Guano wrote:mpharris36 wrote:Guano wrote:
This is why some of us are a lil skeptical of this move. They just committed to a super max guy entering his prime who was essentially moved for a salary dump, 2nd rounders, and a nice 6th man. I mean divo is nice but that essentially all they're getting in this deal. Maybe they facilitate Randle moving in the offseason or mid-season to recoup some talent. But yeah point stands. KAT's value is low for a reason. He is a flawed big on a massive deal.
I do think people are downplaing how punitive being in the 2nd apron is in consecutive year. Twolves are a 2nd apron team this year with Ant Edwards new contract kicking in. They were also going to be a 2nd apron team next year unless they moved off of KAT or Gobert. And they also want to re-sign Naz Reid and NAW.
I guess you can say then why not just Gobert. Well who is interested in Gobert at that contact that would trade mutliple salaries for a defensive minded center (a great one but still not sure the market). A twolves pod guy was on with KFS...he said the twolves needed to cut future salary but they also weren't willing to take a step back because they think they are good enough to contend.
He said they turned down multiple 1sts and salary filler type offers for KAT...but they wanted guys that could play and contribute which is where Randle/DD/protected 1st come in.
Meanwhile the Knicks had this Randle opt out looming over the franchise. They clearly didn't want to pay him what him and his reps were asking for. He wasn't going to take less than OG...he wasn't going to take less than Siakam...why would he? And with the CBA so damning if you already are an apron team you really can't risk bringing a guy to term on his contract. Because if you lose him you still are over the cap and can't improve but you lose there production for nothing. So while KAT is flawed he is still an upgrade over Randle and the cost of doing business was including DD...which sucks but I think the Knicks are hoping some combination of Duece/Kolek/Payne can make up for that miss. Oh and Mikal coming in as well.
Calling Randle a salary dump was me loosely mentioning their cap being fcked. And it was disingenuous cause for all his flaws he is still talented. But it's all just for this year. Rarely do you see a super star get traded in their prime without getting major picks or a young talent in return. This is a really weird deal. Hearing they had multiple 1st rd picks offered and turned them down seams crazy.
But the new cba has teams moving different.
I think that ultimately we will see a bunch of crazy stuff with the CBA since teams don't want to be in the 2nd apron for consecutive years.
And then its even more complicated if you are also trying to contend. Like if you have guys you have to pay you probably are going to see the value of productive expirings being a valuable commodity for those teams.
Basically if teams have a window to be good...what is the value of trading KAT for a couple 1st round picks and then salary filler that really won't impact your team. So you basically take a step backwards in talent and get a couple projectable 1st down the road? If Minnesota was a rebuilding team absolutely they would have taken that offer and run.
But this way they can kinda do both...they got two decent longer term assets in DD (good 3 yr $36 contract) and the protected 1st. While also just getting a 1 year rental in Randle. Who can contribute but wont be there long term.
THey need to reset that 2nd apron and that the only way to do it...but they also didn't want to take a big step down talent wise.
I think you will see a lot of interesting moves when teams jump past that 2nd apron...and how they try to avoid it in the 2nd year.
You lose draft picks, you can sign buyout guys, you can't do sign and trade, you can't aggregate salary, can't take on more money.
You basically are left with doing 1 for 1 trades where you can only take equal or less money...its very punative...so that means you will get interesting pivots and trades to avoid it.
I don't necessarily think its a reflection of how much they just wanted to get of KAT salary.
that was good 
RIP mags