For real.
He seems to be basing all of his comments on the expected value over contract metric he's created.
A productive mid pick big man would produce a ridiculous value via that rubric, only way that makes sense.
For what its worth given the opportunity cost and timing luck involved with contracts I don't think that measure is particularly useful to help you actually build a roster.
Essentially, Pelton made a ridiculous statement to draw attention to a pet statistic he developed himself.
That's so ESPN.
Should we trade all our picks in this draft for Clint Capela? Obviously we should trade Isaiah and a couple picks for Zach Lavine.
Measuring the difference between the value a player brings to the table and the amount of money they cost is all good and well, but as you say, there are limits to how much that really means.
If you have a roster almost entirely comprised of guys on rookie contracts and below market deals, and every one of those guys provides average production for their position, your roster would be absolutely bursting with expected value over contract. And your team would be thoroughly average, maybe a bit better during the regular season due to depth.
But what would you do with all that extra cap space? If you could use it to sign Kevin Durant and LeBron James, awesome! You win the NBA.
However, if all that allows you to do is overpay a couple guys who are decent but not great, e.g. Demar Derozan and Al Horford, well ... where does that leave you? You would probably have a pretty nice team.
A pretty nice team that still gets beaten by the team with a superstar or two and a bunch of overpaid henchmen.
How do I know? The Celts are already essentially in that situation. Isaiah Thomas is a huge bargain. Avery Bradley is a solid bargain, especially after this summer. Jae Crowder would make three times as much annually on the open market if he were a free agent this summer. Marcus Smart is good value while he's on a rookie deal. And so on.
Will the Celts actually be able to use the cap space available to them as a result of those bargains? I guess we'll find out this summer, but there's a good chance their best option will be to overpay a veteran on a short deal, much like they did last summer with Amir Johnson.