stuporman wrote:Rivers doesn't sign for one year guaranteed deal for less than $2mil if he expects to be more than a bench player, that's veteran mentor money he signed for. Seems pretty straight forward but you sure are trying to turn it into more than that
I brought up Rivers because you made the point that Thib's loyalty to Payton would be an attractive selling point to free agents. I obviously don't think it would be and believe you could point to Rivers tenure as the poster child for the exact opposite of what you were preaching. Yeah he signed a cheap contract, but so did our entire roster lol. All of our guards sans RJ & Rose are making under 6mil. I guarantee Rivers would not have signed here if he knew he'd be riding the bench for months (as evidenced by his buyout & Berman's repeated allusions to River's unhappiness while he was here)
stuporman wrote:That was my point about Thibs backing his players and the energy around the team now. For as badly Elf has played he still is starting PG for a winning team, a season that has completely turned around a floundering franchise and exceeded expectations regardless of whatever we think of him.
My point certainly was not the straw man you made up about players wanting to be here because guys who suck have long leashes and other teams have them with fans bases or something. Not sure where you are going with that stuff. Pretty sad attempt to twist it but I wasn't fooled by it.
You verbatim said:
I'm going to go counter narrative and suggest that Thibs sticking with Elf is good for the Knicks in the long term. Thibs loyalty in the face of doubting and scrutiny speaks volumes to other players thinking about the Knicks as a new home how he will stick by them if they struggle and the mob comes for them.
All I was saying is I don't agree with that logic because no one thinks like that and literally every coach does this. Its certainly not something unique to Thibs/Payton. I could make the exact same argument with Reggie Jackson in LA or Eric Bledsoe in NOLA. Do you think guys will be clamoring to play for Tyronn Lue or Stan Van Gundy because of their loyalty to their starting PGs? Obviously not lol.
If you want to say FA's are going to be attracted to the energy, city, and the team playing well cool. I agree with that. It wasn't what I was disagreeing with. I was disagreeing with Thibs unconditionally starting Payton somehow being a free agent lure lmao. With that said, good night!