Bensational wrote:VFX wrote:This is kind of what we were discussing a few weeks ago and why Weltman is backed into a corner.
On one hand you can trade multiple assets for 1 position upgrade that goes $40m against the cap. This limits your ceiling because you are trading rookie scale picks that help you round out a roster.
On the other hand, you can make smaller more methodical deals that round out the roster much like OKC 2-3 seasons ago. You find complimentary players with skill sets that make sense that aren’t all-in on one guy but that takes risk.
So now Weltman is “all-in” but we aren’t sure what that means. Is that finding role players with the correct skillsets? Is that pushing all chips in for Garland resulting in 3 max players?
I lean more toward the OKC model where I like the idea that a smaller market has more flexibility, not less, when it comes to spreading out assets across the roster. He just simply didn’t draft well enough to mimic that blueprint.
The Magic had the 5th best 2nd unit in the league in 23-24, per netrtg. Isaac was central that. Moe Wags, too. Even Cole, Harris, Ingles and Fultz were contributors. I’m not supporting the extensions that he made off the back of that, but I also think it was entirely justifiable to run the bulk of the 5th best 2nd unit back whilst also adding a 2x champion to the starting lineup. They regressed this year, for a variety of reasons, but that wasn’t something any of us expected as dramatically as it was.
Back then you were complaining that Weltman was committing to role players before building the core. Now you’re complaining he hasn’t been building around the periphery and adding those role players. He has, you’ve just never agreed with any of his additions.
The team is on the precipice of changes this offseason and you seem to be picking up speed and spinning yourself up into a greater sense of conviction that everything is doomed. Just, like, give it until August or something.
Not really.
I’m fine with Weltman making decisions, like moving Suggs, if it means he is balancing the roster for the better down the line. The two things I’m not ok with in that statement is either adding another max salary player, or pulling a Hennigan panic move that further limits the foreseeable future. I kind of consider both of those things to be relatively in line with each other for different reasons really.
I have never said Weltman has “committed to role players”. I might have said he was committed to role players pretending to be starters or something. He hasn’t made any decisions on the role players of this roster. He has kept nearly every player except Okeke, Bamba, and Fultz as guys that, for whatever reason, can never be moved because he acquired them.
Focusing on starters now is kind of an afterthought that he didn’t address since the Vuc trade. Only now is it a priority because the window is open and there are expectations.
I’m not really dooming here. I was dooming last offseason to be honest because we know for certain who the 2.5 max contracts are here now like we knew back then. Only now is building the roster important to make sense of previous decisions. I’m merely arguing with posters here, some that usually have good insight, about either lateral decisions or vying to make some sweeping blockbuster change despite cap ramifications further down the line.
We will see what happens, but I’m not going to sit here and pretend like Weltman couldn’t have been making decisions leading up to this offseason with where the cap currently sits. That’s kinda what I was arguing for years with you here sitting around watching Fultz fail while this timeframe crept closer.
