garbageman wrote: Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:29 pm
Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Congrats on going all out and winning your first championship. For those who haven't one a ring yet, can you describe how it feels?
Thank you! I think winning a title just gives you a sense of satisfaction that you finally built something that worked. For me personally, it was great to get my "revenge" against the Spurs after they beat the Sixers in Game 7 from the S53 Finals. EazyP has built a monster over there in Alpha so to at least get them once was cool. I just wanted to give him a shoutout too for being such a gracious GM before, during, and after the Finals in our chats. I also appreciate everyone giving kudos on Skype chat immediately afterwards too. Plus, I did it before AB could with OKC, and he introduced me to the game!
garbageman wrote: Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:29 pm
And do you think those teams are going to emulate your high risk/high reward plan when failure all but guarantees they won't get another shot at the title for a while?
Tough one, I sure hope someone would try (because it is a lot of fun) but I dont think any of the current GMs will go to the extremes I went. I'll divide the GMs into two camps. For the OG GMs who have not won a title yet, I'm 99% sure they wont because if they had never tried in 50+ seasons, why bother now? These guys have proven they can build solid teams capable of playoff runs and that is enough satisfaction to keep playing and that's cool too.
For the batch of new GMs (Blazers, Cavs, Kings, Lakers, and Suns) I do not think so either. I was always a little surprised the Blazers did not try again after getting De'Aaron Fox, but I think he became more cautious after that gamble did not pay off. Heading into the offseason I actually thought the Suns were on the verge of doing so because they were so aggressive from the onset, but they passed on Dangerfield/Reynolds so it is a moot point now. Of the remaining GMs I think the Lakers have proven to be the most aggressive, but I just dont see it happening with Caruso's free agency looming next season. I think greeple has the pieces to make that push, but it's easy for me to say DO IT when I'm not the one who could lose a future All-League talent. I do give credit to AB for taking a swing at Delmar Lopez this offseason but he never spends points so he has the bank to cover the bill.
Finally, the Kings and Cavs are both interested in building teams that are perennial playoff contenders. They are both very competitive so the eventual tanking that happens once you are in tax jail is not appealing to either of them (surprising for the Cavs GM because he is
SO GOOD at losing already). Overall, I think GMs enjoy playing this game season after season because you can be flexible with your roster builds. Once you are in tax jail all that freedom disappears so I definitely get why not many teams try this approach.
