Game 7 between the Nets and the Bucks starts in a couple of hours... Certainly the Nets are the favorites to win this, but people usually tend to ignore some of the most important factors which are related with winning or losing and in this game doesn't only mean "going home early for this season" as it does for the Bucks if the Nets lose this... It rather is a total disaster for the Nets if things go wrong and the Bucks get promoted over them...
Let me explain...
The Nets are currently 40M over the lux tax threshold, which means they will be paying another 60M to the league in taxation this season, but also have many empty roster spots upcoming which they can only fill if with minimum contracts, or by resigning their own players... As it stands, they are already committed to be 35M over the lux tax for the next season without even considering the empty roster spots.
It simply means that the Nets can only be worst for the seasons which will follow, while the Bucks will be significantly better! The executives of the Nets do know that and therefore, they know that if they lose to the Bucks this season, they are as good as dead a season later and they will have to blow the team up instead of losing insane amounts of capital against a competition which betters its position continuously...
It simply is a difference in culture when the decisions are taken on how to develop a winning team... There are two approaches, one is "lets put our money and buy the championship" (Lakers, now Nets) , the other is "lets built up a super team bit by bit which will last and contend for many years to come"...
Therefore tonight, it not only is "an early exit for the loser"... It also is a battle of cultures in which the Bucks lose little (only the season) if they get beaten, but the Nets lose absolutely everything if the Bucks can take them out... It also explains why the Bucks have chosen to play the Nets this early instead of the Eastern finals (a 2nd round exit forces the creation of panic on the investors which lose their huge amounts of money).
Still the Nets are the favorites to win this... but the pressure is on them and the psychological advantage is with the Bucks...
Let me explain...
The Nets are currently 40M over the lux tax threshold, which means they will be paying another 60M to the league in taxation this season, but also have many empty roster spots upcoming which they can only fill if with minimum contracts, or by resigning their own players... As it stands, they are already committed to be 35M over the lux tax for the next season without even considering the empty roster spots.
It simply means that the Nets can only be worst for the seasons which will follow, while the Bucks will be significantly better! The executives of the Nets do know that and therefore, they know that if they lose to the Bucks this season, they are as good as dead a season later and they will have to blow the team up instead of losing insane amounts of capital against a competition which betters its position continuously...
It simply is a difference in culture when the decisions are taken on how to develop a winning team... There are two approaches, one is "lets put our money and buy the championship" (Lakers, now Nets) , the other is "lets built up a super team bit by bit which will last and contend for many years to come"...
Therefore tonight, it not only is "an early exit for the loser"... It also is a battle of cultures in which the Bucks lose little (only the season) if they get beaten, but the Nets lose absolutely everything if the Bucks can take them out... It also explains why the Bucks have chosen to play the Nets this early instead of the Eastern finals (a 2nd round exit forces the creation of panic on the investors which lose their huge amounts of money).
Still the Nets are the favorites to win this... but the pressure is on them and the psychological advantage is with the Bucks...
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