3ammy3uck3ts wrote:refused to make moves to try and get over the top.
I don't agree with this, sometimes the moves you need to make just aren't available, and sometimes the asking price is too high. If it was this easy, then every team ever that was close to winning it all gets to have the same complaint, and that makes no logical sense.
Its not like we had cap space every year and didn't spend it, or teams were bending over to offer us star players and we were declining the offers. And its well known the team did what it could to go after players like Durant/Giannis, just could not seal the deal.
Who is the player or offer we didn't get that was on the table and turned down? At best you can argue Damian Lillard, and there's a lot of nuance to that. First off we clearly tried. Second, his agent sabotaged everything by specifying only Miami which made the league step in and strongly encourage Portland to send him elsewhere. Third, Portland's GM had the same thought process and did not want to deal with Miami for that reason. Fourth, our best potential package is arguably equivalent or outplaying what we would have gotten from Lillard this season, with Herro arguably matching Lillard's production, Niko at least playing at the level of a rotation player, and the draft pick turning into Ware.
So all you're left with is, "but what about last season", to which I say, what about last season? Lillard was underwhelming last year and declined in just about every category (his bounce back this season is impressive, but only puts him roughly on par to what Herro is doing for us), and if he had joined the team you still have Jimmy who missed the entire playoffs. I guess you can try to make the argument the entire vibe is different and that squad wins a chip, but I'm not buying it.
But I also think personally you're a little more impatient to see something happen because you're irrationally invested in Bam, and freaking out about the possibility some of his prime is wasted. To which I'll remind you, Wade lost 3 years of his prime to injury/waiting around for flexibility, and we got 2 championships and 4 finals appearances out of it.
