When you have cap space to sign a max free agent, you use it for that. Especially on a guy that has a decade old relationship with your superstar coach. You don't trade and end up with extra salary and stifle the cap space you've been building for years on a guy that you have no idea if he'll resign.
Doing it in the order we did allowed us to sign a max free agent and then trade for another star while still hanging onto a lot of assets. You can say we lost a star in Thomas but I really don't think we planned on resigning him anyway. The order we operated in netted us great returns and set us up for the future much better.
I strongly disagree with the bolded text here.
When you have max cap space, you make the move that is the best for your team, and the move that is going to make your team better now and in the future.
Maybe that means using that cap space to sign a max free agent. If that free agent is the best player available, and acquiring him is the best move for your team, then that's what you do.
Maybe that means using that cap space to trade for a star player and absorb his contract. If that star player is the best player available, and acquiring him is the best move for your team, then that's what you do.
You absolutely DO NOT use your cap space to sign a max free agent just because the cap space is there and you can. That's the worst thing you can do, and is an idiotic move for a GM. If you aren't convinced, then just ask Detroit fans how they feel about Ben Gordon, Charlie Villenueva and Josh Smith.
You absolutely DO NOT sign a free agent just because he has a prior personal relationship with your coach. That's letting emotional attachments / relationships influence business decisions. Danny specifically made it a point NOT to do this when he traded KG/PP to Brooklyn, and we are where we are today because of it. He also made it a point NOT to do it a month ago when he traded Avery Bradley for Morris/Baynes, and again a week ago when he traded IT and pieces for Kyrie Irving. If you want to be the best possible GM, then you don't ever allow emotional bias to influence business decisions - and signing Gordon because he "has a decade old relationship with your superstar coach" would be doing exactly that.
In the case of Paul George, I understand. The risk of losing him was high, not worth it.
Jimmy Butler however has been nothing but 100% loyal to Chicago thus far. He could have demanded trades, could have happily welcomed them - but through every step of the way, he has done nothing by preach his loyalty and his desire to stay in Chicago. They forced him out because they wanted to take a new direction, but there's nothing in Butler's history that indicates he would be anything but loyal to any team that gives him fair reason to want to return. He's got a personality that screams Celtic through and through (tough, physical, loyal, hard working, wants to win) and if he spent two seasons on a winning Celtics team, surrounded by all the Celtics pride/history, I find it very hard to image he's the type of player who would walk away from that.
Especially when considering the fact that he's been the best player on a team that seems to be the Cavs' kryptonite thus far - and the Cavs are the team we need to go through if we want to take the next step.
Come on man, obviously you don't go out and blow 30 mil just because you can, that is not what I was saying at all. When the team's in a position where they've finally built up the ability to sign a $30 mil guy through smart decisions and salary clearing over the course of years and it makes sense for them at the time, (which is does for us) you do it. When you can sign a guy that you want that fits, instead of spending assets you do it. It's more efficient and that is the right you've earned with good planning. The fact that the personal relationship exists with Hayward is just gravy. It makes it that much sweeter. Obviously you don't go out and make a bad decision based solely on emotion. Signing Gordon Hayward is a little different than signing Charlie Villenueva and Ben Gordon, let's use my points in context.
Jimmy Butler has a tough personality to deal with. He's a really hard worker and has come a long way but it's no secret that he's doesn't get along with everyone and doesn't shy away from conflict; kind of like Rondo. (We've clearly been avoiding these personalities and this is another point in favor of Hayward) Brad and Danny are developing a culture and clearly avoiding potentially poor character guys and potential locker room toxicity. (No Cousins) Again, you have Butler for 2 years and then who knows with Thibs recruiting him, and with Hayward 4 years, maybe more.
It is what it is, this is the direction the team is going and it makes perfect sense if you see it with the right perspective.
The part I have highlighted in bold is one of my key points here.
We DID have to give up assets in order to get Hayward. We had to renounce Gerald Green and Kelly Olynyk. We also had to trade away Avery Bradley.
We wouldn't have made it past the first round without the amazing job Avery did on Jimmy Butler on both ends of the court. We wouldn't have made it past Washington without Kelly's huge game 7. Danny Green came up huge on multiple nights when everybody else was struggling - good chance we wouldn't have made it past Chicago without him either. Take away any of those three guys, and we most likely would not have made the ECF.
Yet we had to sacrifice all three, plus more (Amir, Zeller, Jonas Jerebko) in order to generate enough cap space to sign Gordon Hayward.
Basically, we turned:
-Avery Bradley
-Kelly Olynyk
-Gerald Green
- Amir Johnson
-Jonas Jerebko
-Tyler Zeller
-Lots of cap flexibility
Into:
- Gordon Hayward
- Marcus Morrus
- Aaron Baynes
- Zero cap flexibility
So this whole concept of wanting to sign a FA rather then give up assets in a trade makes no sense. Because we effectively gave up two starters, 4 role players and every ounce of our cap flexibility in return for 3 guys.
If we were going to give up Bradley anyway, then we may as well have included him in a package for Butler and at least retained
some cap flexibility.
I'm actually pretty concerned without top-heavy out team is right now. We have Kyrie, Gordon Hayward and Al Horford as our only clear starting calibre players. Then we have Smart and Morris as fringe starters, and a bunch of prospects to fill out the bench. To paraphrase Lebron James,
"we are top heavy as ****".
Which wouldn't be so bad if we had any cap space, any remaining role players with trade value, or any really valuable draft picks - but we don't, because:
* We gave up all of our cap space to sign Hayward
* We gave up our best support players (Bradley and Crowder) for Hayward and Kyrie
* We gave up our two most intriguing young bigs (Olynyk and Zizic) for Hayward and Kyrie
* We gave up our last uber-valuable draft pick (Brk 2018 1st) for Kyrie
Now we are left to pinning the next 3-5 years of this franchise's success on the hope that guys like Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier and Jason Tatum will break out and blossom into stars - because our 'biggish three' of Kyrie, Hayward and Horford just isn't big enough to cut it on their own.
And maybe that happens, and one or two of those guys does explode and become that extra piece we needed to take us all the way - but that's a very big gamble.
And unless we do something really huge (like trade Horford or one of Brown/Tatum) we have little of value left to offer if another big star, like AD/DMC, gets auctioned off at the trade deadline. We likely have no hope bargaining against Cleveland, for example, who now have the ability to produce a package around any collection assets including Crowder, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Isaiah Thomas and the Brooklyn 2018 1st. We can't compete with that.
So my question feeling at the end of all this is yes, we got Brad Steven's favourite kid from Butler, and we got Danny Ainge's love affair from Cleveland...but at what cost? What do we have left?!?
But anyway, enough beating on this dead horse. What's done is done, we have what we have, and we have to have faith that Danny knows what he's doing and that things are going to work out. I'm excited to watch this team either way, because I think it will be incredibly fun to watch, but I'm not sure how strong we will be in the win column. Time will tell.
Topic: Hayward is such a great player. (Read 15890 times)