One of the reasons I wanted to run it back, in a vacuum, all of Smart, Rui, Luke and Lebron are excellent pieces for a contender. I wanted to add to them, not tear it down to the studs.
Yeah looks like DFS playbook. They'll give him a multi year deal at a price it doesn't make much sense for us. I get Smart signing it too, get a final bag in a competitive team. Was really hoping he would pick up the PO with a backroom deal agreed with us for multiple years next season. He was our best non-star by a landslide. The way he plays is infectious and bodes extremely well when you have stars like Luka and Bron, who tend to save energy for different reasons. I also think we are losing a lot on the development of Carr and Thiero. Having Smart around would be a very positive influence on both. But it is what it is. I think to cover him we need to go at 2 or 3 defensive dogs. I really don't want the room exception used in an offensive minded player. Ellis, Thybulle, Wade are guys we should be after
He was our 4th best player and on many a nights in the regular season, he was the third best player. We already had a no-win chance of filling the two starter caliber slots we needed to this summer, now we're looking at a third hole of that size. All I got to say is the offer better be offensive. I'm not sure the replacement here. Dort is the closest thing of on the court replication but he's no leader. And then there's the matter of OKC has been sending all their fat to the East, avoiding helping their competitors.
smart was always going to be the hardest one to keep because of his contractual situation. the lack of bird rights means we have to either use cap space or all or most of our only exception to keep him. and as we've discussed ad nauseum, smart, rui, and luke are 6th-9th men in search of a 4th and 5th starter. keeping them all makes it impossible to get both of those starters (and possibly either, tbh). it's easier to pick up the back end of the roster than the front end. the team that just won the title cobbled their bench together largely from scraps. they're almost all heroes now after having been very recent zeroes.
btw, has anyone said how houston is pulling this off? even if we're operating under the cap, you have to figure that we'd offer the room exception to smart first, right? so their deal would have to exceed 10m to start, especially considering we're offering him a starting role, and they're not (fvv opted in). they're at 184 committed without Eason's contract (and with only 9 guys under contract). eason's going to get 20, minimum--unless they pay to play the QO chicken game (which, btw, if they sign smart, we can just offer eason more than houston can pay, as they'd be hardcapped at the first apron). i just don't see the route to them being able to offer 10 million+. this explains the desire to get off DFS (again, irony). who's taking DFS? i guess maybe you can get someone to take him for a longer term, lower money guy. even then, i feel like you're playing a dangerous game with eason's RFA. i need this explained to me.
opting out means he plans to go for over the tpmle, which is only about 700k more than his option number. this means whoever signs him will be hardcapped at the first apron (don't think chicago or bkn is chasing him). something to think about when assessing his market, as i mentioned above.
You will be missed. He played with aggressiveness and assertiveness and picked up the pace for the entire team.
because the team would either have to use part of the full mle or receive in him in a S&T. both moves hardcap you at the first apron. only way to sign smart to something bigger than 6 per is via cap space, s&t, or full mle. houston doesn't have cap space nor a quick way to get there, so it's one of the latter two. eason's RFA doesn't exempt him from apron rules, as i understand it, so whatever move they make in conjunction with signing smart has to leave enough room to pay eason, else they just have to let him walk. again, haven't seen anyone address this other than the vague mention of "houston would like to get off DFS". well, there's only so many teams that can help you with that, and it won't come cheap. haven't seen news of DFS moving yet, either.
A real tone setter and game changer. Should have been drafted by the lakers and we should have had a decade of his tenacity and will to win. These kind of guys are worth much more than their stats regular and advanced, they multiply everyone’s desire to win tenfold. It’s like an aura based effect.
I wasn’t expecting to be able to keep him, based on us having to add other pieces first, but now that the realization is setting in, I’m bummed. On the other hand, he’s not getting any younger and most likely will sit a lot of games again, this coming season.
athletes have to get the bag while they can, but I sure liked his play when healthy, and he's still a difference maker. Hope we find a way to keep him and meet his salary requirements. He's a championship team piece.
