Only Fantasy Traders in the Building (The Mitchell Case)

[mvossman]

FG can defend himself, but I think too much attention is being paid to the phrase "stripping down".  There were more elements to his argument than just that.

First of all, those three players don't get it done in terms of a salary match.  So, it is a four for one deal and we have to go out into a depleted market to replace all those bodies.

Second, Westbrook is a culture-killer whose ego and inefficient game would crush any chance we have to compete in 22/23.

Third, there are no good FA's next summer.  So, why bother

Fourth, you've relegated yourself to a single path of talent acquisition.  Without all those salaries you can't trade for a star in a salary matched deal at the TDL without sending out guys you'd like to keep.  Stripping down isn't necessarily about the guys going out in the Westbrook deal.  It is that you have nothing else to trade once you've done that.

The trend is stars moving via trade.  The best free agents are extended before they ever reach the market.  What is left restricted players not good enough to get extended, old dudes and players who fall victim to the extension limitations.  Many in that last group will stay with their team the next summer and the ones who are a threat to leave tend to get traded before the summer arrives (yes, I realize that wasn't our recent experience).  If the argument is we should trade Powell for Gary Harris because his contract gives us options now and later, I'm in.  I'd be all for trading Hardaway for an equivalent player on a shorter deal.  But, I don't want any part of Westbrook.

I think stripping the team of trade ballast is a really good point.  It makes it much harder to make a trade and it makes it much harder to be significantly over the cap (which will be necessary to have enough talent to compete).  

I think Cow asked the question what does this FO do well?  The answer is clearly not in free agency, which has been epic failure.  This franchise success has been built on two things, Donnie's ability to find a generational European talent every 10 years (Cuban ignored him for Giannis) and Cuban's willingness to make many trades until somethings hits and pay for his mistakes.  Unfortunately Donnie is gone and the CBA plus Cuban's frugalness has made paying for mistakes less of an option.

In my mind the best option is the trade route.  We have not had one single big success story in free agency ever, and as extensions become more and more frequent, it becomes less and less likely this changes.  We have made some terrible trades in the past, but also some great ones.  There is no way we should have been able to get Luka from the 5 spot.  That was one of the greatest trades in recent NBA history.