GIANNIS THREAD: Giannis has SIGNED the Supermax

[KillerLeft]

@ItsGoTime of course Miami extended Bam. He’s a max level difference maker. Dallas absolutely would have done that, too. There is no question in my mind. Nobody is against them adding salary, least of all me. I am hoping they don’t add BAD salary.

Huh? You took that comment and made a large left hand turn. I said that because Miami now has 2 max players but they still are in the news as suitors for Giannis. This was a comment to continue to debunk the notion that we’re dead in the water after Luka extends in free agency. Harder? For sure. Stop looking cause it’s impossible? Not on your life. 

Right, I understood. 

What I’M saying is that the Mavs would ALSO have made that choice. They’ve passed nothing up that resembles Adabayo. I think Miami would’ve PREFERRED having him wait a year, but when they saw that this tactic might upset him, they of course made the sensible choice. 

Crowder helped them a great deal last year, but they quickly adopted the “take a one year deal or leave it” approach with him. This is smart, because the core of their talent is not yet solid enough for a role player like that to make a noticeable difference past this one season. 

Both Miami and Dallas were finalists for Gallinari, too, and I doubt either were trying to convince him to swallow one-year offers. There was a price both teams were comfortable committing to for him, and he chose the bigger payday. Good for both teams!

Dallas was in on the Covington market, but ultimately, he was worth more to Portland. This is encouraging, because he IS worth more to a team built around a 30 year old with no tangible choice but to put the best supporting cast around him as possible. But, Dallas DID kick the tires. 

You maintain flexibility by signing good players to good contracts. If you don’t like the options available, you DON’T sign average players to bad contracts (or trade for them).

What Im saying over and over again is that I don’t think Dallas is making decisions based on accumulating “powder.” I think they’re making decisions based on building the best possible team, and that accumulating powder has, to this point, not been trumped by any other option with which they’ve been presented. 

There might come a time when I DO think a good option has been passed up, snd if/when that happens, I’ll say so. Plenty of ways this CAN still be screwed up. My jihad is against those who believe it’s “either Giannis comes here, or every decision they’ve made since drafting Luka was for nothing.” I don’t NEED more long term salary to be here to feel comfortable evaluating these individual basketball decisions. The only “for powder” move they’ve made so far is the Johnson trade, and NEITHER of the outgoing players had a snowball’s chance in Hell of contributing here this season. Johnson MIGHT. Good trade, imo.