I'm Over it: The Bright Side and the Future

[mttwlsn16]

Madmax being reasonable. Well done sir.

[madmaxmedia]

It's not about the value of DJ as a player, it's that he was one of the only 4 starter level players we had. Now we have Pierce who won't crack 30MPG, and three more starting-level players. Where the hell do you expect to go with three and a half players for a whole season??

Obviously we will likely not be as good next season as just this past one. Instead of being disappointed at losing in the 2nd round, I think our ceiling is going to be 2nd round. And that's assuming we make a couple more personnel moves to round out the roster.

I am looking forward to seeing if Lance Stephenson can resurrect his career. I wish the Clips had signed Robert Upshaw instead of the Lakers, considering we need all the big men we can find (he may be nothing, but most people are intrigued and waiting for Summer League to get a look at him.) But yeah, I have no misconceptions about what losing DJ means for next year.

The long-term impact is much more mixed though IMO.

Who do you expect to convince to come here after that??

Same reason why the Big 3 formed in Miami- 3 stars plus supporting cast is actually not a bad way to dole out your cap, IF your 3 superstars are good value for their contracts (as Blake and CP3 are.) I think Blake, CP3, plus big FA is going to be pretty formidable- in 2016. Land a Big 3, and then you get guys like David West to come play for a chance at a title.

The one thing we were all worried about with the previous squad with DJ was what kind of ceiling we would ultimately have, and whether we were a true championship contender. There is an opportunity to raise that ceiling, not our first choice but hey right now that's the silver lining.

[mttwlsn16]

****
Deandre
Jordan

We'll be fine.

[QRich3]

The long-term impact is much more mixed though IMO.

Who do you expect to convince to come here after that??

Same reason why the Big 3 formed in Miami- 3 stars plus supporting cast is actually not a bad way to dole out your cap, IF your 3 superstars are good value for their contracts (as Blake and CP3 are.) I think Blake, CP3, plus big FA is going to be pretty formidable- in 2016. Land a Big 3, and then you get guys like David West to come play for a chance at a title.

The one thing we were all worried about with the previous squad with DJ was what kind of ceiling we would ultimately have, and whether we were a true championship contender. There is an opportunity to raise that ceiling, not our first choice but hey right now that's the silver lining.

I appreciate you tryin to see the good in the situation, I myself have been pretty sports-depressed ever since the Rockets game 5. But let's think specifics here, what way is there for something like that to happen? Only guy of that calibre in 2016 is Durant, and most likely thing is he re-ups for a year with OKC. 2nd most likely thing is he signs there long term, and 3rd is he goes home to Washington to a young up and coming team in the weak East. Even if none of that were to happen, why would he come here instead of the Warriors? or the Rockets? we don't even have better pieces, a better situation, or a better management than any of those teams, why on earth would we rest our hopes in a guy like him coming over here of all places? We were more likely to attract a FA like that if DJ was here than with him gone.

I'm all for looking at the way we can get out of this, but I don't think that goes through free agency. It goes through getting rid of the FO and get people able to build through the draft and undervalued signings. It'd be great if Dawson was a sort of Faried out of nowhere. Or if Wes or McGee came here and suddenly were in contention for MIP and became long term starters, sort of like Whiteside in the Heat. That's the sort of unlikely development I'm clingin to, more than the false hope of a superstar like Durant coming here.

[madmaxmedia]

To be honest I hadn't looked to closely at the potential big FA corp next year, if literally it's Durant then I agree it's bad. There are no others? Will the Rockets or Warriors have the cap room to sign a max FA?

Even with the cap increase, I don't know if we would have had room to sign a max player if we had kept DJ.

I agree that the current FO structure has done a really bad job of young player acquisition and development. I think it's too tempting for a coach/president to give up future value for less value now. Day to day he's thinking the next game, the next month, this year's playoffs, not next season or the season after that.

I think keeping DJ at the max contract was the best of the available options for us, even if he may or may not roughly be worth his contract (he's not, but the impending cap increase makes him worth it IMO.) But losing him is still not nearly the same as losing CP3 or Blake, which is why I got over it relatively quickly.

Mark Cuban has been quoted as comparing DJ to Shaq, similar things happened when we lost Darius Miles and Lamar Odom- their new teams had really big dreams about what they were going to do, how they were going to be point-forward Magic Johnson types. But I think the Mavs are going to discover that DJ is who he is (which is still a very good NBA player), and not Shaq. He's not going to blossom into some sort of classic big man with great low post footwork and soft hands, if you don't have that by this stage of DJ's career they're not coming.

[ltlpenny]

I agree with madmax DJ is good but not a franchise player. CP3 and Blake took so much pressure off of him that made him look better than he is.

[Quake Griffin]

I'm not over it?