Not really, fully aware it's not as outrageous as past years. Doesn't mean it's not an outrageous contract though. I'll cop some heat for this one but - Luke Babbitt cost a bag of peanuts for the heat and is a 40% three point shooter. Is he anywhere near the scorer Anderson is? Of course not, but as a guy coming off the bench (behind Dmo/nene etc.) as a guy who just lets it fly he would have been awesome. It's easy to say it in hindsight but I'm merely putting these thoughts out there. He rebounds at a similar rate to anderson (per advanced metrics) and offers little but shooting. So we could have picked up a similar type of player to come off the bench, that wouldn't have anchored our salary cap and potentially hinder us from signing a blake griffin type next season. Again, Anderson is a better player than Babbitt and does have some semblance of a post game, but when we are talking $80 million dollars compared to ??? (not exactly sure what he makes but it's not much), it doesn't stack up that well.
I think we saw firsthand why the Pelicans brought Anderson off the bench even when he could have played next to a defensive ace big in Anthony Davis. Shooting comes at a premium though. Zach Lowe said 6 months before free agency that 20 mil per was Anderson's number. Also Gordon likely doesn't come if Anderson doesn't come first. It was said during media day that Anderson convinced him to come with in free agency. So again the PF position becomes an issue for this team and Morey to solve. If D-Mo resigns, and performs well than maybe that helps the team since he's an "okay" defender at the 4 at times, but longterm I'm not sure it answers any questions when either you have a team that can kill you with their bigs ALA the Spurs, or a team that can go small better than you ALA GSW. So don't get carried away that D-Mo coming back, and Anderson going to the bench solves anything significant. But yes... I concur with the notion that Anderson just confirmed to us that he is a piss poor defensive player, and is in fact a specialist... not an NBA starter. Doesn't necessarily mean it was a bad signing just yet if they solve the problem with the starting lineup, and he lights it up off the bench when Harden is out of the game.
I really need to believe that Morey agreee a trade like this, before signing Anderson for all that money. Throwing all that money in a long contract was not a tipical Moreys move.
IMHO, Morey took more risks than normal because he knows he is under pressure here to keep his job. I can't believe he would bid against Sacremento for Ryan Anderson - an off the bench Matt Bullard type.....for 20m a year, that is just not a smart move. DD
I agree that Morey took more "money risks" (Anderson) in this FA go-round because he wasn't playing from a hand of strength like he had in the past with the Harden/Howard combo in hand. It felt more like when Morey was making stabs in Lin and Asik. That said, I believe Morey KNOWS the "market" in terms of contracts. And thus they are set up to be moveable if the right deal comes along.
Anderson is a chucker , now ... He's a really good chucker. I just think he should come off the bench , his defense and shot selection are too bad . Man we desperately need Dmo back and we need 2014-15 healthy Dmo back . If there's even a 50% chance he can get back to that we've got to resign him
Is there ever anything Morey is responsible for? LOL - come on - he has to be culpable at some point. Great looking forward to that Brewer deal. DD
I don't think Anderson is a moveable contract. Certainly Gordon is, but Anderson looks more like an albatross deal.... No doubt he'll play better than last night, but its always been a head scratcher of a deal
He will have a good game, he is not a scrub at all, but he is a one trick pony....and really struggles against quicker bigs - he is slow footed. DD
