Wow..So disappointing. It's irritating actually to think we didn't offer this man his max--a reduced max I might add which = a deal. Big, young and productive--already a 16/10 player, this guy's well on his way to better numbers than that provided his PT and shot attempts increase, even marginally increase. I said it yesterday when we heard they asked Monroe to take less than his max (which tells me the AW report is correct--sounds like to me we never offered it), this needed to be presented the right way. They should've told him we want you regardless--if you want the max, it's yours. But if you take x-amount less, we can do this (and then proceed to tell him EXACTLY what "this" could be). If it was handled like that, I have no problem. If it wasn't and they never actually put a max offer on the table for this young productive player as one of the scenarios, then it's a gross miscalculation that's squarely on Phil. Simple as that...We'll probably never know now...But just going on what's out there and what we've heard, doesn't look like we offered this man the max and that's beyond f--king irritating!!!
So now what, go get Robin Lopez and call it a day?? Come on man. We needed more than that! And I'm sorry, I'm down with Guns--wanted no part of Robin Lopez, esp. at $10mm per or whatever overinflated number he's looking for. This man's a backup C--the only reason he may have started up to this point is because whatever team he was on didn't have a better option. You wanna tell me there's interest in Robin Lopez AFTER we already secured one of the premier FA bigs out there, OK, but there's no way you can possible feel good about Robin Lopez as your main FA pickup. And let's just put this to bed too -- Greg Monroe, flaws and all, is LIGHT YEARS better than Robin Lopez. I mean come on man--how the hell could some of you even argue that?!?!?! Monroe's a main draw, Lopez is an ancillary piece...in this free agency anyway. If it comes down to it now--I like Koufos better than Robin Lopez. I know for a fact Koufos has untapped offensive versatility from his college days that could eventually resurface (I would actually make it a point to make sure it did if I brought him in). Lopez is at his plateau. Go get Koufos now if anything...
So now we move on to Enes Kanter? And they honestly feel like they'll have success here? Explain that to me. I probably have Kanter rated slightly higher than Monroe (a tad younger, slightly more offensive versatility) but essentially you're looking at pretty much the same production ceiling with both players. They go about it differently but productions-wise, you're looking at pretty much the same thing--efficient offensive production, good rebounding with the average defense. Big difference is we were in the driver's seat with Monroe; Kanter's restricted--OKC will match any offer for him, they're probably just waiting to see what the market will wind up being for him. We can try but that team traded assets for him and he performed well for them. I can't see for the life of me them letting him get away. My guess is they'll sign any offer sheet for him...He never even got a chance to play with Durant, and he didn't play much with Ibaka from what I remember.. He'll look even better on that team once they get everyone healthy. Goddamn Knicks man, I swear. Watch--we'll meet with Kanter and then not offer him the max too. 
I mean what are they doing??? We really needed a headline player here imo...Maybe now Aldridge becomes the prime target--he's not going back to Portland and he doesn't want the Lakers. I would've preferred the younger Monroe, Kanter too, but I guess I can swallow going after LMA now and trying to put him together with Melo, Afflalo, Kristaps, Grant, maybe Derrick Williams, maybe Koufos etc. and try to focus on winning sooner than later. Gimmie a better alternative..
7/2/2015 12:21 PM
