Hey...you're very right. "No question" was a stupid thing to say. Many things can, and probably will, happen that drastically affect expectations. I think the Warriors and Spurs just have A) the least amount of noticeable deficiencies and B) the coaching to overcome them. We'll see what happens, though.
The 2004 Lakers had Shaq (31) and Kobe (25). A comparison of Top-9 in the Spurs rotation to the Lakers shows a LOT of similarity between these two teams, particularly given Parker's high mileage. That said I'd rather have the Spurs team: Starters: Payton (Age 35) vs Tony Parker (Age 33) Kobe (Age 25) vs Danny Green (Age 28) D. George (Age 26) vs Kawhi Leonard (Age 24) Shaq (Age 31) vs LMA (Age 30) Malone (Age 40) vs Tim Duncan (Age 39) Bench Medvedenko (Age 24) vs B. Diaw (Age 33) H. Grant (Age 38) vs D. West (Age 35) K. Rush (Age 23) vs Manu Ginobili (Age 38) D. Fisher (Age 29) vs. Patty Mills (Age 27)
Very interesting comparison as that Laker team did not win it all. Malone and Payton looked pretty terrible as I recall while Duncan, Ginobili and Parker are still effective. Kobe >>>> Leonard Shaq = LMA ?
I've considered it and rejected it. The 25% chance the Spurs can win a title next year is not worth a 90% irrevocable pay cut. He'll regret his decision later. No question.
Exactly. I want to say "props to west", but I just can't. To me this is an absolutely insane decision. For some reason unbeknownst to me, this actually makes me angry. If the spurs dont win I will laugh at David's $11m paycut. Why am I so salty about another man's finances? I might need help.
This argument is essentially "He already pulled the trigger 5 times and people said he was dead every single time, of course he can safely pull it one more time"
Gee where was the outrage when he opted out? His market value is probably around 5mil/year. So no he didn't take 11 mil discount to join the Spurs, more likely 3-4 mil.
Umm, no he could have made 12 last year and then 5 mil a year over multiple years after that. When he opted out I'm pretty sure he did so with the rationale that he could probably get himself 21 or so over 3 rather than 12 over 1. Let's say he opts in and then signs a 2 year 10 million dollar deal afte rthat. He takes home 22 (and I'm not even counting the time value of money here, which for 10 mm is not trivial) Now he's going to sign for 1.5, where he set his market value. He'll be lucky to grab anything more than the vet minimum from here on out. Over the net he's probably out $15mm or more, but even in the best case scenario, he's out 10.5 million this year that he will never get back
He's made $87 million over his career. Not sure how much he's spent. I guess he thinks he's good (assuming there is no under the table deal or he isn't investing with Tim Duncan). A small cut, ok. But this is excessive.
He probably opted out to find a long term lucrative contract, but instead only see mediocre offers from average teams. I don't think he's intentionally seeking vet min on Spurs when opting out... I guess now he's trying to win a ring and opt for good money in 2016 when cap explodes.
He had to know when he opted out that he'd never see anything significantly above the vet minimum, he's not a very good player anymore.
Alright I've cooled off a bit. Stressful day at work with quarter end and all. Clients up my *** about this and that. I still think David is nuts, but I won't go out of my way to laugh at him or anything when we beat the spurs in the playoffs haha
Actually I take this back, he's going to be 35 in a month, older than I thought. He probably had no good offers on the table this year. There is no way he will ever even get to $12.6 million in all of his remaining NBA years, combined. Opting out was tremendous mistake on his part. He should have taken the 12, sucked it up, and then gone the "vet min on a contender" route the next year. He got bad, bad advice from his agent.
Sounds like the Russian deal between Kirilenko and the Nets. Wait, isn't Pops fluent in Russian? ILLUMINATI CONFIRMED.
I doubt it. We're still in the moratorium. You don't give up on finding a good contract this early in the game. You wait for the big spenders to clear the field, and then you see which teams still have an MLE burning a hole in their pockets. You don't accept a veteran's minimum right out of the gate from desperation. No, he didn't do this because no one would pay more. He did it because he saw the writing on the wall after LMA's decision and wanted to ride Pop's coattails to the championship. On the one one hand, I can respect giving up money to go to the place that'll make you happy. On the other hand, the pursuit of money is what makes the NBA market efficient and ensures a level playing field. The phenomenon of players taking paycuts to play for a contender undermines the competition and damages the product. This is a really egregious example.
