Posted by kcsundevil on 6/5/2014 11:11:00 AM (view original):
"That girl kissed me once, she's mine forever."
See, but it's comments like this that belittle what the original dilemma really is.
Everyone has a limited budget, and you don't get to save it from year to year.
Therefore, you are forced to either spend money near the end, or save it for defense, knowing that if nothing comes for you, you have set fire to that money.
The quote above is acting as if the person doesn't want to battle that gets attacked late.
Rarely the case. The other guy is using a strategy to wait until the first coach uses his money trying to upgrade late in a cycle, and then come in. Thus avoiding a battle.
And when it happens to you on the last cycle, it can blow up your class. There is no doubt that it is valid, albeit a little weasely, strategy. I guard against it. You have to learn to. That said, the people who recruit like weasels year after year, usually do poorly in the long term. Because trying to secure a great class by swooping people at the last second rarely is the path to building a star class.
Almost invariably when it has happened to me, it wasn't a player worth battling for. I had a tapped out player that I got considering me with just one scouting visit a few seasons. He was destined to be a career backup. And yet, I had someone swoop him on the last cycle. So, that represents more money they would have had to spend on a player that doesn't make your team better substantially.