AbeVigodaLive wrote:He might play more than 47 games... I'd hope the team isn't tanking that early in the season next year.
But do you think he's going to be playing in back-to-back games? Because he's been playing fewer and fewer of those and that curbs how many games he'll actually play right off the bat.
Not sure. I honestly don't see any reason why KG can't play some back to back. Cripes, I see 40/50 year old men playing every day at my gym for an hour. And they are not nearly in as good of shape as KG. I guess it all depends on how they want to use him. Personally, I'd rather they play him more games and less minutes vs. more minutes/less games. I think he can still be a very effective guy - especially in crunch time. Use him like a closer in baseball! :-)
Therein lies the problem. The young guys may start thinking this too. "Why can't he play tomorrow night too? He always talks about being in the fox hole together, yet I guess he gets to opt out of playing when he sees fit. Mmmmm."
khans2k5 wrote:Let's take a look at Thad's actual trade value for those of you who seem to think he had more than what we got.
1. He controls his destiny this summer with his opt out. You can immediately remove any team not fighting for a playoff spot because acquiring Thad would not meet any short or long-term franchise goals.
2. His 9 million dollar salary. That immediately eliminated the ability to trade him for a late first round pick with nothing else attached. 9 million is very difficult to match for a playoff contender when most just don't have bad contracts to salary match. They have high paid guys and low paid guys and their high paid guys actually serve a winning purpose on their team such that it would affect chemistry to bring in Thad at the cost of a rotation player.
3. He wasn't playing well this year. Nothing about his play was a ringing endorsement for him being the missing piece to put someone over the top. He didn't play well enough for someone to take a real chance on him especially with him being able to leave this summer for nothing.
These 3 reasons are exactly why he most likely could not have retrieved more in a trade than KG. KG was the perfect blend of a big enough contract who wasn't a significant rotation player for them to mess with team chemistry and on-court play. Thad said he was opting out. In that scenario he no longer serves a purpose on our team in the short or long-term. If he was a great leader then we should have kept him, but he was not a leader so trading him for a leader makes sense even if they are both expirings. How well do you guys think he'd be playing now with even less vets playing than when he was actually here? Keeping Thad doesn't change our injury history so he leaves for nothing and KG probably retires. Now that he's in the building Flip is much more likely to get him to sign on for 2 more years than trying to do that with no contact with KG until free agency or we get hit with tampering.
Memphis traded 1st round draft pick and Tayshaun Prince for Jeff Green just about one month earlier and Jeff Green has almost identical contract than Thad has. As a player Jeff Green is basically poor mans version of Thaddeus Young and he was still worth of 1st round pick when Boston traded him. So I don't see why some other team fighting for playoff position like Indiana, New Orleans or Toronto would not have been ready to offer something similar.
