scoring guards would look elite next to LeBron.
Wasn't changing the subject, you green fonted "I forgot" implying that you knew the cavs history after Lebron left and before he returned. I figured it was rhetorical... The Cavs never made the playoffs in the years without Lebron, not as much because of Kyrie, but because the rosters outside of Kyrie were pretty terrible. Not winning a championship does not make you a loser, sometimes winners lose, and sometimes losers win. I still maintain Kyrie is a winner. Is Dame not a winner because he has not won a championship? How about Reggie Miller?
Again not what I asked. Being a winner means you actually win games. You said he was a winner yet if anything Kyrie and Crawford are the same player. Glorified scoring guards who can't do anything on their own. 21, 24, and 33 wins. In the leastern conference. Something you can't say about the two players you mentioned. Hell Kevin Love is more of a winner than Kyrie... He at least got his team to a .500 record his last year in the West.(however I'd say that was more Rubio's doing than Love. But Love was the best player on that team.) Kyrie Irving is far from a winner, as well as no one sleeps on him. He can score and dance on anyone. But he's not a winner nor a leader.
Ryan Anderson is playing well for Houston and is a good complement to James Harden. Not to mention the Rockets do have a winning record so it can't be all that bad.
Karl Malone, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley... All winner in my book even though they don't have a ring. Like them or not, they had the mentality and ferociousness to want to be a champ and every one of these guys came very close. A ring is not a be all end all definition of a winner.
I fully agree, both with the names and the statement. I also don't think someone is not a winner because they couldn't carry a team into the playoffs single handed. Second best player on those Cavs rosters was probably TT. Even Dame had a pretty damn good supporting player in CJ last season.
Cap projections for 2020 are at 120 mil and tax threshold at 143. ACs 18 is gonna be reasonable when this is all said and done
