Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

this was my point. maybe they recycle and keep close, but the juggernaut they have now ends next year.

 

I'm a strong believer that the supermax contract is a negative for teams. Most teams are going to build up to the first apron which is roughly 125-130% of the cap. So when building a team out:

Supermax - 35%
Max - 30%

That's two players taking up half of your team salary and let's assume that the vet minimum is 2% and you have 5 of those, you're left with 50% of the cap to build out your 3-9 rotation of 7 players. That's really tough.

Most 3-5 rotation players in the NBA make 10-15% of the cap each and roughly 40% of the cap cumulatively. So if you have a supermax guy, you're hoping you can build our your bench with vet minimums at your 7 & 8 positions and a TPMLE as your 6th man.


Denver & the Bucks almost sunk themselves trying to build like this - even though they both have a generational player - because their 2nd guy isn't really a number 2 night in night out. It's also why both teams were so top heavy.

 

Well if OKC gets AJ with that Clips pick- goodbye Williams lol

 

Lakers win in New Orleans 118-104. They took 15-point leads and let them get back to 4 or 2, then pushed it back to 15. At one point Lakers were up 22 or 24, then of course relaxed and let the Pels back in. Start of the 4th: up 18. 3 mins later: 10 point game and JJ calls a TO to get the starters back in. Not a good look, esp against a decimated Pels team.

Refs let both teams play a hacking, physical game. The only Lakers to shoot FTs were Luka and AR, who went 20 of 26; 5 Pels shot FTs.

AR led team in mins: 31 (7 more than the Don), was 9 for 16: 31/4/7.

Willie Green's game plan seemed to be: double Luka. If it's AR only on the floor: double him. Make other guys beat us. Rui was 6 for 10; Ayton's offense seems pretty good: 11 for 12, but he still looks small to me on D.

Lakers had 13 steals and 5 blocks.

Marcus was almost too open from 3, because of doubling of Luka: 1 for 10 from deep. Get yer zen on, Smart.

Why did Willie Green start Kevan Looney at center, only to give him 11 mins?

NO missing Zion (of course), D'jounte, Poole.

Kinda of an ugly game, with spurts of who-gives-a-crap defense by both teams.

Tomorrow night on a BTB in MIL. Gonna be rough.

I'm already sick of the NBA Cup BS and those lousy looking courts.

 

It's not that simple for the teams, expecting to compete for Championships though. Take Denver and Milwaukee for example. If Porter Jr had been performing, at the level expected, by his contract. and Murray wasn't having injury issues, they would most likely have another Championship.

If Dame had been performing at the level expected by his contract, and not gotten injured, the Bucks might have won another Championship.

Injuries and performance, are the bigger factors at play, in the decision-making on spending the money IMO. If you are competing for Championships, spending the money, is just part of doing business.

Denver won a chip playing 6 guys, OKC won one playing a lot of guys. We won a chip playing a lot of guys, Golden State won a few with short rotations. There is more than one way to do this.

Personally I favor the stars, we tend to get caught up, overstating the impact of the role players sometimes. This doesn't mean that these players aren't important, but they are never more important than your stars. It's your stars performing like stars, that allows your role players to make an impact.

No team is winning chips, without their best players, playing at their best. Some Championship teams, may have had a larger degree of separation, between thier top guy and their other top 4. Some teams had a smaller degree of separation. Yet they all had to perform in their roles, to the the level expected of them.

This is a question that we're going to be facing, in this current campaign. Lebron is a max player, so is Luka, we are expecting Austin to be in 30's range next season.

What happens in the playoffs, is going to dictate what happens in the offseason. If we win a chip (or just make the Finals ) EVERYONE is getting paid. If we don't, there will be consequences. That's how it should work IMO.

I remain bullish on this squad, if those 3 guys, deliver as expected, we can win a Championship. Looking towards the future, I want to add another max player, to replace Lebron too. Our owner has deep pockets, Id rather be greedy than needy, and he's already more or less, said the same thing.