When BB was shopping, Atlanta was his second choice after the Bucks. That summer we were expected to continue our streak of hot garbage while Atlanta offered him an opportunity to slot next to Trae, be protected by Capela and a lesser extent Collins while having young bucks to take defensive assignments over his ability and shooters all around.
Maybe we could have lured him with a near max contract, but then he’d be much harder to construct a winning roster with than he is now.
I’m pretty OK with RJ, Fournier, Burks, Grimes, and Knox seeing what they can do.
For what we might've given to BB, we signed Burks, Noel, Taj and Elfrid.
We pretty much re-upped Burks and Noel for BB money, saving a year's commitment on the back end with team options.
Cutting loose Elfrid and Frank paid for Rose's re-up.
Icing our #19 pick for, perhaps, one season, and moving down from 21 to 25 paid for one more year of Taj's insurance/mentoring and added Quentin Grimes.
Converting #32 to #34-36 got us THIBS' love child Deuce McBride
and a promising Lithuanian PG in Rokas Jokubaitis.
Oh, and with the remainder of our cap space, we inked Evan Fournier and KEMBA WALKER.
So yeah, BB is a damn nice player, but his long term signing would've hamstrung us going into 2021-2022, denied us a year to evaluate Randle, Noel, Burks and Rose, let alone Quickley and Toppin.
You seem to think that BB represents a significant greater skill set than Fournier. Stat wise, he surely benefitted from the chemistry of playing with Trae Young.
Woulda
Coulda
Shoulda
I am cool with the cumulative totality of The Knicks' moves. Randle gave us a hometown discount, we maintained continuity and rewarded competency, got a solid contingent of draftees to develop and brought back a hometown hero to form a veteran PG platoon with another reclamation product, and mentor our young combos.
PS: All during the Finals I thought of BoD and his incessant carping about
Bobby Portis every time he made a winning contribution to the Bucks championship run. Perhaps, you were wrong.
PERHAPS?