badinage wrote:If Kuzma is only going to net one first-round pick — and from a team that is late in the pecking order (as Dallas and Sacramento are), then I dearly hope they get back a young player who has shown flashes and who could emerge as he develops. But who? Jaden Hardy on Dallas and who else?
That Aldridge piece is awful in its characterization of what Beal did. He didn’t HAVE to go to Phoenix only. Letter of the law said that that was within his right. Spirit of the law would have been to say to the franchise that drafted, developed, nurtured, and gave you the keys: here are 4-5 teams I’d consider. To not present what happened — to buy into the player’s bullshxt, the agent’s bullshxt — is disheartening. (Typical, though, of a certain kind of corporate journalism that is all about pragmatism and acceptance of the rules and rule of money.) Fact: Beal screwed the Wizards, and caused the team to lose, too, on KP and not get real value.
What I don’t get: why first-round picks are so suddenly difficult to come by AND ALSO why second-round picks are suddenly seen as having some sort of value they didn’t have even just three years ago. What’s happening?
Re: first-rounders. 5-10 years ago, a player like Tyus Jones — smart, good shooter, great decision-maker — *undeniably* would have netted a FRP from a playoff team trying to make a push. Why not now?
If all he nets is two seconds, Winger/Dawkins should tell a fellow GM to GTFOH. Don’t trade him. Don’t cave. They’re so desperate for picks, any picks, they’ve been so grateful for crumbs. It’s undignified. It has to stop.
I wouldn’t trade Kuzma for less than a FRP + a young gun who might take a step or two.
Also? I don’t think a burn-it-to-build-it-back GM like Winger understands that you can’t just be an utter joke for three years. The thinking is: well, three years — but look where we’ll be. And maybe. But maybe not. Dallas still isn’t good. Atlanta. Sacramento is much better but still not really good. Etc.
And I really dislike having the machinery exposed, as Winger and Co. are doing. Every game is a reminder that this team isn’t trying to win. Isn’t. Trying. To. Win. The entire point of a game and of a sport. Weeks of this. Months of it. All meaningless.
And cynical — so cynical.
Why pay attention? Why doesn’t Winger — or, for that matter, any GM of any team in any sport that disdains trying to win — just say to the fans: “Look, folks, we’ll see you in 4 years; do what you need to: read books, see some movies, spend time cooking, etc. If things change — if the timetable speeds up and we are committed to trying to win games — we’ll reach back out. But otherwise? We’re not counting on you, and we’re not blaming you either. We aren’t going to sell tickets — we’ll fill the arena with blow-up dolls and create some bullshxt spectacle with dancers and magicians and whatnot. We’ll update you once a month via email, unless you choose to opt out — which is totally okay; we get it; we would too!”
If it’s entirely reasonable/within the letter of the law to NOT try and to be so open about it, why not be entirely open? Burn the whole effing apparatus to the ground. Don’t have fans attend games, or, if you simply feel you must, don’t charge them. A gesture of goodness. A way of saying: we understand and we’re sorry. And getting these players and execs out into the city and doing actual things (as opposed to the kind of photo op/feel-good horseshxt that they do now) — public works, and in all parts of DC, Md., and Va. Construction. Directing traffic. Re-facing buildings. Etc. As a way of paying back and paying penance. As a way of saying: we are here to serve, while we build back our tattered reputation.
Instead, what we have is business as per yoozh. Uninspiredness. A lack of ideas. A lack of understanding.
First round picks have way more value because of the CBA.
The teams that are approaching the tax at the first apron or the second apron need cheap young talent to round out the roster. A cost controlled rookie contract is valuable especially if players can play above it.
Look at DEN. They are getting production from guys like Watson, Braun who are on their rookie deals while Joker is on a supermax, Murray is making big money, Michael Porter is on a huge rookie extension, and Gordon is making good money.
That's the only way these teams can avoid the steeper penalties of the luxury tax.
