Player Assets

I have grown to admire Morey's grasp of the business side of player management. When we had CD, he would make a good trade, sometimes boldy going after a big one, then a bad trade, seldom make good moves in the draft, often overvalue our players and get stuck with huge contacts. Morey is pretty consistent at doing shrew moves on all fronts, increasing his assets little by little, often with very little to work with. This MIT grad is not just good with statistics, he's good at building a team.

I have to admit, hearing stories of possibilities for players like Chris Paul and Chandler, that we might have a deal with PHO for Amare and Barbosa, maybe Shaq, Carter, and others, today felt a little brutal. Shaq goes to Cleveland, Carter goes to Orlando, Jefferson goes to San Antonio ... eeks ... what are WE doing that compares? I thought we were going to be predatory, heard we wanted to get up in the lottery, even get someone like Rubio ... the expectations grew.

Then nothing the whole first round. Surely there were trades behind the scenes ... but, so far, nothing. Feels like a letdown.

The main thing I thought Morey had up his sleeve was that in this economy, he could BUY assets, get great talent for expiring contracts and some of the late picks we've developed who shone in the playoffs, and sell high, buy low. Be predatory. Sell the assets we've developed when their value is highest, and pick up some more to develop at low cost.

As he basically bought these 3 picks for cash in the second round, it started to make sense. He didn't find any players worthwhile trading for in this weak, although deep draft, but he did add quite a few million dollars of assets he can add to trades coming up, or move our developed talent (Brooks, Landry, Scola, Von Wafer (maybe S&T), maybe even Battier) in packages for better talent, and develop these new guys.

Budinger was projected to go in the 20s in most draft mocks, so he was a steal where he was picked. I assume the Spaniard LLuLL will be stashed overseas, and Taylor is someone they've been scouting for years to be a diamond in the rough, they evidently feel they can develop.

But, all these guys, AND our overseas stashed guys can be signed, and then included in trades to get who we want.

It's what Morey calls "Player Assets." These include our players, expiring contracts, draft picks, TE's, other "E's," insurance policies, and cash in trade. The good thing about these "assets" is that all we had to do was pay cash for them, which just increased Morey's flexibility in creating trades this summer.

These 2nd round picks don't have to go by formula, and they can even be signed so they fit the trades or budget we need to make, so they are pretty valuable.

Of course, now I have expectations that Morey is going to do some very cool stuff with these additional "player assets" this summer, to help us become a contender.

It doesn't sound like TMac will be around much longer, and I hope Yao's fracture isn't serious, but I'm quite curious how things will get restructured this summer with all these trading chits.