bball – Monta Ellis now has the chance to see if he can be “the man” or not. Let’s see if his numbers hold up (especially the FG%).

As much as I like Iggy, he is not worth $80M at this point of his career. And neither is Deng. Buy if Arenas can get $111M then anything’s possible.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/1081178,CST-SPT-bull30.article

I think resentment, feeling disrespected, or whatever you want to call it is almost unavoidable because the entire process is adversarial. The player is trying to build himself up and show how he is better than others out there in order to get max dollars. Meanwhile, management counters by producing evidence to show that he is not worth what he is asking for and trying to keep his salary as low as possible. Even though everyone knows that’s how the game is played, it still must be difficult to keep it from getting personal. I mean, you’re not haggling over a car, you are negotiating over yourself, which is the very definition of personal.

Regardless of the sport, ownership and management has the upper hand so, as a player, you are always fighting an uphill battle. That being said, I can understand the difficulties from management’s perspective. Is Iguodala as valuable as we think he is? Our very own Dannie has labeled Lou Williams as a core chemistry player, but nothing that can’t be replaced. Unless you are talking about a Kobe or a LeBron, it has to be very difficult to assess what a player brings. Is he truly good in and of himself to the point where he makes his teammates better? Or does he look better than he really is because of who he is playing with? In many cases it must be very difficult to tease out who fits in what category and therefore who is worth paying and keeping and who is replaceable.

Speaking of teasing out a player’s true value to a team puts me in mind of the Pistons. If you pulled any one of their starting five out and placed them on another team, I wouldn’t see that player being the clear #1, unquestioned leader of that team, regardless of who you selected. I realize that Ben Wallace isn’t phenomenal, but he did a heck of a lot more for the Pistons than he has done for the Bulls. The Pistons have very good players that have blended into a fantastic team. They all help each other to be better than any of them could be individually. If the Pistons start to dismantle, I think teams will end up over paying for each individual player based on that.

What about us? You mentioned Iguodala and Young. Does Iguodala make Young look better than he really is, does Young make Iguodala look better, or do they help each other equally? Even if Iguodala makes Young look better (which I think he does) now, do we see something in Young that tells us he will be more valuable than Iguodala in the near future so he’s the one we should focus on keeping? Again the same goes for Lou. Is he really just a replaceable player or is he more valuable to us than he would be to another team? There are lots of questions swirling around that make for very interesting discussions.

I’m sure you’ve just gotten a lot more than you expected when you asked your questions. Next time be more careful.

Sorry about the 4 posts in a row Dannie, and anyone else who reads them, got a little excited.

Madness it is, just madness