My stance since the pre-season has always been to wait for the sellers to come out at the trade deadline.
I speculated in the preseason that: Houston would be terrible, Fertitta's hospitality biz would suck, COVID would be bad for attendance/revenue for owners. Harden would demand a trade and PJ Tucker could be had for peanuts. Houston did some clever moves and they are ok.
Several of us speculated/debated on how many teams would-be sellers. Some thought the play-in game would make more teams interested in adding, I think it's a gimmick. I may be wrong there after seeing the Knicks add Rose. But I still expect there will be 6-8 sellers.
The Celtics didn't want to hit the repeater tax, so we all figured Gordon would be moved (
@nighthob had given us all the heads up on this since last season along with the cap/repeater situation).
Before the Hayward exit, a bunch of us wanted them to sign Gordon and move Kemba. BUT the Hayward deal dragged on for days and Danny missed out on all the good wings. A large TPE was a good option.
Question:
Why would I favor a large TPE if I didn't want them to add a player(s) with it?
You suggested the idea of signing Rondae Hollis-Jefferson or Trevor Ariza ($13MM?). I didn't think that was a good use of regular-season minutes or cap. I still don't. You felt it was imperative to sign a wing after GH left, my stance was to be patient.
Develop kids as players and as trade assets until the trade deadline when there will be more talent available and use some of the TPE. I believe that's what Danny is doing?
It's pretty basic, this stuff isn't exactly splitting atoms.
Here's my early Svi Mykhailiuk interest from 9/29.