GAME #1 : Toronto Raptors 94 - Houston Rockets 83

[golden]

Repeating doesn't change much. Still have to plan for future success. You obviously try to bring back as much of the team as possible for next season - which is already plan A, but with the understanding that Serge is just very likely to price himself out of that "possible" group. C'est la vie. Maybe the difference is in what one year deals you offer - maybe you happily go deep into the tax for that season, even at risk of future planning, so you offer a one year max salary to Serge to get everyone to stay. But you still don't offer term.

For the second question, I agree, who plays C moving forward is a question (Norm being in the core and TD not in it are both wrong IMO, but still, point remains). And that question needs an answer. The one thing I'm quite confident of is that if we are planning the long term, neither Serge nor Marc is the answer. I do think Ujiri is quite capable of finding someone better in the draft, maybe not in year one but two, three years from now? Heck yes. And Marc may well be affordable on short term deals as a veteran presence/big C to cushion any prospect they draft. But if not there are always vet C's floating around for relatively cheap. Heck, for all we know, it ends up being a C they grab in that 2021 FA period. Of course there is also the option they trade for a relatively stable experienced C with a fairly affordable deal who projects to maintain performance better than Serge (and Serge as a C who you can pick and choose when to shield with Marc vs Serge as your primary C option are two very different Serges) - maybe that's a Powell trade (he's likely not going to be worth his market in 2021), maybe something else. Point is, there are a lot of avenues to explore before settling on screwing their one window to add real talent to the current projected core in order to keep a mediocre big man.

If there's a market for Serge (which there undoubtedly is), then there shouldn't be a huge problem offering term, because that means he's a tradeable commodity. He'd be a perfect fit for the Rockets and Nets, IMO. And for the acquiring team, he's probably a better trade commodity if he's got a few years left on his contract.

In past off-seasons, we've seen that if a star player truly wants to go to a specific team, they always seem to be able to unload whatever contract it takes to make it work or figure out some creative multi-team sign & trades.

[DanH]

If there's a market for Serge (which there undoubtedly is), then there shouldn't be a huge problem offering term, because that means he's a tradeable commodity. He'd be a perfect fit for the Rockets and Nets, IMO. And for the acquiring team, he's probably a better trade commodity if he's got a few years left on his contract.

In past off-seasons, we've seen that if a star player truly wants to go to a specific team, they always seem to be able to unload whatever contract it takes to make it work or figure out some creative multi-team sign & trades.

In past off-seasons, we've seen star players pick from teams that are capable of those moves.

Having a market in summer 2020 does not mean you have a market in summer 2021.

[golden]

In past off-seasons, we've seen star players pick from teams that are capable of those moves.

Having a market in summer 2020 does not mean you have a market in summer 2021.

Sure, but Ibaka seems to be getting better after re-inventing himself as a stretch 5 with rim protection. With the championship pedigree and great teammate reputation, he'll be in demand for at least a few years, barring injury.

[DanH]

Sure, but Ibaka seems to be getting better after re-inventing himself as a stretch 5 with rim protection. With the championship pedigree and great teammate reputation, he'll be in demand for at least a few years, barring injury.

I have far less confidence in that than you seem to.

Combine that with what will likely be a league wide cap crunch for a few seasons, and being able to move him for little to no salary back (as would be needed) seems like anything but a safe bet.

[G__Deane]

An under rated genius (unless your team has been there) of Masai has been the demonstrated ability to avoid the long term albatross contract; the one that you'd do anything to take back or offload. That's my fear in any of these potentially pay-for-past-performance scenarios where a player can fall off the cliff. In a salary cap world, it's also why I'd avoid these 30-40M contracts for anything less than true A-listers if possible.

Nothing worse than Management saying a bad contract or two is stopping them from signing player X who could help you