thedoper wrote:Is the Pek Signing Good, bad ugly or unknown? I guess unknown because I have no idea.
I see this signing as neither good, bad or unknown...I see it as a neutral, in that $12 million seems to be about what Pek is worth. Perhaps last year I thought it was a net negative for Flip, because it seemed we didn't have any competition in pursuing Pek. But the Gortat signing makes me see it in a new light. I see Pek as a slightly superior player. He is significantly more productive offensively and that difference is more significant than the difference in the two on defense. Gortat is the better rim protector, averaging a block a game more than Pek, but Pek is the better defensive rebounder and also uses his body well man to man. The other factors are age and durability. Pek is three years younger, which is significant, but has also struggled to stay on the court the past three years while Gortat is coming off an injury-free season. But the two previous seasons Gortat only played 65 games each, so I would argue that Pek's youth relative to Gortat offsets his lesser durability. So all in all, I see
Pek as the slightly superior player, lending some credence to the argument that Flip's deal was appropriate.
I think you can arrive at the same conclusion if you look at Pek's salary relevant to other centers. If you look at overall center rankings, Pek usually falls somewhere in the 9-13 range. So his 12th largest salary seems to be appropriate in light of his position ranking.
Because Dieng was a prospect and Turiaf a career backup, and because Pek is popular with the fans, Flip needed to sign him. And getting him for an appropriate number seems like an okay bit of work by Flip...not really good or bad.
I still am confident we could thrive with Dieng and Turiaf at center, and in light of more pressing needs (like an upgrade at SG) I still think Flip should try to move Pek. The Gortat $12 million for 5 years makes me more optimistic that a lot of teams won't wince at Pek's 4 remaining years at $12 million.