Raps make another hire: Cap expert Bobby Webster

[Double Helix]

"Remembering Kevin Willis night" just became a lot funnier.

Webster: "Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis?"
Willis: "Never heard that one before."
Webster: "No, but my last name's Webster. Nevermind. Man, your arms really are as short as they say."

[hankscorpioLA]

I may be misreading into this but the press release left me with the impression that he was trying to find a way to work analytics into contractual negotiations.

If so, he may be able to help structure some unique incentives into player deals based around analytics.

"Want to get paid more? You have to meet conditions X, Y, and Z." That would be cool.

A good lawyer remembers each and every rule. A great lawyer exploits them to the point of bending them to the breaking point without breaking them. Hopefully, Webster is great. Sounds like he could be.

Its really hard to do incentive-based contracts in the NBA.

Here is some more info on it:

http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q72

Analytics is all about finding ways to relate a player's value to wins rather than to their own individual statistical achievements. You use that information to decide what players to target, how much they are worth, and how to find undervalued assets in the marketplace.

[wtcantfw]

For those of you saying Fruitman. Fruitman was an accountant that came up with the idea for that Marion et al trade.

As far as i remember, he wasn't our cap guy.

That's correct, he's a CA on the Raptors Finance side. He's also at the Director level, which I'm presuming is one level below this Bobby Webster.

[mapko81]

"So Bobby, do you think you can fix it?"

"It's dead Jim"

[Wo1verine]

Sounds like an excellent addition!

It really does!

[sule]

For those of you saying Fruitman. Fruitman was an accountant that came up with the idea for that Marion et al trade.

As far as i remember, he wasn't our cap guy.

That's correct, he's a CA on the Raptors Finance side. He's also at the Director level, which I'm presuming is one level below this Bobby Webster.

Fruitman's probably the guy Webster has to go to when he has an idea. He's probably the "how much is left in our budget?" guy. As which point, Fruitman turns around and gets his team to do his leg work.

I bet it's people at Fruitman's level that are with the team the organization the longest.

The important non-decision-makers.

[Spacing]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ekoreen/status/347400968696123392[/tweet]

So what screech powers is trying to say ... "I logged onto RealGM and this is what they were saying"

[dTox]

I love the hire from cap management perspective, but it says he'll also be responsible for scouting, and roster management; any idea how good this guy can be in that department?

[StMikes31]

Keep the news coming..... I seriously doubt Eversely and Maurizio are staying and I hope an announcement comes soon.

[LifeBaller11]

I love the hire from cap management perspective, but it says he'll also be responsible for scouting, and roster management; any idea how good this guy can be in that department?

My guess is he'll be learning on the job....

[Throwback24]

I miss Bryan Colangelo.

[TorontoRapture]

Don Leiweke approved.

[dTox]

I love the hire from cap management perspective, but it says he'll also be responsible for scouting, and roster management; any idea how good this guy can be in that department?

My guess is he'll be learning on the job....

I opened this thread first as opposed to the other page, now that I've seen both, my guess is they'll give Dan Tolzman (Nuggets guy) more of the scouting responsibilities and have Bobby focus more on the business operation side (including cap management) .

[Vorticity]

so Fruitman's gone.

He joined Fruit Ninja , NBA edition

[22haytham22]

Solid Pick Up

[G R E Y]

So they said they'd be going after impressive front office hires and so far it seems they've done just that. We'll have to see how it actually plays out in terms of team improvement, nonetheless, colour me impressed

[Rap4Life_J]

Good hire, but why you need to hire him when we need to ask for his advise at the league office? It is a free resources.

But It is a good hire, where he can simply make some creativity and provide the front office some advise. I wonder how much he gets pay for the job though. If paying like 500K a year, and it allows us to play around with the cap and save some luxury, it is a good hire in a business side. MLSE pays a bit more to save a large amount of luxury tax.

But at the end, it depends on the other team and how they deal with us for the trade transaction!

[Mister Ze]

Remember when we hired Marc Ivaroni or w.e his name was? They called him a defensive specialist and praised him for his defensive strategies. Then Triano coached the Raptors to the worst defense in the league. Point being, let's see what he does before praising him or calling it a good hire.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Does this mean no more illegal Matt Barnes signings?

[mowe]

Remember when we hired Marc Ivaroni or w.e his name was? They called him a defensive specialist and praised him for his defensive strategies. Then Triano coached the Raptors to the worst defense in the league. Point being, let's see what he does before praising him or calling it a good hire.

See the thing is, we can never really know exactly what he'll do. It's not like there's going to press releases saying Webster was responsible for this trade etc. His job is to consult on all trades, signings and provide his expertise whenever needed.

This is objectively a good signing because he knows everything there is to know about the CBA. He worked in the league office for 7 years and helped negotiate the current CBA. Having someone with that level of knowledge can only be a good thing. There probably won't be a Fruitman-esque moment of genius but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be helping the team.