Bulliever2020 wrote:Michael Jackson wrote:Bulliever2020 wrote:That stepback 3 to put us up 9 was an I'm here moment from Ayo. Looks like another stellar team friendly contract. Gotta give credit to AKME when it's due. Home run there.
In fairness Ayo kinda did it to himself by wanting to bet on himself and happened to re-up in a down year. He could still be on his rookie deal and be owed bigger money this offseason. It was AKME dumb luck.
Completely disagree. Most here did not want to resign Ayo after his down year last season. AKME could have easily just let him walk after that but they saw what kind of kid he was and thought he would continue to work to get better and that down year was just a blip. Can not just chalk that up to dumb luck. That's like calling Coby's contract dumb luck as well. Lot of people here hate AKME enough that they refuse to give him any credit at all when making the right decision. And this is definitely one of those instances.
Yeah, those are both pretty legit moves by a Front Office ... especially considering they don't have much room to move with (that problem is one done to themselves largely).
I'd also point to some fringe moves of theirs that further highlight their appreciation for solid, NBA capable impact guys.
-With not much room to make moves in 2022, they signed Drummond and Dragic. Dragic was exciting for a minute, but then obviously flamed out. But Drummond, that was obviously a massive steal (his impact was solid last year but never in full favor of the coach ... somehow we got him to stick around on a minimum player option! and now we are seeing him at HIGH impact even with limited minutes).
-In 2023, again, still real limited financial room to make moves, they worked a lot of good moves. Ayo+Coby obviously tremendous impact that could be made outside the cap. But, like Drummond, the Torrey Craig signing was terrific! He could have gone a lot of places; I don't know if bunch of FO didn't see his value and AKME did, or if AKME made the right pitch, or if he just wanted Bulls regardless ... but that's another bottom of salary barrel vet signing that is an obvious hit. Jevon Carter is interesting ... really was feeling like he was burning out until last night. But I think it was a great swing to take because we should be able to get out of him what he did last night, and that is huge value.
Look, none of that makes up for the big misses (Vuc trade, LaVine extension). But there is strength there in the FO still. I remember the GarPax years and it felt like most every fringe signing was always a disappointment. Nothing wrong with acknowledging some silver linings.
