DEEP3CL wrote:SlavaMedvedenko wrote:
When Jerry West did the same thing to get Shaq, it was genius. WHen Morey does it, he gets lucky. Sums up the Lakers' attitude towards sports analytics.
You're reading too far into my "lucky" statement. I realize that both J.West and Morey did exactly the same thing in about the same amount of time. I use the word lucky because of the situation that involved Harden. Truth be told Presti went to other teams before talking with Houston. It was basically Washington's deal to turn down which in fact they did, they felt the assets OKC were asking for was far too much. Golden State also turned him down. Yeah Houston had the cap space to absorb him and sign him to his money that he wanted.
Golden State and Washington didn't feel he was worth the money and that's the dice that they rolled. Besides looking at both of those teams payroll and the expected extensions forth coming, I say they were pretty smart in not dishing out for Harden. What that came down to was hard line finances, you're being naive if you think it didn't and analytics didn't factor into that scenario at all. Morey might have use his system but so what...... long time guys know damn well what that was about. OKC was up against it money wise period.
So, are you saying that Golden State and Washington are better off for not making that trade?
I can see Washington's point of view since Beal seems to rounding out to be a good player but even then Harden will be the best SG In the league when Kobe retires and Wade slows down. They took on big contracts of Nene, Ariza, Okafor etc to make the playoffs and if they had Harden in there with Wall in the backcourt and they might just walk through to the playoffs in the East even with the injuries they suffered.
Looking at Golden State, their offer was to be Klay Thompson and a pick.
Now just imagine if they had amnestied Biedrins instead of Charlie Bell's 3 mil a year and traded Klay for Harden? They'd be trotting out a line up of Bogut/Lee/Barnes/Harden/Curry and that's a top line up in the west instead of playing for a bottom playoff seed.
That's just a terrible management decision compared to how Morey was stock-piling assets just to pounce on this particular situation.
Houston gave up Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick. To me basically all Morey did was give Presti the same problem but to a lesser degree. It's well know Martin is looking for near close to what he's already making for a guy of his experience, and the rest of the stuff attained to me is being overrated. These drafts aren't going to be solid drafts for awhile. Basically it comes down to how you want to build a team, some teams are willing to wait for picks to develop some teams like the Lakers aren't to willing to wait 3-4 years.
Trust me though we all know the Lakers need to start investing in youth and give it some time, but they're not going to be impact players right off the cuff.
Martin will not get the same contract that Harden was demanding and no one in the league will give him that. He will turn 30 over the offseason as well.
Presti was willing to go upto 4 years 64 million for Harden and then traded him when his demand was 4 million more. Can't you just amnesty Perkins and save a little more in the process?
The Lakers always operate with a significant advantage over these other teams in the sense they can spend lavishly, score billion dollar TV deals and flaunt the geographic lottery of Los Angeles. This doesn't mean that you cannot use sports analytics to not just improve the roster but rather improve your scouting of other teams.
But oh wait, we just terminated our scouting staff over a season ago in budget cuts, so there we go!
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Well said. No excuse for the Lakers to skip this. Count me in as a doubter that Jimmy has somehow come up with better analytics of his own.
