NBA history is dominant player A's team beat Dominant player B's team. Of course Duncan himself didn't beat Bron........Kawhi did.
(But thank you for helping me shine even more light on my point)
From a revenue standpoint, Lakers SF is worth every penny.
From a roster construction standpoint, Lakers SF age 40 is NOT, I repeat, NOT, worth 51 million dollars.
Spurs Center age 30-31 was no longer relevant. First round fodder. He had two HOFers IN THEIR PRIME around him but they were zero threat to win anything for years until he took a huge paycut, they nailed a mid first round draft pick, and added depth to the roster like Diaw and Green they would not have been able to if Duncan took a full salary.
If Laker SF wasn't taking 51 million, our roster would be better, right? But he isn't taking less, is he? He keeps signing extensions at his full max values, limiting what we can do with our roster.
And then when it matters (playoffs) and we need "everybody" to pitch in, we have this list of players
Wood
Cam
Max
First round pick bust
Jaxson
Castleton
Dinwiddie
Gabe Vincent
To "help". That's EIGHT guys. Some played, some didn't game 1. Eight. Zero points. (I'm excluding Vando because he actually is highly skilled at something helpful, otherwise it would be 9)
That's a lot of guys on the roster collecting dust. Not helping. And we can't really upgrade them when 51 million goes to the oldest player in the NBA. We let Caruso walk over money. We couldn't pay Malik Monk more money. And we don't replace either guy (or their hugely needed skillset, Caruso a defensive stud, Monk an offensive stud)
If Bron didn't take full Max value contracts in his upper 30's, we might have both guys dressing tonight. (Or insert whatever other players we might have signed instead, these are just specific examples)
39 years old.
Elite offensive stats.
Can't play back to backs.
Doesn't play defense like he used to (other than occasional short bursts)
Takes full Max salary, limiting roster possibilities
He's not locking up Jokic. He's not locking up Jamal Murray. And we can't for the life of us figure out why we are 0-9 vs Denver these last two years......
But he gets a raise this summer.
