Post#429 » by Americafkya » Wed Mar 2, 2016 4:40 pm
I'm happy that we struck out on free agents this season. At least any of the "big name ones". Lamarcus would have been nice, but that would have killed Porzingis' development. Monroe is gonna Monroe, and play no defense en route to making us even worse. Everyone else wasn't a game changer.
Caroll would have been a nice piece, but hard to blame Phil for "striking out" there, since he had the choice to be a key cog a 50 + win team, or the second option on a team coming off a 17 win season.
There were definitely a few complimentary pieces available like Lou Williams or average bench dudes like Bass, but these guys would have wanted long-term deals. I don't think that would have been a good decision. Phil is looking to splash big this off-season or break it up I think. He keeps talking about this season, but that is a BS front.
I think the situation going forward for us isn't as bleak as people think. This team is in the right situation to approach the fork in the road this offseason. We are either going to make a big splash and sign a free agent that really compliments this team(Conely, Teague, Derozan, Batum) and go into 2017 in a strong position, or we are going to strike out, deal Melo and still have all of our picks and cap intact.
I am happy that Phil has been patient. Look at the flip side of the coin....Phil signs better free agents from last season to multi-year deals, and makes a deal involving our first round pick to acquire teague this season's deadline. Now our roster is
Teague/Williams(just using Lou as an example of a solid vet we could have signed to make us better immediately)
Afflalo/Calderon
Melo/D williams
Porzingis/Thomas
Lopez/Zing/Serphina
That's a solid team but not one of 3 best teams in the East, and Teague would still have the chance to leave in the offseason. And I think Phil didn't realize how bad Calderon was going to be. So we would win maybe 40 games, spent an asset on a free agent that we don't have locked up, and be locked into more long-term money plus not have a pick.
That scenario would be much worse. If we pick a big name and a complimentary piece this off season, then not only will this team be a .500 squad or better, it will look great for the real big names coming up in 2017. If we don't, then we have our picks and cap intact to go into full rebuild plus whatever we get for Melo/Rolo.
This season was about improving on last season. Never about the playoffs. I feel like our start to the season changed expectations unrealistically. Phil hasn't been perfect, but we are still in a good situation.
