Arguably it was an epic success because it got Russ to sign long term. He didn't give up that much for either player in the scheme of things.
Hottest and most correct take of the day. It literally doesn't matter how well this version goes over, because it got Russ to sign. Melo is off the books soon, and George could be gone this year. They served their purpose. They build around Russ going forward.
And where will that get them exactly? They are going to be paying Russ like $40M a season eventually. So let’s lose PG13 for nothing to the Lakers and let Melo walk, but they still have Russ locked up!
What happens next? You have a disgruntled star making so much money without the ability to add talent around them or the willingness to deal him to bring back $35M+ in (most likely) bad contracts.
These new supermaxes are going to crush teams eventually, and I believe that was the point of them, so you can’t have 3-4 max guys together anymore. Some may have 2, but 3 seems impossible even if the cap balloons. Parity may be around the corner.
I don’t even think the Warriors can keep their core very much longer. Will the C’s be able to extend Marcus? Then give Kyrie a new contract while doing the same for Brown/Tatum. All while finding a way to retain Horford?
So either we go back to the days of one- or two-star teams or the NBA eventually going to an even more lenient soft cap.