Players like Maggette and Larry Hughes are always available.
Very true statement. I was actually thinking of Hughes while just reading through this old thread that was somehow revived today. I feel like every year there's a player like Hughes (or Maggette or Mike James or Ricky Davis or...) who some team signs just because he's available and the team has X amount of dollars to throw around, even though those players don't ever seem to fit in a teams long term goals.
"Well we have $8 mil in cap space and so-and-so goes for about $8 mil and is the best player on the market this year at that price, so let's sign him!"
Sometimes you get lucky by being able to use him as a trade chip later after it doesn't work out for someone(s) with a similar salary and it works (like what Cleveland did with Hughes). But players like that I feel more often than not tend to be stop gaps that never work, let's sign him because he's the best available right now even though he doesn't really fit with what we're trying to do.
Maybe we sign Posey this last off season and repeat, but that's it. We won two champhionships so it's cool, and it works.
But maybe we don't sign Posey this year, don't win, but next year sign Rasheed to the mid-level and win in say '10, and '11. (I know we could theoretically sign Posey this year and still sign Sheed, but as much as it feels like it, this ain't monopoly money, and I don't recall any owner spending the mid level every year).
FYI - not comparing Posey to Hughes or Maggette, because Posey is a good fit. I was more trying to say, don't just spend money and/or bring in a player because you can (which many teams seem to do every year). More of an all around NBA comment, then about Posey and the C's not bringing him back.
This is how it seems to go, the Warriors sign Maggette to "fair market value" then when he doesn't work out they trade him to some other team for 60 cents on the dollar. Then when he doesn't work out on that other team, they have to trade him for 30 cents on the dollar. You think you're getting a good deal, but you're really just crippling yourself in later years because those players are never the answer. At least that's how I viewed the transactions involving guys like Larry Hughes (when he signed with Cavs) and Mark Blount (when he signed with C's) and Antoine Walker (when he signed with the Heat).