winforlose wrote:For the sake of argument let’s concede all your points. CP3 is better for winning a title, better for staying under the tax, and he doesn’t have a higher risk of injury or decline than Dlo over the next 2 to 3 years. My question for you is then what? We cannot/would not resign a 40 year old CP3 to a big money deal. Presumably he will retire. We have 3 good years, (22/23, 23/24, 24/25.) In those 3 years we got one late first and a couple middle of the pack second round players. Ant is now in his prime, Rudy beginning to show his age, KAT is 30. How do we replace CP3? Remember, we don’t own our pick in 27 and maybe not in 29. If we suck in 25/26 then our pick could potentially be swapped with Utah. We have a giant hole in our roster, and with Ant on a rookie max, KAT and Rudy on big money maxes, and MCD presumably on a mid size deal, how do we replace the lost salary that just expired/retired?
Firstly, the next three years are absolutely the biggest priority. Minnesota traded almost everything for Rudy Gobert, maximizing his prime years is immensely important. Respectfully, being concerned about what happens over three seasons from now when Chris Paul would massively increase Minnesota’s Championship chances doesn’t make sense to me at all.
But beyond that, what happens if D’Angelo Russell and Minnesota can’t come to terms on a good deal? How much do you overpay Russell to lock him in for? What if he underperforms again in the Playoffs and/or he leaves in Free-Agency? Worse yet, what if Minnesota overpays him and perpetually under-performs, wasting their window to win a Championship while condemning themselves to an unsustainable Repeater-Tax that hamstrings the team?
Three years in the NBA is an eternity and Minnesota is a Championship aspiring team right now. D’Angelo is a lower/middle-of-the-pack starting Point-Guard, you don’t lower your ceiling with the hope of (maybe?) resigning Russell to have him for a year or two longer than you already would have Chris Paul locked into a deal.
Every team outside of the biggest Repeater Tax teams have to juggle the pretty rough reality of not being able to retain everyone long-term; if anything, I would argue that Chris Paul’s deal offers Minnesota a solid amount of flexibility. Maybe they don’t pick up the final year and give him a 40/2 deal (I see this as realistic), or they pick up his option and move him plus assets for another option. Perhaps they develop a future replacement, or find someone with the Tax-MLE who can replace a decent enough portion of production for a tiny fraction of the cost.
There are a myriad of pathways to address those concerns, despite it being difficult to resign everyone anyways. The gap between Chris Paul and D’Angelo Russell is massive, you don’t throw that away for a questionable maybe over three seasons from now, in my opinion.
