Luke_FfS

He's possibly the only true one. Too bad he's not at his best anyone and will be a borderline rotation player.

How many different teams have been on the finals or conference ones in the last few years? NBA has changed, it's not same teams every year anymore, so it's also difficult for those players to understand which one will be a real contender, and which ones not.

Brunson the rare example of a player taking less than expected, and probably deserved.

There's no perfect GM and perfect moves, but he's good without a doubt, and as you wrote, they didn't won anything, even with the great players they had. That should confirm how hard it's to win a title. Are we doing enough? More and better than them?

I wasn't rude at all, I was sincere. You already know what I think I believe, so the answer is pretty obvious. But if you really want a recap: - better team in the ovest last season already, almost reached the finals even if they're still so young, actually younger than us as we discussed in the past. While we were beated in the first round by a terrible team in a weak est playoffs (except Boston) - Everyone says that they're better than us due to SGA being older than our core and it's true, but forgot how they got him: with a mastermind move our FO doesn't even made in their better dreams. - made two moves in the offseason, and both are perfect to improve even more and correct their defects (you could argue that Harstein has been overpaid, but a lot of players are in FA, and he fits a need) without losing important assets. - When they had cap space, they used it actively to add even more assets than the ones they already have, instead of sleeping on those opportunities and handling overapays to players on short contracts just to fill the cap space as we've done in the last 3/4 years. - everytime they feel they need to improve, they pull the trigger without waiting, waiting, and waiting more. Our FO seem to rely on hopes, they rely in constant activity. They're basically one of the best teams on the NBA while being so young. And they've the most assets of any other team at the same time, arare combination. When the next super-super star is going to be available, they can beat everyone else with their package. As I repeated multuple times in the last months/years, if you want to win a title, being just good is not enough. You need to be great, not only with the roster, with training staff and FO decisions too. They're, we're not. Seems to me enough reasons to be envious.

As others wrote, in this NBA almost everyone gets the max in that situation, so it's not a shock by any means. I like him a lot, don't think it's a max player in the sense of being on the best level all around the league, but I will not complain for that extensions, others are the things I don't like from our FO. Also, seem to have read that the max is only with bonus, and those bonuses are around 40m, right? Not all of them will be applied, unless he's going to have a breakout season. Win-win.

Seem pretty obvious. For everyone that is not over-optimistic at least! :P

I have great love and consideration for him too, he's often on target. Worth noting that he consider us winners, but is also pointing out that we will probably need a second star or something, depending how our core evolve. For me it was already evident, but now we'll have to wait and see how we develop. The comments highlighted by MagicMan1979 were worth noting too. There's also a full section on OKC, I really envy their situation/management.

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/40496545/clippers-nuggets-convenient-fear-second-apron-first-week-nba-free-agency

And we weren't really able to use our defense to generate fast break points against CLE, if I remember correctly the stats.

I was perfectly ok with it and wrote that a lot of pages ago... clearly for the right price. After he was waived, the door was open. He got 1 year 11m if I remember correctly, would have preferred that one to sign KCP for three years. Not for the value of the players, but for the mentor thing, and in the hope to not see Suggs playing the most minutes at PG again.

+1 Long time insisting on that. Actually, the only risky move is giving JI a 5 years extension. I love JI, especially on def, but 5 years for a player with his injury history... I don't know. Some posters were hoping in a big discount after the last contract and here we go, winning the trophy of renewing our own guys, with the biggest extensions still looming. We'll have so much depth that some good players will not even get enough minutes.

You have a point, I respect your opinion. But how bad or questionable really is? I've heard only rumours, and seen a lot of worst things made by players that were still good teammates, and winners.

Narrative could change and players should evolve, but it's also true the opposite: could get worst or stagnate if we don't improve enough compared with the rest of the league. We could have a bad break with injuries. Our defense was great, it's not a given it will be better, but could be worst. We seem so focused on depth... we were the only team playing a 10 man rotation in playoffs... what about finally adding quality?

Not in this post you quoted, but I've previously indicated (and repeated in the answer to tkranole) that FO always avoid "bad characters", or those players that are supposed to... is he really? We don't really know, but if you've a great culture, core, group, coaching staff, you easily take the risk and insert him in that good culture. A lot of contenders were able to do that in the past. We seem to just refuse to take any kind of risk, and we'll pay the price for that in the future.