KingRobb02 wrote:npiper17 wrote:I didn't ignore Conley - he's right next to Parsons in my post. IMO he's an above average point guard in a league full of them. He wasn't worth that commitment.
And it's too easy to say well I know you'll say this guy got an extra year etc etc but those things matter.
Which other team got a meeting with Batum?
Which other team got a meeting with DeRozan?
Which other team got a meeting with Whiteside? (Mavs planned to but it was cancelled after he and the Heat agreed on day one of FA).
Drummond was an RFA anyway so that would have locked up our cap room for 3 days before Detroit matched.
Dwight's no longer an all-star caliber player and he's an injury worry as evidenced by the less than max shorter deal he took with the Hawks.
The Horford need was kind of addressed through Ibaka and certainly would have caused duplication in the front court - plus as I've said before he's not a home run when you consider age, playoff performance, injury history.
As I said earlier, did we try and get meetings with any of these guys sans Durant?
Re next year's class; the aim has to be that we are effectively this year's Boston. We make the playoffs, make some noise, build an identity, and then get the meetings (as Boston did with Durant). It's no sure thing as the Celtics found out but I imagine that's the aim.
No team got meetings with those guys, but do you really think that if Jerry West said that Hassan Whiteside is our #1 priotity, his agent wouldn't have at least scheduled a flight? It comes down to the right situation, and we just don't have that yet. As far as being the Celtics next summer, that may be asking a bit much. They got meetings with the top 2 free agents and landed 1. More likely is that we are this year's bulls where we can use our space to sign starters with something to prove.
Celtics in their current shape are going nowhere. Signing Horford alone will do nothing towards making them a real contender. They are a good team, but not a great team. Their whole strategy is based on collecting assets and creating cap space to flip that into stars, but they have failed to do it. They're like in a weird spot where only half their plan has worked so far.
They thought they were gonna get Durant. They thought they were gonna get Butler. Without any of those 2 or another star to add to Horford, just having Horford alone is a failure to execute their full plan. They have so much money tied up into him it ain't even funny.... and he's an older player.
We can't give them credit for that. Heck, we didn't even ask Horford to come here, so why are you acting like we "missed out"?