deNIEd wrote:When I meant "buy" players, I meant going above and beyond the lux tax. Knicks, Mavs, Lakers, Portland are teams that can "buy" a team. Maloofs won't do that.
Portland could very well have 4-5 max level players and still be perfectly fine with their situation. New York has a payroll of nearly 40 million over the salary cap level, won't even make the playoffs, yet, their still okay. Mavericks have a horrible team for the amount they are paying, yet I highly doubt Cuban cares. Those are organizations that can "buy" a team. We can't.
Because of that, we need to make sure that we have the absolute best talent for whatever price tag. We cannot afford to pay a D level talent B level money. Like you said, we traded Skinner for Pot/Monia just to save a few hundred thousand dollars.
Look at the three teams that have the greatest chance of winning a title this year
Cavs - 90 mil
Lakers - 79 mil
Boston - 80 mil
We can't compete with that.
But they've more than overpaid for players in the past. In fact, one could argue that's one of the main reasons we're in the situation we're in now.
I actually think the Maloofs wouldn't mind "buying" a few players sooner rather than later because I'm sure the lack of interest in their ballclub is killing their egos more than their wallets. Don't forget, this was
never a money making enterprise, they've gone as far as to open their own books to prove it, so while I don't think that they don't give a crap about the finances I do know their GM isn't going to allow an inferior product to bleed more money than necessary.
With that said, they are at a major financial disadvantage due to the arena situation and the lack of a revenue stream created by having luxury box sweets, etc. To be honest, if there was ever a time to get the hell out of Sacramento, and maybe the cesspool that is California, now would be it. But that's a seperate and entirely depressing issue.
