bsilver wrote:McCrae is better and cheaper. At least Thomas is gone and Mathews looks like a good talent to backup Beal. I don’t have much faith in Shepard at this point.
I think you are missing something, bsilver. Here's what I wrote about yesterday's deals in the Shabazz thread. Tell me what you think:
payitforward wrote:...Think of... (yesterday's) 2 deals together, & what you see is Napier replacing IT, & Robinson replacing McRae.
In the first case, it's an obvious upgrade. Napier is actually good! In the second case, because Robinson is young, he has an upside that McRae doesn't have.
In short, it was a pair of minor, but cleverly thought-out moves. Best of all is the secondary message -- that we are continuing to build patiently through youth. IOW, from yesterday's small trades we learn that Tommy has an overall strategy driving what he does. We're not putting bandaids on top of bandaids any more.
Now, there was a cost to this -- namely, the rights to Sanon. We'll see what that amounts to.
But, wait, there's more! We should be able to re-sign Napier on the cheap. & having him makes Ish Smith dispensable. Now, Ish has been better than expected. But, Napier is better, cheaper, & younger.
IOW, because we have Napier, Ish can be traded in the off season, possibly for another young asset. Once this happens (I think it will, & I certainly hope it does), only then will we see the full benefit of yesterday's moves.
Once again, Tommy has really impressed me with his clever, thoughtful work!