Burke/Mayo/BK7 or BJ/KCP

[DetroitDon15]

this is silly. We got Jennings in a sign and trade and used the salaries of Knight and the others so Mayo at this point would be a no go. You should add it to be BJ/KCP/Smith or Mayo/Burk/BK7.

Not true.Joe D certainly could have worked out a way to sign both Mayo and Smith while keeping bk7.

Joe was not going to amnesty Stuckey or CV and a sign and trade for either of them involving Mayo wasn't happening cause those two suck. I fail to see the logic here.

[Bknight4three]

This is incorrect, if you want to go that rout and make the question make it properly.

Burke/Mayo/BK7/Middleton or BJ/KCP/Billups/Datome/Bynum, that's closer.

That's fine. But I was talking about the core and left the other guys out. Yes, you would have to change some players from the bench that won't matter in 3 or 4 years to make the salaries match. I'm not gonna look into it but I'm pretty sure we could have still signed Smith, Mayo, and Billups had we not signed Datome/Bynum.

[Brapman]

IMO, this is pretty meaningless speculation.

Joe went with the plan of creating enough salary space to do everything he did this summer - which was a freaking ton don't you think! That plan included giving up a protected #1 pick next summer. That plan also included holding onto Stuckey and CV - which gives us assets to trade this year and/or allow them to expire and end up with cap space again next summer.

The plan worked. Brilliantly, IMO.

Could he have done the amnesty thing? Yes, but we don't know if he would have been able to make the same acquisitions. Pure speculation. And I just don't care, because I like how his Plan A turned out.

Last year, bashing Joe was all the rage. I think he's proven himself to everyone, once again. This has been a sensational off-season.

[qm22]

I wonder why our team has BJ/KCP in the comparison. KCP is extremely tough to evaluate now...

Secondly, when you have Mayo, BK7, and BJ... guess the guy who is left out with better stats than all 3? Stuckey. Stuckey statistically far outperformed Mayo and BK7, and for career averages is similar to Jennings after being hurt by last season. And if you count Stuckey's completely abysmal season last year by itself, it was still better than BK7's.

I understand giving up hope in Stuckey ever becoming the player people hoped, but it's pretty odd people can think guys like Mayo and Jennings can simply turn things around and we cannot get any positive contributions from Stuckey in any role. It's not like he has to be given a major role or shoot 3s, so I don't understand why Stuckey is dismissed. I guess people will just never say his name in even minimal expectation scenarios until he shows continuous months of solid play.

Last year, bashing Joe was all the rage. I think he's proven himself to everyone, once again. This has been a sensational off-season.

IMO, we have to wait and see the results. Not to evaluate him in hindsight over his calculated risks should they not work out, but there are some things which may turn up later to have been things he should have looked at. Mostly referring to draft picks and coaching. A causual fan can never undergo a comparable process to scouting a draft pick as a NBA team, even the most dedicated ones. For coaching, we have no idea of Joe's limitations and process. In past coaches there were fatal flaws that likely should have been addressed before hiring. I just would hesitate to say he's proven anything, even as a fan of his moves overall.

So, I am inclined to agree. I think Joe has surrounded his exciting potential franchise players with the talent to make the playoffs and exciting players. From Billups, Jennings, and Smith, for their basketball ability, the fit on the team, non-basketball reasons, and potential.

[MrPerfect1]

Bukre will be a Bust. The best combo would have been Shroder/Mayo/BK

[Q00]

I wanted Burke mostly because I didn't think we would be able get another PG who was better in free agency/trades, and I was already sold that Knight wasn't the answer. So I saw that as a great opportunity to fill a much needed and hard to fill position. Had I known we were getting Jennings I would've had no interest in Burke. When you think about they are very similar PG's in terms of style/production. However with Jennings he's proven it at the NBA level and has the experience to win right away, whereas with Burke we would've had to go through more years of growing pains with another rookie PG before we could start winning. One of the reasons I didn't really want Burke, but considering the alternatives at the time it seemed necessary. In the end it all worked out for the best getting Jennings intead, and now I look at whatever we get from KCP as just a bonus.