04-25-2023, 12:30 PM
(04-25-2023, 11:03 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: 1 Yeah, the new CBA definitely encourages teams to draft well, develop and retain.
2 Claxton fits that quite well. Brooklyn has no real means to control him, so his free agency a year from now is total risk for the Nets or whichever team has him next season. All of this puts fans in a quandary right now also. Not only are we not sure if we have a pick or not. With some of these new first apron restrictions a possibility this summer, we don’t have any idea what the rules of the game will be for trades and exceptions.
1 You're so right. The league is making it super-important for a team to be great at the things that Cuban has always shirked -- evaluating, drafting, and developing talent so that you have bargains on your roster. Without some sort of ongoing pipeline of players on rookie contracts, a team won't be able to afford all the talent needed to build out a complete roster of useful talent. They did a good job with Brunson and DFS, but they need to find and add one or two of those every year or two.
Expert evaluating, drafting, and developing. And also expert negotiating, for getting the right deals later on. That includes someone with the ability to do a trade that adds future picks, rather than always giving them away. Presti and Ainge and Hinkie and those like them are about to be worth their weight in gold. Until Cuban hires the guy who can do those things at an expert level, and gets out of his way, they will continue to struggle at roster building.
2 Claxton won't be under RFA control, but BKN does have full Bird rights to pay him whatever it takes, if they wish. But if we are theorizing he can be lured away with big money, do we want DAL to money-whip a center on an over-NT MLE deal? I like him as a player, but that wouldn't interest me. These guys like Claxton and Looney are valuable pieces when you're paying them in the 5-8M or so range, or on a minimum, but they shouldn't make payroll sense at over-MLE and up.