Post by Rog on Mar 5, 2019 0:09:07 GMT
Figured do something different than straight up grades.
Shai Glgeous-Alexander - Winner/Chicago Bulls - Loser
Bulls Sign PG Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for $181,780,802 over 7 years.
So starting off with the biggest signing of the off season in total dollars and the only 7 year deal in length, the Bulls running on CPU absolutely handicapped their franchise for the foreseeable future. Lets get one thing straight, SGA is a very good to nearly great point guard who deserved to be paid the the Bulls would have been remiss to let him walk and leave them with a loaded Joe Fulks contract and disappointing shooting guards Hal Greer and Willy Steveniers as their only truly good assets. However, Alexander will be making 33 million during his age 36 season. That is insane. SGA obviously is the big winner though, he will have career earnings well over 200 million by the time his career is up, setting himself up nicely for his life.
Milwaukee Bucks - Loser
The Bucks have been in serious limbo since our favorite loud GM was forced into early retirement. They were contenders for years in this league and have not since returned. It was beyond time for a full reset on things and see where the draft can take the team in the next three seasons. However the GM decided to double down on mediocrity. Nelson Demarco is a very nice backup for a team that is competing and looking to do damage deep in the playoffs, he is not worth 6+ million a year on a team that is starting 150 million dollar man Ivo Daneu at the position though. They now have 27 million locked down on three point guards that don't even combine to top Bob Cousy's stats. In three seasons they will have 33 million tied up in those three players. They also signed Sean Williams to a 5 million dollar deal(worth nearly $400 in luxury tax dollars) when no one was offering him MLE. Finally they got Dolph Schayes back on an (admittedly good) three year deal. Look if they can fip Schayes and Demarco into solid rebuilding pieces, I Can see this working out. But as of now they spent 20 million dollars a year(this year anyway) on guys that led them to a 42 win 8 seed season where they got lucky in the first round of the playoffs. No thanks.
New York Knicks - Winners
I actively sat here and thought about whether I considered the Knicks a winner or a loser because I really wasn't sure. I came down and decided on winner because they have fantastically flipped their roster on its head and came back deserving massive credit for a new(to this league) GM. RJ Hampton looks like a franchise piece in my opinion. Don Ohl at a minimum will be a solid depth piece with his ability to backup PG. Larry Brown still the verdict is out, but a 22 year old point guard is not something to sneeze at with those ratings, but if he doesn't get his inside to C it will be a wash. I like Lee Schafer enough. The big win though was getting Honglin Qu on the massively cheap. He is a 25 year old big on a great deal. The issue is he is expiring, but shoiuld be easy to bring him back. Knicks look set with a plethora of picks, young pieces, and assets(Barlow should fetch a good deal, as should Tomlin). A team that needed a massive injection of care, they got it and they got it well in my honest opinion.
Seattle Supersonics - Loser
Just to once again show you that the league's value system is broken, the Sonics are one of the best GMs in the league and had some of the most enviable pieces in the league and they have made trade after trade and I don't feel like they have won a single one of them. Seriously. Did they get one franchise type piece in any of the deals they made where they moved franchise piece after franchise piece? Ja Morant might MIGHT turn into one, but as for now I don't see it personally. They got a Raptors 2041 first that could be decent, but even then probably not as the Raptors look set to be good once again. The picks are all in 2041 and not a single one looks ready to be lotto. I get the idea of Thunder being bored and wanting to move on to something different, but holy fuck the dismantling of the franchise and getting absolutely nothing to write home about(in my opinion) is baffling. Complete and total buyers market right now, and that is not the fault of Soncis at all but they stilll lose in the climate all the same.
Vancouver Grizzlies - Winner
The Grizzlies looked like a solid team missing a single piece last year, and that was a SG and production behind their starter. Jalen Newhouse is a starting level SG in this league still at this point and the Grizzlies got him on a 1 year deal to play his age 34 season. They also got Max Williams back on an MLE level deal to back him up. Their starting 5 of Booboo, Newhouse, Twyman, Stokes, and Gruenig looks like a contending team to me, assuming Gruenig can hang as a starting center at this point. They have some solid depth too. Maybe Booboo can get his elusive title.
John Isaacs/Toronto Raptors - Winner
John Isaacs has been on a "prove it" deal for two seasons now and all he has done is go out and average 27 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds on limited as heck turnovers over those two seasons while shooting the ball pretty well. He probably isn't an elite point guard and most likely will never be due to his lack of steals. But he is a very good point guard that can lead your team in scoring and that team is very much in title contention. Isaacs parlayed two seasons where he made 24 million dollars(12 million expirings each year) where any wrong stop could have cost him money, and turned it into a nearly 50 million guarantee that should ensure nearly 100 million in career earnings when all is said and done. While I think the Blazers made out well in the Kareem deal, it really allowed the Raptors to fill out their lineup. They now run out a lineup of Isaacs/Miki Berkovich/Modestas Paulauskas/Ed Macauley/Jean Beugnot with DJ Thomas getting 25+ minutes a game to chip in his reliable 15 points a game. They should still have an MLE to use on the last day of FA to add a backup big and will need to be hot and heavy on the market to look for more depth. Their oldest starter is 29 years old, and thats a big who should age well and only makes 8.5 million a year. Oh I didn't even mention the Ed Macauley deal, which enables them to continue to be aggressive in trades, with 16 million in hard cap space. Great off season for the Raptors in the completely up in the air East to put their best foot forward.
Atlanta Hawks - Loser
Obviously the Hawks haven't made any moves and that is the entire point of this. They have been stuck as a middle of the road team for 3 seasons now, missing the playoffs barely last year. They looked on the up and up after the Belov team returned solid results, but they didn't take the next step. Satch Sanders is also the type of move a GM makes that doesn't have a pulse on the league. Sanders should be a fun experiment for a team that takes him later on in the draft as a potential last piece. Hawks have him as arguably their best asset at the moment and that is a problem. They needed to make moves to push forward or bottom out and hope for luck(Jerry West?) in the lotto. Instead they run out the same roster that failed to make the playoffs without a lot of potential to improve internally. Also they are nearly capped out at 10 players.
Portland Trailblazers - Winner
I actually disliked the moves they were making at first, thinking they were shaping up to have a roster less appealing than last season, which would defeat the whole purpose. They go from Barlow, Thiolon, Modestas, Belov, N'Doye, that won 53 games by the way and now will roll out Case, Kareem, Yardley, Thiolon, Barksdale with a rock solid bench. I think after the moves the Sonicsmade, the Blazers are the top contender to knock the Clippers off their perch. As much as I want to fucking hate the guy, Jelly has proven time and time again that he can really build a roster that can stand up to the best of the rosters in the league.
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