Oh shit how did Dallas fuck up to not have him restricted?!
Ant also wasn't doing it alongside Luka. Huge difference.
Ant got a box and one treatment from multiple teams and was the primary focus of their entire defense for about three months.
This is a fact and a Knicks overpay should not set the market for anything. So just because Brunson is making way too much doesn't mean Ant needs to or will.
I don't know what three months we're talking about. He had a really good January and February (shortened due to allstar break) and two games in March. We can call that doing it for two months and we can agree that even though after about three weeks of that teams were throwing very challenging defensive schemes at him that he was beating, he was not beating them singlehandedly. The entire offense was geared towards getting him his looks. That doesn't mean it's not impressive. It means it's a limited sample size in which a really talented guy did what his team tried to get him to do while winning 12 and dropping 15. There were a lot of nights where those intense defensive schemes let Ant off the hook once the game was out of reach.
Yeah and the truth is I wouldn't let Ant walk for nothing but I don't think there's another team out there as dumb as the Knicks. Also there are only six teams with the cap space to make us pay more than 22M next season: Memphis who I don't think would want Ant and still has decisions to make about Tyus Jones, SloMo and Culver, Indy who has Brogdon, Hield, McConnell, Haliburton and Duarte so they don't really need more guard play, Orlando who has Fultz, Suggs and Cole Anthony who are all ball dominant guards and have bigger needs at other positions but I guess I could see them trying to fuck us over if they want to be dicks, San Antonio who is trying to trade away their star guard maybe thinking they can overpay Ant instead but I really don't see that being the case and Detroit who I think still has the cap space to fuck us after getting Kemba, Nerlens and Alec Burks but they also just drafted Ivey... so with Kemba and Ivey I don't plus a bunch of other young guards, I don't think they're going to play around with offering Ant anything.
I agree that we will not let Ant walk but look at the teams that have the room and tell me who it's going to be that throws out a punitive offer sheet (something long term starting at over 22M for next season) at Ant? I just don't see one of them doing it. I think Ant's contract has already been agreed to, I think Nurk's has too. That would be the only reason I could see the two of them going along with the tank in a contract year where they could have likely driven up their value in the free agent market. So, I just hope that whatever Joe got them to sit with isn't a big overpay.
"this isn't me shitting on Ant..." but lemme just go ahead and do it anyway.
It's a starting salary that's 2M more. I don't know why that wouldn't be about right. If I think 20M in the first year of his contract (which I assume will have the maximum annual raises) is a slight overpay of course I think 22M (with the same percentage more tacked on for every year we sign him after next) will be a problem. When I say a player's salary is pushing me beyond my comfort zone how much further does it need to be pushed to be a problem?
blasphemyThe difference between a good pizza and putting pineapple on it (which makes it better).
FAMS
we're gonna be a tax team for the near future. 2 mil is irrelevant
2 mil next season is irrelevant but I'm not talking about 2 mil next season. I'm talking about 4 mil because I think the right amount for Ant's contract to start at is 18M but I'm really not talking about the 4 mil because I think we're going to need Ant next season. I'm talking about the difference between 20 mil and 25 mil in the summer of 2024 when Ant has been playing out of position for two seasons and Shaedon has surpassed him at least at SG... so Ant's trade value is significantly different at 25 mil than it would be at 20 mil. So when I split the difference it's something I can stomach but that's as far as I can go without think we're being fucking irresponsible by bidding against ourselves.
If you take Ants career 100 possession numbers, which I believe to be the best way to gauge this…
