As a Spurs fan, the most eye catching part of this ironically was the sentence where you parenthetically said how much you hated the Fox extension. I generally agree that on its own it’s not a great extent but do you think the fact that Fox pushed there and that the Spurs probably had a wink-wink agreement in place makes it more defensible? Also, it’s not an on court thing but players wanting to come to DC - Ace Bailey pushing towards the Wiz in this draft and Sarr in last draft (he didn’t want to even work out with ATL) - is some reason for Wizards optimism, especially with the possibility of close to $100 million in cap room next off season.
Re: Wizards optimism, I think Ace Bailey wanting to be there is actually a negative signal.
Think about it this way: if a score first rookie guard with questions about his defense and efficiency wants to join your team, what does that say about your team? There aren't really any "good" teams that can give starter-level minutes to that sort of player. Even if there were, they certainly wouldn't be giving the alpha scorer role to that player (which Ace believes that he is).
Yeah, I can't read too much into it either way. Most seasons, most teams picking high in the lottery need and hope for a star scorer; this was just an odd year with Dallas, San Antonio, and Philadelphia all having that guy already. I'm a little surprised there didn't appear to be much mutual interest between Bailey and Charlotte, but we're outside my area of expertise now
Not my area of expertise either (outside of following the Wizards pretty closely).
That being said, it feels like Charlotte thinks LaMelo Ball is "the guy." If you assume that Ball is your alpha scorer and Brandon Miller is (in theory) a very capable second option, the team construction around them probably doesn't include a score-first guard with suspect defense.
Of course in the case where he reaches his full potential, I don't think there's a team in the NBA that wouldn't want him. I just think that a team like Charlotte would be wary about drafting a guy that really needs to hit an 80-90th percentile outcome to make sense.
I think it was all about just the Spurs telling Fox they'd give him a max if he came, which is part of why he wanted to come so badly. If San Antonio had said up front they weren't going to re-sign him to the max, or even if they said like "we'll have to wait and see," I doubt he'd have been so enthusiastic about going there.
I get the logic, the flip side is the idea that spurning a star who was trying to get there would sour the waters for other free agents who might want to come and play with the Spurs and Wemby, as well as Rich Paul’s influence things. Don’t really have a feel for these things
I'd agree with you both. Teams have generally acted as if they're terrified of pissing off powerful agents, but I don't really understand why? Most free agents will go wherever the paycheck is biggest regardless of how their agent feels about a team; perhaps for a few maximum-contract players who can choose a destination, it could matter, but that's such a tiny slice of the player pool -- particularly for a town like SA that isn't a typical free agent destination anyway!
Backhanded compliment that the Kings optimism is 2 summer league players no one’s heard of. Digging deep, I hope they get some run too! Poor kangz
It's tough to see the Beam Team reduced to this. Here's hoping we're wrong!
As a Spurs fan, the most eye catching part of this ironically was the sentence where you parenthetically said how much you hated the Fox extension. I generally agree that on its own it’s not a great extent but do you think the fact that Fox pushed there and that the Spurs probably had a wink-wink agreement in place makes it more defensible? Also, it’s not an on court thing but players wanting to come to DC - Ace Bailey pushing towards the Wiz in this draft and Sarr in last draft (he didn’t want to even work out with ATL) - is some reason for Wizards optimism, especially with the possibility of close to $100 million in cap room next off season.
Re: Wizards optimism, I think Ace Bailey wanting to be there is actually a negative signal.
Think about it this way: if a score first rookie guard with questions about his defense and efficiency wants to join your team, what does that say about your team? There aren't really any "good" teams that can give starter-level minutes to that sort of player. Even if there were, they certainly wouldn't be giving the alpha scorer role to that player (which Ace believes that he is).
Yeah, I can't read too much into it either way. Most seasons, most teams picking high in the lottery need and hope for a star scorer; this was just an odd year with Dallas, San Antonio, and Philadelphia all having that guy already. I'm a little surprised there didn't appear to be much mutual interest between Bailey and Charlotte, but we're outside my area of expertise now
Not my area of expertise either (outside of following the Wizards pretty closely).
That being said, it feels like Charlotte thinks LaMelo Ball is "the guy." If you assume that Ball is your alpha scorer and Brandon Miller is (in theory) a very capable second option, the team construction around them probably doesn't include a score-first guard with suspect defense.
Of course in the case where he reaches his full potential, I don't think there's a team in the NBA that wouldn't want him. I just think that a team like Charlotte would be wary about drafting a guy that really needs to hit an 80-90th percentile outcome to make sense.
If Fox wanted to be there so bad, wouldn’t it give the Spurs some leverage to give a lesser deal than the max?
I think it was all about just the Spurs telling Fox they'd give him a max if he came, which is part of why he wanted to come so badly. If San Antonio had said up front they weren't going to re-sign him to the max, or even if they said like "we'll have to wait and see," I doubt he'd have been so enthusiastic about going there.
Trying to avoid a “Daryl Morey is a LIAR” type deal, I get it 😂
I get the logic, the flip side is the idea that spurning a star who was trying to get there would sour the waters for other free agents who might want to come and play with the Spurs and Wemby, as well as Rich Paul’s influence things. Don’t really have a feel for these things
I'd agree with you both. Teams have generally acted as if they're terrified of pissing off powerful agents, but I don't really understand why? Most free agents will go wherever the paycheck is biggest regardless of how their agent feels about a team; perhaps for a few maximum-contract players who can choose a destination, it could matter, but that's such a tiny slice of the player pool -- particularly for a town like SA that isn't a typical free agent destination anyway!