TimBC

I'd like to survey NBA GMs and ask them all the same question, anonymously: Of all the deals you've made in the last five years, how often would no-deal-at-all have been the better move? There may be a fairly high number of "meh, it's a tossup" and a few "the deal sucked but that guy had to go at any cost." Let's omit the draft, where there might be too many cases of "Memphis Passes" would have been better than "Memphis selects Hasheem Thabeet."

Exactly right. I don't want him to think about being MVP. I suspect Allen Iverson was always chasing that, and it didn't help him. Westbrook and Harden too, maybe. I want Ja to be able to play all year, develop his skills more, and be that guy who makes all his teammates better. MVP? There are usually 3-4 serious contenders every year, and often there's no way to tell which way the wind will blow in the selection. Team results? Individual scoring? Huge marketing campaign by team and agent and publicist? I'll be happy if Ja's on the shortlist, even if it isn't this coming season. "Perennial all-star" would be a good thing to aim for.

I was all "40th pick, meh," till I did some looking. Kyle Korver 51st pick Gilbert Arenas 30 Cuttino Mobley 41 Carlos Boozer 34 Nick Van Exel 37 Michael Redd 43 Paul Millsap 47 Luis Scola 55 Marc Gasol 48 Manu Ginobili 57

True

We have a happy team here, not sure a whiner is what we need.

One of the articles about her hiring mentioned that more and more assistant coaches have some law training. Contract law, I'll bet. Someone has to be the bridge between the contract-law geeks in the FO and the sweaty guys on the floor. "Taylor, I know he sucks but we HAVE to have a guy on an expiring, and a guy with a couple of years of team control, and some guys with options, and a guy we can package in a trade later, and also this guy has a trade kicker we can't afford ..."

Every year the board gets an obsession. Tyreke Evans (twice), Ekpe Udoh (!), and several other guys I can't remember. Sometimes they are actually attainable, sometimes there's no WAY they're going to become available.

I don't know when he's a free agent, but I hope we never get Marcus Morris. There's no place for that crap in the NBA.

Interesting point. Most teams START the season hoping to win every game, but soon a lot of them are starting to think about the lottery, which is the only inexpensive way to improve ... maybe a team sees that if they can make Joe Schmo look better they can trade him and then have the cap room they need ... it's the most complicated game there is even without the part where the guys run up and down the court.

I dunno, man., he's got 20,000 more posts than you, maybe he gets a little more weight. Let's just disagree without the insults.

I like keeping ALL the guys who are more or less good enough, because we seem to be forming a solid culture of ball-sharing (with one exception). I'd move only to fix weaknesses that other teams can exploit, and then only if the new player is high-BBIQ and a team player. No Iversons.

MEM vs POR shooting 48.9% vs 45.2 rebounds 49-39 from deep 14-25 vs. 15-40 BUT 18-13 TO Free throws 18-22 vs 35-41 OK, a shorthanded inexperienced team will foul more, but really?

Whaddya know, we're back.

I'm working on a theory that many teams "get it all working" but very few teams can sustain it. Maybe the opposing coaches figure out a strategy, maybe someone gets hurt. We had it before the break; POR and PHO had it after. In the end, we did as well as expected, maybe better. The future looks pretty good.

Let's simplify this. To get into the top half of the playoffs we will need a guy who can go for 40+ when we need it. Do we have that guy already, just needs some time? If not, how do we get him? Suppose the FO was directed to "do whatever you have to do to get that guy."