The Official NBASupes, Sothron, and theCampster Insider Thread - NBA 2022-23 Season

[bleachkit]

7 minutes ago, AHF said:

The only thing I can see is that teams had room to absorb salary this summer and there is less certainty as to how many teams will be able to do that mid-year and so the decision was made to unload Kevin when it was certain we could get under the tax line.  But this same issue was raised at the time of the trade because the NBA is quite flexible as far as when you need to be under the tax line to avoid the tax (and collect from tax paying teams).

The various reports aren't flattering to the Hawks. Appears we have a meddling owner, who is also a spendthrift, and entrusts his unqualified son to have a hand in basketball operations. No wonder everyone is leaving. 

[AHF]

1 minute ago, bleachkit said:

The various reports aren't flattering to the Hawks. Appears we have a meddling owner, who is also a spendthrift, and entrusts his unqualified son to have a hand in basketball operations. No wonder everyone is leaving. 

2/3 of the league doesn't pay the tax so I don't think that is the reason for the exodus in the front office.  That is because they removed the top man and his team left with him.  Clearly Ressler and Fields had their friends they wanted in those roles so likely was welcomed by both sides.

As far as being a spendthrift, I get the idea that you either want to be really in the tax or not since the difference between being $5M over the tax line and under it is $40M in actual cash.  That is not insubstantial.  As fans, we'd rather see the owner put competitiveness first and that clearly wasn't the case with the Huerter trade.

[bleachkit]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

2/3 of the league doesn't pay the tax so I don't think that is the reason for the exodus in the front office.  That is because they removed the top man and his team left with him.  Clearly Ressler and Fields had their friends they wanted in those roles so likely was welcomed by both sides.

As far as being a spendthrift, I get the idea that you either want to be really in the tax or not since the difference between being $5M over the tax line and under it is $40M in actual cash.  That is not insubstantial.  As fans, we'd rather see the owner put competitiveness first and that clearly wasn't the case with the Huerter trade.

We could of had Huerter this year though. I dont understand the urgency to do it right then. 

[sturt]

24 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10061960-report-trae-young-was-fined-by-hawks-for-using-private-jet-during-2022-nba-playoffs 

 

 

Yeah, this is a huge story that seems to be getting meh reaction. Potentially, anyway. Who knows, maybe Trae would have a different explanation for the decision... maybe a family illness or something not team-related... but on the surface, as Jay said, it begs questions about Trae's leadership that he should want to address instead of just letting people presume the worst. Even if it was the worst. In that case, you at minimum want to own it, and talk about how you'd do things differently in hindsight.

[JayBirdHawk]

1 minute ago, bleachkit said:

We could of had Huerter this year though. I dont understand the urgency to do it right then. 

That is the questions most have asked.  I did say at the time of the trade, if this was a precursor to another trade it would make sense.  Making a trade as a tax paying team severely limits how much salary you can take back in a trade, so being under the tax at that time would be better.  But alas no such trade happened.

[macdaddy]

13 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

This biggest reason Tony does not want to pay the tax is simple.  He wants his share of the tax payment by the 10 or so teams that have to pay the tax. 

10 teams were tax payers last year total ~$676 million dollars.  Divide that by the 20 non-tax paying teams that is $33.8 million. Tony is not passing up on $30+ million to pay $5 million in tax.

The luxury tax money, which is the penalty for illegally exceeding the salary cap, is collected by the NBA and then re-distributed equally among teams that did not pay luxury tax.

We can't have Huerter I'm strapped for cash.

[JayBirdHawk]

4 minutes ago, sturt said:

Yeah, this is a huge story that seems to be getting meh reaction. Potentially, anyway. Who knows, maybe Trae would have a different explanation for the decision... maybe a family illness or something not team-related... but on the surface, as Jay said, it begs questions about Trae's leadership that he should want to address instead of just letting people presume the worst. Even if it was the worst. In that case, you at minimum want to own it, and talk about how you'd do things differently in hindsight.

I take no issue with taking the charter in of itself - the biggest issue was not informing the team. Be better Trae!

[bleachkit]

Just now, JayBirdHawk said:

That is the questions most have asked.  I did say at the time of the trade, if this was a precursor to another trade it would make sense.  Making a trade as a tax paying team severely limits how much salary you can take back in a trade, so being under the tax at that time would be better.  But alas no such trade happened.

I wonder if it was supposed to be the JC trade that Ressler allegedly vetoed. 

[AHF]

2 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

We could of had Huerter this year though. I dont understand the urgency to do it right then. 

Right but if you reach this point in the season and try to get under the tax line your options are much more limited.  That means right now you have two options:  the Spurs and the Pacers.  No one else has the cap space to eat anything material.  No chance to deal with Sacramento or any other team.  How does the value compared when those teams are shopping their cap space to everyone who needs it?  (Like teams over the tax line can use that space to help them make trades to compete, etc.)  

I clearly would have wanted to see them hold Huerter and try to deal him to a team under the cap with room to eat salary but I can understand the idea that it is uncertain which teams could be in position to get the Hawks under the tax line midseason and the idea that you would be over a barrel in negotiations given those limited options.

[AHF]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I take no issue with taking the charter in of itself - the biggest issue was not informing the team. Be better Trae!

I have an issue with both.  The team needs to be together after games to build toward improvements, imo.  You need to be on the team  flight patching up your wounds together.  Bad for morale to have guys traveling on their own in general but especially in the playoffs.

[JayBirdHawk]

2 minutes ago, AHF said:

I have an issue with both.  The team needs to be together after games to build toward improvements, imo.  You need to be on the team  flight patching up your wounds together.  Bad for morale to have guys traveling on their own in general but especially in the playoffs.

I say that to say, I don't know if there was a personal reason he needed to take the flight back and needed to get back immediately or not even back to Atlanta - that is the part that is missing.

[bleachkit]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

I have an issue with both.  The team needs to be together after games to build toward improvements, imo.  You need to be on the team  flight patching up your wounds together.  Bad for morale to have guys traveling on their own in general but especially in the playoffs.

Another Trae flaw, he is prickly and defensive. I wonder if Nate or teammates had some unflattering critiques of his play after that game 2 loss and that spurred the charter flight separate from the team. 

[terrell]

9 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

The strategy is easy

• Trae
• Dejounte
• Hunter
• Simmons
• Capela

You can either keep Trae as the primary ball handler, or run the offense more through Simmons ( who doesn't want to shoot anyway ).  Trae gets to run around like Steph Curry and shoot a ton of spot up 3s, while still having the ability to attack with the dribble drive.

Trae, Dejounte, and Hunter handle the bulk of the scoring.  Simmons facilitates.  Capela plays his offensive rebound game in the paint.  The defense potentially becomes even better.

"Trae get to run around like Steph"

Stop it...

[macdaddy]

2 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I say that to say, I don't know if there was a personal reason he needed to take the flight back and needed to get back immediately or not even back to Atlanta - that is the part that is missing.

Trae wasn't healthy in that series.   I'm not excusing it because it's bs but knowing Trae he wanted to start resting and getting treatment on that ankle.    I hope that was the excuse anyway.  

[terrell]

16 minutes ago, sturt said:

Yeah, this is a huge story that seems to be getting meh reaction. Potentially, anyway. Who knows, maybe Trae would have a different explanation for the decision... maybe a family illness or something not team-related... but on the surface, as Jay said, it begs questions about Trae's leadership that he should want to address instead of just letting people presume the worst. Even if it was the worst. In that case, you at minimum want to own it, and talk about how you'd do things differently in hindsight.

Wasnt his wife pregnant at the time?

Maybe that's it.. Who knows though. He seems to be able to do anything he wants to do..

[macdaddy]

3 minutes ago, terrell said:

Wasnt his wife pregnant at the time?

Maybe that's it.. Who knows though. He seems to be able to do anything he wants to do..

I just can't imagine that no one knew he left.   I mean are they waiting on the tarmac for him to show up or what?

[bleachkit]

27 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

This biggest reason Tony does not want to pay the tax is simple.  He wants his share of the tax payment by the 10 or so teams that have to pay the tax. 

10 teams were tax payers last year total ~$676 million dollars.  Divide that by the 20 non-tax paying teams that is $33.8 million. Tony is not passing up on $30+ million to pay $5 million in tax.

The luxury tax money, which is the penalty for illegally exceeding the salary cap, is collected by the NBA and then re-distributed equally among teams that did not pay luxury tax.

The system was meant to make the league more equitable, but I wonder if it could be having an opposite effect where only the tax paying teams have any chance of competing for a title. Or maybe the point is to compensate teams who have no chance. 

[sturt]

17 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I take no issue with taking the charter in of itself - the biggest issue was not informing the team. Be better Trae!

Just what-iffing....

What if he'd also did the same fairly recently for the same reason and his explanation would be that he presumed that the team would naturally presume he was repeating what he did before.

I mean, it's mainly a matter of us not having fuller insight into the episode. And until then, I'm content with the ambiguity and acknowledging we don't yet know what we cannot know.

[JayBirdHawk]

44 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

We can't have Huerter I'm strapped for cash.

This sums it up quite nicely. 

[bleachkit]

25 minutes ago, sturt said:

Just what-iffing....

What if he'd also did the same fairly recently for the same reason and his explanation would be that he presumed that the team would naturally presume he was repeating what he did before.

I mean, it's mainly a matter of us not having fuller insight into the episode. And until then, I'm content with the ambiguity and acknowledging we don't yet know what we cannot know.

He was fined by the team for doing so, I'd hardly call that ambiguous.