smackeddog wrote:I've read a few things that said he wants a big market, and that he didn't like that no big name FAs wanted to sign with the Spurs. Haven't read anything about winning being the deciding factor for him (otherwise he could have just stayed with the Spurs).I suspect we'll offer Frank and this years pick (plus salary- Kanter would be perfect if he opted in). I wouldn't do it as he is due one of those absolute monster contracts in a year or two, as is KP, so we'd be capped out and essentially only have him and KP (plus next years pick)- don't see how you improve that team.
True it does put us in a potentially tough cap situation, but we would have two stars to build around. This is a star driven league and if you don't have them you don't tend to win titles. Look at the recent champions: Golden State (Durant, Curry, Green, Thompson), Cleveland Cavaliers (LeBron, Kyrie, Love), San Antonio Spurs (Duncan, Kawhi, Parker), Miami Heat (LeBron, Bosh, Wade), LA Lakers (Bryant and Gasol), Celtics (Pierce, Garnett, Allen, Rondo). So recent history does show that the teams that win and dominate do so with multiple star players and unless we manage to find one in this year's draft and next year's (working on the basis next year we are terrible and get a high pick), then the team will likely mirror is the Dallas Mavericks that were built around Dirk Nowitzki. Sure they had their year in 2011 and made a finals appearance in 2006, but outside of that they had a number of first second and semi final exits. Perhaps our fans and ownership would be happy to become a version of that with KP, but I think we do need to be ambitious and aim high when it comes to trying to support KP with the best possible players.
The other thing to consider here is that it depends on what Kawhi and KP truly want. Are they going to be selfish and sign for the maximum amount of money that we could offer? Or would they be willing to take less than market value in order to free up space to create the strongest possible supporting cast (i.e. like the Warriors quartet, or the Heat's big three)?
At the end of the day being in a big market also creates a lot of opportunities to earn money off the court to make up for any potential hometown discount deals. At this point we don't truly know what motivates these players because they might want the biggest pay day, or they might want a big pay day but one that leaves the team more wiggle room.
Also, other teams have managed to put together supporting casts without having much room to work with. The Warriors managed to add Kevin Durant to their trio. They have managed to keep hold of Shaun Livingstone ($7.5m) and Andre Iguodala ($15m), and while being able to add other players like Swaggy P ($5m) to their bench unit. Ageing veterans have signed for them like David West and play a key role from the bench. They have even been able to bring in some drafted talent to come off the bench as well to help keep some costs down. So there are ways in which to build a competitive roster even with bloated contracts on the books. Plus if we retain our draft picks from next year we can add young talent to supplement the roster, and continue to utilize our ability to find and redeem players (i.e Burke, Williams etc). So it can be done.