08-22-2021, 02:09 PM
(08-22-2021, 01:31 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Tough to tell what players are worth right now because there are signs of the market sort of slowing down from the spending that we've observed over the past few years. And, I'm not meaning to weigh in on your "should they or shouldn't they" question, but my gut tells me $7 million per is way low for Brunson. If that's the number you like for him, you should probably be hoping for a trade.
I suppose there's a chance they could get him for a good number by extending now, but that's just a guess.
It's tough. Are "what players are worth" and "what players get paid" two different things, or are they the same things because the market dictates that the two are equal? The huge cap increase and COVID economics have thrown additional wrenches into how we think about that.
Just for me, I guess I still look at them differently, and I think that on an open market Jalen would have a good shot of getting MLE or slightly higher money based on his resume thus far. But I think that unless the playoffs provided a very valuable lessen that allows him to take his limitations in size/athleticism and become even more crafty, he's been exposed as a bench guard that can be a 6MOY contender in the regular season but can easily be slowed down by focused attention from a team with lengthy athletes. Maybe he can, maybe he can't.
What do you pay for that? For a team just looking to take the next step to get into the playoffs maybe that is super valuable. Maybe for a true contender adding someone like Brunson to help them manage through the regular season and contribute 10-15 mins/game in a playoff series against backups is definitely worth MLE value. For a team like the Mavs who are neither, but have aspirations of perennially entering that true contender tier in the next 1-3 seasons, at what value does Brunson do that, if at all.
I wouldn't be upset necessarily if Brunson got $10-12M per year from the Mavs, but until Cuban proves he's willing to go back into the luxury tax, I am definitely concerned with overpaying since it will come at the expense of someone else. I think if you can only keep one of the two due to price, DFS is the one to keep. I'm really looking forward to seeing DFS and Bullock on the court at the same time defending the perimeter.