Larry & Jerry's: Insight Flavor
Feb 13, 2019 15:40:38 GMT
Ian Noble, Walt Frazier, and 4 more like this
Post by Jerry West on Feb 13, 2019 15:40:38 GMT
Ever since joining Dynasty 5ive during the summer, I've been lucky enough to be learning under the wing of one of the most experient members of the league, Larry Bird. A man who has been a member for the past ten years and pushed Indiana to the playoffs five times in the last season seasons.Larry & Jerry's: Insight Flavor will be a journal of those learning times, with the intention of giving some insight into the way of thinking of both Larry Bird and me, and the thought behind our moves, starting at the beginning of the 2018/19 season.
Quick note: Although I actually joined the league on the 4th of July and was offered the Assistant GM role by Larry Bird shortly after, I was more of a passenger along for the ride during the first couple of months, were looking back I felt like my advice was short-sighted due to my lack of knowledge of how the league worked and paced itself, lucky enough Larry was smart enough to know which of my suggestions were good, and which weren't so good (straight up bad or horrible).
So here we are, unfortunately, after missing the playoffs last year, and with our highest rated player and starting Point Guard, Isaiah Thomas, out for the season, things weren't looking great. We're probably not good enough to make a run in the playoffs, but definitely not bad enough to tank. So we were stuck in NBA purgatory. Add to that having players who already peaked on long overpaid contracts, and you can say the Pacers were in the worst position has a franchise that they've ever been in. A team who once upon a time had players like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Paul George, was starting the season with a lineup of Rajon Rondo, Wesley Matthews, Harrison Barnes, Danilo Gallinari and Jonas Valanciunas, with all of them being on 3 years or longer contracts with the exception of Wesley Matthews.
So after coming home from the off-season fishing, we knew we had a lot of work to do, here's the list of players on our team who were on a 3-year deal or longer, and their respective contract:
81 Harrison Barnes $26,606,250 $28,462,500 $30,318,750 $32,175,000
80 Danilo Gallinari $25,301,380 $28,084,531 $31,173,829(PO)
80 Jonas Valanciunas $24,440,000 $25,380,000 $26,320,000
79 Patrick Beverley $12,321,000 $13,676,310 $15,180,704
77 Michael K Gilchrist $13,875,000 $12,750,000 $11,625,000 $12,750,000
77 Rajon Rondo $9,036,450 $9,714,184 $10,442,748(PO)
75 Jarrett Allen $1,399,600 $1,635,300(TO) $2,951,717(TO) $4,398,058 (QO)
74 Andre Roberson $5,000,000 $5,375,000 $5,750,000 $6,125,000
The problem here isn't the quality of the players, Gallinari was better than his rating showed, being an All-Star last year and a Top 10 scorer up until now, Andre Roberson and Jarret Allen were both on great deals and will be worth their contracts up until the end of them. The problem was paying so many good players All-Star money, and average players good players money. This meant not only that we weren't good enough now, but also that we had our hands cuffed in the offseason to sign any meaningful players. And also meant we were bound to eventually lose Isaiah Thomas, and would probably have a hard time matching offers for our younger players like Bobby Portis or Jarret Allen and thus forcing us to make the same mistakes as before with Giannis or PG, where young talent wasn't given enough time to develop, and we weren't interested in making the same mistake once again.
And here's where we'll leave the first part of this journal, just giving away a general idea of the position the franchise was in while getting ready for the new season, here's the recap:
Season objective: Fight for homecourt advantage if lucky enough to avoid injuries.
Short-term flexibility: None.
Long-term flexibility: None.
Top 3 most valuable players/assets: Jarret Allen, Danilo Gallinari, Isaiah Thomas.
Draft picks:
2019: Indiana 1st.
2020: Indiana 1st, Brooklyn 2nd, Lakers 2nd, Grizzles 2nd.
2021: Indiana 1st, Indiana 2nd, Nets 2nd.
2022: Indiana 1st, Indiana 2nd.
Franchise biggest problem: No flexibility, and overpaid players.
Quick note: Although I actually joined the league on the 4th of July and was offered the Assistant GM role by Larry Bird shortly after, I was more of a passenger along for the ride during the first couple of months, were looking back I felt like my advice was short-sighted due to my lack of knowledge of how the league worked and paced itself, lucky enough Larry was smart enough to know which of my suggestions were good, and which weren't so good (straight up bad or horrible).
So here we are, unfortunately, after missing the playoffs last year, and with our highest rated player and starting Point Guard, Isaiah Thomas, out for the season, things weren't looking great. We're probably not good enough to make a run in the playoffs, but definitely not bad enough to tank. So we were stuck in NBA purgatory. Add to that having players who already peaked on long overpaid contracts, and you can say the Pacers were in the worst position has a franchise that they've ever been in. A team who once upon a time had players like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Paul George, was starting the season with a lineup of Rajon Rondo, Wesley Matthews, Harrison Barnes, Danilo Gallinari and Jonas Valanciunas, with all of them being on 3 years or longer contracts with the exception of Wesley Matthews.
So after coming home from the off-season fishing, we knew we had a lot of work to do, here's the list of players on our team who were on a 3-year deal or longer, and their respective contract:
81 Harrison Barnes $26,606,250 $28,462,500 $30,318,750 $32,175,000
80 Danilo Gallinari $25,301,380 $28,084,531 $31,173,829(PO)
80 Jonas Valanciunas $24,440,000 $25,380,000 $26,320,000
79 Patrick Beverley $12,321,000 $13,676,310 $15,180,704
77 Michael K Gilchrist $13,875,000 $12,750,000 $11,625,000 $12,750,000
77 Rajon Rondo $9,036,450 $9,714,184 $10,442,748(PO)
75 Jarrett Allen $1,399,600 $1,635,300(TO) $2,951,717(TO) $4,398,058 (QO)
74 Andre Roberson $5,000,000 $5,375,000 $5,750,000 $6,125,000
The problem here isn't the quality of the players, Gallinari was better than his rating showed, being an All-Star last year and a Top 10 scorer up until now, Andre Roberson and Jarret Allen were both on great deals and will be worth their contracts up until the end of them. The problem was paying so many good players All-Star money, and average players good players money. This meant not only that we weren't good enough now, but also that we had our hands cuffed in the offseason to sign any meaningful players. And also meant we were bound to eventually lose Isaiah Thomas, and would probably have a hard time matching offers for our younger players like Bobby Portis or Jarret Allen and thus forcing us to make the same mistakes as before with Giannis or PG, where young talent wasn't given enough time to develop, and we weren't interested in making the same mistake once again.
And here's where we'll leave the first part of this journal, just giving away a general idea of the position the franchise was in while getting ready for the new season, here's the recap:
Season objective: Fight for homecourt advantage if lucky enough to avoid injuries.
Short-term flexibility: None.
Long-term flexibility: None.
Top 3 most valuable players/assets: Jarret Allen, Danilo Gallinari, Isaiah Thomas.
Draft picks:
2019: Indiana 1st.
2020: Indiana 1st, Brooklyn 2nd, Lakers 2nd, Grizzles 2nd.
2021: Indiana 1st, Indiana 2nd, Nets 2nd.
2022: Indiana 1st, Indiana 2nd.
Franchise biggest problem: No flexibility, and overpaid players.