eyeatoma wrote:Ericb5 wrote:I think people wanting to get cute with Butler are just wasting their breath. He is worth a max contract, and it doesn’t matter what the cost is to the organization if they say that they are willing to pay for it. I’d like to pay as little as possible but if it comes down to it just give him the max.
It has already been announced that the salary cap in 2 years will be $17 million more than it is this year. Chances are that 2 years after that, it will be $17 million more than that.
Locking in these contracts now makes sense because the players are worth it. The league salary cap over the life of the contracts will grow enough to bring us back down below the tax line before too long.
We have to think of it in terms of opportunity costs. This summer will be the last summer where we have max money available potentially. What free agents out there can we get that are better than Butler, and Harris? We aren’t going to get Kawhi, or Durant, so we might as well just keep our own guys.
Resign JJ, and find role players with exceptions.
, and draft picks.
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I hundred percent agree with this if Butler isn't a drama queen, accepts his role, and continues to be an elite defender. But right now, he's not playing like the player he is. He needs to be more aggressive in taking 3 pointers, and taking shots in general. At the time, I thought Butler would be our second leading scorer. But with the arrival of Harris, I could easily see him eclipsing Butler's numbers.
He hadn’t gotten completely acclimated to the offense before Harris arrived so the adjustment will continue for the rest of the season, and hopefully they are peaking by the end.
Here are the roles as I see it for the rest of the season, and beyond. If/when Simmons learns to shoot things may change.
Embiid: anchor of the defense, first option on offense. We run the offense through him through the post, and he takes a few 3’s a game.
Simmons: elite defense, runs the team, plays in the post for chunks of games, exploits mismatches when he can, runs the break.
Harris: average defender, spacer on offense, plays off of Embiid, plays in the PnR with Butler.
Butler: elite defense, plays in the PnR with Embiid, plays some point when Ben is in the post, isolation scoring down the stretch, and closer.
JJ: The only below average defender in the lineup, but he is still high effort. Elite shooter on offense, and will probably have fewer plays run for him, but he will get easier shots.
Getting all of that to work will take time, and with Ben not able to shoot right now it gums up the works a bit. If he could shoot, and force defenses to play him honestly in the pick and roll, then this offense would get way more efficient.
Even without that though, the spacing that is provided by JJ, and Harris will free things up tremendously.
Neither Butler nor Harris is likely to average over 20 ppg for us, but they will still see the ball plenty, and will have plenty of 30 point games. Butler will probably be the primary closer, but Harris will have his opportunities too.
If Butler is really about effort, accountability, and winning(I believe that he is) then he should be happy here. There is a big role in it for him. He is a flow of the game type of player where he just keeps grinding on you, and making plays.
It isn’t a pretty game offensively, but I never thought of him as having an ego offensively. Even the supposed challenge of Brown in the film session that national people make a big deal out of, he was correct. Brown started running more PnR’s with him, and things were getting better.
They figured out out to keep Embiid dominant on offense at the same time.
I don’t worry about this working long term, but I do wonder if they can get it all together before the season ends this year. Toronto, and Milwaukee got better too, and Boston still scares me. On paper, I think we have the best team in the east.
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