Board 8 > NBA Finals/Offseason

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Shattered posted...

That's how I've always thought it should be too.

Problem with the supermax is if a player is eligible you basically have to pay it. And the only way you're winning with a supermax contract on the books is if that player is a top 5 player during that deal (or a large bulk of it). And by the last years of a supermax contract, any player who would be eligible for it has a ton of mileage on their legs. They may be late 20s / early 30s but if it's a supermax player they probably played a lot of minutes and saw a lot of the ball and you would expect the team saw playoff minutes too.

So there's a far greater chance of a supermax ruining a team than causing it to win since they are likely already an over the cap team by the time they sign the deal.

If you've gone 8 years with a supermax level player and haven't won the title, you are boned whether they're on a supermax or a regular max. The ideal window is for a team to assemble their core while guys are still on rookie deals, like boston has, and like GS did. Having a supermax on the roster but only counting as the max isn't going to suddenly make teams magically be able to bring in tons of quality players; if you're over the cap you're mostly limited to MLEs, period.

Like look at portland; is dame's supermax the reason they couldn't build a contender? No, it's the fact that the guys they banked on around him didn't work and that they couldn't draft for crap outside of mccollum.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/9/AAb9RHAAEunB.jpg
Like look at this, not a single good pick for 5 years after mccollum, and then another drought for 4 years. That is the problem, not the supermax. Meanwhile, Boston will be fine because they already got all their dudes before having to give anyone their supermax, so by and large they don't really need to make any big acquisitions to try and keep their window open. They can remain a contender as long as the owner wants to pay the lux (which is an owner problem, not a supermax problem.)

the problem is that they didn't tank hard enough. they had lamarcus aldridge and then dame and CJ for so long they basically couldn't ever get a good enough pick to get a superstar. of course you can find superstars outside the top 10 but it's much harder and luck is more involved to some extent the later you get into the draft

boston had the #3 pick in back to back years which is much easier to hit twice on than picks in the 20s and late teens that you're calling the blazers out on "missing"

They didn't even need another superstar, but none of those players between simons and mccollum even played for them, and wouldn't have cracked a rotation if they did, that's poor drafting no matter how you slice it. They kept making trades that didn't help them enough. Either way, poor management is to blame, not dame's contract, and the same is true imo for basically any team with a supermax that doesn't get it done.

Luka's deal? The Mavs let brunson go for nothing and had no one to replace the bird space they lost with him. Beal? The wiz also had consecutive top 3 picks including beal, and they flubbed that hard, their drafting was even worse.
The bucks won with giannis, the dubs with steph, the nugs with jokic (though he just signed his). The suns and sixers are probably gonna be competitive for a couple more years with booker's and embiid's deals on the books. I just don't see how supermaxing a guy dooms you to the point we should be shedding $10M off the books to help teams out. I think teams have enough tools to win with those amounts, sometimes they fail to use them correctly.

i mean a bigger thing is that the lower-tier players who command those contracts are kind of crippling. tatum, luka, lebron, jokic making a supermax - that's the cost of a top tier player. but a jaylen brown or yes, a damian lillard - that's a lot tougher.

Some posts have surfaced on twitter with Harden telling some people that Morey is a liar and he never wants to play for him again.

Too bad dude, your fault for assuming you would get traded!

Zero sympathy for Harden. Third trade request in 3 years. At some point you have to accept personal responsibility.
Also he opted in, he could have opted out and gone wherever in FA but didn't because money.

I think what probably happened is Harden took a cutprice deal last season on a handshake deal he opt out and get paid this year. Morey reneged and Harden opted in when he didn't like his options in FA figuring he could demand a trade and make a mess. Now he's at the nuclear stage because the trade hasn't happened

Morey didn't even renege I bet. I think there was always an assumption on harden's end that he was definitely get traded whereas morey never saw it like that. They tried to trade him, but the market wasn't there. Harden wanted them to trade him at a discount and they were never doing that. He's an idiot.

maybe harden shouldn't have opted in, but i am definitely sympathetic to him if morey reneged on giving harden his last big contract

(edit) also harden opting in, even to demand a trade, should help the sixers - it's not like they would be able to sign anyone if harden left in free agency. it's supposed to be a win-win here.

big shocker that the clown show in philadelphia couldn't keep it together for more than a season

at least embiid was able to cry enough to get his consolation prize mvp

In theory yes but only if the other team is sending you something worthwhile.

They are a luxury tax team with Harden on the books. If they trade him and only get shit / backend roster pieces back then they are still a luxury tax team.

If Harden has walked for nothing they would have actually been at the normal salary cap. I forget what their FA business was outside Paul Reed but they could have gotten under the cap if they wanted. They could have theoretically opened a max slot if they dumped Harris off too (not that this FA class was good)

I bet they'd have loved FVV over harden

They could have theoretically done a sign and trade for FVV sending Harden to the Raptors if both sides had been up for it.

Harden should have learned from the deal that got him to Philly. Morey held off on trading Ben Simmons for months even though he was effectively no longer on the team.