Some teams go crazy over the salary cap and essentially buy their trophy. Other top tier players sign for considerably less than they are worth on the market to help a team build a super team. I'm not sure how the league stops the imbalance, because the flip side is the insane number of teams playing for the bootom and best odds at high draft picks.
The way that Toronto, Boston and Philly (and maybe some others) have built their teams is awesome. The future has not been mortgaged for a win-now mentality and they are doing really well with developing young talent in house. For all the talk about how Toronto can't compete with Golden State and previously Cleveland - personally, I'm fine with that, because I really like watching the young picks do well and watching the organization grow as it has.
As for Normal Powell - if he doesn't pick it up before the end of the playoffs, they may move him. That's a lot of salary that could be used to resign one of the other young guys who are delivering every night. It sucks because I like Norman and I'm not sure what his funk is.
As for Valanciunas, I used to get ****** at Casey because I felt he catered to the way the other teams were playing, rather than dictate the pace and tempo etc. Last year, Jonas would ride the bench for long periods of games because of 'match-ups'. This year Valanciunas is playing very composed and Casey has been giving him a better run in close game situations and overall. I think having Poeltl play so well has allowed him to let Jonas sit more, but not because Jonas hasn't been doing as well, but because Jakob is doing a great job and can almost split the minutes for the centre position 50/50 with Jonas. I'm hoping for big things out of both those guys this post season. I agree that it seems like Casey chooses to sit him and play the young guys when Jonas is killing other teams. I guess it's a good problem to have, because I remember having Rasho Nesterevic as our primary guy.
I completely buy into the whole playoffs are not the same as regular season thing. I just think that with Kevin Love coming back and also the team trying to properly integrate the new players, the odds are not as favourable for Cleveland as they have been in the past. Not that they aren't capable, because they might just trounce the Raps again this year, but because they don't have the same familiarity as they did in previous seasons, it should be a difference maker. Next year I think Cleveland can come back really strong with a full off-season and regular season to integrate the new guys and make some minor changes. But for now, yes, I think that (barring injuries) if the Raps move the ball well on offence and play swarming defence, they are the post season alpha in the east.
