Enlighten me as to how mediocre ass free agents assist you in this grand “build the team via draft, trade, free agency etc.. until you get to the point that are you are good enough to attract free agents” strategy. What purpose do they serve? How do they help set a direction for the team?

If your goal is to preserve cap space, there’s an incredibly easy way to do that. Don’t spend it! Fill out your roster with young guys who have a puncher’s chance of helping you in the long-term and be done with it. You’ll either distribute the difference between your payroll and the salary floor evenly between everyone on your roster (Hinkie built up legitimate goodwill this way) or you’ll find a deal that makes sense for you in-season. There is no half-decent reason to light it on fire with Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams.

Phil did a lot of dumb things, but he’s already forgotten more about basketball than the current management team will ever know.

Strato = Reub?

I am arguing that that market is fairly efficient in general. It’s not like great deals are always available.

While it is very true that great deals are in fairly short supply, the market for NBA players is in no way efficient. A small market with extremely limited supply of talent coupled with ‘purchasers’ frequently using wildly inaccurate performance data (eye test) in a space where salaries are tightly restricted and failing doesn’t mean your business fails? Not remotely close to efficient and unlikely to ever be so.

Which isn’t to say that it should be opened up more or anything, just that it in no way resembles a free market and the analogy itself is not all that useful beyond the occasional ‘NBA FOs are undervaluing whatever so maybe someone can take advantage.’

In concept, I agree with you. In practice, Phil was open to dumb things.

Phil did a lot of dumb things, but he’s already forgotten more about basketball than the current management team will ever know. Despite his mistakes, he put the team in a good position going forward with KP, Dotson, Frank, and cap space (and Hernangomez) all without a couple of picks – which they immediately screwed up by putting Baker and Hardaway into his space and setting the rebuild back.

As far as I am concerned, all the evidence indicates these guys overvalue scoring, undervalue defense, overvalue individual shot creation and athleticism, and pretty much have no idea what they are doing EXCEPT drafting fairly well this year. And I’m not entirely sure who is responsible for Trier, Robinson, and Knox. I strongly suspect it was Gaines that was responsible for the first two and Fizdale for Knox.

For the record, I am in full agreement that Willy never should have been permabenched by Hornacek. It was one of many stupid moves that Hornacek made as coach of a rebuilding team.

Theory and reality often collide. He knew he was coaching for his job. So there were limits on how much developmental time he was going to give to Willy when Kanter and O’Quinn were still better.

There is no one sure fire way or right choice except being open to everything.

In concept, I agree with you. In practice, Phil was open to dumb things.

Boxscore data is fine in general, but the models are woefully bad with some combinations of skills (or lack thereof). I’d be the last guy to argue that coaches are always right in their minutes allocations. I’ve been calling Fizdale a pinhead lately. But when a lot of coaches are not playing someone that appears to be very productive based on boxscore stats, it’s usually not the coaches that are wrong. They are seeing negative things that are not being picked up in the boxscore.

I like Willy and wish he was still on the team. But he’s nowhere near as valuable as the boxscore says. Some of the things he does not do well are very valuable at his position.