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Mitch Cumsteen

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Everything posted by Mitch Cumsteen

  1. And on cue, after I write that you shouldn't give max contracts to non-max players, Orlando gives Franz Wagner $45 million/year.
  2. I think it's fairly obvious that you can't have more than two max contracts if you want to maintain any sort of depth. And you really can't afford to be giving max contracts to non-max players. MPJ's contract has crushed Denver. I would imagine that there are going to be fewer max contracts thrown around. In that vein, I'm interested to see what happens to Brandon Ingram. Very good but not superstar level, 26 years old, and in the final year of a $36 million/yr contract. He's eligible for a $52 million/yr deal. The Pels aren't willing to pay it. I don't know who will. Before the 2nd apron stuff, I think teams would just bite the bullet and pay him but now? If you aren't good enough to be one of the two best players on a championship team, then you're probably not getting the max. Cost controlled contracts on good players are going to be more valuable than ever because it's like opening another roster spot. That's why Mikal Bridges went for so much -- he's on a great contract for two more years. I think this goes for rookie scale deals as well. Minnesota probably overpaid for the 8 pick in a cruddy draft, but they at least know they have that dude under contract for 4 years and know what that number will be. I think ideally, you would want a mix of: one superstar, a second star who if you are lucky is on a less than supermax deal, some veteran role players who are on $10-30 million/yr deals, an older ring chasing vet or two on cheap/minimum deals, and a pipeline of young guys with different developmental timelines on cost controlled contracts. But of all the scenarios you laid out, OKC is the no brainer. You'd rather have the assets to give yourself flexibility.
  3. When somebody says it's not about the money, you can bet your ass it's about the money. We're still a Nike school, right? I can't imagine it sits well with anyone in our program that the largest shareholder and founder of one of our corporate partners is actively undermining our recruiting efforts. This obviously isn't limited to Texas. It's a huge conflict of interest. I'm surprised more isn't made of it around the sport.
  4. Look the west is deep with very good teams but no great ones. Maybe okc gets there this year but otherwise it’s all about matchups. The wolves were this close to the finals. Also, if Dallas loses one more regular season game and they drop to the six seed, they probably lose in the first round and then the narrative is completely different. Minnesota matched up well against Denver, who probably beats Dallas if they played. The Lakers matched up well against OKC but terribly against Denver. Who knows what happens if the seeding goes a little differently. It’s rock, paper, scissors right now. Point being, things broke right for Minnesota. They had a great season but I wouldn’t let the results get in the way of critical thinking. They still have the worst cap / future picks combo in the league (other than Phoenix) and a murky ownership situation. Running it back this year with a $50 million tax bill is going to be ok, but things will get dicey with their depth sooner rather than later.
  5. I don't think the narrative has changed that much. There's a fine line between doing all things necessary to win a championship and pushing all of your chips into the middle of the table with a losing hand. You know, that whole discretion and valor thing. Regarding draft picks being overrated... I guess we'll see. It seems to be working out pretty well for OKC so far. I don't think it's going to end as well for teams like Phoenix, Milwaukee, and the Clippers. And I don't think it's going to work out so great for your Twolves, either, but I guess we will see. Also, unrelated but hilarious....
  6. Let the warriors overpay for him. I like LM but it’s not worth what they have to give up. And the timing isn’t right. PSA if you need a wemby fix you can catch him live tomorrow: The NBA App, NBA.com and @NBA YouTube will stream France’s five exhibition games ahead of the Olympics (local blackouts may apply). Game schedule and NBA players competing are below. Schedule DateOpponent July 3vs. Turkey July 8vs. Germany July 12vs. Serbia July 19vs. Canada July 21vs. Australia *All games will tip off at 3 p.m. ET
  7. I just looked at Tech's schedule. Woof. The only things running through Lubbock are cheap tickets and penicillin. Regular Season DATE OPPONENT TIME TV TICKETS Sat, Aug 31 vsAbilene Christian 6:30 PM BIG12|ESPN+ Tickets as low as $12 Sat, Sep 7 @Washington State 9:00 PM FOX Tickets as low as $45 Sat, Sep 14 vsNorth Texas 11:00 AM FS1 Tickets as low as $10 Sat, Sep 21 vsArizona State TBD Tickets as low as $17 Sat, Sep 28 vsCincinnati TBD Tickets as low as $21 Sat, Oct 5 @Arizona TBD Tickets as low as $16 Sat, Oct 19 vsBaylor TBD Tickets as low as $27 Sat, Oct 26 @TCU TBD Tickets as low as $100 Sat, Nov 2 @Iowa State TBD Tickets as low as $51 Sat, Nov 9 vsColorado TBD Tickets as low as $73 Sat, Nov 23 @Oklahoma State TBD Tickets as low as $61 Sat, Nov 30 vsWest Virginia TBD Tickets as low as $14
  8. Sure, this contract was about maximizing his next contract, but the third year option maintains much of his leverage over the franchise. They have been talking about this extension (and him possibly going to NY) literally from the day that he got traded from Utah. It's been looming the entire time. In the meantime, he got the coach fired. They are probably going to move off Garland. Whatever they do with Mobley and Allen, I imagine he will have to sign off on. I guess in this day and age, it doesn't really matter because every star has leverage and can just demand a trade whenever the hell they feel like it regardless of contract status, but this one feels a little more sticky to me for whatever reason. I could be way off, here. The point of the CBA is parity. They have legislated out the super teams, and it's going to be so good for the league. It very well might suck for franchises that have three guys on max contracts, have a murky ownership situation and have mortgaged all of their future draft capital though.
  9. It's way too overindulgent and lumbering. The great parts (and there are no doubt some great parts) are too few and far between. They could have done that entire season in probably 4-5 killer episodes. I love this damn show, but this season was some bullshit.
  10. Great for Cleveland that they retain him but with that third year option he’s got them by the short and curlies for the foreseeable future. He’s clearly won the power struggle in that org, and we all know how well it usually works when your best player decides he’s going to play GM in his spare time. Does he have kids that will be draft eligible anytime soon? He also sets himself up with a second ridiculous extension if he opts out because he will have 10 years service by then.
  11. They also got a trade exception and don’t have to pay a zillion dollars in luxury tax for a play in team.
  12. The two signings of Joe (4/$48) and Wiggins (5/$47) are also killer values for OKC.
  13. The issue with Markkanen is his contract. It's complicated. Not too get too far into the minutiae of the CBA regarding extensions, trades, timing and dates, but it's going to be more difficult for Utah to move him than it appears. I'm pretty sure the Hartenstein signing takes OKC out of the running. Basically, you can't extend LM until his contract hits year 3, which is Aug 27 and you have to extend him into cap space. You can't trade someone that you extended for 6 months, which would be post trade deadline. You can't extend someone that you trade for, for 6 months. And everybody needs to hit the salary floor in October. The only teams that could hold close to enough cap space for an extension are probably the Spurs and Pistons, and even so it would cost LM some money. If Utah trades him to a team that decides not to extend him until the end of the season, then it's going to cost LM about $15 million. All of that is a long way of saying, that there really isn't that much of a market for LM and Danny Ainge isn't going to be able to bend anybody over for him. The most likely scenario is that he stays put in Utah, unless he wants to take a decent sized haircut and/or take a risk of getting injured in a contract year.
  14. Yes. Awful. Disgusting. I'm now going to go take a 45 minute long shower in the fetal position.
  15. First off, fuck you for making me defend Chris Paul. Second off, here's what the records were of every team Chris Paul joined the year before and after he got there. 2011 Clippers: 32-50 2012 Clippers: 40-26 2017 Rockets: 55-27 2018 Rockets: 65-17 2019 Thunder: 49-33 (They traded PG13 during this offseason) 2020 Thunder: 44-28 2020 Suns: 37-36 2021 Suns: 51-21 2023 Warriors: 44-38 2024 Warriors: 46-36 I think the Warriors stat is useless given context to everything else going on there, but the only time he didn't improve the team was when the Thunder decided to gut their entire roster, and they still were only 4 games worse. People were expecting them to completely bottom out, and they made the playoffs. I hate that sumbitch, but he plays winning basketball. And third off, well, duh. You already know this, but signing Chris Paul to a one year deal isn't about this team making a run this year. It's about instilling a winning culture and mentoring young players. His being healthy for a playoff run isn't going to be the difference in playing for a championship. Even if he plays 82 games and never gets hurt, this team's ceiling is probably the play-in. The west is still brutally deep. The only outright tanker is going to be Portland, potentially Utah, and maybe any other team that still owns its own FRP and gets its star injured and decides to throw in the towel on the season.
  16. It's a slight overpay by OKC, but who the fuck cares when you have that many guys on rookie deals and the 27th lowest payroll in the league. Great signing. That's a filthy team when you add Caruso and Hartenstein to the team with the best record in the west and only lose Giddey who got played off the floor in the playoffs. And I think other than Caruso who is only 30, they are all like 26 and under. And they have the most future draft capital in the league as well. Fuck those guys.
  17. Fucking OKC, man. I don’t know where those next two Clippers picks are going to end up but got dam. That trade would have been a fleecing if it had just been SGA for PG3. I continue to be impressed with Dallas front office moves. Marshall isn’t quite the athletic defender Jones Jr is, but he’s a very solid two way guy who could really blossom with more minutes. The other thing about DJJ is that he’s had health problems that have stunted his career. Those type of guys always seem to work out well when they sign with the Clippers. Fucking OKC, man. The one signing I’m really scratching my head about is Washington with Valencunious. What the fuck? They could accidentally end up winning some games with him and Kuzma. I guess Jordan Poole will put a quick end to that, but it still makes no sense to me.
  18. Look I hate that little fucker. I was reminded by my son last night that the two house rules I gave him a few years back were that he wasn’t allowed to root for Chris Paul or do heroin. But he was a great mentor for SGA when he was at OKC. He was great for Booker and even that bum Ayton at Phoenix. Both those teams started their upward trajectories when he was there. The Spurs have literally no vets on this team to show these guys what it’s like to be a pro and how to win. None. There’s only so much the coaches can do. The learning curve is too great for them to figure it out on their own. You gotta have veteran leadership. You just do. I think this will be fantastic for Castle’s development. This is a big year for Wesley. Even Jones isn’t a finished product. Chris Paul is an annoying, flopping, nut punching, whiny cunt but that State Farm whore has a PhD in point guard. This team was rudderless in crunch time. They lost so many close games that they couldn’t finish because they just didn’t know how. CP may be washed, but he’s going to get them into the right sets. He’s not going to panic. He’s going to get them good possessions at the end of games. It’s going to translate to wins. Don’t get me wrong. I will almost assuredly throw up in my mouth when I see that dickhead in black and silver but I think I’ll get over it the first time he hits Vic for a lob that none of his other teammates could even contemplate.
  19. No that’s the best part. We still get to keep Chris Paul from getting a ring.
  20. Nose officially held. For $11 million and only one year, this is a no brainier. Hoping for Batum next and another shooter.
  21. Failure? Not for the Spurs it wasn’t. There’s still a decent chance that the rest of the east out tanks them but that’s a play in team ceiling if everything breaks right for them. Jesus what a terrible franchise.
  22. Fantastic move by Dallas to get off that money and now being able to sign Derrick Jones Junior while staying under the cap. Grimes can eat up some minutes too. Mavs front office has been killing it over the past year. Grant Williams was a mis-step but they rectified that one.
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