This is why all the talk about "Run it back", "Owner will spend whatever it takes" is all talk. I seriously believe that if that were the case Ariza would still be here even at say $30 mil for 3 years. This was a money saving move PERIOD. You don't let him go unless you have his replacement ready to go. They let Parsons go but had Ariza ready to replace him.
Luc's playoff run was so horribly bad that it's become a lot of peoples only memory of him despite knowing he was playing with a bad shoulder. He's a good player and brings a lot of the same Ariza brought, but he's just not a full time starter and is injury prone and only a year younger than Ariza. Ariza's been a proven high level role player/starter for a long time in this league and Lucs been a career bench journey man and 32 years old. That's not a championship recipe. I think were screwed and left with our only option being to hope for a Melo buyout and play him 28-30mpg max and Luc as his primary backup playing as much as he did last season. Your defense takes a big step back, but you minimize it by playing Melo lower minutes and having Luc and Tuck playing heavier minutes. Likely still not good enough to maintain last seasons defense. Harden + Melo on the court together for 30+ minutes of a game sounds like a disaster and a potential locker room problem once the blame game begins...…. and I was on TEAM USA Melo in Houston for the longest time. Who knows? OKC was still top 10 defense last season with Melo playing 32 mpg and starting 78 games and not that far off from Houstons defensive rankings and we all know Westbrook plays no defense for stat chasing purposes so maybe Harden/Melo will be alright.
Clearly Morey has a plan. He must have known Ariza was prolly gone. He knew we had no chance at king James. He has been obsessively thinking about all this since we were eliminated. Everyone on this board acts like the world is coming to an end. Capela will be back. Luc will be back. A trade or two will happen before the season starts. Carmelo or another decent name will be bought out and will join our team. We are still the 2nd best team in the world. Everyone take deep breathes. I know things have not been great so far this offseason , BUT HAVE MORE FAITH IN OUR FRONT OFFICE. Deep breathes .... hahaha. We will be fine.
respect to Trevor. For all the years out defense was trash, he alone gave good effort. He covered for a lot of mistakes, put up with a lot of drama/crap, and logged 40+ minutes consistently for the last 4 years. It's crazy. Respect to him and I'm actually a bit sad to see him go. I don't really fault him all that much for his last game being pretty bad ... with cp out and our rotation down to like 6 people, asking him to all the sudden become a shot-creator against the golden state defense is a bit much to ask for. Not sure who we get to replace him though ... doesn't seem like a ton of great options. I'm really sad Luc was injured last year ... we def needed him in the rotation. Still recovering from cp going down, in addition to luc
I'm guessing Murray's in possession of some deep stats that show that Trevor is beginning to slow down (shooting 0-9 from 3 in a critical playoff game might be one). Trevor probably thinks he an get $15M this year AND $10M-12M the next two. Maori's spreadsheet says he's not really worth it. I hate to lose him, but I can't imagine this wasn't a very thoroughly considered decision.
interesting. i forgot who posted it on here but that pretty much confirms he was looking at less than a Tucker type offer here with no realistic room for negotiation
Pretty much I'm glad you're interested and appreciate the offer, but I'm trying to win a cham.....oh you're that interested.
his shooting percentages are going to crater without all the wide open looks our guards were spotting him
How would that ruin anything? You ride it out with Ryan Anderson for the time being. We should also have Luc coming back off the bench unless something changes within our current roster setup i.e. Melo-drama Free agency hasn't closed and I doubt Morey doesn't make a trade deadline move for a second year in a row.
Question in hindsight: Would you rather have preferred giving Ariza the $15 mil to stay for next year? With LMM possibly wanting more money than anticipated to go along with his injury history and the options realistically available
This deal still is kinda like a what? deal or signing. Phoenix traded for Mikal Bridges, who is a 3 and D player. They have also have TJ Warren. They needed a point guard more than anything. I guess they thought their defense was that terrible, but they really needed a pg, though.
