Tatum has more value than Smart + Brown
Tatum has superstar potential.
Brown has fringe star potential.
Smart is a career role player.
So you’d trade Brown and Smart? Would you still go after Kyrie with Davis, Horford, Hayward and Tatum?
Kyrie is a given under any circumstance. He is a 2nd All-NBA Team star in his prime - you sign him to a max even if you absolutely hate him. He is much better than our other two max players.
I assume what LB is saying is that if NOP views Brown and Tatum equally, that is awesome. You trade Brown and Smart (plus whatever) for AD and you still have your number one asset to either build around or trade. I love JB - he is probably my current favorite Celtic - but even I realize that Tatum has more value, not even including the extra year left on his rookie contract.
I think the All-NBA selection these days are kinda sketchy. You have guys like Rudy Gobert, Deandre Jordan and Carlos Boozer making the team. Signing a guy who fail to lead a team in the playoffs into a max could be mistake. You have teams like Washington, OKC and Grizzlies crippling their cap because of signing guys that aren't even max worthy. Jazz will regret signing Gobert with Super Max.
Max salary should only be spent with proven MVP caliber players who can lead their team deep into the playoffs.
That's just not how it works though, and if you try to do that you'll lose all your All-Star level talent in free agency
Yeah, really. And, I'm confused, are we saying that Kyrie is not one of those guys? He's clearly deserving of a max contract, even a super-max (but the CBA doesn't allow that - so much for Boston's advantage). Even if you say every team should only have one max contract guy, you still get 30 of those in the league. Two per team even sounds reasonable (we had 3 this past year, could have 4 next), which gives you 60. More than half of those would not even be All-Stars.
Again, how did those supermax turned out for their teams? Sure, you get to retain your supposedly star player, but you also kill your chance your chance to improve your team by signing better supporting casts. In short, you are stuck in purgatory. Steph actually led Warriors a ship before he was signed into supermax contract. Warriors was smart to so sign him into a bargain deal before he became an MVP caliber player.
What did guys like Wall and Westbrook did to their respective franchise as supermax players? I wouldn't consider Westbrook a true MVP because he failed to lead his team deep in the playoffs. I have no problem teams signing players to supermax, only if they truly deserve it.
If people were hesistant to bring IT brinks truck back then, it shouldn't be different with Kyrie who performed much worse when we needed him the most.
There should be an actual scale price range when recent performance before free agency is in question.
Tier 1 = Supermax (MVP caliber players)
Tier 2 = Max players (Fringe All-Stars/All-NBA/DPOY players)
Tier 3 = All-Defensive teamers/ 6MOY
Tier 4 = Solid role players
Tier 5 = MLE
Tier 6 = Vet min
There is no way Kyrie belongs in the supermax discussion. Max extension, maybe but the team have already peaked, unless there are major changes within. Either within the coaching system or supporting casts.