u/Parallel-Quality

She came in saying "I know every single contestant that's here" and was basically bragging about doing her homework.

Which is great! That's exactly what all rookies should be doing!

But then we see her during the draft...

Firstly, she tells Chris that she wants Sydney. Okay, great pick. Chris says he will give her Sydney, if he gets Tori. We know how close he is with Sydney yet he didn't argue to get her, he was fine to give her to Anna Leigh, and he was happy to take Tori instead.

So Anna Leigh could get exactly what she wanted...

But instead she gives him Adrienne!?

This is quite possibly the dumbest move you could make.

Because Adrienne is not weak at all, we literally saw what she was able to do in eliminations and the Final last season.

So she gives Chris a good (maybe not great, but certainly good) competitor, but not someone good enough that he views it as a favor.

If you were going to try to weaken him, you obviously give him Deb or Reilly. We immediately see Chris give Deb to Justin, so clearly Chris does understand the strategy. here.

For Chris' second pick, he gives Reilly to Anna Leigh's team, once again showing he knows who the actual weakest players are.

What does Anna Leigh do? She gives Will to Justin's team. Sorry what? I know Will is a hothead, but he was a very strong competitor last season. Why aren't you giving him someone like Nelson, CT or Brad???

Even though the optimal strategy is to make a deal with the other Captains to get the players you want, absent that, you can at least get rid of the weaker players so they don't end up on your team?

Let's look at Anna Leigh's next pick... Michelle to Justin's team. Just why?

The Blue team was so clearly the worst team on paper by far, and of course they have been the weakest in the dailies and eliminations.

Anna Leigh doomed the Blue team from the start with her terrible picks, and while I do like her as a character on the show, she has no one to blame but herself for the fact that her team is performing so poorly.

The lack of balance between the teams reminds me of S40 where Era 1 was so much weaker than any of the other teams.

EDIT: Updated to reflect IHarts new contract, the NBA cap relief rule on Kenrich's vet minimum, and the updated rookie scale numbers for Mara and Stirtz.

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It is my belief that Presti's goal is to be under the second apron. There's absolutely no reason to go over it this season. Next season we will almost certainly go over with Cason's new deal, so it's important to avoid it this season.

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Let's work backwards from where we ended the season (Keep in mind, Topic and Sorber's salaries are already factored in as they were under contract last season):

We start at $28,574,372 above the second apron.

Dort sign + trade, or declined:

$17,722,222 off the books. Now we are $10,852,150 above the second apron.

Kenrich option declined:

$7,163,000 off the books. Now we are $3,689,150 above the second apron.

Aaron Wiggins traded:

$9,028,038 off the books. Now we are -$5,338,888 below the second apron.

Isaiah Joe traded:

$11,323,006 off the books. Now we are -$16,661,894 below the second apron.

Aday Mara rookie contract:

$5,972,520 added to the books. Now we are -$10,689,374 below the cap.

Bennett Stirtz rookie contract:

$4,864,560 added to the books. Now we are -$5,824,814 below the cap.

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This leaves us with $5,824,814 to fill two roster spots (4 guys out, 2 guys in, from last years 15-man roster).

Kenrich Williams has 8 years of NBA experience, making him eligible for a vet minimum of $3,507,488. However it will only count as $2,457,009 against the cap (thank you /u/Lower-Delay-5538).

If he accepts that contract, we have one more roster spot to fill at $3,367,805 to stay under the second apron.

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Keep in mind that this assumes we opt into IHart's $28,500,000 team option. There is also the possibility that we decline the option and re-negotiate something like a four year, 100M deal (25M per year instead of 28.5M).

Edit: IHart's contract has been restructured to $25,666,666 per year for 4 years. That gives us an additional $2,833,334 in cap space.

Assuming Kenrich accepts the vet minimum, we will have $6,201,139 in cap space to sign the final remaining player to fill out the 15-man roster.

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TLDR: We are going to be below the second apron this season and our young guys are going to get lots of playing time.

PSA: 2-way players do not count towards the roster minimum or second apron, so we will no doubt give a few two-way guys a shot as well.

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This guy is a Lakers fan but he provides a very insightful and unbiased breakdown on what the Spurs were able to do to SGA because they didn’t have to worry about J-Dub or Mitchell.

I watched the post-game presser so you don't have to. Here's a quick and dirty of the questions asked and Mark's answers:

Q: Your shots were leaning more towards the 3's

Mark:

-Thought the quality of our 3's in the first half was good

-Lucky to only be down 7 at half time

-Haven't played the Spurs in months, took a bit of adjusting

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Q: Dealing with Wemby in real time vs planning for him

Mark:

-He is great

-Need to learn a feel for him as you go

-Thunder did that back in December and got better against him as time went on

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Q: AC hitting everything, Spurs want him to shoot

Mark:

-He stepped up, incredible competitor

-Spurs were definitely funneling the ball to him

-He kept the Thunder in it

-We need more balance to our attack

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Q: Why did you sub out Isaiah so fast

Mark:

-It was always the plan to get Caruso in quickly

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Q: Shai's handling of the double team

Mark:

-We have to figure it out

-Spurs are good schematically

-We are good problem solvers

-We gotta solve some of these problems and be better in Game 2

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Q: Shai becoming more aggressive later in the game

Mark:

-We made some changes to get him some more looks as the game went on

-We have a lot that we can look at and improve on

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Q: AC guarding Wemby, why is it effective

Mark:

-Intelligence, instincts, competitiveness

-We defended well enough to win the game

-We lost the game on offense

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Q: J-Dub return from injury

Mark:

-He's on a soft minutes restriction

-Decided to rest him a bit in OT to decrease the risk

-J-Dub played great, especially in the first half, happy to have him back

-He does really intense workouts at the end of his rehab

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Q: Turnovers

Mark:

-Lots for us to learn from

-Need to acquire a taste for the opponent

-Spurs played a great game, deserved to win

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Q: Spurs not just limiting Shai but also Chet and Ajay

Mark:

-We have a lot of runway to improve. A lot of players can be better. We can be more intentional on the offensive end.

-We just need to rest, recover and get to work tomorrow.

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Q: Dylan Harper

Mark:

-We knew he was good. They have a great team, lots of talent.

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Q: Ajay's fast break 3

Mark:

-I don't like to micromanage individual possessions. We just need a couple more plays to go our way. There were 100+ of them in the game. I trust my guys to make the right play and be aggressive.

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Q: Caruso not starting 2OT

Mark:

-I often sub out to start OT to get fresh bodies in there and use our depth. He had played a lot of minutes, and they were hard minutes.

-I put him back in shortly after.

Mitchell played in the Thunder's 111-109 loss to the Spurs on December 13th.

He also played in the Thunder's 119-98 win against the Spurs on January 13th.

The 3 other losses? Ajay didn't play.

Now that people finally see how important Ajay is to the Thunder, is it crazy to say that missing Ajay was a big factor in why the Thunder went 1-4 against the Spurs in the regular season?