payitforward wrote:Gig18 wrote:He's unrestricted, so you call his bluff and you can end up losing him without recompense.
then we're still bad defensively and worse offensively.
pay him and you still have him as a trade chip if you feel it's too much later.
It gets hard to watch young talent walk.
Bertans is only 27; he can shoot like that for a loooong time
You do get recompense. You get $18m to use in a different way & for better value.
How we are defensively/offensively will depend on how we fill out the roster.
Bertans at $18m is overpaid; that means he is not a trade chip. Teams don't usually trade for overpaid players.
He'll shoot well for a loooong time, because he is a premier, all-world shooter. But, he does nothing else well. He'll do that "nothing else well" for a loooong time too.
Overpaying players makes your team worse. Period. No exceptions.
Annnnd that $18 million could be confederate money if you can't lure any other free agents. I disagree on being able to use him as a trade chip. Heck Gallinari just signed for $20 million and he's 5 years older.
You may be right. But with the possibility of things falling apart (I hope not) I prefer to have more enticing, movable pieces.
plus, at some point, a team has to be able to sign free agents or forever be doomed to NEVER being able to attract them.
