Do you remember any big name FA’s going to small market teams? It may happen every once in a while but it is the exception by far. Teams like Milwaukee, Utah, Charlotte, Indiana, Denver, Minnesota, Sacramento….they need to draft well and make smart trades because the big names aren’t coming there. Outside of a player going home (Cleveland) or joining a perennial contender (SA) even smaller FA’s don’t go to these small markets. You wonder if LA comes back, do they sign a friend? Wes? Gee? Sergio?
So Neil has his work cut out for himself. Either through connections, Jedi-like mind tricks, or more likely shrewd trades that don’r require player consent. He made a max offer to LA last year and LaMarcus turned him down, then put a team around him that was withing a game of the #2 spot in the was with a couple months to go. You have to hope as a GM that is enough to get a player to stay. Otherwise, it is bad to getting quality talent on inexpensive contracts and hoping you can develop them. Maybe Stotts will finally play young guys if that is all he has.
In terms of trades or the Draft, of course Gobert would have been a good get (as D69 told us all) but a ton of teams passed on him. Trading him to Chicago? The Bulls had no interest in giving up Noah or Mirotic...it was a collection of Gibson and crap. Now the #1 pick that Cleveland was offering for a PF that was either Love or Aldridge? That I would have looked at big time.
