I'd say this: The difference between Tony and me is the classic reporter vs. analyst conundrum.
Tony is better at cultivating and keeping sources than I am. That has a ton of value, obviously. But it also means that sometimes, he'll sometimes act as a mouthpiece for the organization in order to protect or stay in the positive light of his source. Like, this week,
he wrote "The Jazz like Tony Bradley... It’s not like they are sitting up in an office thinking they
have to find another big to back Gobert up." And in reality, the moves today showed how they absolutely felt they had to find another big to back Gobert up, and told TJ the opposite in order to maintain favor with their player and try to keep his trade value high. Tony will usually avoid the negative.
On the other hand, I tend to report things as I see them, informed by both some sourcing but also mostly a dose of reality. You guys watched Tony Bradley. The Jazz watched Tony Bradley. And sometimes, yeah, I heard their stock spiel about how much they like him. And then sometimes, I heard their honest real-life criticism of him, which was "yeah, this guy is killing us right now." And, you know, the numbers showed that he wasn't good, so I reported that. But then I write about how Bradley isn't good or Exum isn't good or how the coaching staff wanted Mirotic, and that kind of negative coverage doesn't lead to improved relationships, haha, and it probably holds back that side of my career.
Anyway, regarding the OP's two screenshots, I don't think they're as opposite as they appear. I think it makes no sense now to use the whole MLE on a big like Fav will probably get, but there are other ways to add lesser bigs in free agency if they want, but they may not have the roster space to do it.
(Also: Tony and I are like best friends. We, no joke, talk on the phone multiple times a day. He's great. He's nominated for Utah Sportswriter of the Year, and would deserve it. He's the weirdest bestest human.)
