05-27-2022, 11:01 AM
(05-27-2022, 06:55 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: Boy I hope this idea that “we could have won it all in 2022 except for ______” doesn’t become part of the narrative around here. We finished exactly where our talent allowed us to finish…possibly higher. We didn’t have nearly the depth to compete against GS and the series wasn’t that close (and they were missing an exceptional on-ball defender in Payton).
Do we need upgrades AND some additional depth…absolutely. Should we have been adding some of that while we were dicking around the two summers prior to the Bullock summer…yes. Did Powell’s MLE contract (essentially) somehow prevent us from doing some move we would have otherwise done? I don’t see it.
You're right, the Powell extension alone is not the reason for not winning a title during Luka's rookie deal. Mostly me being reactionary. It's still been a huge, immovable anchor for years though gobbling up cap and a roster slot cause almost no other teams would want a 1 dimensional roll-specialist PF that only fits with a rare stretch 5. Still confused how the FO thought it was a good idea to pay like 30% more for that than Maxi. Failing to properly use cap space plus failure to find a true complimentary big when "which big to play with KP" was the hottest topic are prolly the biggest mistakes. The KP deal ended up really bad too, but at least that resulted in Dinwiddie who was huge this run. JGreen still TBD based on development or if he's flipped for other assets.
It was a ton of mistakes by the FO over the past few years that led to having a 3x 1st team all NBA player on his rookie deal with the best result of losing 4-1 in the WCF. 3x 1st team all NBA on a rookie deal is like a once in a lifetime thing so failing to capitalize on that is something those guys get to hold on their resume. I don't really care about whether the team wins a championship or not, I mostly just contribute here because I think it's funny seeing random casual fans be better than people getting paid millions to build a team. They hit big on Brunson tho I'll give em that one.
There's hope though. The KP deal was really the 1st thing that's happened over the past few years where the FO made a bold move that casual fans saw as bad, but they were correct. Dinwiddie was brought up as a potential target this past offseason a few times and I was kinda on the fence thinking it could maybe work, but the FO actually did their homework and made a projection that was correct. This is something that finally makes me go, ok good job, they're better than casuals and are actually earning their salary.
Something going forward that should really further impress the fans is Nico using his relationships & connections to convince someone like Jalen Smith to play here for the TPMLE and make them more money down the road. The Donnie regime never really convinced anyone that it would be a good idea to play here and only got reclamation projects. After seeing this video of Turner gushing over Luka's pass to Maxi over 3 guys, it's pretty obvious bigs want to play with him and should be poking their agents to try and get deals done.
https://twitter.com/pandahank41/status/1...5618251776