Crabbe being cheaper was not an option. It was either match BRK's offer or let him walk for nothing (really and truly nothing). Neil (Paul, really) took a gamble that Crabbe would improve. He didn't. So, we traded him to BRK for a $12.9 million TPE. Even with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, the options came down to not match and get nothing (actual nothing), or match, get a year of play from Crabbe and a $12.9 million TPE. You're compaining about getting nothing for Crabbe, which is EXACTLY what we would have got if we hadn't matched BRK's offer.
Last summer was a use it or lose it situation with regards to cap space. With C.J.'s extension kicking in, we were going to be over the cap this summer, and for the foreseeable future. So, it was use that cap space or lose it. Unfortunately, there were a LOT of bad contracts handed out last summer. Sure, in hindsight, we overpaid for Turner, but there were a lot of worse contracts handed out (Parsons, Noah, Mosgov, Deng, Ryan Anderson, etc.). Could we have done better than Turner? In theory, but remember the player also has to want to come here. That's what the free in free agent means. Neil went hard after Whiteside, and he later stated POR was his second choice. Neil offered him the most he could, but Whiteside chose to stay in MIA instead.
We were already over the cap when we resigned Meyers. We resigned him using his Bird Rights. We could not have offered that money to anyone else. Should we have paid him less, probably, but we didn't miss out on anyone else by signing our own player using his Bird Rights.
BNM