06-27-2021, 10:12 PM
(06-27-2021, 09:15 PM)F Gump Wrote: A good question of roster-building philosophy - if you have to strip your team of every useful player besides Luka in order to get Dame, is "Luka + Dame" going to be an upgrade? I wonder if you might get varying answers from NBA GMs, and certainly in this forum, which makes it a good question.
My own analysis? With a player who is as superior as Dame, it's "Luka + Dame" in a landslide for me.
What about the rest of the roster? I actually think it would make the subsequent roster building easier, not harder, because you now have role players who will jump on your bandwagon at a discount. That makes your cap go farther. OTOH, without that, every role player wants to get a huge payday to join your team, or to re-sign with you. There are no bargains, because they are your 2nd or 3rd best player and want to get paid accordingly.
I look at what players take to play alongside LBJ-Ad, or Kawhi-PG, or etc. Those teams can get real value for MLE or less. Alongside that Big 2, there are openings for minutes, and roles, and limited money, so that's what they sign for.
I don't think you can do it the other way around, where you sign the 2nd star last, because the role players want your unused cap room. To me, Mavs need to get the 2nd star, and then build the rest of the roles from there, and since they don't have that guy, imo they need to be all in to get that done.
Mavs aren't getting Dame but we have seen in the NBA when you get the stars, getting role guys isn't that hard. I would take Luka + Dame and filler all day long because you will get guys that want to play when stars. But its not going to happen anyway.