Yes, I don’t think they valued him that high. Hell, I don’t think they really value him that much at all. Sure, the perceived going rate was not giving up a first rounder. But it’s a question on how much you want to gamble. The gamble they took was the risk of NBA landscape changing. The only thing required for landscape to change drastically is one injury, one trade, or one unexpected free agent signing. A similar thing is the whole Conley debacle. Now, I don’t necessarily believe that Conley is the answer, but with the fact that they wanted him enough to really hold the whole team in limbo for a week. If they valued him that much, why was the sticking point Dante Exum? We try to haggle a little more out of a deal and let it not get done because of something meaningless to the deal. Again, I get that you don’t want to overpay to get someone like Conley... but they were prepared to do it, so they obviously feel stronger about it than we do, which makes it odd that Exum is the deal breaker. It’s like buying a car from the dealership, a car you really want and a deal you really want to close on, but you walk out because you want the gift certificate for 5 nights at the movies.
