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The question with Ball is that of value. What can we do with the savings of letting him walk. If we can improve the team more with that money than with keeping him, we should do so. If not, they should re-sign him and go from there. I see something in the $18 million a year range as his sweet spot. Even if the Pels renounce Ball and Hart and release Gabriel, they will likely not be able to create enough cap space to get a player for that amount in free agency and fill the roster with anything other than league minimum players. At that level or less, his contract is still a tradable one and not an albatross.
I see no value in keeping a guy who is going to hinder the development and playing time of the young kids like Kira and NAW. Both Bledsoe and Ball needs to be unloaded this offseason and the FO needs to stop playing games and build the roster around Zion asap. The time you have to sit and wait to move him is another season of mediocrity. Take the L and sign guys like Otto or Hardaway Jr and call it a day.
The issue is that people always think like this in the single year.
Think about Asik - this was the logic in keeping him. All we would have had is 3 mil to replace him so you have to keep him when you think of it in the context of that one seaeon. But then future seasons came up and we would have had some flexibility if he wasnt on the books.
People get so worried about losing a guy "for nothing" but there is always opportunity costs gained and future flexibility that is more possible.
I have been trying to teach people this for years but stop thinking about it as losing a guy and instead imagine he was never on the team. Would Ball be a top option you went after this year to pay big money and take minutes feom other young guards and flexibility away in future years? Of course not. Always reverse your thinking and the answer becomes clear because you remove fear and bias
@mcnamara247
No one here needs to to "teach" us anything as if your opinion is all that counts. Stop being so condescending. My point is that if he is better as an asset, you keep him and use his contract as such. I believe you made a similar comment just a few weeks ago about a contract at that amount is very moveable in today's NBA.
If you could get Ball at $16-$18 million or a much lesser player at a lower salary due to being a below the cap team, I would choose Ball and use his contract in a larger trade later if needed.
That last play in regulation was one of the biggest Lonzo brain farts. Also he took a very early 3 pt shot when we were up. I thought his bb IQ was higher
Lonzo at $16-18MM is logical. Looking at the guys making that amount right now, Bertans, OG, Fultz, Adams, Aaron Gordon, Capela, Harris, Issac, Levert, Rubio, Rozier, Turner, Bogdan, Bledsoe. If you can get Ball to agree to that deal, you can find a team to take that deal if it doesn’t work out for him here in NO.
If you Jimmer it, they will come.
An argument for a guy should never be "there are some other overpaid guys, so we can have one too. And if he dorsnt play well, then we can probably get off his contract"
Again, you guys are having faulty logic because you think of him as already here and him leaving as losing him for nothing. If he were never here, you would not have him as a top 10 guy in this market you would give up that money to.
SVG must be compensating for not having coached in a bit. Whatever he is doing is not only failing, but it is extreme (given his defensive tendencies). He was brought in to deal with less mature guys and if anything the play has become even more void of discipline. I am just not sure what is going on. I hear Ingram studies film and wants to get better but he has had anything but an all-star season. Bledsoe should not be on this team and the front office made mistakes getting bound with his salary. I just don't see SVG staying after this season and he might be quicker to resign and retire before he gets the heave.
I really don't understand this weirdness around Brandon Ingram with some of yall. It's just weird. Many of his numbers have increased vs the all-star year last year.
Outside of the Knicks game, just had a 3-game stretch of 32/6/5 on shooting splits of 48/39/96. Yes he has some bad shooting nights but so have many other wings. Devin Booker went 9-24 last night. Jayson Tatum a horrendous 3-17 in a bad loss last night. This is just an odd, grind-it-out year for players. Ingram has been comparatively pretty damn good.
Now also apply this odd year to a young with with a new coach. Just because Bledsoe has been horrible doesn't mean the entire team has checked out. Defense for young teams with new coaches are often bad even in normal years with full off-seasons.
So what's happening this year is not unexpected and sure isn't some reason for SVG to quit.
You might be right, but this team is not performing as expected. That sounds like front-office talk. I have generally thought SVG was a good coach and the situation in New Orleans is not a true reflection. Bledsoe is 30 years old and should know better. I do believe he will tell the media what he wants to tell them but body language does speak. Maybe Ingram's numbers have improved, but the overall look doesn't reflect that. The loss of games in the last minutes, the choice making. I don't know.
But he is here, and he does have chemistry with the team, and that isn’t a bad contract. Him leaving frees up more money for us to do what? He isn’t some dinosaur like Asik who is two generations too late, he is a talented player who has made steady improvements to his game.
You move on from him, you get those mins and cap space to do what you want, what are you expecting? More playing time for Bledsoe, and cap space for another Favors/Adams/Bledsoe trade?
Chemistry based on what? He threw a few lobs?
He has a good month or so every year and that gets the optimists juices flowing. But he has had 4 years now of overall below average play. If he was the 26th pick in the draft and played EXACTLY the same over the first 4 years, would you be advocating for 16-18?
Of course not.
Read it again. Read it twice. Nowhere in anything I typed, did I say YOU are weird. I said some of the takes on this board around Ingram are weird, and they are. I gave a few numbers to illustrate what I meant to support that.
Lots of players lose games in last minutes. Did you see Giannis with Milwaukee last night? I almost felt bad for him because that was not pretty. Ingram has also won some games with big shots recently.
This team has lots of issues to sort, but Ingram isn't one of them.
Last edited by luckyman; 04-20-2021 at 11:17 AM.
And to be clear, I'd say 90% of this team's issues are in the back court. NAW provided some stability as far as a level of play, even when his shot wasn't falling.
Him going down with that ankle might have been the nail in the coffin.
Great breakdown of Lonzo's game vs the Knicks. The 3 and D role is just not it. If you know basketball it's obvious.
You dont build a scheme around an average to below average player - to make him the best he can possibly be. You do that for stars. I mean, I am sure there are ways we can make Adams look much better, but you dont make that a priority.
He has failed in numerous opportunities, in different roles. And if he showed ability to be as great as this guy thinks he can be in those moments when he was playing other ways, a coach would bend over backwards to design a team around him. But I guarantee you he will never be the player this guy seems to think he can be and the blame will always be on someone else. Like there is some great talent underneath it all and there is a conspiracy to hold him back
It was brought up by someone on Twitter earlier (can’t recall the persons name, and want to give them credit), but just as Zo left his man for that 3, BI also left his man (who was on the 3pt line). Neither of those guys weren’t prepared for Bledsoe’s brain fart.
Perhaps Zo’s best option is to leave for a system that knows how to use him. Van Gundy hasn’t bounced around the league so many times because he knows what he is doing with players. It’s either ditch Van Gundy or roll with the young talent we have. The two can’t coexist.
Regarding MM’s comment:
“He has failed in numerous opportunities, in different roles. And if he showed ability to be as great as this guy thinks he can be in those moments when he was playing other ways, a coach would bend over backwards to design a team around him. But I guarantee you he will never be the player this guy seems to think he can be and the blame will always be on someone else. Like there is some great talent underneath it all and there is a conspiracy to hold him back”
I am not sure if that’s describing Ballor Van Gundy. Perhaps it’s discussing them both.
Last edited by UNO Gracias; 04-20-2021 at 12:20 PM.
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