No- I think everyone loves his personality, and I think everyone agrees that his contract has been an anchor for several years. The narrative that has changed is that people are now insisting that JT at $7m per year is not an overpay because Monroe got $16m and Lopez got $20m. People are confusing the fact that because JT's contract is less "bad" in comparison to other players, it is somehow no longer an anchor on our cap sheet. That other players got big deals does not change the fact that JT (under Karl's system) is $7m of dead cap space for a guy that will barely play 20 minutes.
Exactly! I see trading Thompson as nothing other than a positive. In addition to taking up a large salary he also took up minutes and minutes that hurt this team in my opinion. To those that like him I apologize, but he is not a good player. He is a one trick pony and that is one on one post defense. I know a lot of the media around here like him, he is a nice guy and a good interview, but these claims that he is a good rebounder, makes good plays away from the ball, and does the little things is a complete fallacy. I heard the same things about Chuck Hayes and they were a fallacy there as well. Having Gay or Cauley-Stein play those minutes is going to be great.
As for the money I think a lot of people are forgetting that these new contracts are getting based on the new salary cap that is coming next year. I would guess that a lot of these 4 year $60 million deals are back loaded to start growing beginning next year. Monroe and Lopez got new contracts, Thompson had an old contract. Under the new system Thompson probably gets $10 million, does that mean that his $7 million is a good deal? No it doesn't because we can't just base value off of dollars, but also talent level. In my opinion Thompson is a $4 million player, Monroe is a $10 million player, and Lopez maybe is a $12 million player if he is healthy. Bottom line, all three contracts are bad!
As we stand right now the Kings have zero bad contracts, that feels good. I hate to say this, but with Collison, Gay, and Cousins you might have to give D'Alessandro a little credit.