Wildcat wrote:nykballa2k4 wrote:You are being foolishly confident here.
You may disagree with my belief, but to be so absolute about it is ignorant.
Why could there be buyers remorse?
Well we traded for a player who proved to be a flawless fit in our system, however his availability was poor (as has been the case throughout his career). Perhaps it was expected he would miss a fraction of the games he did miss. Our doctors may be trash, but I imagine they expected him back sooner than he did come back. he appears to struggle playing through pain.
Where am I getting this "top gun" thing from?
Back in his Toronto days, OG trade rumrs kicked up about 1.5 years ago because he wanted a bigger role on the team. The team already had Siakam and FVV (similar to how we have Randle/Brunson). He may very well look in the mirror and see Jaylen Brown based on how that article came off.
The quote "unhappy with his role" was said as he was averaging 17ppg.
He also already declined an extension 4/117 which obviously had injury risk baked into it (offered well in advance of the end of the contract). So 30M is that starting point of negotiations, likely much higher with the cap rising.
If the current offer is 35M, but there are games played factored in (that implies he is choosing to not play), then he really might not be getting a much better deal than he declined.
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/rankings/player/_/year/2024/sort/cap_base
looking at this salaries list perhaps he thought with is strong w/l that he would be in that 40M camp (putting him in that top 20 category).
TLDR version: He was unhappy with a role as #3 scoring option avg 17ppg, he balked at 30M, we traded for him with expectations and it appears that our management thinks he was sitting when he did not need to thus falling short on those expectations.
And I think you're being annoyingly pessimistic.
You got me there
This "rumor" of him wanting to be top gun is an exaggeration of what he "allegedly" said. Which -- by the way -- he never said. He never said he was unhappy. What started all this, was Nurse, and I quote, saying, "He wants to be more a part of the offense. So I certainly can help him with that. I can design plays, I can get him in situations, etc., but it's kind of a working relationship that he's got to go take some of that, right." A literal who writer took that quote and exaggerated it, then other outlets regurgitated the literal who's comment. Put distance from this ridiculous notion. It's not true. You're not going to convince me that Fischer has some Raptor insider info when this originated from Nurse.
I am not prepared to be definitive either way. There were multiple articles that had gone out to the effect that OG wanted a bigger role. it is an assumption from you that it was a mis-characterized Nick Nurse comment, just like it is an assumption from me that it is from actual journalism.
To my understanding, a contract extension was never offered by the Raptors, but he always had plans to hit free agency no matter what because his extension would be only 4 years @ 117 million, which is obviously a bargain. Betting on myself -- like all NBA players do -- isn't some unique phenomenon.
He declined the extension as an oft-injured but developing player. There is a lot of risk to that. A often hurt player will not often thumb their nose at near 30M/year guaranteed. He did bet on himself, and he is going to make sure that effort pays off, IMO, literally.
Philly would be better off with Paul George at a similar price, but the advantage of signing OG is that it weakens us.
There are finite teams with cap space, and even fewer who have the means to add long term large salary.
OKC may have cap space, but they are going to have to increase their salary every year keeping their core.
This bodes well for us being able to keep him at a price that is manageable.
At the same time, we are looking over the next few years at OG, Brunson and Randle making upwards of 120.
The new salary cap stuff is going to make it very painful for fans who want to see young players developed and kept on their home teams.
