Wood would have been a nice player to add. The need was not quite the same before Gallinari got hurt and RWill had his follow up surgery. At that point we expected to start the season with Horford, RWill, Gallinari, and Grant.
As to the trade for Wood, I don't know if we could have beat the offer or not (without having an immediate pick to offer). I don't see the issue being the salary, I see the issue being what you have to give up (picks, players) to get a 1 year rental of what at the time projected to be a bench player.
I can understand the debate, but to call this non-trade indefensible seems hyperbolic, especially when no one knows what we may have offered or considered. Now with the Gallinari injury and the RWill follow up surgery, it would definitely be nice to have Wood. But you can't really judge not doing a deal then based on what is known now.
As mentioned previously, Wood was acquired before Gallinari was signed. He was in fact traded before Gallinari was even bought out, making him a free agent.
And, I'm not sure anybody called not doing this particular trade indefensible. However, not using the TPE in some capacity -- if there was no budget in place -- was indefensible.
This is really what the whole argument on using or not using the TPE hinges on. If there was truly no budget, then Brad shouldn't care that he spends $60m on a $15m player, or even $40m on a $10m player. If there's no budget then so what if he doesn't get value for money or if the value per dollar becomes really incremental, just as long as the overall effectiveness of the team increases.
But I think we all know that "no budget" doesn't mean no budget
It sounds good in public, but it's like your boss telling you "you can spend whatever you need to spend to be successful, but do it wisely". I just try to put myself in Brad's shoes and think, if Wyc had said "there's no budget, spend what you need to spend", how would I interpret it? Personally, I don't think there's ever no constraint on spending - I don't know Wyc from a bar of soap, but I think there's an expectation that if we are going to go into the luxury tax that the funds will be spent wisely. Possibly Brad couldn't justify spending the amount on who was available? Speculating here but people's careers and job security also factor into it I'm sure - Brad is only 2 years into his job, given how spendthrift Danny was, he probably won't want to blow wads of Wyc's money on insurance players. I think he preferred to wait till there's an actual need so that he can justify the expense. Even now using those remaining TPEs will end up costing around $20m - $25m each.
Obviously in hindsight it would have been very justifiable to use it to get a first-off-the-bench type guy and have that player (e.g. Wood), Timelord and Al all battle it out for minutes.
Topic: Indefensible Decisions By Brad Stevens (Read 15865 times)