Andrew McCeltic wrote:We used the TPE, at least. Hype aside, they’re almost never used - and if you look at the players making 27.5 or less next season, pickings were slim. Our only hope would have been absorbing a free agent..
Still, this feels like it was the time to strike, to overpay if necessary. Gordon, Collins, Ball are difference makers. You can’t give up two 1sts for Gordon/Fournier? How many young players do you need? And it’s much easier to find a player who gives you high caliber defense like Smart than a big with the offensive versatility of Collins.
We’re just stuck now with no way to get better but internal development. Are we going into the tax next year for Fournier? We have no filler contracts to pair with young players, we burned the TPE, we apparently can’t afford to trade Smart, Kemba is currently dead weight.
We are going into the tax whether we resign Fournier or not with Tatum's deal kicking in. Which means that we will probably resign Fournier, or Danny would not have spent 1/2 the TPE on him. I really like the Fournier addition and hope that is the plan to resign him.
We still have 11 mil of that TPE left, the 5 mil TPE from Kanter's trade and I maybe a TPE coming out of the Theis trsde, not sure about that. Depends on how they structure it.
I do hate losing Theis, but now Timelord can get more minutes which is good. Don't give up on Wagner to early guys. He is 6'11 and can hit the 3 decently. We also have time to see what PP, Langford, Nesmith can do now. So Wagner, Kornet, Semi and Fournier are all FA's next season, and we don't have to think about the repeater tax until after Kemba's contract is over. I guess this leaves us with:
Kemba, Prichard, Edwards, (Waters)
Fournier, Smart, Langford
Brown, Nesmith,
Tatum, Semi, G. Will
Thompson, Timelord, Wagner, Kornet (Fall)
Also, Kemba and Thompson are both 30, and the next oldest player is Smart at 27. Seems like a team to grow with. I am left with one question. If we are lookiong to sign a player off a buy out, who do we release to make room on the roster?