eierluke wrote:MikeDC wrote:eierluke wrote:It took AK too long to change direction.
We have to endure beeing hopelessly mediorce way too long.
At least we're now where we should have been 3 years ago: In a good situation.
Our payroll offers a lot of room for maneuvering.
Most of our contracts are very good or at least OK:
- Very good: Giddey, Matas (rookie contract), Jones, Smith
- OK: Dillingham (rookie contract), Okoro
We just have to carry around 2 busts (PWill and Essengue)
Even though it still hurts a little bit I evaluate trading Coby and Ayo away as steps into the right direction:
Don't give up this flexibility to sign players who (though valuable) aren't star players.
Most important thing: stick by this plan and don't lose patience now!
See, I disagree. I think you get more flexibility by having valuable players on value contracts. That's what gives you the ability to do a lot of different good things.
From my perspective, our payroll right now isn't very "flexible" because the cap space is basically "use it or lose it" and there is a ton of pressure to "use it" to throw money (orders of more magnitude more than we'd have paid Coby and Ayo) at non-stars, and to spend it on guys we don't even actually have a place for (Dillingham, or Sexton, for example).
Smith will be expiring next year. He's probably the guy we could have gotten the most value for trading.
You might be right to some degree, but investing much Money into players that won't bring us to the next Level Nor will Bring US valuable 1st rd pick via trade would be risky.
That's the thing about the Bulls though, is that they can't keep their priorities straight. If they didn't view Coby, for example, as part of the core, then they should have traded him when they were offered 2 firsts for him over the summer. Not getting them was entirely a matter of choice. Likewise, I think if they had just shut him down and re-signed him, then the window to trade him would have opened up again in a year.
When I think about the risk of a contract, what I'm thinking about is if they pay a guy too much or too long, or he gets permanently injured. In the cases of Ayo and Coby, those didn't seem likely. Yes, if you sign him to a 4 year deal, you might have to wait a year before you can move him again because teams don't like taking on what they see as long term deals. But the easiest way to avoid that was to not offer a 4 year deal. The market for smallish guards isn't very good. It was a buyer's market. So buy and hold.
What seems like the bigger risk is simply that the Bulls can't stick to a decision. They identify guys as part of their core, then watch the guy gut through an injury and get skittish because... why? What changed, except the guy being hurt? Nothing really. The Bulls just flip flop around changing strategies. That's what makes everything risky, but it's totally within their control.
Such Guys will Further reduce the next Tank high Lotto Pick to a mid 1st Pick - by playing good.
Again, I look at it and think, wait, Coby was legitimately injured. Charlotte wants to play him but isn't. Back on the rare occasion they mentioned anything, it was said that Ayo was playing with two sprained thumbs. They could have just said, "hey guys, sit out, you're hurt. You've been good soldiers and we'll take care of you in free agency" Then they tank, get a higher pick, and have better players to go around the high pick, and signed to reasonable deals.
I tend to believe that our Situation hast changed and that WE should use our cap space by try to Help Out other Teams ( getting picks in Return) that WE Further should Go for a high Pick in our own (Bad record) until WE might be respectable enough in 2027 to use our cap space to lure big time free agents
Agreed, that was also my preferred strategy, but it looks like there are enough teams with cap space this summer and fewer bad contracts around that we might not be able to do that.
