2024 Off-season Thread

[Time2GetSerious 27]

1 hour ago, CTMagicUK said:

Just so we're all clear. Jeff Weltman can hardly say "yea man we're absolutely desperate for 3 point shooting" before heading into free agency or trade talks because if he did the price for all the shooters goes up. 

His job is not to say things that make you happy. 

Let's evaluate at the end of the off-season before we get our pitchforks out.

Yes, that's a great point. And very true. Let's just hope that the necessary moves are made going forward.

[TreyMachine 400]

4 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

Just so we're all clear. Jeff Weltman can hardly say "yea man we're absolutely desperate for 3 point shooting" before heading into free agency or trade talks because if he did the price for all the shooters goes up. 

His job is not to say things that make you happy. 

Let's evaluate at the end of the off-season before we get our pitchforks out.

We saw what he did with the Paolo pick. This front office is no longer the days of Moldy Hobo where information got leaked pretty easily. We won’t know what they are doing until it is within hours of the front office announcing it. 

[JJZFL 626]

6 hours ago, Time2GetSerious said:

Did he really say that he doesn't think the current team lacks shooting? What in the world has he been watching? Good grief! If the team had capable (consistent) 3-point shooters this season they would have finished second in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. They would also be a legitimate title contender in my humble opinion. Should little or nothing be done this off season and they return with virtually the same line up then more than likely the same results will transpire next year. A point guard who can consistently get into the paint and finish is needed, as well as one or two solid 3-point shooters. This will take ball handling pressure off of Paolo which in turn will reduce the turnover numbers. It will also open things up for Paolo and Franz, and for the shooters. By making more shots this will also reduce the number of runouts teams have off of those missed shots. That cost us in this series. In particular game 7. They would get out and run off of our missed shots. Nothing more demoralizing than giving up a bunch of those in succession.

Well said.  

[JJZFL 626]

4 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

Just so we're all clear. Jeff Weltman can hardly say "yea man we're absolutely desperate for 3 point shooting" before heading into free agency or trade talks because if he did the price for all the shooters goes up. 

His job is not to say things that make you happy. 

Let's evaluate at the end of the off-season before we get our pitchforks out.

His job ultimately is all about making the fans happy.  If he doesn't do that for a long enough period of time, he's gone.

I totally agree that he should not say anything that makes our options worse or in any way makes it more difficult for us to address our needs.  At the same time, he needs to try to avoid saying things that demoralize the fan base.  It's a little bit of a needle to thread, but he gets paid plenty of money.

[CTMagicUK 1,491]

17 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

His job ultimately is all about making the fans happy

His job is to build a roster to achieve the goals of the ownership which is (we hope) ultimately to win a championship. That'll make fans happy in the process, but it's not Jeff Weltman's job to do or say things to appease fans, nor should it be. That would not be a worthwhile way to run a sports franchise because a large percentage of fans are clueless. 

[JJZFL 626]

1 hour ago, CTMagicUK said:

His job is to build a roster to achieve the goals of the ownership which is (we hope) ultimately to win a championship. That'll make fans happy in the process, but it's not Jeff Weltman's job to do or say things to appease fans, nor should it be. That would not be a worthwhile way to run a sports franchise because a large percentage of fans are clueless. 

Assuming your customers are clueless is a great way to not have many customers.  

[Luke_FfS 251]

Also, it's not like other GM's are completely stupid... they already know that we're a terrible 3p shooting team, and I don't really believe that a post-season interview could change the price we've to pay in a trade...

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I'm not sure if this post belong there on in the playoff section, but whatever... even if I've wrote that I'm really happy for what our players have done, and that we surely exceeded expectations (and I stand by that), I'm still deceived by both FO and coach.

Last offseason, CTMagic rightly corrected me saying that Ingles was only a PF at this point of his career, too slow to play SG/SF.
Too bad our guard rotation has been so terrible that we were really playing almost all his minutes at SF, with Moe+Wendell/Isaac, in a lineup we shouldn't even consider. Then some time at SG too, and in a certain point of game 6 (if I remember correctly) a lineup of Ingles-Franz-Paolo-Wendell-Isaac.

The other hot point in the playoffs, as I wrote multiple times, was to shorten the rotations.
14 of the 16 teams involved in playoffs were already playing a 8 man rotation by game 2, even the ones that were easily controlling the series.
A 9 man rotation with heavy minutes to the starters (around 40) was the exception, while there were also 7 man rotation at the end of some matchups.

In a league where guards and 3 point shooting are more important every year, we constantly choose size and length. Our big lineup would have been great in the 90's maybe, not anymore.

When other teams make a trade at the deadline, we stay put, even if we've glaring problems that were even more exposed against CLE.
When coaches start to implement a shortened playoff rotation, we maintain the regular season one (10 players and full bench lineup even in game 7).
When everyone ZIP, we ZAP.
Did we really believe we're that smart? Are we? Did we know better than other FO and coaches? When I see those in-game decisions, when I read those Weltham and Parker declarations, I'm not so optimistic about the future as we should be with such a young group (not clearly a contender still, but we could have easily won that first round series).

 

[CTMagicUK 1,491]

1 hour ago, JJZFL said:

Assuming your customers are clueless is a great way to not have many customers.  

Are we really going to pretend that making basketball decisions for an NBA team is anything at all like running a conventional business? 

[JJZFL 626]

47 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

Are we really going to pretend that making basketball decisions for an NBA team is anything at all like running a conventional business? 

Who’s talking about making basketball decisions? I doubt customers make business decisions for any company. What I’m talking about is maintaining strong customer relations, in this case by sharing a vision of the future and a direction with the fans.  
 

Again not saying you should say anything that compromises your options.  

[Shine88 90]

1 hour ago, Luke_FfS said:

Also, it's not like other GM's are completely stupid... they already know that we're a terrible 3p shooting team, and I don't really believe that a post-season interview could change the price we've to pay in a trade...

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm not sure if this post belong there on in the playoff section, but whatever... even if I've wrote that I'm really happy for what our players have done, and that we surely exceeded expectations (and I stand by that), I'm still deceived by both FO and coach.

Last offseason, CTMagic rightly corrected me saying that Ingles was only a PF at this point of his career, too slow to play SG/SF.
Too bad our guard rotation has been so terrible that we were really playing almost all his minutes at SF, with Moe+Wendell/Isaac, in a lineup we shouldn't even consider. Then some time at SG too, and in a certain point of game 6 (if I remember correctly) a lineup of Ingles-Franz-Paolo-Wendell-Isaac.

The other hot point in the playoffs, as I wrote multiple times, was to shorten the rotations.
14 of the 16 teams involved in playoffs were already playing a 8 man rotation by game 2, even the ones that were easily controlling the series.
A 9 man rotation with heavy minutes to the starters (around 40) was the exception, while there were also 7 man rotation at the end of some matchups.

In a league where guards and 3 point shooting are more important every year, we constantly choose size and length. Our big lineup would have been great in the 90's maybe, not anymore.

When other teams make a trade at the deadline, we stay put, even if we've glaring problems that were even more exposed against CLE.
When coaches start to implement a shortened playoff rotation, we maintain the regular season one (10 players and full bench lineup even in game 7).
When everyone ZIP, we ZAP.
Did we really believe we're that smart? Are we? Did we know better than other FO and coaches? When I see those in-game decisions, when I read those Weltham and Parker declarations, I'm not so optimistic about the future as we should be with such a young group (not clearly a contender still, but we could have easily won that first round series).

 

Yeah, Weltman gives me the smartest man in the room vibes. I think he's a really good talent evaluator, but he tend to get stuck in his ways. The league has changed, and he just hasn't shown he can adapt to the change. The two organizations he was at before he was hired here (Bucks and Raptors) both improved their shooting after he left. I hope he make the right changes to this roster this off-season, but I'll be lying if I said I confident he will.

[fan for too long 2 536]

3 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

His job is to build a roster to achieve the goals of the ownership which is (we hope) ultimately to win a championship. That'll make fans happy in the process, but it's not Jeff Weltman's job to do or say things to appease fans, nor should it be. That would not be a worthwhile way to run a sports franchise because a large percentage of fans are clueless. 

Winning a championship is NOT the owners #1 priority goal. Prove me wrong. 

[All Eyes On Me 1,218]

I understand that Weltman’s job is to maintain leverage, and that’s why the video I linked I mentioned GM speak, but I will say that I do have PTSD from the deadline. If we swung a deal when everyone but our GM thought we should, we’d probably still be playing right now.

I’m thrilled about this off-season, but trying to be cautious and not get my hopes up too high in case we underwhelm with moves. If we run it back with the idea that AB and Jett are ready to be big time contributors, we’re wasting the cap flexibility we have for a short window before we have to pay Paolo, Franz and Jalen. It’s kind of like NFL teams going all in to maximize roster talent while their QB is still on a rookie deal. We have the money now, and we won’t have the same freedom in the future, so let’s not sit on our hands.