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FREE AGENTS 1. Kevin Durant, Warriors (if he exercises option) 2. Kawhi Leonard, Raptors (if he exercises option) 3. Kyrie Irving, Celtics (if he exercises option) 4. Kemba Walker, Hornets (unrestricted) 5. Klay Thompson, Warriors (unrestricted) 6. Jimmy Butler, 76ers (if he exercises option) 7. D’Angelo Russell, Nets (restricted) 8. Tobias Harris, 76ers (unrestricted) 9. Kristaps Porzingis, Mavericks (restricted) 10. Khris Middleton, Bucks (if he exercises option) 11. Nikola Vucevic, Magic (unrestricted) 12. DeMarcus Cousins, Warriors (unrestricted) 13. Julius Randle, Pelicans (if he exercises option) 14. Al Horford, Celtics (if he exercises option) 15. Marc Gasol, Raptors (if he exercises option) 16. Bojan Bogdanovich, Pacers (unrestricted) 17. Brook Lopez, Bucks (unrestricted) 18. DeAndre Jordan, Knicks (unrestricted) 19. Malcolm Brogdon, Bucks (restricted) 20. Nikola Mirotic, Bucks (unrestricted) 21. Paul Millsap, Nuggets (if team doesn’t exercise option) 22. Goran Dragic, Heat (if he exercises option) 23. Danny Green, Raptors (unrestricted) 24. JJ Redick, 76ers (unrestricted) 25. Harrison Barnes, Kings (if he exercises option) 26. Marcus Morris, Celtics (unrestricted) 27. Thaddeus Young, Pacers (unrestricted) 28. Rudy Gay, Spurs (unrestricted) 29. Ricky Rubio, Jazz (unrestricted) 30. Derrick Rose, Timberwolves (unrestricted) |
DRAFT LOTTERY (top 14) 1. Pelicans 2. Grizzlies 3. Knicks 4. Lakers 5. Cavaliers 6. Suns 7. Bulls 8. Hawks 9. Wizards 10. Hawks (from Mavericks) 11. Wolves 12. Hornets 13. Heat 14. Celtics (from Kings) |
371 thoughts on “2019 NBA Draft and Free Agency ”
I’ll start this off. I think the Suns should trade Booker.
Trade Booker for who though?
That’s the reason I wanted to start with this topic regardless of how unrealistic is seems. The point I’d like to make is that there is so much talent league-wide that I can’t imagine there not being an excellent (or at least very good) trade package for all considered. For Booker. At least on paper.
It doesn’t have to be Booker. It could be Lillard. Davis. Beal. Simmons. Embiid. etc. For me it comes back to something said publicly by David Griffin (now GM of the Pelican’s): every GM is constantly considering all trade scenarios no matter how far fetched. With all this talent in the league and all the $$ flying around, I can’t help but wonder if we’re about to see off-season player movement like we’ve never seen before.
Next topic: how will Ja Morant change the Grizzlies?
1) Conley won’t be his backup so there will be a trade for a valuable player that runs and passes and scores and hopefully defends.
2) Is Jaren Jackson a reasonable fit alongside Morant? This question needs to be addressed asap. I think the answer is “yes”.
3) Morant defends well which is just another great reason to make the pick and never look back. However, Memphis will never again be known as the lunch-bucket ground and pound engine of the league. On the other hand, just like the Spurs and the Celtics, the Grizzlies will be hard-pressed to give up their “defense wins” approach. In my opinion, you don’t blow it up and start surrounding Morant with runner and gunner shooters. But who do you surround him with?
I have no clue, but I’m inclined to say that you take this slow and easy.
I didn’t ask the question with an answer in mind, but now that I asked it and read it an answer seems crystal clear: TJ Warren. That’s not a straight up trade, but Warren for Conley makes a ton of sense to me. Conley is 31 years old. Warren is 25 years old.
No one should complain about this idea. Meanwhile Suns have the #6. What to do with it?
I agree that Morant and Jackson are a good fit. Grizz don’t have to completely blow up the team, but they’ll need to unload Conley (Delon Wright can be the back-up PG if they resign him) and if they can also unload Chandler Parsons, that would be helpful. CJ Miles only has one more year left on his contract, so they can keep him around as a somewhat useful bench shooter. Right now, it looks like Valanciunas is the starter center and Kyle Anderson is the starting SF. Neither is a great shooter. Avery Bradley is the starting SG for now and his shooting and D make him a keeper for now. Unless Anderson gets significantly better, they should look to upgrade at SF and push Anderson back to the bench. I think you hit the nail on the head with the idea of swapping Warren for Conley. Memphis should be all over that.
The big story this morning is the ESPN report on how dysfunctional the Lakers have been under Magic and Pelinka.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26821790/lakers-20-failed-reboot-nba-crown-jewel
Neither Magic nor Pelinka (nor Jeannie Buss for that matter) come off well in the report. It confirms the reports of Pelinka being a liar (or a storyteller as he describes himself), but neither of them look like good managers. All of this is likely to keep the Lakers from signing the top free agents, but the #4 pick and the young core make for great trade chips.
my thoughts …
1) Buss is way beyond “not very bright”.
2) I’m assuming Pelinka is let go before the end of this week. He better be, but then again there’s point #1 above.
3) Was the Walton sexual abuse accusation a setup by Pelinka?
4) Everything I thought about Magic as businessman and GM has been confirmed
5) I’m amazed at how many men I know like Pelinka. That Buss (upon Kobe’s endorsement?) decided on him tells me she knows nothing at all about men. This is someone you DON’T trust to be part of your business.
6) No change of opinion on the Magic vs. Pelinka thing. In fact, now Magic looks much worse for being so public in his comments. Much more petty than I thought earlier.
7) Magic’s basketball IQ may still be among the best, but … well, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that the HIV treatments are to blame for some loss of intelligence or memory or both.
That Magic can act like such a child makes me wonder about other “egos” in power positions across the NBA. Now I’m wondering about Kidd. I’ve always thought Oscar came across as a foolish child. It confirms everything I ever thought about McDonough. We heard the stories about Mark Jackson and continually hear what comes across as childish foolishness on TV.
People with $$ (mostly owners) fall into this trap over and over again. I guess it’s about “respecting a big ego”? All these people are storytellers which I agree is often the same as lying. Magic, McDonough, Isiah, Jackson.
You know who looks good coming out of this? Kareem. West.
I know I’m rambling here. “The way Big-Men act” is a sore subject with me. It’s why I want to replace most of congress and all of the president with women. Well … halfway intelligent women anyhow.
I just wrote quite a bit more on the subject of “top free agents” but it all got wiped out somehow. I won’t repeat what I was writing except to say that I don’t see how this affects the ability to sign Kyrie or Kemba or Bogdanovich or Cousins. I’m assuming Pelinka is let go and replaced with someone “Billups-like” but not named Billups. Or Kobe. Or Kidd. And after reading the story I guess the last name Rambis doesn’t work too well either.
This Linda Rambis thing is killing them because it seems unlikely to ever get “fixed” or cleared up. Seems like the whole point of that relationship is to maintain the mystery of it all.
Again, I feel like I can ramble on forever starting with wondering if LeBron will demand a trade and/or if all of this explains why Paul George decided against the Lakers so quickly last year. I never believed all this BS about players not wanting to play alongside LeBron (well … maybe some players don’t but who cares?), but I do believe that KD and Butler in particular wouldn’t go to the Lakers because of the dysfunction alone.
I does seem like what *needs* to happen is a sit down: Rambis and Buss with the idea that Rambis does everything in her power to distance the relationship with the Lakers.
yeah … right
Apparently Linda Rambis has some kind of official role as Executive Director of Special Projects, whatever that means. She sat in on the coaching interview of Monty Williams for some dumb reason and is a big supporter of Pelinka. Kurt Rambis is very tight with Phil Jackson, who Buss still relies on for advice even if they aren’t dating anymore. This is a messed up situation at the very top.
I agree with you that Pelinka needs to go, but I am doubtful that it will happen given the Linda Rambis support. Unless LeBron demands a trade because of this situation. Then maybe the Lakers deal with the situation in order to appease LeBron. I’m doubtful that LeBron does this however because he is in LA for more than just basketball reasons.
One other much smaller story on the Lakers dysfunction is this…
http://www.jeffpearlman.com/on-the-lakers/
Seems their PR department is worse than it used to be.
And that story ended that way I should have expected, but didn’t. More of the same … “Jeanie remains Jeanie—the best owner in sports from a media standpoint. And, despite what people seem to be saying, I absolutely love Linda Rambis.”
I know nothing about the writer of this story. He might be the best around, but here we are again with the favoritism. It’s rampant and it goes deep. Not saying it’s wrong, but he put it in there because he felt the need to put it in there.
Reminds me of high school and facebook. Cliques abound and are often impenetrable for no reason other than that they exist to maintain their existence.
I know Pearlman’s work fairly well. Used to read his stuff in SI, have read most of his books, and follow him on Facebook to find his short columns and interview series he does. His books are incredibly well-researched and that was where he was coming from about Buss and Rambis. They were accessible to him and gracious with their time when he researched his book on the Showtime Lakers. That’s why he phrased his comments about them “from a media standpoint.” However, he also linked today’s ESPN article and said it was great work and the article clearly notes the problems with Buss and Rambis. So while he had complimentary things to say about Buss and Rambis because of his past dealings with them (and I prefer that a reporter be upfront about things like that), he wasn’t shying away from linking to great reporting that was highly critical of them. More to the point though, he was adding his two cents to the ESPN article to say that the Lakers’ PR staff and accessibility has become awful since his prior dealings with them. Further evidence of the dysfunction in Lakerland.
Sure. I’m guessing he’s great and I like what he wrote. His comment about how great they’ve been to him just reminds me of what’s going on and how it got to this point: cliques and supporters form a shell around those inside therefore insulating them from things that they should know, people they should talk to, criticism they should hear, etc etc.
An idea I can’t get out of my head: shouldn’t 70% of the GMs be wondering how to get their hands on Siakam? Considering the unique and well-rounded skillset and height, and assuming Raptors blow it up …
Sure would like to see him on the Suns but that would involve moving Booker somewhere … likely the Raptors. I guess I’m answering my own question: to get Siakam you need to give up a star that probably won’t commit to Toronto long term. So … you move him for draft picks but one of those has to be a very high draft pick. And then you’re left asking if THAT guy wants to commit to Toronto long term.
I guess this is the plight of these “bad-NBA-cities”. Your only hope is to find and then somehow retain great players that claim to want to stick around. It all adds up to a mess for Siakam and Love and Towns and … we’ll see what Kemba decides to do. Hard to think of Charlotte as a bad NBA city but that’s where we’re at. At least Brooklyn and Orlando appear to be coming around. Maybe the others will too, but not holding my breath.
If the Raptors were to “blow it up,” I don’t see why that would include Siakam, unless Siakam has made it very clear to them that he will not stay after his contract is up next year and, even then, he is only a restricted free agent if Toronto makes him a qualifying offer (which they surely will). So Toronto basically has Siakam locked up for the next two years. If I’m Toronto and assuming they lose Kawhi, Gasol, and Green in free agency, then I try to trade Lowry and Ibaka (each have another year on their contracts) and rebuild around Siakam, VanVleet, and Powell. FWIW, Siakam is from Cameroon, where French is an official language, so he may like Canada and Toronto in particular is a very worldly city.
Agreed, but I think my point is a little more detailed than this or rather it was meant to be. Blowing up a team should start by assessing all your assets, then adjusting expectations based on the assets and a reasonable timetable and then deciding how to work within that timetable to build more assets and then a winning team. So point #1 is that Siakam works within any timetable for any team starting with the Raptors. Any reasonable timetable starting with Siakam, Powell, VanVleet, Anunoby and picks from trades would be summer of 2021 for playoffs at the earliest and 2023 for title contention at the earliest. Something like this.
My point relates to trading Siakam *only* if you can improve upon your current assets while keeping that timetable. I have no idea exactly how GMs think about this, but it seems pretty clear to me: there aren’t many shooters in the league as good as Booker for instance but there are a lot of shooters who are in the same category. There aren’t many scorers in the league as good as Lou Williams, but quite a few that are somewhere in the same ball park. But when it comes to Siakam’s skillset different story. There’s an enormous drop off after listing the guys in his category of “does everything well”. LeBron, Kawhi, KD, George, Doncic, Iggy (listing him just to add more guys to the list), Dray, Butler and then who else? I really hesitate to include Hayward here so I don’t. Same with Middleton. A couple guys have the potential to get into this category *maybe* (Oubre and Ingles and who else?). This is a really tough category to get into unless you’re already there. So … I’m listing only 7 other players in the same category as Siakam (Iggy drops off because of the age). This means only 8 out of 30 teams can have a player like this: Jack of all Trades and Master of Several.
All a very verbose if not long-winded way of saying that sometimes it’s worth it to trade away more than you get on paper. If, for instance, Booker wanted to play in Toronto then how is a Booker for Siakam trade valued/analyzed? Clearly it isn’t without matching $$. Still, for most this is lopsided because Booker is arguably a top 20 player if not better and Siakam is what .. top 35? Just making a point albeit an unrealistic one because Booker isn’t likely to stay in Toronto. Or is he? Do you ask him? And if he says he’d rather be there than Phx? Heck … I sure as hell would!
Fine. This doesn’t work out $$ wise, and I’m not sure how you make it work. If you’re the Suns GM that doesn’t stop you. You make the call and try to start a conversation. Most likely it goes nowhere but you make the call anyhow. Same with the Kings GM dangling Fox and Heald as bait. Same with Ainge dangling Tatum and a pick. Wolves and Towns. Cavs and Sexton. Philly and Simmons. Utah and Mitchell.
Trying to make the point that on paper you figure out a way to give up more than you get in Siakam and change. Maybe only 1 out of 23 phone calls involves a player that says they want to be in Toronto. One phone call is all it takes.
But what GM goes to their star player to ask if they want to play in Toronto?
I have no idea, but I think it’s stupid to assume that GM + player combo doesn’t exist.
Missing from the previous comment was a discussion about what types of players Toronto would think improve upon Siakam. The package would need to be excellent for it to make any sense, since you’re making a decision to become one of those teams that doesn’t have “a siakam”. I think that’s that most difficult part of this for Ujiri. On the other hand, what if you picked up a high draft pick, a big man and or a shooter that could also defend and someone of the “poor man’s siakam” category? So … Oubre, the Suns #6 and say … Kuzma just to show the kind of thing that would probably be needed to yank Siakam out of Ujiri’s grip.
The question for me isn’t whether the above kind of trade is possible but rather would Ujiri pull the trigger on this kind of thing if Kuzma and Oubre both wanted to be in Toronto?
No idea! If the answer is “no” then it will likely be “no” regardless of the proposed trade package.
I agree that if the Raptors can make a great trade for Siakam that they ought to do it. If they are blowing up the team after losing Kawhi, then they should explore all options for making themselves better. No player should be consider untouchable. However, since Siakam is young enough to be part of the rebuild and appears to be a great fit for the new NBA, I’d have to be blown away if I were Ujiri. Again though, Ujiri needs to be talking to Siakam about whether he wants to stay in Toronto. That conversation will come naturally since they will be involved in contract talks this offseason.
I think that’s the conclusion I’m coming to as well. Hard to see how you make up for a player like that even if you get two good ones in return. And the more players and draft picks you get, the greater the chances that one of them doesn’t want to be there.
Woj and others are reporting today that the Daryl Morey has made everyone on the Rockets available on the trade market. Obviously, he’d have to be overwhelmed to trade Harden (and the other team would have to be willing and able to take on Harden’s contract), but I could see him getting rid of Chris Paul and possibly Clint Capela. Paul will also be hard to trade because of his contract, but the willingness to trade Paul suggests to me that the reports of friction between Paul and D’Antoni/Harden may be real. Capela’s limitations got exposed in the Warriors series, so the Rockets may be willing to unload him for a center who is better able to guard all positions on the switches. Players with smaller contracts, like Tucker and Gordon, may be easier to move. Not sure if Houston is looking to blow things up or to strategically rebuild, likely around Harden. They’ve already fired almost all assistant and strength/conditioning coaches, so it looks like it will be an active off-season in Houston.
I don’t believe Morey is serious about moving Tucker. I’d like to see Capela on the Warriors:-)
While Capela on the Warriors would be fun to see, the Warriors can’t take on Capela’s contract unless they shed some contract in the deal, which would mean trading one of their big name players. When we start seeing reports of who Morey is asking for in return for any of these players, we’ll find out how serious he is about moving them. I do believe he is probably serious about moving Paul, but will any other team be willing to take on a 35-year-old PG with a history of injuries and a huge contract?
Minnesota also has a crappy contract in Wiggins who in my opinion much less the player than
Paul and probably will be up until Paul retires. I wonder if Morey would have any interest there.
As bad as Wiggins’ contract is, Paul still makes $10 million more per year, so a 1 for 1 deal doesn’t work. The trade machine says Paul and Nene for Wiggins and Dieng works. Not sure Houston would want Dieng’s $15 million per year contract (with several years left on it) though. Why the hell is Dieng making $15 million per year in the first place?
dieng is twice as valuable as wiggins or has been
I get that you don’t like Wiggins’ game (neither do I), but that is fairly ridiculous. Dieng can’t crack the line-up (13.6 mpg this year) and offers very little offensively. The T-Pups are paying $15 million per year for that because they are idiots. Wiggins is fairly one-dimensional and certainly not worth the $25 million per year he’s being paid, but he does bring about 20 ppg. It ain’t a lot, but it’s a lot more than Dieng gives them and you were the one who suggested that perhaps the Rockets would take Wiggins’ bad contract for Paul’s bad contract.
Yes. that was tongue in cheek for the most part, but there was a point to it. Wiggins at his best is inconsistent – I’m not sure if, in any given game, you can rely on him to keep playing hard on both ends for even 25 minutes. And yet, he gets a lot of minutes anyhow. I assume that’s to justify the contract and maybe keep his value someone aloft? I honestly think that if you cut wiggins minutes in half and double dieng’s then wolves would win quite a few more games.
The usual problem is that wiggins ends up with the ball on the offensive side early or midway through the shot clock and simply doesn’t know what he should do. Doesn’t know the game plan, so he either rushes a pass or acts like a shooter. Sometimes he is and other times he’s not even close. But somehow he’s been convinced he has a green light?
At least if Dieng played twice the minutes at Wiggins expense, he’d post up or do something well most of the time.
We’ve gotten away from the original question, what teams might be willing to take on Chris Paul’s bad contract. The T-Wolves option would be intriguing, but not sure the Rockets would take back two bad contracts to make it work. Perhaps if the T-Wolves sweetened the deal with some 1st round draft picks. I would suggest the Lakers, but not sure they’ve got the contracts to make it work.
The type of team who might trade for Paul would have to be a team that is close to a championship contender and needs a PG. We’ve been assuming that Kyrie is leaving the Celtics, so how about a Chris Paul for Gordon Hayward trade?
Just re-read this comment. So … how do you trade for Paul *and* proceed in a way that makes it clear that he’s at best your third best player? That’s what he’d have to be on the Suns for instance. Does Paul even know how to do “third best?”
Some TV media person suggested trading LeBron to the Rockets for Harden and seemed like he made a very good case. Aside from that, the only team I can see trading for Paul would be a mature team on the cusp that needs the Paul influence – Bucks and Celtics come to mind all depending on what the Celtics look like after trade season. Paul seems like a strange choice for Ainge though (because of injuries not age). I could absolutely see Paul on the Bucks for the right offer but how to make it work? Bledsoe + Ilayasova + Mirotic + ???. Can it even work? No way Bud gives up Brogdon or Middleton.
sorry. i didn’t see your comments about the Celtics. does that Hayward for Paul trade work? If so completely agree that makes sense.
The salaries are close ($35 mil for Paul, $31 mil for Hayward). If not close enough to work under the rules, Celtics would only need to add some low-salaried 12th man type to make it work.
I can’t read the story because it is behind a pay wall, but the Wall Street Journal ran a story today, looking at each player’s +/- over the past years. Not surprisingly, there are a bunch of Warriors at the top of the list, but Curry is far and away the best. He’s better than +4100 over that time, while the Warriors are -400 when he’s not on the court. The next highest players were LeBron James and Draymond at around +3500. Klay was at +3100 and KD and Chris Paul were around +2500 (Paul was the highest non-Warrior, non-LBJ player). +/- is hardly a perfect stat, but I find it telling that the Warriors are a negative point differential team when Steph is off the court over a 5-year period. He is the engine in the Warrior machine.
All of a sudden Garland looks better after this news. Not a lot better, but I’m guessing the Suns are feeling just a little bit better about their #6 today.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26870397/sources-morant-undergo-minor-knee-surgery
Here we are June 1st. The scandalous Lakers front office story came out last Mon or Tues. Pelinka should have been fired by now along with all kinds of rhetoric from Buss to at least get things moving in a different direction. I suppose some things are happening behind the scenes, but part of this battle has been already lost: Pelinka should have been fired without much hesitation and it should have been announced before today.
Buss doesn’t have it in her to go against the Laker legends. Magic had to leave himself. Pelinka is Kobe’s man, so she’s not going to do anything about him unless Kobe says it’s okay.
I’m guessing you’re right, and that’s about the dumbest thing possible.
You probably meant to post that in the Playoffs thread. I saw Stephen A. give that rant this morning. Notice, however, the whole thing was prefaced by “if Klay Thompson plays.” If this wasn’t the Finals, Klay would definitely not be playing tomorrow. I have no idea if he will. They called it a mild hamstring strain and Kerr said that if Klay was half dead, he would say he’s okay to go. The question will be whether the Warriors allow him to play.
I’ll start this now …
Anthony Davis has no sure thing ahead of him unless he joins the Warriors. That’s not happening so …
How does he compare the following prospects:
1. stay with the Pels
2. go to a team that’s more promising wrt. winning a title within the next 5 years?
Regarding #2, which team would that be? It won’t be the Warriors. Even if the Bucks put together some crazy package that worked for both teams,is there any great reason to think the Bucks with Freak & AD will win more titles than the Zion-AD Pels within the next 5 years? Celtics? That’s such a craps shoot with so much competition and no good idea who the PG will be. Lakers front office is a mess, but even so LeBron and AD would be awesome together, but with what teammates? Is Pelinka in complete control over how this team is designed next year? The only way AD can believe the Lakers front office about their “chances” is if they make a ton of great moves long before Griffin trades him (assuming he makes it clear he wants to leave). And yet won’t Griffin want to make a trade asap if Davis demands it?
OK, so to the sensible question: With this Zion kid why not give it another year to find out what you have? Why not announce you’ll play 1 more year unless x, y and/or z happens? Why not spend a weekend or two with Griffin and your agent away from it all and be sensible and slow about this leaving New Orleans thing?
If Zion is the real deal, he should have stats similar to some of the greats in his rookie year. Here’s four of them that Zion has the very outside chance to top. Maybe he will. Can’t Griffin and Davis sit down and talk about this and write up a contract that says “Zion must meet some minimum goal of etc etc” or Davis walks next year?
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=0&player_id1_hint=LeBron+James&player_id1_select=LeBron+James&player_id1=jamesle01&y1=2004&player_id2_hint=Michael+Jordan&player_id2_select=Michael+Jordan&y2=1985&player_id2=jordami01&idx=players&player_id3_hint=Larry+Bird&player_id3_select=Larry+Bird&y3=1980&player_id3=birdla01&idx=players&player_id4_hint=Grant+Hill&player_id4_select=Grant+Hill&y4=1995&player_id4=hillgr01&idx=players
https://theathletic.com/1006765/2019/06/04/charanias-inside-pass-all-eyes-on-davis-and-pelicans-future-as-their-talks-begin-to-take-shape-plus-more-league-notes/
Excellent article. Reminded me that Davis is interested in the Clippers. Big problem there: no way in heck that the Clippers part with Harrell. I’m sure the Pels will demand him though. I don’t see any Clippers trade happening, unless they really like Beverly, Shai-Alexander & Gallinari. A lot.
Yeah, I liked that article too. If the Pelicans are picking Zion, they don’t really need Harrell, though I suppose they could move him to center in a small line-up. But Harrell is not a long distance shooter, so that means he’d be clogging the lane for Zion which isn’t ideal. A Gallinari and Gilgeous-Alexander for AD trade works money-wise and presumably the pot would be sweetened with some draft picks (Clippers don’t have a 1st round pick this year as it goes to Boston, but have their own and Philly’s next year and their own and Miami’s in 2021). Would those two and draft picks be a better deal than what the Lakers or Celtics might offer?
Disagree. Harrell would be huge on any team. Very mobile guy. I don’t see him clogging up anything, and Zion needs to learn to play anywhere like a rover. Like LeBron. Just like Harrell wouldn’t clog up anything on a LeBron team, he wouldn’t on a Zion team. I’m confident Pels would demand Harrell in a trade.
Unless Pels really like Beverly, Alexander and/or Gallinari there won’t be a Clippers trade. Those draft picks are almost useless with both Clippers and Philly likely to be way out of the lottery.
There were reports that Davis and his agent sat down with Grffin in the past week or so in order to have Griffin pitch Davis on staying around. As for sticking around another year, that’s up to the Pelicans. Unless Davis were to completely change course and resign with New Orleans right now, the Pelicans have the opportunity to play AD and Zion together this year and see if that changes things for AD. The Pelicans can’t really expect AD to say that he’ll play this season to determine if he’ll stick around. We’ll find out how far the Pelicans are willing to take this by how long they hold on to AD. They can still wait till next February’s trade deadline to trade AD even if AD still insists that he won’t resign with the Pelicans.
I think the real problem here is that AD’s agent is Rich Paul, who is primarily concerned with making his primo client, LBJ, happy. I think Rich Paul is more concerned with that than he is with making sure that AD ends up in the right spot to compete for championships.
It’s not up to the Pelicans though. It’s up to AD. If he says he’s leaving then they trade him now. And I have enormous doubts that AD, Paul and Griffin have sat down long enough to figure this out. That’s why I mentioned getting away for a couple weekends.
The timing is up to the Pelicans because AD is not going to commit to them before the season starts. At best, he says “we’ll see how things look at the end of the season.” So Pelicans will have to decide whether to trade him now, trade him at the trade deadline, or keep for the season and risking losing him to free agency at the end of the season. Obviously, if AD says he ain’t staying no matter what, then the Pelicans need to trade him. My only point is that the Pelicans are extremely unlikely to get a commitment from AD that he will stay no matter how much they get together with him before the draft, so it will be up to them on what to do. My guess is that AD gets traded this summer.
I think this is either …
1.) AD saying I’m leaving no matter what
or
2.) AD saying he wants to see how Zion does in this first year.
Seems to me that either way the “trade AD” decision is 100% up to AD and Rich Paul and not the Pels at all.
Didn’t we just say the same thing, but reach a different conclusion? We agree on the choices: 1) that if AD says he’s leaving no matter what; or 2) If AD says let’s see how things turn out with Zion this year.
If the former, the Pels have to trade AD and they probably get the best deal if they do it this summer. If the latter, that is not a commitment and then the Pelicans have to decide whether to trade AD now, trade him at the deadline; or cross their fingers and hope he resigns at the end of the year, because if he doesn’t, they lose him for nothing.
Not the same thing, but similar and not sure the differences matter. My view is that Griffin will do what Rich Paul wants him to do. If Rich Paul (and Davis) make it clear that Davis *will* play the entire 19-20 season with the Pels, then they’re saying that Davis won’t accept being traded in Feb. If Griffin does not agree, then it’s up to Davis to say “forget it then – I’m out now”, and then Griffin trades him this summer.
What’s different between our thoughts is that you seem to be saying it’s up to the Pels to decide if they want to trade AD in Feb. I don’t think that’s the case. For instance, Griffin is unlikely to start off in the same position this season ended: with AD sulking and sitting out games because Griff didn’t trade him when he wanted to be traded. If AD and Paul have any inkling that Griff won’t keep to his word (and not trade AD under certain conditions) then AD simply states that he’s out or he’ll sulk and sit again.
If both sides sit down and decide on the “wait and see how Zion does” plan, the terms will be AD’s and Pauls and Griff’s only choice will be to take it or leave it. If that plan is “AD stays with the Pels past the Feb deadliine if Zion averages 18 8 and 6 in 30 mins per game”, then Griff either says yes or no. If he says no then he needs to trade AD this summer.
One more point to be made, and I think it’s critical: not only are the Celtics and Lakers ready for some big and urgent changes starting July, but so are many teams. This summer is fairly unique in that Toronto and Memphis may also be making big changes and trades. Possibly Philly as well. I could see Mark Cuban throwing some curve balls. Riley as well. Charlotte may need to blow things up if Kemba walks. And on and on.
From the way I’ve heard Griffin speak over the past year, it seems most likely to me that he’ll see this summer as the best opportunity to trade AD if he says he wants out. In other words, I think Griffin is hamstrung and won’t have nearly the opportunities for being able to get good value back for AD if he waits until Feb.
But Rich Paul is also wondering about Zion, and how long it might take for Zion to improve. LeBron has between 4&6 more years pulling in the big $$. AD’s potential future is twice that long. Paul makes more $$ if AD is winning big with Zion starting as soon as 2000.
I’ll start this one now: It’s been reported that Culver of Texas Tech is moving up the charts to #5 or better. Meanwhile Zion, Morant and Barrett are almost certain to go before him. Where would Garland go if he’s picked before the Suns can get to him? It seems extremely unlikely that the Lakers waste this pick on a rookie PG, when that position absolutely needs to be shored up by a veteran this coming season. Cleveland? Does Cleveland want Garland instead of Sexton?
All of this seems to mean that the Suns are fine at #6 even if they don’t end up with Garland or Conley (it could be Sexton or Lonzo instead for instance). The obvious idea here is that, assuming LeBron can be surrounded with a couple shooters somehow, Conley as his PG might fit in perfectly. Suns might have a variety of PGs to choose from depending on what they get for their #6. Could be Sexton, or if Knicks take Garland maybe it’s Dennis Smith Jr. in a trade. Lowry if Toronto blows it up.
If Kemba wants out Suns could give up that #6 plus Warren.
Suns could be sitting very pretty here even without Morant.
Verrry interesting!
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/anthony-davis-trade-rumors-david-griffin-loves-brandon-ingram-several-within-pelicans-loved-lakers-original-offer/
Besides the Ingram injury, there is another impediment to a Pelicans-Lakers AD trade. The Lakers don’t have the salaries to pull it off right now. During the season, such a trade needed Caldwell-Pope’s salary to make the trade work, but he is an unrestricted free agent now. The way around this is for the Lakers to resign Caldwell-Pope (or Rondo, also a free agent) to a deal as part of a sign-and-trade, but now Caldwell-Pope (and Rondo) have the ability to veto that if they don’t want to go to New Orleans. Rich Paul is Caldwell-Pope’s agent, so he might be able talk Caldwell-Pope into it, but if I’m Kentavious, that tells me that Paul is far more concerned about LBJ and AD than he is about me. New Orleans probably blew it by not making the trade during the season.
You mean even if Lakers dangle the #4, Ingram, Kuzma and anything else that doesn’t include LeBron … they have no possible way to make this work if KCP and Rondo veto it? Can’t the Lakers just sign some other players instead of KCP & Rondo and then trade them?
Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. I tried putting every available Laker salaried player into a trade for AD in the Trade Machine and it comes up short (roughly $19 million total for the Laker players, $25 million for AD). I don’t believe the Lakers can sign and trade a player that wasn’t on the team last season. Besides KCP and Rondo, there are other Laker free agents (Muscala, Stephenson, Bullock, McGee, Chandler), but the Pelicans may not want to be stuck paying one of those guys $8 or 9 million next year, but maybe they would if they are getting Ingram, Ball, Kuzma,and Hart as well.
I thought the $$ only needed to be within some number. Not exactly the same. I thought it was $5M but maybe less.
The money doesn’t need to be exactly the same, but I think within a certain percentage. Assuming Ingram, Ball, Kuzma, and Hart are all in the deal, Lakers probably need another $6-8 million to get close enough. That being said, there’s one other thing I wasn’t accounting for. The Trade Machine has the players’ 2018-19 salaries in it. I’m not sure at what point the 2019-20 salaries start getting used. Possibly on July 1st. AD’s contract will kick up to $27 million at that point while the Laker aggregate for the key 4 will go up to around $20 million, instead of $25 million for Davis and $17 million for the 4 Lakers. So the Lakers will close the gap by about a million whenever the new salaries kick in for trade purposes.
Take this for what it’s worth, but some sort of “expert” on trade analyses made a clear point on radio (the Stephen A show) that what the Lakers *should* do is sign a free agent first and only then trade for AD. (the new free agent addition wouldn’t be involved with the trade). By signing the FA first, apparently they end up with more cap space to work with.
This guy also said something like the Lakers need to get to $22M in order to pull off the trade. I’m not sure if he knew about the 19-20 salaries coming into play.
Not sure I buy that it makes a difference. Lakers have about $66 million in salary committed for next year and the cap should be about $109-110 million. So they’ve got over $40 million in cap room. The salary cap is pretty irrelevant for a trade because the salaries have to come close to matching up regardless of cap room. Maybe the salaries have to be a little bit closer if a team is over the cap. If the Lakers make a trade for AD first, maybe that shaves a couple of million off the cap room they have available, but even if they sign a free agent to a max deal, it won’t use up all the available cap room they have. For example, the Lakers signed LBJ to a max deal last summer and that was only worth $35.6 million in year one and $37.4 million next year. So I don’t think it will make a big difference either way.
Okay, I am wrong on the trade rules concerning equal salaries. Apparently those rules only apply to teams above the salary cap. If teams are below the salary cap, they can make trades that are uneven in salary. Here’s a good breakdown on the trade/salary cap rules (which was apparently posted by Mark Cuban on his Mavericks blog):
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/nba-trading-rules-explained.80674/
I looked up the rules because of the trade announced today between the Nets and Hawks. The Nets are getting Taureen Prince ($2.5 million salary) and a future 2nd round pick and the Hawks are getting Allen Crabbe ($18.5 million salary), the Nets 2019 1st round pick, and a future 1st round pick that is lottery protected for the next 3 years. While the trade was announced today, it won’t take effect until the new NBA year. Both teams are at or over the salary cap right now, but both will be far under the salary cap when the new NBA year starts.
The Nets are doing this deal to clear even more salary cap space so they can make a free agency splash (heavily linked to Kyrie and want to bring KD with him). The Hawks are looking to build up their young team with additional picks.
Wow. That’s big news and makes me wonder what kind of upheaval(s?) we’ll see across the league starting June 30th. At 6pm ET I think?
I think Griffin is about to change the league – this info you revealed is probably exactly what he’ll use to manipulate a good part of theoffseason. Pels don’t *need* that #1 for instance. Everyone thinks they need it and want it. If I’m Griff I’m playing this game until draft day. Dangle that pick and take all those phone calls. See what happens. Most likely you take Zion but possibly not. With 29 other teams in the NBA, there must be one owner or GM that really really really wants Zion. And is willing to give up a ton to get him.
And Kyrie with the Nets? I don’t think so – seems like a smokescreen. They’re extremely well set with Russell. No reason whatsoever to change PGs. That would be stupid and reckless. They need runners and slashers and shooters that play hard defense. KD definitely.
OK. Here’s a question now that these rules seem to be more “relaxed” than I believed them to be. Nets sign Durant asap and then what? Kyrie seems ridiculous. Butler seems perfect though. Then with those two signed Dinwiddie and LaVert are huge trade bait. I’d like to see them both on Denver or Portland. Those teams need these guys.
Meanwhile TJ Warren will be coveted by most teams this off season. It’s time to trade him and what better time than this? And Kemba … why in the heck would he stay in Charlotte when he could run the Lakers or Suns or Knicks or … the Sixers? Philly can do whatever they like with all that talent. Time to move Simmons. Somehow. Sure seems like the trade rules are relaxed enough for Philly to trade him for what they need after Butler makes his decision.
Well, the rumor is that KD and Kyrie are working to go somewhere together, either the Knicks or Nets. Russell is a restricted free agent. Perhaps some other team offers him a contract that the Nets are unwilling to match or maybe the Nets just prefer Kyrie to D’Angelo.
Only the teams still in the playoffs can’t make (or rather, announce) any deals right now. Since neither the Warriors or Raptors will be in play for AD, Griffin is undoubtedly working the phones now on deals, either for AD or the #1 pick or both. New Orleans will be about $17-18 million under the cap after June 30th, so they have the flexibility of taking on some money if they wish. They could really blow things up and trade both AD and Holiday.
Here’s a wild thought…what if Butler decides to leave Philly and Philly signs….KD! Could you imagine Embiid, Harris, Redick, KD, and Simmons together? Instant title favorites.
Hard to believe the Nets like Kyrie that much, but if he’s the only way you can get your hands on KD then I suppose you have to do it.
Regarding Philly, and if KD and Kyrie decide to play together, how can they both end up there? There’s been a lot of talk online questioning Simmons’ value and the likelihood of a trade.
If Philly traded Simmons for draft picks, I think they’d have enough money (about $71 million in cap space) to sign both KD and Kyrie. Kyrie is a New York kid (grew up across the river in West Orange, NJ) and that’s why he’s been connected to the Knicks and Nets, so don’t know how interested he is in Philly, even though that’s not far away from home for him either. He ought to be because that would make be a quicker path to a title.
Don’t know if you saw Stephen A.’s report yesterday. According to what he was “hearing,” if the Warriors won the championship, he was likely to leave, but if they lost, he was likely to stay. Don’t know if I buy it, but maybe there’s a little good news to be had with the Warriors losing to the Raptors right now.
I assume you’re talking about KD.
If true I’m lucky to be correct by predicting this sort of thing where Warriors lose this year and then come back to win the next. Something very close to that in response to a radio program you heard (2 years ago) that claimed the warriors would break up. I was predicting they’d lose one and then win afterwards with the same group. I really doubt it will happen, win or lose this year, but funny regardless.
In any case KD looks good no matter what …
1) This isn’t a big injury no matter how you look at it. He should recover fully. Normally he’d sit out 4-6 weeks for this. It means he’ll likely come back at full strength, and full strength means KD just prior to the injury and that’s top 3 or better in the NBA – maybe KD and Kawhi are tied right now. We’ll see how LeBron does next year.
2) If Warriors lose the series without KD he looks good because they lost their Finals MVP and couldn’t win without him.
3) If Warriors lose the series with KD he’s fine because everyone will say he wasn’t at full strength.
4) If Warriors win the series KD looks good because media will claim “it was clearly” because of him (or something like that)
The only thing that doesn’t look good for KD is if they win without. Seems impossible though.
I realize that was a rambling comment, but was trying to get it all written down.
I don’t think KD will stay and for the same reason others believe it: he’s never publicly committed to staying. At least not convincingly in the way Klay has. He just doesn’t seem to be fully loyal. That’s the first reason. The second is that this off-season will be one during which *many* very good teams are restructuring their rosters and therefore plans and expectations going forward. This is the time for him to get moving on more championships if he’s ever going to move.
Yeah, sorry. That was about KD. If losing the Finals means the Warriors keep KD, it’ll be a bittersweet “victory.” I’d rather have the championship. But frankly, I don’t believe Stephen A.’s report. Not that he is making it up, just that the people telling him that really don’t know what is going on. KD’s agent said a week or two ago that KD hasn’t begun to even think about it yet and that sounds about right. Kawhi is saying the same thing. KD has been through free agency every year for four straight years now. He knows how it works. He’s had the season, the playoffs, and his injury to deal with, so why even worry about free agency now. I think a lot of what we’re “hearing” is simply wishful thinking being whispered about around the league.
David Griffin reportedly wants the following in a trade for Anthony Davis:
1 All Star player
1 young player with All Star potential
2 first round draft picks
Griffin also is willing to do a 3-team deal to get what he wants. Sounds like if the Lakers want to get AD, they’ll need to ship a couple of their youngsters off to a third team in order to get the All-Star player that Griffin wants.
TJ Warren falls squarely into category 2 and is way easier to get than Tatum for instance, and while Jaylen Brown *may* have all-star potential he’s nowhere near as close to actually being an all star as is Warren.
Now, Griffin has made it very clear that he’s coveted Ingram prior to the blood clot thing. Ingram is probably a year behind Warren in terms of becoming an all star if he’s healthy. If he is healthy, Ingram most definitely fills category #2.
I’ll start making the list of reasonable “all star players”. Just to get it started – it’s not meant to be very complete.
I’m sure some guys are out because of age. I doubt Griffin has interest in Chris Paul or Iggy for instance. I also assume many all stars are out if they’re FAs, but I’m not sure about that. I need to know more about what “restricted” means in “restricted FA”. Who can be traded in a “sign and trade”?
Guys like Porzingas, Rudy Gobert and Lou Williams should certainly be in the “all star” category since there’s no doubt about their stature. Same could be said for Mitchell, Doncic and Booker but doubt they’ll be involved in any way. So …
George
Irving
Butler
Beal
Simmons
Griffin
Porzingas
Middleton
Horford
Gasol (Raptors)
Millsap
Aldridge
Towns
Cousins
Green (Dray) – obviously would need to be replaced by Davis
Love
Drummond
Gobert
Williams (Clippers)
Leaving off Oladipo and Wall. No possible way that Oladipo is traded for anyone and no way Griffin has any interest in Wall.
I’ll give this some thought, but just to answer your question, a restricted free agent can sign with any team, but his current team then has the opportunity to match the offer. I’m pretty sure that sign and trades can happen with either restricted or unrestricted free agents.
Based on AD’s prior comments, I’m gonna start by limiting this to 4 teams that could trade for him, the Knicks, Nets, Lakers, and Clippers. Other teams could make the trade, but won’t do so without a commitment that he will resign (unless some team wants to make a Toronto-like bet on a championship in order to convince him to stay). Of those 4 teams, only the Nets (Russell in a sign and trade deal) and Clippers (Williams) currently have an All-Star type player that could be part of a trade, but Williams may be too old (32) for the Pelicans and Russell may not want to go to the Pelicans. So possibly all four might have to look to another team in the deal to get that All-Star player the Pelicans want. The Lakers are easily in the best position to do this as they could trade two young players from among Ingram, Kuzma, Ball, and Hart to a 3rd team to do this, while still having one of them to send to New Orleans.
Not following you. My list is what it is specifically because of the possibility of a 3rd team. I don’t see any player on my llst that couldn’t be involved somehow.
I haven’t even gotten to the players on your list yet and other possible players. Just making some preliminary observations.
KD’s injury, likely an Achilles tear as the Warriors believe, will have major reverberations on free agency. Does some other team give KD a max contract when he is unlikely to play next year and it could be two years, if ever, till he’s back to normal? Does KD opt in with his player option and leave his free agency decision to next summer? Do the Knicks/Nets or some other team sign Kyrie if they’re not getting KD too? Do the Warriors offer KD a max contract because they feel they owe them (I’ll bet they do)?
Here’s another big variable. KD and Kawhi were the two top players in this summer’s free agency market. If the Raptors win this series and with Kawhi very happy about the way the Raptors rested him this year, what if he decides to resign with Toronto? We could go from having two of the best players in today’s game hitting free agency to neither of them on the market. Suddenly this summer’s free agency is nowhere near as good as it was supposed to be.
Everything has changed for KD, and he can’t possibly know what to do now. It’s not about the league and teams now it’s about KD and his agent and his family and friends talking about what makes sense. Obviously taking a lot less money and re-habbing in the right place will be at the top of his list of things to consider.
There’s almost no time for KD and his “group” to make the best decision with the draft and then July just 9 and 20 days away. Is it now all about “which team can get to the 2020 playoffs without me” and then he’s all ready to go when April comes around? If so that sure as hell won’t be the Knicks and possibly not the Clippers without Kawhi. If he ever considered the Lakers or vice-versa then that’s now a ridiculous idea. This *does* change everything especially if Kawhi stays in Toronto which seems way more likely now that he sees every single one of his teammates stepping up to take the pressure off him in their FIRST trips to the conf and league finals.
I think this makes a Kyrie/LeBron pairing much more likely. Butler is now way more coveted by teams. I’d expect a big push for him by the Clippers and essentially any team that can afford him. With Toronto showing that “Butler type play” is what wins when it spreads to everyone, maybe a lot of teams will reconsider priorities. For instance, if KD moves on then what do the Warriors need to do to pickup Butler? Substitute Butler for Cook in that game last night and everything shifts. If Kawhi stays in Toronto and the Warriors lose KD, how can you beat the Raptors as they gain strength going forward? I think that’s going to be a huge question for them now.
If Kawhi stays put the Rockets are nothing more than anachronism unless they change their game plan dramatically. The Raptors are built for destroying teams like Houston. Morey will need to change everything starting with Capela and Paul.
Ainge can be a big player again because he has a chance to build a Raptors-like team that starts with what he has already minus Kyrie. A scheme with AD and Horford surrounded a Van Vleet type and Marcus Smart and shooters that can defend. And after an AD trade for Tatum & Brown & Rozier and picks … there should still be money after Kyrie leaves (seems very likely to me). Who can sign there? Conley is a Celtics type of guy. How to get him?
Not that any of this matters if AD ends up in LA.
Only a couple teams are like the Pacers who are composed much like the Raptors. But with taller shooters. Seems like it can’t be enough when Turner isn’t as versatile as you’d need him to be. They need to make a move sometime soon to compete if Kawhi is going to stay in Canada. Same with the Bucks who can’t take the chance that Kawhi comes back healthy next year. Something needs to change on that team personnel wise. Butler would do it;-)
Back to KD and the strong possibility that a Kyrie-pairing and the Knicks are off the table, and if he’s willing to take a lot less $$ … are the Sixers now an option for KD? Knowing that KD will likely be healthy for the 2021 playoffs, do you lose Harris and move Simmons somewhere (Boston? Simmons, AD, Horford??).
Was that your idea? Embiid, Kyrie, KD? Maybe this entices Butler to stay. Sprinkle some Van Vleets around those guys. 2021 is the right time to expect Embiid to be ready for a championship run. If KD is healthy. Interesting. All of it.
Not sure what to make of this, but saw a report this morning that the Celtics were in serious discussions with the Rockets for Capela. Not sure if that is because they want Capela or are looking to flip him to the Pelicans in an AD deal.
Even if KD opts out, its unlikely the Warriors could afford Butler. KD leaving and Livinston retiring would put the Warriors about $28 million under the cap. HOWEVER, even though Klay is currently unsigned for next year, the Warriors will have at least an $18 million cap hold for Klay unless they renounce his rights, which they will not do. So that means they’d have no more than about $10 million to sign a free agent, which won’t be enough to get Butler unless Butler wants to come play here for a year at that amount to win a championship.
Unfortunate if Kawhi stays put. Warriors need someone to mask the defense they lose with Curry on the court. Good news is that KD did exactly that plus some, and it worked extremely well. Doesn’t need to be a shooter, but that would be nice. Man, can you imagine Oubre filling in? I’m guessing they can’t afford him either.
I guess the idea was that Bell would be ready to fill a spot like that. He seems to be nowhere close. He seems to not be improving at all. Can they move him and Jones to make cap space?
Both Bell and Jones make so little, (Jones $2.3 million next year; Bell – $1.8 million next year) that it won’t make enough difference to get what they need to replace KD. And KD could make all of this moot by opting in for his $31.5 million next year, which would mean that the Warriors are over the cap and can only resign their own players and sign free agents to the mid-level exception or veteran minimum. Even though Livingston looks to be at or near the end of his rope, Warriors might be better off convincing him to stay for the last year of his contract. Gotta figure that Cousins, Bogut and Jerebko are gone (though Bogut could return at the end of the Aussie basketball season again on a minimum deal). The Warriors will want to resign Looney, but he will likely cost them quite a bit more next year. Thinking Cook may go wherever KD goes. Warriors will have to hope that players like Jones, Bell, and Evans make big strides next year and that they hit paydirt with their two draft picks.
As for someone like Oubre, he only made $3.2 million last year. I’m guessing he’s looking at a $10 million+ contract in free agency, but who knows, perhaps he’d take the Dubs’ mid-level exception ($5 million or so) or something a little above that if he wants to take a shot at a championship. He’s no KD, no one is, but you’re right that he’d be a nice fit, particularly on the defensive end. I doubt you’d convince someone as young as he is though to give up money for a shot at a championship.
I’d make the argument that Oubre is a better defender than KD and young enough to improve dramatically with the right team (i.e. the Warriors). Again, Warriors are going to have a big hole next year unless they replace the defense that KD brought. Curry is too big a liability defensively, and Iguodala seems to have lost a lot as seems evident in these playoffs.
Question: so the achilles injury probably means that if KD wants the biggest contract for the 19-20 season all he has to do is stay put?
KD is guaranteed at least $31.5 million next year. He will not opt out of that unless he’s got clear indications from other teams that they will give him a bigger contract. There were reports this morning that at least three teams would be still willing to give KD a max contract despite a torn Achilles. The Warriors may be one of those teams.
Here is one other factor that I just read about that may play into other team’s deciding whether to sign KD or not. As with most big contracts, the Warriors have insurance on KD’s current contract. If he opts in to the last year of the contract, insurance will kick in and cover about 80% of the cost of that contract. If KD signs elsewhere or even signs a new contract with the Dubs, the signing team may be unable to get insurance for the contract because of the injury. So the signing team will likely have to shoulder the full cost of the contract. Is that enough to give teams second thoughts on signing KD?
Also read that the Warriors were preparing to offer KD a max contract with an opt-out every year or something like that, so that he could leave after any season if he so chose. Seems like the Warriors are willing to give KD whatever he wants to keep him.
A secondary factor favoring the Warriors keeping KD. Whether KD opts in to the last year of his contract or signs a new deal with the Warriors, the Dubs can classify KD as a disabled player, meaning a player who is unlikely to play at all next season. That would qualify them for a disabled player exception to the cap and allow them to sign someone for about $9 million next year. You can only do this for a player already on your team before getting injured. So any other team that signs KD would be ineligible for this salary cap exception.
Oubre????
Curry, Klay, Dray, Oubre, Cook, Looney, Gasol, Bell, Jones
That’s better than the team taking the court tonight. Maybe much better.
No maybe about it. That would be amazing to watch.
I think Kawhi needs to leave for this to happen though. Stupid for Gasol to leave if they keep all their guys.
Oubre would be a great pick-up for this disabled player exception. I wonder though if any teams, particularly ones that miss out on the major free agents, might offer him somewhere in the $12-15 million range.
New Cleveland Cavs head coach John Beilein has hired Cal women’s head basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb as an assistant coach. Gottlieb has led Cal to the tournament in 7 of the last 8 years. She said it was her lifelong dream to work in the NBA. Adam Silver recently said he’d like to see 50% of new referee and coaching hires be female. Beilein clearly got the message and Gottlieb looks like a really good hire based on her track record.
What would the Warriors need to do to pickup Marc Gasol? Assuming KD moves on.
Gasol has a $25.6 million player option for next year. He will be 35 years old next season. If I’m Marc Gasol, I’m opting in because I doubt any team would pay me $25.6 million. The only way the Warriors get him is if he opts in and the Warriors trade for him which would require basically trading Iggy and Livingston for him or if Gasol opts out and chooses to sign with the Warriors for the mid-level exception. I don’t see either of those scenarios happening.
I think Iggy and Livingston for Gasol is a steal if Warriors can get one more defender or if Bell can improve his defense over the summer. That guy really needs to step it up.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26965007/kemba-take-less-stay-hornets
Clearly one of the good guys. Duncan-like. One more name crossed off the list for the Lakers, Suns and Knicks.
I saw that, but I wonder if the statement was just PR. The Hornets have about $102 million committed for next year (projected cap $110 million) and that does not include a salary cap hold for Walker, which will be at least $12 million (his salary this year). So functionally, the Hornets are over the cap, which means they’ll be unable to sign any really good free agents. So in order to do anything, they’ll need to shed some contracts, like Batum’s $25 million, Biyombo’s $17 million or Marvin Williams’ $15 million. Maybe they’ll get lucky and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will opt out of his $13 million contract. In any event, to shed contracts, the Hornets will have to give up some decent draft picks likely. Either that, or they convince Kemba to stay by the promise of doing something next summer when a lot of these contracts expire and the Hornets will have a lot of cap room. We’ll see if Kemba was being sincere or if he goes somewhere else saying the Hornets weren’t doing anything to get better.
This is looking like a rough off-season for the Warriors. They were expected and probably still will offer max contracts to KD and Klay, but both will miss all of next season because of their injuries. Iggy and Livingston are likely to be retired before KD and Klay return. The salary cap limitations are likely to restrict their ability to sign any other major additions. This will be a different team by the time KD and Klay return to the court.
That and just have to hope that Klay can be one of the exceptions and not tear the ACL again. That’s a huge question mark since his strength has been that amazing lateral quickness.
I’m thinking now that the Warriors will be secretly happy if KD signs elsewhere this off-season. Very few players have come back from an Achilles rupture to be the same player they were before. He is 30 years old now and turns 31 in September. If he makes a remarkable recovery, it is possible that he could make it back during the playoffs next year, but he will turn 32 before he’s back on the court full-time. Even then, it could be another year before he is close to returning to full form or as close as he will ever get. So you’re probably not getting post-Achilles peak KD until after the next two seasons. So do the Dubs really want to be paying KD $40+ per season for a 33-year and older player who may never return to his peak form? I think the Warriors have to offer KD a max contract, but will hope that he signs with another team.
The Warriors are also likely to still offer Klay a max contract and he will take it if they do. There are many more examples of players returning from torn ACLs to peak or almost peak form than there are from the ruptured Achilles. Klay is also a year younger than KD. So the Dubs will resign Klay. It would be something though if the Warriors were coldly brutal and don’t resign either and instead bring in, oh say, Kawhi to play with Steph and Dray.
Whatever the future is of Klay everyone wants him to re-sign and get as much as he can out of it. He deserves whatever he can get.
Unfortunately, it means very little to talk about the many examples of athletes coming back to peak or almost peak form after ACL injuries. Each ACL injury is different. We’ll never know how much bone bruising and or meniscus damage – only some of that will ever be divulged to the public. For those that had a “good” tear (as if such a thing exists) they can come back and stay healthy. For others they’ll either suffer other big injuries like Derrick Rose, or they’ll never play the same way again – also like Derrick Rose.
The reason why ACL injuries seem less career threatening is because there are more of them and therefore more example of successes that are made public. It’s really just a wait and see thing for Klay.
You may have seen this column already in The Athletic:
https://theathletic.com/1027112/2019/06/14/the-raptors-are-champs-and-deservedly-so-no-matter-the-ill-fortunes-of-the-warriors-first-thoughts-from-game-6/
The latter half of the column deals with cap and free agency considerations for both teams. It gives good detail on what both teams are facing.
wish i still had the subscription. enjoyed it a lot over the free trial period.
OK. Some key parts of it then:
1. Kawhi is only an 8-year player, so max that Raptors can offer him is 5 years for $190 million. Max other teams can offer is 4 years for $140.6 million. If Kawhi were an 10-year player, Raptors could offer 5 years for $240 million. Maybe Kawhi signs a one-year with option or two year deal with the Raptors or some other team so that he can cash in bigger in 2 years.
2. Deals for Gasol if he opts in ($25.6 million), Lowry ($33.3 million) and Ibaka ($23.3 million) all expire after next season. That’s potentially $80+ million of cap space available next summer. So if Kawhi leaves, Raptors could rebuild around VanVleet, Siakam, and Anunoby pretty quickly next year with the addition of several major free agents.
3. Durant can get 5-year, $221.3 million contract from Warriors or 4-year, $164 million deal from another team. Obviously, the Warrior money is better, but it seems less a question of money and more about where he wants to be.
4. Thompson is eligible for 5-year, $190 million deal from Warriors, which he is expected to get.
5. Cousins can return to Warriors on 1-year, $6.4 million deal or sign for much bigger with some other team.
6. Deals for Draymond ($18.5 million), Iggy ($17.2 million), and Livingston ($7.7 million, but only $2 million guaranteed and he has indicated that he may retire) all expire after next season. So that’s $43.5 million of cap space available next summer, only it probably won’t really be available since they may already be over the cap and these deals will only move them somewhat under the cap. Plus Dray will likely get a new big deal.
Are the Warriors eligible for more than the $9M exception now that both KD and Klay are out most or all of next year? Seems tremendously unfair if they aren’t and both players stay.
I was actually reading that the Warriors may not qualify for the disabled player exception for either of them because normal rehab schedules could have them back before the end of the playoffs next year. Doctors would have to definitely state that they cannot come back before June 15, 2020. Normal rehab schedule for Klay could have him back sometime after the All-Star game next year. Normal rehab schedule for the Achilles is supposedly 10-12 months, so its possible KD could return in the playoffs next year. Apparently, the NBA is pretty stingy on granting the disabled player exception.
Silver needs to step in. That’s absurd if true.
OK. Here it is. My first going way out on a limb comment: Kawhi will sign with the Clippers.
I don’t know it but I’d put $$ on it. Or rather I will if I can find a way. I’m still looking for my local Flagstaff sports book. Isn’t it legal now?
In order of importance (and I reserve the right to re-order as I see fit) …
1.) KL wants to be near family
2.) KL will be loved and revered in Canada as long as he lives no matter what he chooses to do.
3.) KL has hinted strongly (non-verbally I suppose) that his decision won’t be about $$
4.) KL can get the exact same “load management” agreement from the Clippers. Can and likely will. Maybe he’ll play even fewer games next season. Maybe only 50. Maybe 45.
KL just found out what it means to have a lot of outstanding teammates. Maybe the Clippers don’t have quite as many guys. They’re not as deep. But here’s a question … could Lowry join him in LA via some trade for Alexander? Doesn’t Alexander help the Raptors timeline better than Lowry if Kawhi leaves? Won’t Balmer do *everything* to get Kawhi short of losing Harrold? Lou Williams and Alexander to the Raptors for Lowry and Green and whatever else makes it work?
I guess we don’t know which players are closest with Kawhi, but we do know that every single player in the league would love to play with him. Now we know it anyhow. No ego. All about team. And winning. That’s who he is. Who in the heck doesn’t want to be on his team? Butler seems obvious to me. I see that signing happening before anything else. Now what? Need another shooter/defender.
Not all of this will happen, but I see something similar happening starting with a Butler signing and then a trade for Alexander. If you can keep Williams you keep Williams. Of course, but Balmer’s challenge (I assume that means Jerry West’s challenge) will be depth. Can they lure Oubre for instance, and if so is there enough shooting? Hmmm
So a local writer came up with a plan to get the Warriors back to the Finals sooner rather than later. It starts, of course, with the Dubs signing KD and Klay to max deals. The second part of it is where it gets tricky because it basically calls for the Warriors to tank next season.
Even if KD and Klay don’t play at all next year, a Steph, Dray, Looney, and Iggy team is still a playoff team, but probably only a 5th or 6th seed. In order to tank, the Dubs would need to do plenty of load management with Steph and Dray, which they could probably justify given what happened to KD and Klay. Iggy and Livingston (if he returns) would also get a lot of rest (or traded if they want to play for a team trying to win in their final year of their contracts). Dubs give a LOT of playing time to Jones, Bell, Evans, Cook, and whoever they draft in next Thursday’s draft.
When the Warriors thereby miss the playoffs, they’ll get a top 13 pick in the 2020 draft where they can hopefully pick up someone really good, who will be on a cheap contract for a number of years. Then in 2020, KD and Klay return, the Warriors have a better feel for how good this year’s bench players can get and those players have a lot more game experience, and they perhaps get a really good rookie to add to the mix. The 2020-21 team then is Steph, Klay, KD, Dray, and Kevon as your starters, with a more experienced bench, perhaps a good rookie as your 6th man and a couple of veterans coming in for their shot at a ring on the veteran minimum and/or mid-level exception.
I think the idea is good but Steph and Dray won’t play like they’re tanking, so it may be hard to pull off. The rest of it may occur naturally (this year’s bench getting more playing time and KD, if he signs, and Klay not playing).
Odds are great that either KD or Klay are less than what they have been. When the 2020-21 season begins I think it’s likely one or the other is pretty far behind what they were. Not both but one of them. I think the plan as described works only if odds are good that both are close to what they were this season prior to injury. Saddens me to say it, but I don’t think Klay can ever be the defender he was without injuring himself again.
re-wrote the above because the original wording sucked
Woj was reporting today that the Wizards are going to seek permission to hire away Ujiri from Toronto and would offer him a massive deal and ownership in the team. If Kawhi and Ujiri leave, that will be bad for the Raptors. That could be the quickest championship window closing we’ve seen.
Another reason why ESPN SUCKSSSSS
Top story on the NBA front page: “Ten Warriors free-agency and trade targets to help replace KD and Klay”
And you see a picture of Dion Waiters. My least favorite NBA player. If not the most selfish in the league certainly one of them. Exactly what the Warriors don’t want. I hope things haven’t gotten so bad that they need to consider him.
So as you are already aware, the Lakers got Anthony Davis for Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, and three #1 draft picks, including the fourth pick in this year’s draft. Initial thoughts:
1. Like you, I’m amazed that the Lakers didn’t have to part with Kyle Kuzma. Of course, the Pelicans are expected to draft Zion with the first pick in next week’s draft, so they don’t have a need for another PF.
2. The Celtics were reportedly unwilling to include Jayson Tatum in a trade for AD. Can’t say I blame them. AD’s agent said that if the Celtics signed AD, he would be a one-year rental only. Given AD’s apparent antipathy towards Boston, Ainge was understandably reluctant to give up the next Celtic superstar.
3. Lakers don’t have a PG now. Reportedly they are eyeing Kemba Walker in free agency. Does Kemba join LeBron and AD in LA, stick in Charlotte where he is the career leader in a number of team categories, or does he go back home to New York? If the Lakers don’t get Walker, who do they get? The two best other alternatives may not be Laker-friendly. Kyrie may not wish to rejoin LeBron and D’Angelo Russell may not be willing to return to the Lakers. The best option may prove to be Goran Dragic.
4. The Suns may benefit from this trade. The Pelicans now hold the Lakers fourth pick. Darius Garland had been linked to the Lakers, but the Pelicans now have Ball and Holiday and may not really need Garland, who could drop to the Suns at pick #6 since the Cavs at pick #5 already have Sexton at PG.
5. The Pelicans 2019-20 starting line-up looks like it could be: PG-Lonzo; SG-Holiday; SF-Ingram; PF-Zion; and C-Randle with a bench that would include Hart, Solomon HIll, E’Twaun Moore, and Elfrid Payton if they resign him. That’s not half bad. Not a championship team immediately, but Lonzo, Ingram, and Zion could be the makings of a big 3 in several years.
6. Lakers still have some work to do on their starting line-up as they don’t really have a backcourt to go along with LeBron, Kuzma, and AD in the frontcourt. They’ll have plenty of money in free agency to get something.
Incredible. I’m going to blast my thoughts just so i don’t forget them …
Ingram obviously passed a physical to Griff’s liking. excellent news for the Pelicans
Dragic with the Lakers is obvious, but not to me. Not until you mentioned it. Now it is. Yes.
Lakers may very well go after someone closer to Dellavedova at PG than they will Irving or Kemba
Having said that I see Kyrie there before Kemba
Kemba should be on the Suns. Who can do a sign and trade that lands Kemba in Phoenix?
Where does Butler want to be? If he wants to be in LA, and if the Clipps aren’t interested, consider these two lineups. Which is better? I don’t know.
1.) Kemba, Some SG TBD, LeBron, Kuz, Davis
2.) Dragic, Butler, LeBron, Kuz, Davis
Griff will trade the #4. Rather I can’t imagine that he won’t. Garland, has an injury history. He’s also great when healthy. The odds are that *some* team in the league values him higher than the Pels. That team will trade based on hope that Garland stays healthy. The point is that even if there’s only one team in the league that values the #4 more highly than the Pels … you trade the pick and get that value back for him.
If McDonough was still in Phx I’d expect the Suns to be all in: their #6 + Warren for the #4 and Hart. Warren is better – it makes sense but it’s giving up Warren for what exactly? Where will Hart play on the Suns?
Lonzo + Holiday is a dynamic backcourt and perhaps the best defensive backcourt in the league. But neither is a shooter. What’s the plan for Lonzo? Just like with Garland, there must be some team in the league that values him more highly than Griff. And is willing to take a chance that he’ll be and stay healthy.
I’m always assuming that Ainge is sitting back and waiting. Tatum and Horford are an excellent pair to build around. Smart has great value for some teams out there. Including Boston, but maybe you put him out there to see if some other team values him more.
Who’s up next? I could see some smaller moves made at this point. If Clipps need to get Lowry to seal the Kawhi deal do you do it now and therefore telegraph the obvious: that Kawhi is moving to LA at 6:00 ET June 30th?
Ainge. With all those assets. Now he has more information long term knowing Pels are loading up for the future (4-5 years from now). He knows the Lakers are all about winning now , meaning the next 3 years. 5 is a stretch considering LeBron’s age and Davis injury history. Marcus Morris decision will be big for them. If he leaves they need to replace a very good shooter who can defend. Brown needs to go somewhere else. He’s in Hayward’s spot and it’s likely Hayward gets back to himself this year. Assume Kyrie is gone now. Why would he stick around?
Yeah, looking at the Celtics, I a few different ways they can go. Much of what they’ve done up to now has been about putting themselves in a position to get AD. With that possibility gone and the likelihood that Kyrie leaves and Horford being able to opt out as well, here’s what I see.
Option 1: Kyrie leaves, but Horford stays – they will only be about $8 million under the cap, so they won’t be able to sign a major free agent. They look to add a PG with their cap space (maybe Rondo returns?) and some other veteran with their mid-level exception and they look to resign Morris with their Bird rights. Maybe they package some of their picks for a higher pick and get someone decent in the draft. The goal is to immediately get back to being a championship contender.
Option 2: Kyrie leaves and Horford leaves – now the Celtics have roughly $38 million to spend, so they can sign someone to a max or near-max contract. Maybe they look to bring in Kemba or Butler or Russell or Harris (and again resign Morris with their Bird rights). The goal again is to immediately get back to being a championship contender.
Option 3: Kyrie leaves and Horford leaves – the Celtics again have $38 million, but with Tatum, Brown, Smart and Rozier all 25 or under, they decide to not sign anyone this year and try to trade Gordon Hayward so that they have a ton of cap room next summer to add two max free agents to their young core.
My best bet is Option 1.
I really have no idea, but I think the question should be what kind of PG to put alongside Tatum. I think Kyrie was among the worst ideas as a pairing. If Tatum is going to develop, the offense should be designed around his ability to create. Meaning he needs to have the ball in his hands with plenty of time on the clock and in the right position on the court. Wall is the only PG I can think of that would be a worse choice than Irving. A young pass first defender who can shoot makes sense.
Forgot to mention that Griff said he wants an all-star. Didn’t see one in that trade. Did you?
#4 going, going ….
Would Denver take the #4 for Murray? He’s all-star caliber.
Based on who they could get at the #4 pick, I wouldn’t do it if I was Denver. The Nuggets are potential championship contenders now. Why give up an All-Star caliber PG for an unknown when you are close? They should be adding pieces, not getting rid of them.
If they weren’t in wait-n-see mode with Porter jr. then Garland might make sense for Murray. You don’t want two injured picks though. At least whoever is making the decisions wouldn’t want two failures like that on their resume.
Read in The Athletic an interesting trade possibility if the Pelicans were to deal that #4 pick. Apparently there is word that the Bulls might be interested in moving up for a shot at Garland. This was purely the writer’s speculation, but he thought the pick for Lauri Markkanen would work for both teams with Markkanen acting as a stretch 5 in the Pelicans’ new offense.
Was also reading how the trade will help Alvin Gentry install something closer to the Warriors offense. Ball is at his best when pushing the pace and having Ingram and Zion to dish off to will help for that. But when they can’t find something in transition, they can put the ball in Holiday’s hands because he can run a set offense with some pick and rolls with either Ingram or Zion. They could be fun to watch next year.
At face value and even if Garland is healthy Markkanen is as good or better long term, expecially after seeing what Gasol did in the playoffs. But Chicago has made bigger mistakes.
Regarding that backcourt – severely limited shooting. Would be among the worse or THE worst in the league. I don’t see it.
As versatile as Holiday is, you might consider him in a trade package with that #4 for an all star shooting guard. Or you pick Garland and move Lonzo. I think the latter makes a ton of sense. TJ Warren.
This lineup looks devastating – speed and scoring wise. Good enough defensively as well. Maybe excellent vs. smaller lineups.
Garland, Holiday, Ingram, Warren, Zion
Small, but no smaller than many lineups Warriors have put on the floor. Still have those #1s and Hart.
Yeah Ball and Holiday wouldn’t be a great shooting backcourt, but they’d have Hart to spell them (I’m assuming Hart’s long-distance shooting his rookie year is more indicative of his shooting ability than last year) and that’s why they’d need a stretch 5 like Markkanen.
I also wonder if the Pelicans might look to trade Ball so that they don’t have to deal with the Lavar Ball circus. Maybe there’s some other developing team that would be willing to trade a shooter for Ball and the #4 pick (Beal, Booker, Richardson?). Or maybe Memphis would be willing to take Ball and the #4 pick for the #2 pick so New Orleans can draft both Zion and Ja (two names that seem like they should be together).
One reason for Griff to trade that #4: VA’s D’Andre Hunter
I keep hearing and seeing that Garland will go #4 and Culver or Reddish at #5, but after what I saw in multiple tourney games Hunter is the real deal and a handful at SF. Someone really wants Hunter on their team. Houston maybe? Capela to the Pels somehow? Maybe include Randle and is there any way the Pels can take on Chris Paul’s contract?
I’m going to keep mentioning this until it happens, because “the media” seems to be getting so carried away that they’re forgetting this crucial point: Griff was extremely clear that he wants an All-Star on his team. That #4 and at least one of those #1s seem ready to be moved for an all star. Maybe Hart or Lonzo as well.
The *main* question I think is what talks are taking place with Griff right now that would set him up to grab D’Angelo Russell or Kemba Walker? Griff needs shooting at one of the guard spots. He can get that via the right discussions.
I just wrote about 15 paragraphs that seemed convincing. To me anyhow. But I’m stuck trying to figure out how to make everything work. The key point was that the Nuggets need to start building around Jokic and Porter Jr. and others. I don’t see Murray as being one of those others.
I was trying to figure out a way to make this happen:
Lonzo to the Nuggets
Murray to the Pels
Millsap to the Lakers for Kuzma
All of it could be possible, except now the Nuggets lose a lot of scoring. So they need that #4 pick but for what exactly? I didn’t quite get there, but I sure like Lonzo on the Nuggets with Jokic, Kuz and Porter Jr.
I think Silver needs to change the timeline so that FA begins prior to the draft. If I’m a GM, I’d really like to know about Walker, Kyrie, D’Angelo, KD, Kawhi and Butler before I draft. It doesn’t really make sense to do it the current way. It’s backwards.
Just had an “ah ha!” moment. The Celtics are on a new timetable now. Horford at 33 yrs old doesn’t fit in.
Last I saw Horford was a top 15 player. Maybe better than Butler even. Maybe not, but right around the same wrt his influence on big games. Certainly more consistent.
I’ve always thought Horford makes sense alongside Davis. How do the Lakers work this trade? It seems like they can’t now, right? Horford is likely better than Kuz will ever be. I guess that’s all that needs to be said, unless Ainge really likes Muscala in the deal. Possible? hmmm
The problem with a Horford for Kuzma swap is that Horford will make $30 million next year if he opts in (which he should at that price) and Kuzma makes less than $2 million. Looks unlikely that the Lakers will have enough cap space to pull that off. Also, Lakers did not want to include Kuzma in the AD deal, so it sounds like they want to keep him.
Swap? Why would anyone assume a swap between those two?
Every one of my proposals obviously has an understood “plus whatever else needs to happen to make it possible”. That’s what Griffin taught me as I listened to him constantly for a year. There are ways to get things done if one is creative enough. Ainge is nothing if not creative, so if he wants Kuzma he’ll very likely find a way.
Yes, I’m sure that the teams could get creative. It would probably require the Lakers resigning one of their own free agents and adding him to the deal. If you’re Ainge, I could see him absolutely wanting to do this. But I again get back to the Lakers wanting to keep him. From a financial standpoint, it doesn’t make sense for the Lakers to take on Horford’s salary when they’ve got Kuzma, who is pretty good even if he’s not as good as Horford, for less than $2 million. Right now, the Lakers have no guards. So do they take on Horford’s salary and have nothing left but a veteran minimum or mid-level exception for guards or do they keep Kuzma and use whatever cap space they have (at least $23 million) to get some guards (Dragic, Rubio, Green, Ross?). If I’m the Lakers, I’m saving that cap space for guards when I’ve already got a good, very low cost PF.
got it. good response. now I’m back to thinking about Dragic who could make a ton of sense for the Lakers. I wish I knew the salaries of these guys below …
Nikola Mirotic, Bucks (unrestricted)
Paul Millsap, Nuggets (if team doesn’t exercise option)
Goran Dragic, Heat (if he exercises option)
Danny Green, Raptors (unrestricted)
JJ Redick, 76ers (unrestricted)
Marcus Morris, Celtics (unrestricted)
Two names that stand out above as “why not?” sign with the Lakers are Dragic and Morris. The other guys have great reasons to be loyal to their current team, but those two don’t and they’d be great pieces around LeBron. We’ll see about Green if Kawhi moves on.
I didn’t realize Millsap was a FA (depending on the team exercising the option) – all the better reason for the Nuggets to move in a new direction and get busy with the trade bug starting soon. This lineup sure looks good if some sort of Kuzma trade could be pulled off:
Dragic, LeBron, Morris, Millsap, AD – big and mobile and all very good defensively. Great rebounding team. Morris and Dragic shoot well enough.
I could be completely wrong about Kuzma of course. People close to the team may already know that his FG % will increase.That may be all that’s needed for him to be just as valuable as Millsap (for example). Except for the 3FG% last year he’d be as good as they need him to be.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kuzmaky01.html
Put into perspective, no question Griff wanted Kuzma and instead got 3 first round draft picks out of the deal. Maybe more even. I get it – great player otherwise. Pressure is really on him now if he remains part of the lineup.
Basketball reference has all the salaries here (use the drop down Team Payroll menu to switch to another team):
https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/ATL.html
For the guys you mentioned:
Mirotic – made $12.5 million this year
Millsap – made $29.7 million this year, team has $30.5 million option for next year)
Dragic – made $18.1 million this year (has a player option for $19.2 million next year)
Green – made $10 million this year
Redick – made $12.25 million this year
Morris – made $5.375 million this year
You’re right. Dragic & Morris might fit nicely into the Lakers cap space as good fits around LBJ and AD. They could also have around $9 million for their mid-level exception (as a non-tax paying team). Lakers could still probably still use a really good shooter beyond them. Don’t know if Redick might take less money to play there for their mid-level exception.
why did denver pay so much for millsap when the timeline is to win big 2-3 years from now? he’s 34 yrs old.
why in the heck would Denver renew that contract?
So the Lakers-Pelicans swap is supposedly going to officially take place on July 6th and it will leave the Lakers with $27 or $23 million depending on whether AD exercises his $4 million trade kicker. But I keep hearing that if the Lakers can get the trade delayed to July 30th, then they will have over $30 million in cap space. I can’t figure out why that is the case. I thought it might be that cap holds from a team’s own free agents might get released then, but that should have nothing to do with the trade. So not sure how delaying the trade until the end of July would affect the Lakers’ cap space.
OK, the answer on this is that if the trade is delayed until the end of July, the 4th pick in the draft will have salary attached to it instead of just being a pick if the trade occurs before then. So the Lakers will be trading more salary away and thus have more cap room.
One of the Athletic’s Phoenix Suns beat writers contacted college coaches of four players who may be available when the Suns pick 6th in Thursday’s draft. Here’s the short version on what they said:
1. Darius Garland, PG, Vanderbilt: high basketball IQ and feel, great decision-maker, gym rat, needs work coming off ball screens and on defense, great personality, good locker room guy.
2. De’Andre Hunter, F, Virginia: good defensively, can guard 1 through 4, versatile offensively, can adapt to different systems, can create, needs to get shot off quicker, quiet personality but gets along with teammates.
3. Coby White, PG, North Carolina: good scorer with range, improving passer, good and willing defender, needs to develop habits that makes NBA players successful (not sure what this implies), very energetic and enthusiastic.
4. Jarrett Culver, Wing, Texas Tech: aggressive, can play on or off ball, good defender, relentless work ethic, needs to improve his shooting, adaptable to different systems, low-key guy from religious family.
Obviously, these coaches want to talk up their players, but they were specifically asked about what these guys need to improve and provided info on that. Looks like the PGs are the outgoing types, a useful trait for a PG, and the forward/wing guys are quiet types. Two of them should be available when the Suns pick at 6. I know the Suns need a PG, but they should take whoever they think will be the best player as they need wings too.
I’m probably nit-picking, but in the day of motion, ball movement, pace and space it seems interesting to me that there’s no focus on which player is great at “team offense” and “team defense”. I thought Hunter was outstanding at both. For me that was his value. The talent is there of course, but all that does is explain why he’s being considered a top 6 player. What I really want to see in each case is something like “quick thinker”, “quick reactions”, “moves well without the ball”, “sees the floor well”. For Garland there’s “great decision-maker” which is part of what I want to know as a scout, but does he react quickly enough?
I have to wonder if the Suns want to use their #6 on a guy who needs work on defense. I’d rather fit Conley at that spot than have a 6′ 2″ PG come in that is weak on D.
speaking of Conley, I assume he’s too expensive for the Lakers? that leads to another question …
where are the studs of the league willing to take minimum salary to make up the best team of all time? Unfortunately, Kawhi is likely out wrt Lakers, but why don’t Horford and Irving both say “to hell with it – I want to play with LeBron and AD and will do whatever it takes. $8M for a championship is a sacrifice well spent.”
$8M or $18M … not sure how that makes any difference to these guys.
then there’s danny green and lowry. i guess everyone is hamstrung until Kawhi makes his decision. I wonder how long he’ll keep us wondering. isn’t it best for him to just come out right now (or tomorrow) to announce he’s entertaining “other offers”?
Millsap has done well $$ wise. Why not do a Duncan and say “I’ll take $10M-$12M to be on that team. Duh!”.
I’m not completely sold on Dragic with the Lakers, but Morris is an upgrade on JR Smith and JR proved to be way more than just “serviceable” until that last finals series.
I think we’ve discussed this before, but I don’t believe a player under contract would be allowed, even with a team’s agreement, to essentially cancel the contract and go sign for less elsewhere. So Conley and Lowry and their $30+ million contracts for next year can’t give up those contracts. Free agents, of course, can accept whatever contract they like. The union would scream and yell if someone who could get a contract over $20 million instead took say the mid-level exception with the Lakers, but there is little the union could about it if it happened. I don’t think there are many players who would do that though.
Regarding Danny Green, I would not be surprised to see him sign a deal with whatever team Kawhi signs with. But he’d fit in well with the Lakers as someone who can hit threes and defends well.
can’t a third team sign and trade conley (as an example)?
Conley has a contract for next year and an option for the year after that, so no team can sign him. For players who are free agents, if they are signed by a new team, they can’t be traded until December or January. A team can sign and trade its own player who is now a free agent.
forgot the Dec part. thx
You’re probably right, but I really have to wonder how upset the union would be. If Millsap signing with the Lakers for $16M means that another deserving player gets more $$ or simply a longer term deal that seems like a good thing for players overall not bad. Morris for instance. I’m not sure what the $$ expectation is for Marcus Morris next year, but maybe a low Millsap signing allows the Lakers to double what Morris is expecting. Is that a bad thing for the union? I wouldn’t know.
What would *really* interesting is if Kawhi signs with Lakers or Clippers at something under $21M. Just so he can get his peeps sprinkled around him. After the year he had, and how people tend to love him now … I can’t see the union being outwardly bothered by anything that guy does.
All this is wishful thinking I know.
To that point, on First Take this morning, Shaq said then when he was negotiating a new contract with the Heat (before they won the championship in 2006), Pat Riley told him that the Heat could pay him $25 million OR $20 million and they would go out and sign a bunch of useful role players (Shaq played his 1st year in Miami for $27.6 million on the last year of the contract he signed with the Lakers). Shaq elected to take the $20 million and the Heat brought in Derek Anderson, Gary Payton, James Posey, and Antoine Walker for the 2005-06 season. I’m sure the union wasn’t happy with Shaq, a premier player still taking a $7 million pay cut, but nothing they could do about it.
If Kawhi signs with the Clippers, he won’t have to take a pay cut since they’ve got some $60 million in cap room. They can give a max deal to Kawhi and still have money for other players (even more if they were to trade Gallinari’s $22 million salary).
If I’m the Suns I want Morant not Garland. Obviously they need to move Booker to get that #2 pick. What can you get in a three way deal with Booker to the Grizz for the #2 and a LOT of change?
Ughh .. wrong timeline. Conley needs to be moved. I like Conley on the Lakers more than Dragic. Meanwhile landing Booker in Memphis is a coup. That’s huge but I have no idea how they do it.
Booker and #6 pick to Memphis for Chandler Parsons and #2 pick? I think the salaries would work, though the trade couldn’t occur until after June 30th, so each team would have to draft the player that the other wanted. Phoenix could draft Garland or White for Memphis as one of them should be available, if the Grizz want a PG to replace Conley if they trade him.
Why would Phx trade the #6? Booker is a known, stable and excellent quantity. The #2 is a chance.
I was just spitballing a way for the Suns to get the #2 pick and Morant.
The Kings seem a bit too silent to me. Why not go after a high draft pick with all your talent available for some kind of agreement?
Kings sit in a pretty enviable position. Right now, their roster has:
Bogdan Bogdanovic, 26, $8.5 million salary next season
Marvin Bagley 20, $8.5 million salary next season and team options for 2 years after that
De’Aaron Fox, 21, $6.4 million salary cap and team option for year after that
Willie Cauley-Stein, 25, restricted free agent, so in line for bigger salary next season
Buddy Hield, 26, $4.8 million salary next season
Yogi Ferrell, 26, partially guaranteed $3.15 million salary next season
They’ve also got a few other young players at small salaries and 27-year-old Harrison Barnes with the only big salary for $25 million if he opts in. If Barnes opts out, the Kings will have a ton of cap room (currently close to $40 million, so over $60 million if he opts out). Though if I’m the Kings, I’m trying to resign Barnes if he opts out because his shooting and game fits their style.
So right now, the Kings could just stick with their core and hope they make another step forward next year. Or they could add to it with one max free agent player. Or they could trade 2 or 3 of the young players for a stud. I think almost any of the options could be good.
Thinking about the Boston-Philly draft swap 2 years ago. 1 for 3. Fultz for Tatum. That happened more than a day before the draft, right? I can’t remember the reasoning for announcing that trade before far in advance of draft day.
That trade was 3 days before draft day.
I’m not sure I understand the issue with announcing the trade 3 days before the draft. It’s not like Boston might have gotten a better offer if they waited and they might risk Philly backing out of it if there was no agreement reached.
I’m just thinking about the advantages of doing it sooner rather than later. One reason to *not* announce so early … the Lakers with the 2nd pick in that draft had 3 days to get intel on what Ainge was up to. Three days to reconsider their interest in Tatum. Seems like Ainge was taking a chance (albeit a small one) that the Lakers drafted Tatum instead of Lonzo.
The Kyrie news is expected. The Horford news …
Lakers *must* try to land him. Horford is one of the best options for neutralizing Dray in the playoffs. It would probably force the Warriors, Rockets and Clippers to change their plans. The problem is that Horford is so damned Duncan like that he may choose loyalty over everything and stay with the Celtics.
Apparently Horford and the Celtics have been talking about a new deal. I have to imagine that he would only decline the option if he thought he would get more money in a new deal. The Celtics will be over the cap even if Horford took a lot less to stay, so there would be no reason for him to decline an option for a $30 million contract to help the Celtics sign someone because they won’t be able to, other than veteran minimum and mid-level exception contracts which the Celtics would be able to do anyway.
Harrison Barnes has opted out of his $25.1 million contract, so he’s now an unrestricted free agent. Sacramento now has $60+ million of cap room.
First thoughts after the Conley for Crowder/Korver/Allen trade and pick …
– to give up TWO 1st round picks in addition to the rest tells me other teams were bidding almost as high, and the Jazz needed to up the ante to get their guy
– I don’t like giving up Grayson Allen at all. That seems like a huge mistake to me.
– Crowder needs to be replaced – Favors now has way too much pressure on him. My guess is that Rubio is traded for a PF
– Phoenix seems to be coveting Warren and perhaps not entertaining offers for him at all. I’m not sure about that strategy unless they’re simply saying he’s not even close to the player he’ll become eventually. If they’re thinking he’ll be something along the lines of Eric Gordon (wrt impact on games) then that’s fine. They would know more than anyone else. But if they think they’re going to get something back for Jackson and Bender they may be killing their chances at some of these trades
– Which teams benefit by adding Rubio? Phx is obvious even if they select Garland or White. Phoenix might be even better off selecting Hunter if available at #6. In that case some sort of trade for Rubio makes even more sense. Question: does Bender help fill the gap opened up in the absence of Crowder?
Looks like we were writing about this at the same time. With regard to Rubio, he’s a free agent that Utah won’t try to resign because of Conley. So Phoenix can just go sign him if they can.
I disagree on Allen. I didn’t think he was that good in college (not to mention his justified reputation as a dirty player) and he did nothing as a rookie to indicate that he will be a good pro. There is a reason he played 4 years at Duke before declaring for the draft. Allen was supposed to be a great distance shooter, but he really only had one great year at Duke as a shooter (his sophomore year) and the Duke team is so great that it created a lot of good looks for him that he doesn’t get as a pro. He doesn’t have the size or quickness to create for himself and was never good going to the rim. He is a weak defender with short arms. He’ll never be anything other than a decent shooter off the bench.
You might be right about Allen’s deficiencies, but those aren’t related to the reasons I like him. He’s one of these quick decision makers and has a lot of grit. I think Memphis will see him grow to become better at most of the things you mention – specifically defense and running the floor.
So I like the Mike Conley deal for Utah. None of the players they gave up (Crowder, Allen, Korver) were great or even that young (except for 23-year-old Grayson Allen, who probably won’t ever be good) and the two 1st round draft picks are likely to be low 1st round, like the 23rd pick this year. They’ve got Gobert and Mitchell who are studs, Favors who is good around the basket, and Harris who is a good wing shooter. Add a top PG like Conley to that mix and that’s a team that could go deep in the postseason next year.
On the Memphis end, they will clearly waive Korver, who’s salary is only partially guaranteed. Crowder and Allen are only signed through next season (Allen’s contract has team options for the two years after that). Depending on what else they do, Memphis will have a huge amount of cap room next summer and can start rebuilding around Jaren Jackson and Ja Morant and some extra draft picks.
Again, we are in sharp disagreement regarding how “good” Allen will be. I’m guessing Memphis agrees with me, otherwise that trade makes very little sense.
Of course I completely forgot that Rubio is a FA. He’s 28 and in his prime. This will be a huge pickup for a team out there. Denver and Phoenix are most obvious – of course Denver needs to unload some players for Rubio to fit in. Philly seems perfect as well, if Butler and Harris stay and they can move Simmons (and I think they absolutely should move Simmons). Philly and Phoenix in particular are *really* lacking a veteran presence that can reshape how these teams move with and without the ball.
Damn – I just saw a story putting Indiana into the Rubio hunt. Great idea if he wants to be there. Great pairing with Oli and the shooters. They’re a Marc Gasol like player away from contending I think, not that there are many of those types. Unfortunately, even if Pacers could afford Horford he and Turner can’t exist on the floor at the same time as both are at there best along the baseline and near the rim.
Again, consider how different all this would be if FA began at or before draft day. Meanwhile everyone waits to see what Kawhi wants to do. Ugghhhh
Rubio would be good for a lot of teams. Denver, Phoenix, Philly, and Indy that you mentioned. With Kawhi to the Clippers. San Antonio. Paired with Doncic in the Dallas backcourt. The Lakers who need guards. Hell, if he’d sign for the mid-level exception, he’d be great to have on the Warriors next year. It’ll be interesting to see what he wants. He could look to join a ready championship contender or might look to join a young and upcoming team that he can lead.
Spurs get their injured guys back. I think that relegates Rubio to a lot more bench time than he’d like. I thought about Dallas, but I think the ball needs to be in Doncic’s hands too much, and not like Doncic can dish to Rubio for the open shot. Lakers are an interesting choice, because LeBron has become a much better shooter. Could work well, especially to show Kuzma how ball movement is supposed to work at its best. Assuming Kuzma stays that is. Now that Horford has made it clear he wants to go, that means he’ll take less money. With the Lakers that’s an insane front line.
With the trade of Conley, Memphis is in full rebuild mode. They could also have $30+ million in cap space this summer that they are unlikely to use because of the rebuild. So that puts the Grizzlies in a good position to the 3rd team in trade deals where they take on an expiring bad contract in return for getting future picks or a young, unproven player. Other teams that could also do so are the Hawks and Suns (though both are ahead of Memphis in the rebuild mode and might be more inclined to use their cap space for useful players instead of expiring bad contracts and picks), and the Bulls and Knicks (though both are major markets likely looking to make a splash in free agency). So Memphis may be the go to team for some other trade that needs to drop a bad contract somewhere.
Khris Middleton declined his option, so he will hit the free agent market. That was pretty much a no-brainer given that the option was only for $13 million next year. He will get a lot more than that in free agency, though I expect the Bucks to do what is necessary to retain him.
In looking at the Bucks, I see that George Hill has an $18 million contract for next year, but if the Bucks cut him before the end of the month, they are only on the hook for $1 million. So I think we can expect Hill to get cut. Hill won’t get anywhere near $18 million as a free agent, but he is useful, so some contender will look to sign him as a back-up PG.
Here’s a what if scenario for you…
The Greek Freak has 2 years left on his contract ($25.8 million next year, $27.5 million in 2020-21). Although he’s never said anything publicly, what if he really doesn’t want to stay in Milwaukee (lack of Greek community, not international enough, etc)? Suppose he were to inform the Bucks that he will leave at the end of his contract, like AD did last year (though unlike AD, he could do so privately instead of publicly). Giannis has made no bones about wanting to play with Steph Curry. What if the Bucks trade the Freak to the Warriors for Draymond, whatever other players are needed to make the salaries work, and a collection of draft picks, either this summer or during the year next year? Unlikely to happen, I know, but one can dream.
Would be fun, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, I see Freak as the Derek Jeter of the NBA – unlikely to do anything to bother people, very happy to be where he is and his team will do everything possible to keep him there.
I’m trying to imagine all the ways the Suns of old could screw up this draft. I could see McDonough thinking that they absolutely 100% *need* to pickup one of the 3 top PGs, so if they hold onto that #6 and all three are gone by then … I can see a scenario where McDonough would consider drafting Hunter at #6 as a mistake. As opposed to just going ahead and drafting Hunter.
Hopefully James Jones has already had talks with Oubre and knows his intentions. If there’s any reasonable way that Oubre walks then Hunter is an excellent replacement. On the other hand should Oubre stick around the concern is that Cleveland takes Coby White if Garland is gone. And Barrett of course.
From what I’m reading, at 6′ 5″ Coby White is hardly a downgrade from Garland. And without an injury history. Possible that Suns need to get busy talking with Cleveland if they aren’t already.
The Cavs have Collin Sexton as their PG, so seems likely that one of Garland or White will be available when the Suns pick. I suppose they could pick a PG and move Sexton to SG, but at 6’2″, he’s not ideal for guarding SGs that are generally taller. But if they did, the Suns should be very comfortable drafting Hunter, who’s considered one of the best defensive prospects in the draft and hit the 3 at a near 44% clip last year. It’s nice when the best player available fits a team need, but if not, just get the best player available. They can fill the team need in free agency.
Oubre is a restricted free agent, so Suns will have right to match any offers for him. My guess is that they do.
I brought up the topic because I’m hearing reports that Cavs may take White or Garland anyhow.
I forgot about the “restricted” part of it. So … if they match all offers they keep him? He likes it in Phx, but my only concern was that he’d prefer to be in CA somewhere. Doesn’t matter what he wants as long as Suns match?
I hadn’t heard any reports of Cleveland being interested in Garland or White. All reports and mock drafts have them going after Hunter or Culver. However, the Bulls have been connected to Garland or White, so perhaps they may make a move to leapfrog the Suns.
Yes, as long as Phoenix matches any offer that Oubre takes, they keep him. Suns have to make a qualifying offer to Oubre before free agency begins to keep that right, but I expect they will do so. Oubre was born in New Orleans, largely raised in Texas, went to a prep school for his senior year in high school, and played college at Kansas. No idea what location he may prefer.
I don’t know if you’ve heard the rumors that the Wizards are looking to hire Masai Ujiri away from the Raptors by offering him $10 million a year and an ownership stake. I’m pretty sure the Wizards would have to get permission to even negotiate with Ujiri (not sure when Ujiri’s contract might be up) and if Ujiri wanted to leave, the Raptors could probably get some compensation from the Wizards for allowing it to happen. The Wizards aren’t in a good cap situation this year, unless Jabari Parker bails them out and declines his option for $20 million next year. Anyway, could be bad news for Toronto if they lose Kawhi and Ujiri.
I’m guessing Ujiri will be an integral part of the search for the next President/GM if he moves on. It makes sense for him to leave, and it makes sense for many others to salivate at the opportunity to take his place. If both Kawhi and Ujiri move on, there’s still great news about Toronto the city. I’m not sure how many Americans knew anything about Toronto even 2 weeks ago. For decades it’s been a great destination in all of the same ways SF, LA and NYC are great destinations. Considering all cities where I’d want to be as an NBA player, knowing what I do about NBA players (more than most, a lot less than some) these are the places where I want to play …
1. LA
3. NY
5. Houston
6. Miami
7. Toronto
8. Chicago
9. SF
10. Philly
11. New Orleans *now* of course (unless LaVar Ball erects Billboards of his entire family)
I think Boston, Denver, Phoenix, Portland, Dallas *maybe* Atlanta … while all excellent places for these guys to land they’d very likely rather be in that top 8, then 10 and and probably 11.
But why not Toronto before Chicago as an example? Toronto isn’t *that* much colder in the winter, and who cares anyhow when you’ll be inside your awesome house, arena, gym, limo almost all the time?
If you don’t like the cold then Miami is really your only option. LA, SF and Houston all get *somewhat* cold in the winter anyhow.
BTW – does Griffin really want to be part of Le Circe de LaVar?
Getting right down to it …
Pels take Garland at #4. I think there’s at least a 50% chance this happens…
Suns trading for Lonzo just makes too much sense. Is Warren too much to give up? If not then when does that trade happen or something similar to it?
If the Pelicans like Garland better than Hunter or Culver, that deal makes a lot of sense, though it gives the Pelicans a bit of a log jam in their front court with Randle (if he doesn’t opt out), Zion, and Ingram already there.
Lavar Ball was on First Take earlier this week claiming that he orchestrated the trade to New Orleans by saying that Lonzo wouldn’t want to go there. Apparently a reverse psychology thing. Funny stuff.
I really doubt Randle stays. Not the right guy next to Zion, and I can see him trying to prove that he’s equally as capable. His trade value is pretty high – time to trade him.
This lineup is deadly, though smallish …
Garland, Holiday, Warren, Ingram, Zion
Holiday Ingram and Zion can hold their own defensively, but yes: this lineup can be abused somewhat depending on the competition. But offensively it’s ridiculous. I’d grab Warren in a heartbeat if I don’t see Lonzo fitting in.
Worth pointing out if you haven’t heard this already: every time I hear Griff talk about Ingram he talks about a boy barely getting use to his body. One that Griff seems sure will add muscle, strength and weight. This is Griff’s fascination with Ingram: what he’s going to look like in a year or two. Once there you have and SF that can guard all positions. Like Siakam. Pretty sure this is what Griff is thinking.
Considering that Chicago might do what’s needed to land a PG, what are the possibilities of trading for Lonzo? They won’t give up Markkanen, Carter Jr or LaVine, but Dunn, Lopez + the #7 could be an easy call. Dunn can be a very good backup PG moving forward. Ball and LaVine would seem to make a lot of sense. Need shooters beyond Markkanen though, so maybe not!
I don’t have a good feel for what the Bulls will do. Porter is another player that they surely want to keep because he is a lights out shooter. PG is probably their biggest need and most mocks have them taking Coby White. Given they’ve got some shooters (Porter, Markkanen, LaVine all shoot well), they could absorb Lonzo into their starting line-up despite his shooting deficiencies. Depends on how they feel about the Lavar Ball circus that comes with Lonzo.
I meant to list Porter. I wouldn’t proceed as if LaVine is much of a shooter though. Improving yes, and excellent going to the rim but not really the guy to trust with the outside shot in crucial moments.
Yep – they need a PG. Now that you’ve reminded me about Porter I can see him on his way to Cleveland or even New Orleans.
Woj was reporting yesterday that KD has narrowed his list to the Warriors, Knicks, and Nets, which is what we all thought was the list already. Word is that the Warriors are open to a sign and trade with KD if KD wants that 5th year on the contract but with another team. If I’m the Warriors, KD to the Knicks for that #3 pick sounds okay. Obviously, KD is a whole lot better than anyone the Warriors could take with that pick, but they would otherwise lose him for nothing, so why not get someone like RJ Barrett. On the Knicks end, Barrett plays the same position as KD, so it may not make much sense to have them both anyway.
Wow. Barrett is EXACTLY the guy to fill that spot. I was saying Oubre who would also have been a great fit, but Barrett … this might be another siakam/doncic type. Not sure this is accurate, but the little I’ve seen of his game reminds me a bit of Lamar Odom. I think he’ll be better than that. I’m not sure how the Knicks pass him up though.
Warriors also cut a deal with Atlanta. They’re trading $1.3 million and a future 2nd round pick for the #41 pick in this year’s draft. Makes sense for both teams. Warriors will need low-cost bodies to fill out this year’s roster since they can’t do a whole lot in free agency (and anything they do in free agency will cost three times as much with luxury taxes). The Hawks had something like 5 or 6 picks in the draft, so it makes sense for them to off-load one.
Here we go. I believe it completely.
http://amicohoops.net/pelicans-seeking-veteran-stretch-four-for-fourth-overall-pick/
Love paired with Zion makes a ton of sense.GREAT mentor for all the young Pels. So … Cleveland gets the #4 & #5 picks? Wow … great idea for that franchise. Add Garland and Hunter. Trade Sexton. Plenty to consider there.
Best thing about Love in New Orleans … he finally gets his ‘get out of jail free’ card. I could see him leading the league in rebounding next year, or just double doubles. Seems so obviously good for both teams.
Not happening apparently. Pelicans traded the #4 pick to Atlanta for Solomon Hill (salary dump for Pels) and the #8 pick with other later picks also being exchanged.
I’m reading and hearing that Coby White is on the rise. No doubt that means the Suns have their sights on him. Although I’m a little concerned about the Cavs, I think it’s the Knicks and Bulls I’m more concerned about. The Knicks moreso after hearing a pretty intelligent discussion on SiriusXM. It convinced me that the Knicks have little to lose by gutting their roster in order to grab both Barrett and White. In other words, trading four fairly decent players for the #5 and whatever makes it work for the Cavs. The Bulls, as discussed still hard to see what they’d give up that the Cavs want. Otto Porter at least I assume. I’m starting to think the Cavs don’t have enough talent to seal the deal.
In any case, I imagine Sarver is hovering over Jones and threatening to put goats in his office unless he maneuvers to get one of these top 3 PGs. I might agree with Sarver if that’s the case. Suns should be bidding very high right now for the #4 or #5 picks. Of the Knicks, Bulls & Suns the Suns absolutely have the upper hand if willing to part with Warren. I think it’ll take that and some.
And now I’m going back and forth trying to imagine being in James Jones’ position. If Hunter is available and assuming Jones has been in constant contact with Griff (stupid if this hasn’t been the case), then the Suns are poised to potentially grab both Hunter and Lonzo. Blood pressure must be rising at the Suns front office. Meanwhile I’m sure everyone is wondering …
what is Griff capable of today? Can hardly wait to find out. Lonzo *must* be on the block – impossible to imagine if not the case.
Straight from the keyboard of Woj …
“Atlanta has acquired New Orleans’ No. 4 pick in the draft for No. 8 and 17 and 35, league sources tell ESPN. Pelicans are sending Solomon Hill, No. 57 pick and a future second-round pick. Atlanta is also sending sending Cleveland a heavily protected 2020 first-round pick. Atlanta is pursuing Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter.”
The #8 is a big one. Gotta wonder what Griff is thinking. Jackson Hayes?
Griff is staging a coup. This is how the Warriors and Spurs became who they are. That is, assuming Griff has scouted correctly. I wouldn’t bet against it.
Apparently Griff was thinking of Texas C Jaxson Hayes. Really gotta think they are looking to get rid of Randle now.
more from the desk of Woj:
“The Phoenix Suns are trading T.J. Warren and the No. 32 pick in Thursday’s NBA draft to the Indiana Pacers, a league source told ESPN.
The Pacers will send cash to the Suns, according to a league source. Phoenix wanted to unload the three years and $35 million remaining on Warren’s deal to create salary-cap space.”
This cannot be final. Am waiting for the other shoe to drop …
“Warren averaged 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 43 games this past season, when he improved his shooting dramatically. He shot 28% from 3-point range in his first four years in the league but improved to 43% last season, the eighth-best percentage in the NBA among players with at least 100 attempts.”
The other shoe is the Suns trading the #6 pick to the Timberwolves for Dario Saric and the #11 pick. I wonder if Phoenix is counting on getting a PG in free agency.
So the Suns get Cameron Johnson out of North Carolina with the #11 pick. Great shooter, but was injured a lot in college. If he can stay healthy, Suns get potentially the best shooter in the draft. So they’ll have Ayton surrounded by Booker, Johnson, Saric, and whatever PG they pick up. That is some serious shooting power there.
hardly think that’s the other shoe. obviously there’s more going on since the suns passed up coby white.
Looks like the Suns picked up Virginia PG Ty Jerome in a trade. Jerome is another really good shooter and increased his assists every year at Virginia. They also drafted Stanford wing KZ Okpala in the 2nd round, who really improved his shooting in his sophomore year. In general, looks like the Suns are definitely focusing on getting shooters.
One of my favorite players from the Tourney, only partly due to his shooting. Smart and gritty. Really happy about that one as well as the Baynes pickup. Suns are adding solid depth. Don’t know about the other guys. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Whatever happened with the Suns today tells me a couple things: Sarver is trusting his new front office to do their jobs. If not they would have pulled the trigger on Coby White. Also, Suns can’t afford to go another year without a top PG. Without knowing more, they’re after either Lonzo or D’Angelo Russell. Maybe Kemba. Any of those three would be great. Just as long as it’s not Kyrie – Suns can’t afford to have him overshadowing Ayton and Booker. And then get up and leave after making another mess out of things.
so , i know this is wishful thinking, but I wonder if the Suns passed on White because not only are they targeting Lonzo but if Lonzo is your starting PG it’s nice to have a shooter come in as backup. Considering that Booker got a lot better at handling the ball last year, they can now pair Booker with Jerome or Cam Johnson in the back court depending on matchups.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to understand the Pels direction with almost no shooters beyond Korver. .
Gotta figure the Suns either have something brewing at PG or were really down on White for some reason. The Athletic was really down on the Cameron Johnson pick because of his defensive and ball-handling deficiencies, but liked that Booker will have an elite shooter on the court to dish to (Johnson is also older than Booker).
The Suns also picked up Celtics center Aron Baynes in the deal where they got the pick where they chose Jerome. Baynes will be just a back-up to Ayton. Am guessing the Celtics were dumping Baynes’ $5.4 million salary, but not sure what they are opening cap space for since they’ve already got a fair amount with Irving and Horford opting out.
I was wrong about the Suns getting Stanford forward KZ Okpala. The Pacers acquired that pick and TJ Warren from the Suns for money. The Pacers in turn traded the pick to Miami. So Warren’s salary is off the roster, but I don’t get dumping both the pick and Warren for cash. There’s got to be more to the deal than what’s been reported so far.
As for the Pelicans, you’re right that they seem to have rejected the huge trend toward valuing shooters and instead valuing slashers and rim runners, though they did pick up Virginia Tech guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who isn’t a bad shooter/scorer. If they are looking at moving Lonzo, perhaps they are looking at getting some shooting in return.
Through 5 picks, some early thoughts…
First 3 picks went exactly as everyone thought. The only real question is whether the Knicks keep Barrett or trade him, assuming they get KD, who would make Barrett superfluous. With the Hawks trading up to #4, the Hunter pick makes a lot of sense. Trae Young and Hunter are a good nucleus to build upon. The Cavs took Garland at #5, but gotta wonder if that presages a trade since they’ve already got Sexton.
The Suns traded out of the #6 pick. I wonder if they had intel that Garland would be picked before their spot and weren’t keen on White. Saric is a nice stretch 4 on their squad.
sure Saric is “nice”, but the suns don’t pass up coby white for saric and the shooter they just picked in johnson.
Considering how much the Suns will space the floor it’s possible Saric can do some damage the same way he did in Philly: driving well from the arc and dishing off to shooters or finishing. A guy that size who can put the ball on the floor: makes a lot of sense on a team with well spaced shooters. Suns may be getting back to their ’93 for where every night at least 5 guys are in double figures.
Not clear on what the Warriors were doing with their picks. Not sure if Cleveland stunned them in the first round by taking Dylan Windler two spots before the Dubs (Windler was heavily rumored as being the player the Dubs wanted). So they instead grabbed Michigan guard Jordan Poole, who is a pretty good shooter, but terrible defender.
They made a deal in the 2nd round with the Pelicans to take Serbian center Alen Smailagic, who had been playing on their Santa Cruz G-League team and really didn’t look like anything special. Not sure why the Dubs thought they had to trade up for him. He’s very young, so perhaps they see potential, but he’s got a long way to go. Warriors need players who can help next year and he won’t be one.
With the pick the Warriors bought from the Hawks in the 2nd round, they grabbed Nova wing Eric Paschall. He’ll be a decent back-up next year. He’s a decent shooter, but good defender. He also played four years in college, so he’ll be more experienced than the usual lot of one-and-dones who get drafted.
With their final 2nd round pick, the Dubs drafted Yale guard Miye Oni. He’s athletic and is a good catch and shoot guy, but is very raw. He’s another guy who probably won’t provide much help for them next year.
Really hoping that my KD sign-and-trade to the Knicks for RJ Barrett fantasy comes true, if KD wants to leave that is. If he wants to stay, that is obviously preferable.
Apparently, the Miye Oni pick is going to Utah. Don’t know yet what the Warriors picked up in the trade.
Trying to be objective here, but hard to do with so much confusion I’m reading about Cam Johnson at #11. The obvious question: since when is it a bad decision to take the best shooter in the draft at #11? Those bothered by the decision state it’s because he does little else. Well .. that’s not true, unless the youtube vid I just watched included an impostor. Maybe other than shooting he does *less* than anyone else in the first round. OK, so … isn’t that why he went at #11 instead of #8?
I get that he was *projected* to go closer to #20. Kyle Korver is 2 inches smaller and was taken at #51st in his draft. A quick glance at that draft tells me he should have gone in the middle of the first round.
Again just trying to stay objective and realize I could be missing something, but it’s not like he’s the best shooter and 6′ 2″ at the same time. At the very least, at 6′ 9″ he spreads the floor and will create matchup problems for opponents. This draft was clearly about adding depth to an already talented Suns team – he wasn’t picked for a starter role. Suns are going after a big time PG in less than 2 weeks. With guys like Tyler Johnson, Ty Jerome, Baynes, Bridges and maybe Richaun Holmes making up for a fairly decent 2nd team that plays defense you can afford to hide Johnson’s lack of D in that lineup.
I guess the only thing I might be missing is if there was another tall shooter almost as good as Johnson available. I guess that was Dylan Windler who … DING DING DING … went at #26. So … clearly the Suns had their sites on Ty Jerome and didn’t want to pass him up OR take him at #11. More than likely they were after Cam Johnson or Dylan Windler. By not taking Johnson at #11 they were right to think that at #27 neither Jerome, Johnson nor Windler would be available at #27.
Here’s what I see that the Suns did: they are now the league’s shooter factory. Saric, Bridges, Booker, Cam Johnson, Ayton (great among C position anyhow) and maybe Jerome (ggod enough for a PG anyhow). Crawford if they keep him and they definitely should from what I hear about his character. Meanwhile the Pels and Lakers are woeful in this regard, and they’re not the only ones. The Johnson and Saric picks might end up being more than just “smart” if one or both of them is packaged up and shipped off to say … hmmm … Pels for Lonzo?
OK, so I do see one thing that is troublesome about the Johnson pick at #11 : the Heat selected Tyler Herro at #12, also one of the best shooters in the draft. OK, so it’s now clear why Johnson was higher on the Suns radar – 3 pt shooting % which is excellent compared to Herro. And 5″ taller to boot.
It’s a calculated guess. Is there more value in the league when a 6′ 9″ F can shoot the lights out from 3 but do little else? Or a 6′ 4″ SG that’s a better all around shooter and player but also not exactly great at anything but shooting? It’s a good question that boils down to this: how many teams out there have an opening for one guy versus the other? Possible the pick was all about the answer to that question.
and of course selecting your shooter higher up in the draft means greater trade value. i’m not sure why that’s obvious to me and apparently no one in the media.
Yeah, I’m a little confounded about some of the media’s reaction to the Johnson pick. On the one hand, they acknowledge how great his shooting ability is–I’ve seen some references to Johnson being THE BEST shooter in the draft–but the knocks seem to be that he is already 23 years old and he was drafted earlier than expected. In SI’s grades for the 1st round, they gave the Suns a D- for the Cameron Johnson pick while acknowledging that the pick made some sense for the Suns. They just didn’t like him getting picked at #11. You know what, even if he isn’t the greatest defensive player and his upside isn’t as great because of his age, I’m okay with taking what may be the best shooter in the draft. There are ways to make that skill work for your team.
It remains to be seen whether the Suns can lure one of the top free agent PGs to Phoenix, but given how much shooting and cap space they have, I also wonder if they may look to get a PG in a trade. They can trade some shooters and have the space to take on a bad contract that another team wants to dump in return for getting a quality PG.
I just watched video of Cam Johnson again. From my POV it’s the media ranking that’s wrong. He’s a UNC player and clearly way more than “just a 3 pt shooter”.
Phx may have picked up a gem. Allan Houston was 6′ 6″ and literally did almost nothing except shoot for his first few years in the league. Also picked #11 and by all standards way more 1 dimensional than Cam Johnson, but was considered a complete stud.
My guess is that Phx was extremely high on both Johnson and Jerome and was doing everything they could to trade down to the right spot allowing them to get both. I doubt Saric was even top 5 on their list of guys to trade down for, but when the bell rung that’s what they had.
They might have been thinking something like this (which makes complete sense). Johnson was slotted at between #15 and #20 on their list and Jerome between #21 and #30. Since they apparently couldn’t trade down for a good player AND the #15 they took Saric and then Johnson.
Johnson is frickin 6′ 9″ and moves extremely well with and without the ball. The main knock I keep hearing is that he’s 23 years old. It always comes back to that: “*but* he’s 23 years old”. Come on … what a ridiculous way to judge someone.
https://sports.yahoo.com/suns-stun-by-using-11-th-pick-on-cameron-johnson-who-wasnt-in-building-to-shake-adam-silvers-hand-013721309.html
https://twitter.com/i/status/1141880752012873728
I just listened to McDonough’s take on this. He is one frickin boring if not inside-the-box thinker. I’m honestly baffled that someone with his background doesn’t say at least *something* like “of course, the Suns may have other plans with Saric or Johnson or both”. Instead it seems all he could think is that Saric and Johnson will be playing together forever. Just seems really really dumb to me. No question this guy should not be a GM.
There may be some health worry with Johnson’s hips, but when the issue with him seems to be mainly about his age and him getting picked earlier than expected, you gotta wonder about the talking heads.
hips – not a good thing to worry about. weird that almost no one mentions it.
it’s also weird that so many people ranking these guys put them in about the same range. after the first 7 or so how can they possibly know if I guy fits between 12 and 16 or 9 and 20? What happens is they all start talking and then for some reason they think they need to be in agreement +/- something. As if these guys are any of the following …
investors
economists
mathematicians
statisticians
what a bunch of bull. all this is is the continuation of what’s popular: hating on the Suns’ franchise.
yesterday was listening to coach K on a conversation recorded days before the draft. without being asked he volunteers Cam Johnson as one heck of a player that’ll be a great 1st rounder for some team.
i also learned there’s a big reason for what most consider to be Johnson’s biggest flaw: his age. It turns out that the hip issue is/was a *good* thing in this respect – he had trouble with one of his hips in high school and up through 2017-2018. He had surgery allowing him to spread his stance and now he’s much more versatile athletically. so there it is: this appears to be the only reason why he’s coming out at 23.
a few people have pointed out that he destroyed Duke last year…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e1ndHmVZXE
for a guy that shoots and “does little else”, that’s a pretty mean handle for a 6′ 9″ F. Of course, being able to handle the ball isn’t really important in today’s game.
after reading a bit more, I think it’s some knee soreness rather than the hips that are the bigger issue. possible one has affected the other. unfortunately the Suns don’t have their masterful medical staff anymore, but I’m not sure he’ll be on the Suns longer than a couple weeks anyhow.
Forgot to mention that among the 6 or 8 guys Coach K talked up was Ty Jerome even moreso than Cam Johnson. K was clearly way higher on those two than the “analysts” whoever they are. Looks like James Jones heard him. It’s clear to me now that the Suns turned the 6th and 27th picks into the equivalent of Saric and something more like the 17th and 21th picks. If the Suns took Johnson and Jerome at those spots respectively then no one would be complaining much, and yet the result is the same.
The point is that the Suns got their guys with a bit of luck on their side. If they didn’t pick Johnson at #11 and went with Tyler Herro instead, then there are two scenarios that don’t work for the Suns …
1. neither Johnson nor Jerome is available at #27
2. Johnson isn’t available at #27, but that was the guy they really wanted
If #2 then Suns now pickup both Herro and Jerome who overload the same position as Booker. Meanwhile the Suns need an excellent PG. So … now the Suns don’t have a great reason for Jerome. Working backwards knowing this scenario doesn’t work, it requires you to consider taking Jerome at the #11 instead of Johnson. So now they REALLY get killed by the media.
I heard something from someone yesterday who clearly thinks of himself as the god of NBA draft talk. never seen him before. smooth and fast talker. comes across as an expert. killing the suns on this pick and then he says this: “Don’t get me wrong, Johnson is a very good but limited player, but by taking him at #11 you waste that great draft position. *HALF THESE GUYS WON’T MAKE IT IN THE NBA ANYHOW, SO IT ASTOUNDS ME THAT THEY WASTED SUCH A GREAT PICK ON JOHNSON*”
That is completely backwards!! If half the guys don’t make it (a fairly accurate statement) then that’s exactly why you take a chance at the kind of player that will! My god that’s just simple logic. In fact, I think the same exact guy said something like “Johnson will definitely be in the league for years blah blah”.
Ridiculous.
Speaking of dysfunctional front offices, it seems that Lakers management may not have been aware of all the salary cap implications of the Anthony Davis trade…
https://www.businessinsider.com/lakers-anthony-davis-trade-salary-cap-ramifications-free-agency-2019-6
Somehow the Lakers have become the favorites to be champs next year. I don’t see it happening. Right now, they’ve got next to nobody on the team beyond LBJ, AD, and Kuzma. So there will be a lot of new faces that need to be integrated next year and virtually no depth. AD has never played a full season, so you can probably expect him to miss at least 10 or so games next year and LeBron is agining. The two of them and Kuzma are good enough to make them a playoff team, but that is not a championship squad yet. I think it is unlikely that the Lakers are champs next year.
Pretty sure I’m stating (or asking) the obvious here: the Warren to Pacers trade won’t be official until July 6th. I assume that means there are many ways the details of that trade could change between now and then. I don’t see how this could work but I can see the Suns having interest in both Thad Young and Bogdonovic who are unrestricted FAs. Maybe the deal doesn’t help at all in respect to those two, but there may be other players on the Indiana roster the Suns are looking at.
Oh … how does a sign and trade work wrt Young or Bogdanovic?
Since neither Young nor Bogdanovic will command a max contract, the only reason for them to agree to a sign and trade is to get a 5th on their contracts. That’s something that the players would be interested in, but the Suns might not be interested in giving them a contract that long. The Warren trade definitely doesn’t happen until July 6th as the Pacers don’t have the cap space to take on Warren’s contract until then. Since the trade was to clear cap space for the Suns and will give them the ability to sign someone to a max contract if they so wish. I think it’s more likely that they sign a couple of players to something like $15 million a year contracts. We’re assuming that some of that cap space will be spent on a PG. They could put most or all of the cap space toward a Kyrie or Kemba or D’Angelo (if any of them wanted to come there), but I’m thinking its more likely that they use some of the space toward a Dragic or Rubio and the rest of the cap space on someone else.
OK, so Rubio then (although I could also see Thad Young on the Suns – great locker room guy). Pacers appear to be #1 in the running for the Rubio sweepstakes. Maybe this Warren deal makes it easier for Suns to sign Rubio? The thing there is that Rubio can’t be their starter at PG – too much of a defensive liability at that position.
You’re right that Suns shouldn’t sign Young to 5 years since he’s 31 yrs old. Maybe same with Bogdan since he’s 30, but not sure why you sign anyone to a 5 yr contract unless they’re one of your top 2 players. Sometimes top 3.
Ready for the latest chapter in my “What’s Griff up to?” best seller? Hot off the presses …
Griff knows all about how one builds a championship around a super-stud who can do it all. He’s going to test Zion right out of the gate as if he’s LeBron, and not only pushing the pace but setting the offense. Zion is about to become the meanest most powerful Point Forward the league has ever seen. So who to pair him with? Not just any shooters, but how about starting with a Dwyane Wade type.
You have Jrue Holiday on your team. He might be a poor imitation of wade, but he’s as close as you’ll get in the league today.
So you have your primary and secondary ball handlers all set. A great scoring threat off the ball in Ingram at SF and likely PF at times. What do you want at the other guard position? How about shooters who can penetrate and dish?
Griff picked two SGs in the draft. Speifically this guy here: https://www.nba.com/draft/2019/prospects/nickeil-alexander-walker#/
I don’t see any need for Lonzo on this team at all anymore.
By the way to break down everything that happened by the Pelicans trading Anthony Davis:
Pelicans trade: Anthony Davis, Solomon Hill, the #57 pick in this year’s draft and a future 2nd rounder:
Pelicans get: Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, the 8th, 17th, and 35th pick in this year’s draft, and two future first round picks.
Given that the Pelicans wanted to clear out Hill’s contract for cap space anyway, and got an early 2nd round pick for two later 2nd round picks that probably works out as a fairly even swap, they’ve essentially traded Davis for 3 young good players and five 1st round picks. That is one hell of a haul. Griff seems to know what he is doing.
I can certainly see Griff unloading Ball for even more loot. But I could also see the Pelicans seeing how it works out first.
Sorry that should be the Pelicans got three young good players and 4 first round picks. I counted the #4 pick in this year’s draft, which was turned around and dealt out in the trade with Atlanta.
I can see that as well, but Lonzo and Booker seems too good for Phoenix to pass up, especially with Oubre running alongside and Saric, Johnson and/or Bridges using only as much energy as is needed to run arc to arc and Ayton getting into position about as fast as any center can in this league.
Oubre, Booker and Lonzo – one hell of a tough fast break to stop and not bad defensively either.
Just making the point that I think Phx will do what it can to grab Lonzo. That is unless they feel they can land one of the top 3 FA PGs. I forget who was discussing this on air the other day, but the entire discussion was about waiting on one prospect while you go after another and get burned because both are gone before you know it. James Jones just needs to go with the first big offer that lands: Lonzo, Kemba, Kyrie or D’Angelo.
Any chance Warriors could sign Willie Cauley Stein? Dude still has some upside to go, and with the Warriors is an upgrade from Looney in my estimation.
That’ll probably depend on the market for Cauley-Stein and whether Sacto is willing to let him walk (he’s a restricted free agent, so they can match). The best the Warriors could offer is probably the mid-level exception in the 5+ million range. That’s more than he got last year (about $4.5 million), but he’s probably due for a decent sized raise and I’ve got to imagine there are other teams out there willing to give it to him.
The Hawks are trading Kent Bazemore to the Trailblazers for Evan Turner. This strikes me as an exchange of disappointing players who make too much money to see if a change in atmosphere results in better play. Both are on expiring contracts, so neither team is taking on a contract that won’t be gone in a year.
There was a report from an unnamed source today that KD is pissed at the Warriors for his situation. Nobody is on the record about this and by, all accounts, the decision that KD would return to the court during the playoffs was made in consultations between the Warriors medical staff, KD’s personal doctors, and KD’s agent. So don’t know that I buy this report.
Iggy is doing the media rounds because his book (called “The Sixth Man” which I think I want to read) is coming out. Today on some New York TV show he was asked if KD and Klay would return to the Warriors and his answer was that he thought they would but that they would remain his brothers regardless of what they decide. The host said he was making Knicks fans sad and Iggy quipped “nobody’s coming to the Knicks, sorry.” In a hilarious overreaction, the Knicks said they want the NBA to fine Iggy for tampering. I’m getting the feeling that the Knicks won’t get any of the big stars they want.
It’s official!
NBA Rookie of the Year: Luka Doncic (98 1st place votes to 2 for Trae Young)
NBA Most Improved Player: Pascal Siakam (86 1st place votes to 12 for Russell and 1 for Fox)
NBA 6th Man of the Year: Lou Williams (96 1st place votes to 2 for Harrell and 1 for Sabonis)
NBA Coach of the Year: Mike Budenholzer (77 1st place votes to 13 for Mike Malone to 6 for Doc Rivers)
NBA Executive of the Year: Jon Horst (Bucks)
NBA Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert (65 1st place votes to 26 for the Freak and 6 for George)
NBA Most Valuable Player: Giannis Antetokounmpo (78 1st place votes to 23 for Harden)
No real surprises. A little surprised that Trae Young and Harden didn’t get more first place votes. But all the winners were the ones I predicted at the end of the season, not to mention, of course, predicting the Freak and Budenholzer winning at the beginning of the season.
Nice job with the Milwaukee picks. I’m not sure there was much difficulty picking many of these at the *end* of the season – the only one I may have missed was DPOY – would have gone with Freak. The Siakam pick still seems silly to me, even though I’m glad he won. Again, he finished very strongly at the end of 2018 and what’s been called his “breakout year” really wasn’t that compared to what several other players had. Russell was very surprising to me and was more deserving of that award IMO.
Also, just completely wrong that Pop didn’t get first place votes for Coach of the Year. I have no problem with Bud getting the award, because he changed quite a few things in less than a year. But for Pop to get the 7th seed in the West? He was well on his way to that at the time of the vote – an amazing result given the injuries and the changes. And as I’ve said previously, I don’t get the Malone 1st place votes at all. That team could be much much better than it is – Murray isn’t being used the way he should be. A different coach would have both the offense and defense tightened up a notch or two. Malone got votes because of Jokic which is silly to me.
Pop may have gotten 1st place votes. The list I was looking at only listed the top 3. It appears there were at least 101 voters (judging by the MVP vote) and the Coach of the Year 1st place votes only add up to 96 votes.
I’m guessing Siakam got the most votes because Toronto ended up with the 2nd best record in the NBA. Russell was quite a bit more surprising.
I got lucky with my preseason Milwaukee picks. I was looking for something that wasn’t another LBJ/KD/Harden/Westbrook pick. Budenholzer did great things with those Atlanta teams, so I was hopeful of what he could for Giannis and the Bucks. They exceeded my expectations.
In retrospect I should have gone with Bud simply because I thought Brogdon’s game would bring them success and there were so many ways to score. Of course, my pick was pretty solid if Oladipo stayed healthy.
I picked LeBron because he was the right pick to make. All the reason I assumed he would be a top candidate were right on. Then came the injuries. But my “hunch” that guys would step up worked as I expected. Kuzma and a couple other guys played at a different level because of LeBron’s influence IMO, and Ingram’s improvement was surprising – again due to LeBron’s influence. Finally and exactly right on cue LeBron stepped it up when I thought he would then the injury.
My imaginary conversation with Griff …
ME: remember when you said you wanted an all star? if you got yourself one of those, at which position would you like him to fit?
DG: to answer that, one has to start by asking which positions are not available for an all star. Zion, Ingram and Jrue are solid at their spots. So depending on how you define each player, our most open spots to fit an all star look to be PG and C.
ME: fine. fine. what kinds of things would you like to see out of your all-star. Take Bradley Beal for instance – an amazing talent, but how would you justify grabbing another SG that has incredible talent and leadership by way of example, but one that creates even more redundancy on your roster at SG.
DG: good question mohini. i think that’s exactly the kind of question I’m asking myself. would I rather have that kind of leader alongside Jrue, or a vocal leader that can also help the young guys to understand the level of effort needed, the many ways of opening up the floor for their teammates, the value of moving without the ball and creating space and passing lanes and of course doing what’s needed to have your brothers’ backs. I think I’d rather take that kind of leader every day.
ME: good. well then, starting at that C position what talent do you see across the league that can fit right in and exhibit all those strengths and values?
DG: Al Horford. Final answer.
ME: excellent, but does Al fit in with the Pels timeline? Al is 33 years old.
DG: he’s a great player, but his age does pose a challenge. we’d want to sign him to a contract long enough so all his wonderful qualities can rub off on Zion and the rest, but not so long so as to hamper us in say 2 years from now when we’re able to land that perfect player that wants nothing more than to run alongside Zion.
ME: so … then you’re saying maybe not a center then. is there a PG that satisfies all your needs, and who might be available to you in FA coming soon?
DG: there sure is mohini, and I’m getting the feeling you already know who that is. as much as we love Lonzo the fact is that we really want that more veteran and all star leadership talent that Kemba Walker can bring us. Don’t tell Lonzo but he probably already knows: we’ll be moving some pieces around here and then to make room. and although adam silver wouldn’t like this he already knows: we’ve been talking to Kemba’s people for weeks now. let’s just call it telepathy. Kemba can’t wait to sign with us.
ME: wow. yes, Kemba fits perfectly on your roster. but as you say pieces need to be moved around. most notably Randle and Lonzo and possibly Hart as well. correct?
DG: you got it. we have some work to do, but I assume everyone already knows that Lonzo is headed to the Suns that picked up some great players in the draft. Yep – that mystery pick of Cam Johnson was my choice as was Saric. So now you know.
ME: ahhhhhh. yeesssssss. now everyone knows. James Jones has really turned that organization around, especially after the dead weight was unloaded. but … sorry to burst your bubble Griff. what if the Nets sign Kyrie and Dlo wants to sign with the Suns?
DG: well, first off the Nets would be idiots to do that and second … umm … whoops. Did Jones rook my a$$?
Since it looks like Kyrie won’t resign and they’ve lost out on the AD sweepstakes, Boston is reportedly turning its attentions to Kemba. Kemba has already indicated that he might take a little less than max to stick with Charlotte, but I think the idea behind that is that Charlotte would try to get him help. Such help would have to be via trade since they don’t really have any cap room to get anyone good. I haven’t heard any rumors that Charlotte is targeting anyone by way of trade and, even if they are, does another team want to take back Batum’s $25 million salary or Marvin Williams’ $15 salary? Kemba may find a lot of team want him once free agency starts, so we’ll see if he really wants to stay in Charlotte.
T’would be a shame. He might be as good as Lillard on another team. I’m sure some team is more than willing to take on Batum’s or William’s contract.
Both Ainge and Griff should do what’s needed to get him. Suns less so since they should probably get a younger player like Russell.
As much as I’m hoping Russell signs with the Suns, the gut says he’d like to play with LeBron while redeeming himself to the Lakers franchise (and some fans) in the process. Pretty impressive story so far from that guy, and this could be an excellent way to continue in the direction he’s going. Reminds me a bit of Butler who’s so far stalling somewhat. Speaking of Butler …
Woj reporting today that the Celtics are now the most likely destination for Kemba. Teams cannot officially talk with free agents until Sunday. I know agents are talking with teams on the down low, but if you’re Kemba’s agent, you can’t be happy about such things leaking UNLESS this leak is designed to get Charlotte or another team to pony up.
the only person who knows who is in “front” is Kemba. Unless Woj has information about Kemba’s precise thought process then I don’t believe this.
Exactly. Which is why I think this leaked information is deliberately designed to get Charlotte or some other team to offer Kemba supermax money (because Kemba was on the 3rd All League team, he is entitled to supermax money, not just max money). Michael Jordan’s reluctance to pay luxury tax is thought to make Charlotte reluctant to give Kemba a supermax contract. Despite Kemba previously saying he would take less to stay in Charlotte, that was couched on the Hornets making other moves to compete, which they look unlikely to do this year because of their cap situation. So Kemba’s prior statement looks like PR to me. When he leaves, he will say that he would have liked to have stayed, but Charlotte wasn’t doing what was necessary to be a championship level team.
Gotcha. I understood what you meant, but wanted to emphasize that even if Kemba himself is leaking something there’s still no way to know his preference.
Meanwhile it’s what is *not* being reported which is most interesting to me: both the Pels and Suns are incredibly quite on the Kemba watch. And Nuggets are just quiet *period*. Impossible for me to imagine that they won’t try to move at least two talented players to get one more talented player. Murray and Barton are ripe to get a lot back in return. Morris of course, but doubt it makes sense to part with him so early.
Griff’s offense seems to have no place in it for Butler. Seems unfortunate, because a Butler-Zion pairing would be as big and athletic the league has seen since LeBron-Wade not long ago. Hard to think of a way this lineup could be successful for the Pels. Really hoping that Griff doesn’t move Holiday who might become as effective as Butler would be in his place.
So KD has officially opted out of his contract and will be a free agent. That doesn’t mean, of course, that he won’t be a Warrior, but really don’t know what his plans are right now.
One complicating factor that I’ve learned about any potential sign-and-trade is that the free agency rules prohibit a player from getting a deal through a sign-and-trade that he couldn’t get in free agency. So, using KD as an example, KD cannot sign a five-year, supermax deal with the Warriors and then be immediately traded to the Knicks as KD is unable to sign a five-year deal with the Knicks in free agency. The Warriors could sign KD to a 4-year deal at the free agent max and then immediately trade him to the Knicks, but there would be no incentive for the Knicks to do that since they can sign him for that amount directly. If KD were to sign a five-year, supermax deal with the Warriors, they earliest they could trade him under that deal is next January. If KD trusted the Warriors enough, he could wait to January for the trade since he wouldn’t be playing before then anyway, but a midseason trade would have to be worked out with the salaries matching. The NBA might take a close look at such a trade though if it thought it was an attempt to avoid the free agency rules.
Unlike KD, Marc Gasol has opted in to the last year of his contract with the Raptors, so the Raptors are part of the way toward getting this year’s championship team to return next year.
This was tossed about on the radio yesterday. Nobody was suggesting it was being considered by either team, but the question was if it was offered, who says no.
Suggested trade is Draymond Green to the Lakers for Kyle Kuzma. Draymond is only making $18 million this year, so the Lakers could fit him in to their cap space.
Upside for Lakers: they get a 3rd star who can create and play great defense without needing to be a main scorer. Would still have some cap room to get some others. Draymond is another Rich Paul client joining with fellow Paul clients LBJ and AD.
Downside for Lakers: Draymond is due for big raise next summer, so they will quickly get into luxury tax issues. Do Draymond and LBJ get along after meeting each other in the Finals for 4 straight years and the infamous incident that led to Draymond getting suspended?
Upside for Warriors: they get younger and some cap relief that could help them make a run for the Greek Freak next summer. Kuzma is a better shooter than Draymond. Cap savings for next season would allow Dubs to sign some useful pieces to help while Klay and KD are out (if signed before Klay and/or KD are officially resigned).
Downside for Warriors: Kuzma not as good an offensive creator nor as good on defense as Draymond.
I don’t think this trade would happen, but it’s a fun thought experiment.
A question I’m sure over 50% of fans want to have answered: is there any reason why Kawhi can’t announce his intent prior to Sunday at 6:00 pm? Just seems to me that, since Toronto was clearly great to and for him, he could help the Raptors out by letting them know (either way – yes or no) asap. I realize he’s scheduled to “take meetings” with 4 or 5 teams, but It’s hard to believe that he hasn’t already decided.
Or .. is it? Now that we know he’s likely just as human as he is robot, maybe he does as most do after their last game of the season: relax, party and put it out of their minds until later.
So .. if he has 4 meetings (i heard Raptors, Clippers, Knicks, Sixers) how long do we have to wait? And which other players will wait on the Kawhi decision? Butler? KD? Kyrie?
Since I doubt Kemba has any reason to wait, I’m guessing he’s the first domino to fall.
I’m not sure of all the rules, but I am pretty sure that free agents are not allowed to negotiate or even have contact with any teams other than their current team prior to Sunday. Teams can talk to their own free agents prior to Sunday, but cannot “offer” them a contract until then. I think the NBA prohibits or, at the very least, discourages teams and players from announcing a resigning before free agency officially opens. Very clearly though, teams and free agents from other teams are communicating even though they are not supposed to. Magic was at LeBron’s house right when free agency opened last year and the signing was announced within a few hours. Clearly that deal was worked out in advance.
I’m not sure Kawhi has actually made a decision. A year ago, it seemed like he wanted to be in LA, but maybe a championship changes that.
So the Lakers cut a deal with the Wizards yesterday to trade the rest of the scrubs on their team and got AD’s commitment to waive his trade kicker. This was technically made a part of the AD deal, but New Orleans didn’t give up anything new on their end.
All this maneuvering gives the Lakers $32 million in cap space meaning they can make another max or near max deal. Word is that they are getting an interview with Kawhi. Nobody so far is claiming that Kawhi will sign with the Lakers, but if he did, that would give the Lakers LBJ, AD, Kawhi, and Kuzma with the rest of their roster to be filled out by players on the veteran minimum or the mid-level exception, which would be around $9 million for them since they are not a luxury tax repeater team (yet).
Even if the Lakers don’t sign Kawhi, they will surely be checking in with every top free agent trying to sign one of them.
So just learned about several friendships that might have an impact on free agency plans. While I kind of figured that KD and Kyrie knew each other because of the rumors that they would sign with the Knicks or Nets together, apparently they are really good friends. They had planned to vacation together after the playoffs before KD’s Achilles tear. Is that friendship tight enough that KD will leave the 5th year and extra $60 million or so that he can get from the Warriors in order to join Kyrie in New York?
Also read that D’Angelo Russell and Devin Booker are buds, so maybe Phoenix opted against drafting Coby White because they have the inside track on signing D’Angelo. Russell worked very well with shooters around him in New Jersey, so that Cameron Johnson draft pick might also reflect the thought that the Suns expect to sign D’Angelo.
Ha. So I was smirking while reading your first paragraph – I knew KD & Kyrie were extremely tight and have known since March at least. That was always the main reason for thinking that Kyrie was headed to one of the NY teams.
As to the other paragraph …
DID NOT KNOW!! I’ve started at least twice on posting about the *obvious* reasons for why the Suns didn’t pick Coby White, but I stopped short because I couldn’t make sense out of why the Suns would be confident in a Lonzo, Kemba or D’lo signing. And yet the only explanation that made sense was that they *were* confident. So I assumed that meant a lot of hush hush discussions with Griff regarding Lonzo (but now that Warren is gone, Lonzo for whom and/or what exactly?). And Kemba. He’s 29-30 years old and that doesn’t make sense for the guy that would become the defacto leader of the squad as soon as the 19-20 season begins.
Kyrie just makes no sense period. Wrong guy for the wrong team. So that leaves Rubio as a FA. Rubio would be awesome on the Suns, but I doubt that’s what Sarver wants during an offseason where so many PGs are available.
Obviously the Suns would rather have Morant, but considering the others they could go after (including the draft) who is better than D’lo? Lonzo *maybe*, but that’s based on future scoring potential. Together with the knee issue, D’lo certainly seems like the more solid option. Kemba sure, but the age diff isn’t quite right. Not Rubio or Kyrie. And even if Murray or Simmons were available (doubtful but they’ve been on *my* radar regardless) I still go with D’lo.
It makes too much sense, especially today that it was announced the Lakers are going strong after Kyrie. A D’lo signing would ensure that Oubre stays around for quite some time, and with the newly added depth this team looks pretty good albeit somewhat weak defensively. If Booker, Ayton and D’lo can step up their games on that end of the court we could be looking at a playoff team for the next 10 years straight.
Because of all the reports that KD and Kyrie would sign together somewhere, I assumed they must be friends, but didn’t know how tight they were or how they became friends (were they on an Olympic team together?). I think you’ve got it backwards on how they were both linked to the NY teams though. Kyrie is the New York boy who wants to go home. He’s trying to bring KD with him. The NY teams would naturally be interested in KD, but not sure how interested KD would be in them without Kyrie urging him to come there.
D’Angelo is still just 23 years old, so he will fit right in with Booker, Oubre, Jackson, Bridges and Ayton as a solid core for the future. So Russell to the Suns makes a ton of sense. Suns could still use a taller stretch 4 type player so that they don’t have to use one of Bridges, Jackson, or Oubre in the PF spot where they will get pushed around a lot with their light frames.
No. I just don’t take what the media says as being most likely, that’s all. I’ve always assumed that, since these guys were close, Kyrie would be the one following KD. The other way around never made sense to me. Of course, when we hear about things we hear what’s reported as opposed to news that isn’t out there. Kyrie is always out there seemingly. KD sometimes, but not nearly as much. It always seemed clear to me that the media would take the Kyrie angle because, well … Kyrie is the one vocalizing it (whatever it is).
The media as an entity typically goes with the lowest energy/most obvious solution since that solution will always represent the average take on the fact. So this idea of Kyrie being a NY kid “sells” in the sense that, without input from KD, Kyrie is probably calling the shots. It’s just more silliness, that’s all. It’s safer and easier to report what seems obvious (like Bryan Colangelo being the owner of burner accounts, or Kemba most likely interested in the Celtics). It sells.
This actually seems like “news” now. Kawhi just gets interestinger and interestinger …
Kawhi Leonard will speak to the Los Angeles Lakers in the next few days and has made a personal request that only Magic Johnson and team president Jeanie Buss be present, sources told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
and this from Shelbourne …
Magic Johnson says he will help the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency in any way he can, but he is not permitted by NBA rules to be part of official team meetings with prospective free agents. Johnson said he has not been asked by the Lakers or owner Jeanie Buss to participate.
Going out on a limb here, but would guess that Kawhi has some special requests and wants simply a yes or no from Buss. Like “Kyle Lowry needs to come over with me” and/or “load management is critical for the rest of my career”.
One reason for wanting a very select set of listeners: he’s hoping that if he explains what actually happened in San Antonio he wants it to stay in the room?
But yeah … what’s on Kawhi’s mind??
If Kawhi wants Lowry to come with him, I don’t think there is anyway the Lakers can make that happen. Lowry is making $30+ million and the Lakers literally have no one else on the roster to make that trade work. Kuzma is the only tradeable asset left (since they won’t be trading LBJ and AD) and he only makes $3. The Lakers could make that trade first with their available cap space, but then wouldn’t have the cap space to sign Kawhi. If they sign Kawhi first, they’ll be up against the cap and wouldn’t be able to fit the trade within their cap space. Would have to think the Lakers already are well aware of Kawhi’s need for load management. So your third option, explaining what happened in San Antonio, makes the most sense. Of course, Stephen A’s report could be wrong.
I meant if Kawhi takes an enormous pay cut. Not possible?
Well sure, If Kawhi wants to play for $10 million next year, then it could happen. I don’t think that will happen. Now the Clippers could that and pay them both.
Woj and Shelborne reporting today that KD and Kawhi are talking about possibly playing together somewhere. The Knicks and Clippers are being talked about as the possibilities. KD & Kawhi play the same position (SF), but I guess either Kawhi could play SG or KD could play PF if this actually happened.
If KD and Kyrie are as tight as they seem to be, I wonder how Kyrie feels about this report.
I had assumed KD would be interested in playing alongside Kawhi on the Clippers. I had thought it was a pretty likely result of the off season, but that all changed with the injury. Now … I don’t know why the Clippers need to take the chance on KD when something like Kawhi & oh … Horford (for example) is more of a sure thing. Again, Balmer/West have been all about playing the long-conservative game. KD went from being a great long term bet to now just a question mark. Seems like it would go against their game plan.
Here’s what we are looking at in terms of team’s cap room. All amounts are approximate because there will be cap hold amounts for each team’s free agents unless the team renounces those free agents Next year’s team salary cap was announced as $109 million.
Atlanta Hawks: $50 million in cap space
Boston Celtics: $37 million in cap space
Brooklyn Nets: $55 million in cap space
Chicago Bulls: $25 million in cap space
Charlotte Hornets: $11.5 million in cap space
Cleveland Cavaliers: $25 million over the cap (but can save $14 million if they cut JR Smith before Sunday)
Dallas Mavericks: $54 million in cap space
Denver Nuggets: $12 million over the cap (unless the decline Paul Millsap’s option or negotiate new deal with him for lower than his current $30.5 million)
Detroit Pistons: $8 million over the cap (can save 5 or 6 million by declining some options/cutting players)
Golden State Warriors: $20 million under the cap not counting cap holds for Klay and KD which surely have them over the cap (can save $5 million by cutting Livingston)
Houston Rockets: $15 million over the cap (could save a few million by cutting some end of bench players)
Indiana Pacers: $49 million in cap space
Los Angeles Clippers: $60 million in cap space
Los Angeles Lakers: $32 million in cap space once AD deal becomes final
Memphis Grizzlies: $7 million in cap space (but can double cap space if they cut Avery Bradley)
Miami Heat: $30 million over the cap
Milwaukee Bucks: $32 million under the cap not counting holds for Middleton, Mirotic, Brogdon, and Lopez
Minnesota Timberwolves: basically right at cap
New Orleans Pelicans: $36 million in cap space once AD trade goes through
New York Knicks: $73 million in cap space (even more if they cut Lance Thomas)
Oklahoma City Thunder: $37 million over the cap
Orlando Magic: $24 million under the cap not including cap hold for Vucevic
Philadephia 76ers: $63 million under the cap not including cap holds for Butler, Harris, Redick, and Marjanovic
Phoenix Suns: $37 million under the cap once Warren trade goes through and not including cap holds for Bender and Oubre
Portland Trail Blazers: $17 million over the cap
Sacramento Kings: $61 million under the cap not including cap hold for Barnes
San Antonio Spurs: $10 million under the cap
Toronto Raptors: $1 million over cap not including cap holds for Kawhi and Green
Utah Jazz: $17 million under the cap not including cap hold for Rubio (can save $4 million by cutting Korver)
Washington Wizards: $17 million in cap room not including cap holds for Parker and Ariza
There were reports yesterday that the Dubs will offer Klay a max contract when free agency opens tomorrow. Now there are reports today that Klay will accept the deal. None of this is surprising, but at least it puts to end all the speculation that Klay would talk with other teams if the Warriors offered him something less than the max but more than other teams could offer.
Warriors and Livingston also agreed to put off the decision on his contract. His contract would have become guaranteed for $7 million tomorrow unless the Warriors cut him (in which case, they would owe him only $2 million). Now the Warriors get to wait till later to make that decision. Livingston has said that if the Warriors cut him, he will probably retire and likely join the Warriors’ front office.
Lots of news today which I don’t understand – it’s still more than 23 hours before the start of FA right? Regardless, Kemba and Kyrie are reported to have new homes. The good news: D’lo can sign with the Suns should he desire it. The bad news: Lakers are clearly going after him but with a fairly massive BUT:
Lakers are going to kill themselves trying to land Kawhi when it seems clear he’s very unlikely to end up there. BUT, as they wait for him D’lo may have already chosen the Suns or Pels or wherever he wants to go provided they can afford him. Meanwhile I still *really* like the idea of Dragic on the Lakers.
Yeah, I don’t understand it either. Both the teams and the players should be keeping any “agreements” under wraps until free agency opens tomorrow. As you said though, this officially puts D-Lo on the market.
Looks like Butler is taking initial meetings with the Heat and the Rockets. The Rockets allegedly have a deal in place to send Capela elsewhere in order to open up cap space for Butler. There were rumors that the other team in that deal was the Celtics, but those rumors seems to be false.
Curry is apparently making the trip to New York with Myers to meet with KD. They of course can talk to him before free agency starts.
Millsap has been offered a $30M extension with the Nuggets. I don’t understand this unless they’re going to trade him. Nuggets should be extremely active right now getting ready to take advantage of this FA market. They *cannot* get to the WCF with their current backcourt, even if Porter Jr. is healthy from here on out. Maybe they think they’ll have better chances in FA next year? Hmmm
Just occurred to me that Kevin Love will likely be moved this week. Celtics are an obvious destination with Horford gone and Pels claim to be interested. Jaylen Brown needs to be moved as long as Hayward remains in Boston, and I still believe Hayward is the better player. Or will be once back to being himself.
Also, with Baynes gone Celtics need another good if not great big man. I assume everyone will wait to see what Kawhi does before grabbing centers – after the playoffs I’m guessing almost every team is after Gasol. No question he’d fit perfectly on the Celtics.
If the Celtics sign Kemba as is being reported, they won’t have the cap room to absorb Love’s contract without sending out a lot of salary. That would mean either trading Hayward for Love or Smart and a bunch of others. Assuming they are not trading Hayward, they’d give up too much depth for Ainge to consider it.
There has been talk that Love could be traded to Portland for McCollum. Don’t know how serious that might be.
I’m not sure you’re right about that. My thought was Ainge unloading a LOT with Brown as the key player in the deal. I could see 4 players and 3 picks being dealt for instance. Not necessarily for Love, but they need someone at the PF/C position and if they were ok with a Baynes-caliber guy they could have just kept him.
Having said that, of course Hayward should be dealt if a team wants to take a chance on him. He’d have to pass a pretty rigorous physical etc though. In any case, I’ve heard the Pels are interested in Love. He fits right in with Griff’s plan to get an All Star who would also be an excellent mentor for Zion. Randle would be moved to Cleveland most likely. Not sure who or what else.
I suppose the way to get it done would be to sign Walker (after renouncing rights to Irving, Horford, Morris, and Rozier, otherwise their cap holds would prevent them from signing Walker). Then negotiate a new, larger contract with Brown who currently only makes $6.5 million on an expiring contract. Love will make about $29 million next season, so if Brown gets a very healthy raise to somewhere in the low $20 million range, then add in some other minor contracts and draft picks, it could get done. I think it is more likely that the Celtics keep Brown and use their mid-level exception on a free agent center that won’t command big money.
Makes sense. You can probably tell I’m not very high on Brown at all. In any case, if they can move Hayward they probably should.
Woj bombs dropping like it’s the Luftwaffe. My god.
Nothing related to the Clippers yet. In fact reports that Butler wants to be in Miami? Chasing the women and the night life I guess. Whatever, but that and the KD news seems like too much information prior to Kawhi making his choice. I assume both Butler and KD know exactly how Kawhi is leaning and then made their choices.
I’d like to see the odds on Toronto to win it all again next season. I’d guess it’s about to spike if it hasn’t already. Or …
Am I misinterpreting and instead Kawhi is serious about the Lakers instead? Would suck to be a Clipper fan either way, but especially in the latter case. Ouch.
Griff. Wow. he now has at least 5 SGs on the roster with the Reddick signing. I assume that’s all about providing a mentor for some of the young guys, but still that’s strange considering his draft picks. Gotta wonder if he’s up to something, but hopefully nothing that would involve trading Holiday.
Well, Redick at least helps fill the lack of shooters in New Orleans. You’re right that he’ll be a shooting mentor for the others there.
Although the Pacers’ signing of Brogdon was surprising, this is much more-so to me. Utah is moving on from Favors? WTF?? Who could fit into his spot now?
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To sign Bojan Bogdanovic, Utah will need to either trade or waive the $17.65M contract of Derrick Favors. The contract for the center becomes guaranteed if he is not waived by July 6. A waiver claim process is based on the final standings from the regular season.
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By far the biggest surprise to me on Day 1 of free agency was the Warriors ending up with D’Angelo Russell. Never heard a whisper that the Dubs were in on him. In retrospect though, Bob Myers and Steph Curry going to New York to try to convince KD to stay may have actually been a stealth mission to recruit D-Lo.
To make the deal, the Warriors had to clear some cap space. To do so, they traded Iggy to Memphis (along with a restricted 1st round draft pick). While Memphis would be smart to keep Iggy around to mentor their youngsters, there is already speculation that the Grizzlies will buy out the remaining year on Iggy’s contract and he could then sign with the Lakers (Rob Pelinka is his former agent).
As for Russell to the Dubs (on a 4-year, $117 million deal, a little over $29 million per), I’m not sure I like the fit. When Klay returns, what will the Dubs do with 3 high-priced guards? Don’t know how D-Lo works with the Warriors offense, but he will help run the offense so that Steph and Dray don’t always have to carry that load. I imagine we’ll see a lot of pick and rolls next year with Dray and Russell/Curry. I also wonder if Myers is already thinking ahead about trading D-Lo after Klay comes back.
I think this D’lo move is brilliant in many ways. I’m speculating of course, but the sum total of it is something hard to ignore …
– Iggy needed to be moved eventually, and since it’s highly unlikely that the Dubs contend this next year it makes little sense to waste a year of his life that won’t even contribute much to team success.
– D’lo isn’t exactly like Iggy, but there are multiple similarities especially when considering Iggy’s role on the team. That starts with smart ball movement, penetration threat and effective finishing at the rim. D’lo is 6’5″ which gives up very little in that regard
– D’lo will never be the defender that Iggy has been, but if you’re going to move Iggy and replace him with someone who else is available at the right price? From what I understand D’lo is a good enough defender to warrant a chance at filling in
-D’lo has shown amazing improvement and no reason to think he won’t continue on the right team. Warriors are definitely that, and with the ball likely to be in his hands most of the time next year he’s likely to keep improving. The Nets emphasized gritty and strong defensive play as do the Dubs. He won’t have any trouble understanding what’s being asked of him on that end
– Warriors kept him away from the Lakers, Suns and Mavs. Maybe the Pels and Nuggets as well. They may never admit that was a reason for the signing, but it’s a good reason regardless.
Maybe the Warriors are banking on D’lo continuing the improvement and becoming great trade value if/when Klay comes back strong. At that point there are many teams that would want him still. Probably the Lakers and maybe the Suns in 2 years. If Klay never gets back to being himself then D’lo is excellent insurance to fill, at least in part, a huge hole.
I’m hopeful that D-Lo can master the Warriors offense and is good enough on defense. He’s been more of a ball dominant player up to now, but that has been somewhat out of necessity in LA and Brooklyn. The new version of the Dubs’ Hampton 5 line-up would become Steph, D-Lo, Klay, Dray, and Looney (if Looney resigns). That’s a dangerous group even if a little smaller and not quite as good defensively as the Hampton 5.
If D-Lo continues to develop, he will become a bargain on his new contract. If the Warriors are looking to make a move for the Greek Freak next year, D-Lo will be a nice chip to insert into such a deal (D-Lo and Dray for the Freak perhaps?).
There’s a bunch of reports this morning that the Warriors are planning to trade D-Lo down the road. While I think the Warriors know that they can do that, I doubt it is a plan yet. They’ll use D-Lo to fill Klay’s spot and when Klay returns, they’ll try out the junior Hampton 5 line-up to see how it works. If that ain’t working out, it makes no sense to keep D-Lo on a $29 million per year contract to be a 6th man. Then they’ll start gauging interest in a deal.
The stupidest thing I heard about Day 1 of free agency is that the Knicks didn’t offer KD the max because of his injury. They knew that the Warriors and Nets would be offering the max, so what was the point. Did they think the draw of the Knicks would get KD to come there at a lesser salary? The Knicks then failed to get any significant free agent and gave Julius Randle a 3-year, $63 million deal (he made $8 million last year on the Pelicans). Granted Randle had a good year last year, but I’m pretty sure no other team was offering him that much money. The Knicks continue to be the trash heap of the NBA.
There are some reports this morning that KD and Kyrie decided to team up in New York last off-season with KD preferring the Knicks and Kyrie preferring the Nets. With the Knicks cheapening out with a less than max offer for KD out of the gate, the Nets won the battle. The irony is that after offering KD and Kyrie max contracts, KD and Kyrie came back to the Nets and offered to take a little less if the Nets would sign Jordan. The Nets were happy to agree.
KD deciding last year that he would leave the Dubs after the 2018-19 season makes some sense as it gives context to the blow-up between KD and Dray in November where Dray said something to the effect of “that’s why you’re gone.” The Dubs players have probably been aware all season that KD would leave.
With Kawhi taking his time to make his decision, the Lakers and Clippers are in a bad position if they lose out on Kawhi. Basically every other top free agent is now off the market, so they’ll end up with nothing to show for their cap space without Kawhi. The Clippers at least still have a team to field. The Lakers are right now sitting on LBJ, AD, and Kuzma and nothing else. They’ve got an entire roster to fill.
Back to the Suns …
Rubio isn’t your starting PG for more than 2 years and unlikely he was chosen to fill that role.
I’m already enjoying all the media head scratching wrt recent decisions. Media are so hung up on pigeonholing the Suns as a terrible and tyrant/meddler run org that it’s not just in vogue to be a Phoenix hater, but it’s expected if you know your NBA, you will also have little or no respect for the Suns’ front office. And yet, what we’re seeing is an almost complete about face regarding the MO. What used to be a front office inclined toward weak analyses and quick triggered reactions, is now one of the more conservative minded and long-game oriented orgs in the business. Instead of trading a lot of talent in order to move up the draft and take Garland, followed by *maybe* a Marcus Morris in free agency this is what we have now minus TJ Warren …
A solid albeit defensively weak set of PGs in Rubio and Jerome, with Rubio likely becoming the de-facto leader of the squad and an excellent example for how to play the offensive game at the highest level. If Jerome is going to make a nice career for himself as a solid backup PG he has his best chance with Rubio showing the way and tons of shooters giving him room and opportunity to create.
A solid stretch 4 in Saric that can shoot, pass and drive from the perimeter.
One of the best shooters in the league before he’s even taken the court for the first time in Cam Johnson. Rumors of him being a one-trick pony are absurd. He’s slow, and that’s the issue. He’s also 6’8″-6’9″. So was Channing Frye for that matter, but he made a good career for himself anyhow and eventually learned how to defend (sometimes) on the block. Johnson is better at putting the ball on the floor and at driving to the hole.
Aron Baynes can be solid as a backup to Ayton and can also play stretch while Ayton is in.
Three things are fairly certain about this Suns team now:
1.) With 2 great passers in Rubio and Jerome, and two above average ball movers/passers in Booker and Oubre the Suns are going to be fun to watch while great shooters and some slashers find a *lot* of room to move and create. From the moment Oubre started his first game on the Suns, defenses have had a tough time with the speed and ball movement when Booker is healthy and playing. Adding some good and great playmakers will only make things harder on defenses.
2.) Suns now have depth. Even with Crawford and Warren gone and even if Josh Jackson winds up as a bust, Mikal Bridges, Tyler Johnson, Baynes, Jerome & Cam Johnson make for a pretty potent second unit that may be able to hold their own if Bridges starts to play the 3 & D he was selected to play. Time will tell, but that second 5 (or 6 if you throw in Jackson) is much better than par for NBA teams.
3.) This is still a work in progress. James Jones’ stamp appears to be conservative via incremental improvements. Saric is 25 years old. Oubre is 23, Booker 22 and Ayton 20. Suns have plenty of time to add their All Star PG, and are adding depth right now instead. Meanwhile Rubio plus the above 4 and the solid second unit have great chances at getting to the playoffs in the next 2 years.
Sprinkle in some gritty defense (we saw some of that already this past year) , and at the very least it’s going to be a pretty fun team to watch. Anyone thinking this is just a 30 win team, well … maybe stop watching so much ESPN and watch the actual games instead.
If Daryl Morey is still considered the analytics GOD of basketball, then James Jones and David Griffin are #2 and #3. Giff has done some calculation (apparently) convincing him that his absurd plethora of SGs is valuable in ways that no other team seems to recognize. Meanwhile Jones just did this:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27099042/kaminsky-join-suns-2-year-10m-deal
As close to a Dario Saric clone as one gets. I write Jones but maybe it’s new head coach Monty Williams calling the shots in some of these cases. Is the idea “get a lot of talent, shake it all out and then see who falls and who rises?” If so I love the idea. You only need one Hornacek or Ginobili or Draymond to set your success in stone. What better way to find one than to get 3, 4 or 5 hopefuls on your team for a year or two and see what shakes out?
It’s kind of the anti-Ainge style I think. Instead of watching your assets grow you compile the potential of their growth before they play a single game. Logic tells me Ainge is spot on, but the results aren’t so great so far. Is it just Irish bad luck?
The Suns have put together an impressive roster of young talent. We’ll see which ones pan out. The other advantage it gives them is that they can turn over some of the talent to improve. But they certainly should use this next year to see which of these youngsters might get really good.
Apparently an Arizona Republic writer is reporting that the Suns did not go after Russell, despite Booker pushing for them to do so, because they were afraid that D-Lo would be a bad influence on Booker off the court. I know that Russell had somewhat of a reputation with the Lakers of liking the nightlife, but didn’t hear about such things when he was with Brooklyn. His numbers with the Nets indicate a bigger commitment to his on-court game. So not sure the Suns needed to be so concerned, unless they had info that it is not generally known.
Funny story – was it another one without credible sources?
If true this is horrible news for two reasons. 1st, how the hell does that info leak? Better to make up something even if it is true. That’s a horrible look for the Suns. 2nd, you might as well say adios to Booker the moment he has a chance to move on. You don’t treat your superstar like a child. Instead, you do everything possible to keep him happy not the other way around!
If false (which I strongly suspect) this might be something that Booker is in on, and is now a stupid joke between Booker, Russell and everyone else. What I understand, and I believe this makes much more sense, Russell isn’t right for a team that wants to run and gun where the PG’s main job is to keep the ball moving, open up passing lanes and create mis-matches.
My most educated yet un-informed guess is that there’s a concern that Russell just won’t want to play the way he needs to play to work out well.
I don’t know the writer or his sources. I read about it in The Athletic. They reported that was what the Arizona Republic reported. Apparently Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report also speculated, unclear if he was speculating in response to the AZ Republic report or just speculating on his own, that Monty Williams did not want Russell because he has high character standards for his players. Seems unlikely to me that Williams would reject Russell for the Lakers’ incident when there were nothing but good reports about him with the Nets. So you’re probably correct that it had more to do with fit reasons.
Thx. I wonder if any NBA coach can provide an example when his full team of great guys and a very good locker room (the Suns are definitely this) signed a player like Russell who at worst is a good guy maturing but with some questions surrounding him. And then the entire team went downhill.
Oubre and Jackson are the “personalities” on that team right now. The rest are apparently good citizens.Something tells me Oubre and Booker would keep Russell in line. Booker can certainly look out for himself.
So I’m learning that one other consequence of the Dubs’ sign-and-trade deal for D-Lo is that because they did this deal while being a luxury tax payer, they’ve now got a hard cap at $138.9 million. They cannot go over that amount even to sign their own free agents. It looks like the Warriors will have about $14 million with which to fill out 7 spaces on the roster. The effects of this are likely to be:
– some other teams are likely to poach Kevon Looney, Quinn Cook, and Jordan Bell with offers that the Warriors can’t afford to match. The T-Wolves have already signed Bell. Don’t know the terms yet, but unlikely the Dubs can match.
– the Warriors are unlikely to use their $5+ million exception.
– all the new Warrior rookies are likely to spend a lot of time in Oakland next year since they will be very cheap.
– although allowed 15 players on their roster, Warriors may only go with 14 like they did last season until they signed Bogut.
Apparently the hard cap stays in place for one year. So the Warriors will be limited in what they can do during that year.
Of course as soon as I write that, the Warriors somehow convinced Looney to sign a 3-yr, $15 million deal. I’m guessing the first year of that contract is only $2 or 3 million to help keep the Dubs under the hard cap this year. Either no other team was willing to offer Looney more or he really just wanted to return to the Dubs. I’m guessing the latter. This is a big win for the Warriors.
Nice. That’s huge. Meanwhile it’s being reported in several places that Warriors won’t even make the playoffs next year. I’d be shocked if they aren’t at least a top 6 seed. No one should be surprised to see Dray move his way into the MVP conversation at some point. Maybe not at the end of the season, but Dray now has his best chance to show that he’s right below Kawhi, LeBron and Doncic as one of the most versatile players in the league.
Yeah, I’ve seen those reports about the Warriors not making the playoffs next year too. Don’t get that at all when the team still has Steph and Dray and now D-Lo. That being said, the Western Conference is going to be really tough next year. Teams that missed this year’s playoffs who are likely to be much better next year include the Lakers, Kings, Pelicans, Mavericks, and Suns.
I had to dig pretty deep to find out how Utah plans to replace Favors. Turns out they already did by signing Ed Davis. That’s a really big deal that somehow very few find the need to report.
https://thejnotes.com/2019/07/01/utah-jazz-ed-davis-low-key-free-agent-steal/
Really wish I could get inside Brett Brown’s head to see what he’s thinking. He’s made some great moves and now has several ways he can go. I think it all starts with the simple observation that this team can be turned into a title contender this week by simply moving Simmons for two players: one an all star and another a solid defender at the 1,2 or 3 spot. I completely get the point of waiting on Simmons a little while longer, but there’s just no need for it any more. It seems so easy to imagine trades that would turn the sixers into a solid contender in the east. Like, Simmons for Ingles and Rubio (no longer possible), but that trade could have worked well for both teams even though neither Ingles nor Rubio are great defenders. The Suns have tons of shooters. Just grab one for crying out loud. How does Simmons for Rubio and Bridges (plus whatever else) not work well for the sixers?
Again, I’d like to know what Brown thinks because maybe he agrees but just wants to give it one more year. The problem from my POV is this however: Simmons doesn’t seem like someone that’s about to step up his game all of a sudden this year. He seems tentative to me, except on very select occasions and that’s with respect to his all around game not just the shooting part.
Every time I think about this issue it just seems so clear to me: Ben Simmons is a very good if not great player but he’s simply on the wrong team. If you win a championship with him it will happen only when he improves his “urgency” which I guess is another way of saying he needs to mature.
This just seems like fantasy sports 101. Never hold onto a player just because you like him hoping he becomes what you assume he’ll become. The longer you follow this instinct the more time you allow for an injury to a high value asset and you take the chance that players you may want end up locked up in immovable contracts.
July 2019 presents you with the best talent the league has ever seen. It also presents you with more ways than ever before to engage other orgs and discuss possibilities for deals good and bad. For Brown’s sake I hope he’s been making those phone calls, or if not that he’s simply waiting on Kawhi’s decision to see who might be available from the Raptors and whatever team Kawhi heads off to if he does that.
The Sixers have offered an early max extension to Simmons. So looks like Brown and Brand want to keep him around.
So KD spurns you in favor of the Nets. What do you do? If you’re the Knicks, you go on this spending spree:
Julius Randle – 3 years, $63 million
Bobby Portis – 2 years, $31 million
Reggie Bullock – 2 years, $21 million
Taj Gibson – 2 years, $20 million
Wayne Ellington – 2 years, $16 million
Elfrid Payton – 2 years, $16 million
And that is why the Knicks will finish last in the NBA again next season.
The Randle and Ellington contracts are absurd. What the heck are they doing?
And by the way, what is Griffin doing?? Lonzo is in no way a sure thing to play more than 50 games next year. Now Payton is gone. WTF? There’s a story brewing here, unless he wants Jrue and Zion to play the point when Lonzo is out. Ingram as well I guess. Hmmm.
I’m pretty sure that Payton is gone because the Pelican’s were unable to give him the kind of money he got from the Knicks. Payton was playing on the mid-level exception last year for $3 million (the Pelicans split their mid-level exception between 2 players). Under the salary cap exception rules, the most the Pelicans could offer him this year was a 5% raise, nowhere near the $8 million per year that Payton got from the Knicks. So Elfrid simply went for the money and there was nothing the Pelicans could do about that.
As far as back-up PGs go, Jrue played a lot of point last year and, as you mentioned, Zion and Ingram can handle the ball. However, the Pelicans also drafted Nickeil Alexander-Walker (apparently a cousin of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) and he played both PG and SG in college.
I shouldn’t really call the Randle contract absurd. It’s just too high. I think $21M for 2 years or $19 for 3 is good for Randle, but maybe they couldn’t sign him for those amounts. What looks absurd is that contract alongside all the others. I’m not sure what the point is of signing Ellington and Portis – those contracts look stupid to me.
Crap like this calls attention to some of the guys in the league that can really affect your team even though they have average or just above average talent. Dellevadova (sp), TJ McConnell, Dragic, Smart, Tucker … and now I expect Ty Jerome in this group. Instead of loading up on all this crap, why not have the foresight weeks ago to trade for a draft pick to get Jerome? You know you’re going to get Barrett. Why not pair Barrett with Ty Jerome (for example) and another very good player instead of hoping that Barrett and Smith Jr work out?
Ellington? Really??
The Bob Myers magic touch continues. After nailing down Looney on an incredibly cheap deal, he has now signed Willie Cauley-Stein for a mere $2 million. How is it that no other team would pay more than that? The 26-year-old Cauley-Stein is hardly great, but he still averaged 12 points, 8 boards, and 2 assists last year. The Jazz just gave a 2-year, $10 million contract to 29-year-old Ed Davis, who averaged 6 points, 8 boards (a career high), and less than 1 assist last year. No team would give Cauley-Stein the type of contract that Davis got? Just incredible to me and another big win for the Warriors, who now have Cauley-Stein and Jones to back-up Looney.
Not that they were likely to be able to keep him, but this surely means that DeMarcus Cousins won’t be returning to the Warriors. There’s a bunch of reports today that there is no market for Cousins, not even a mid-level exception deal. Makes me wonder why the Knicks haven’t been after Cousins. Surely, an $8-10 million per year deal for Cousins is better than any of the other signings they’ve made at that price.
I’m sure some team will pick up Cousins at the min. You think the Warriors can’t afford him for less than $5M for instance? If not what about $4M? I’m sure he’s smart enough to realize that his quad injury will scare people away until he plays a full season without injuring it again. He also knows that the Warriors are probably the best team for him when it comes to showcasing his talents.
I’m sure lots of teams would take Cousins at the minimum. I’m guessing his agent is asking for a lot more right now, which is why he remains unsigned. As for the Warriors, it is not so much that they can’t afford him at the minimum or a little over the minimum, its that they have 3 centers on the roster now, Looney, Jones, and Cauley-Stein, and don’t really need a 4th. Right now the Warriors roster looks like this:
C: Looney, Jones, Cauley-Stein
PF: Green, Smailagic (draft pick)
SF: McKinnie, Paschall (draft pick)
SG: Thompson
PG: Curry, Russell, Evans, Poole (draft pick)
Figure some of those PGs can also play some SG. That’s 12 players right now, so they can add up to 3 more to the regular roster, and 2 other players on two-way contracts (which limit them to 45 days in the NBA). Damian Lee, Curry’s brother-in-law, played on a two-way contract for the Dubs last season and could be in line for a minimum deal this season. That would be another guard on the roster. As you can see, the Dubs are very thin at the forward positions, so at least one, if not two of the remaining three roster spots need to be forwards on minimum or near-minimum deals (Vince Carter anyone?). There’s really just no room to keep Cousins at this point.
seems this could happen only if Cousins’ agent sucks. now he’ll be stuck with a team that may not be right for his future. that, or the agent has a fallback in the Lakers which seems likely to me. They can’t pay him much but what choice would he have … Minnesota? Cleveland? Charlotte?
I don’t know how much cap room any of the following teams have after the recent flurry of free agent signings, but the following teams need a decent center, either as a starter or good back-up and could certainly sign Cousins to the veteran minimum or MLE: Celtics, Bulls, Heat, Knicks, Hawks, Clippers, Kings, and possibly the Trailblazers (just lost Kanter, unclear when Nurkic will return), Mavericks (for a Twin Towers approach with Porzingis), and the Pelicans (to mentor draft pick Jaxson Hayes though they may be unlikely to bring him back). I’m sure there is some concern that Cousins won’t ever return to full form, but he showed flashes with the Warriors and he seems like he’d make a good gamble for some amount under $10 million for next year.
By the way, the Warriors have also signed Glenn Robinson III to fill one of those back-up SF/SG spots. They’ve now got 13 players under contract for next year. They’ll probably sign one more and then one or two two-way players.
One Morris bro down – Markieff to Pistons. The other? Lakers better come up with something soon. Kawhi needs to decide!!
Just heard on the radio that Jalen Rose was saying that he was 99% sure that Kawhi was returning to Toronto. On the other hand, there are reports that Kawhi’s uncle/advisor was celebrating that Kawhi was coming to LA (no word on if that meant Lakers or Clippers). Nobody really knows apparently.
Crazy decision by the Sixers. They’re going to regret this one: Pacers somehow stole McConnell from them.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27114134/sources-mcconnell-reaches-deal-pacers
Pacers finished 5th in the East this year. They’ve since added Malcolm Brogdon, TJ Warren, Jeremy Lamb, and now McConnell. If Kawhi goes West, the East will be wide open this year. Looks like the Pacers are looking to make a run.
Oladipo isn’t scheduled to be back until December, but there’s news he might be ready as early as October. The team has everything except for a tall big man. Turner is listed as 6′ 11″ but i doubt it. Still, it may be enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIS2TYBDwhM
Griff time! He must be loving this – maybe he even predicted it. He wanted an all star. OK then, take your pick!
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27111298/nine-more-nba-stars-on-move
If he’s keeping Lonzo then I expect he’ll want Dragic as an excellent mentor. Doesn’t mean he’ll get him though.
Looks like the Suns have given up on Josh Jackson. They trade Jackson, De’Anthony Melton, and 2 future second round draft picks to the Grizzlies for Kyle Korver and Jevon Carter. They are expected to buy out Korver’s contract. Carter will take over Melton’s spot as a back-up PG. Apparently the trade (and buy out of Korver’s contract) is designed to clear up cap space, but it also acknowledges that Jackson hasn’t lived up to high draft pick hype.
According to Eddie Johnson the main issue is Jackson’s attitude. Not a locker room guy, and am guessing that James Jones wants none of it. Johnson believe’s he’s got plenty of talent and a future, but needs to grow up asap or he won’t get another shot.
Suns did manage to keep Kelly Oubre, signing him to a 2-year, $30 million deal. Nicely done by them.
Taking a look at where the top 30 have gone (not making a distinction between signing and sign and trades):
1. Kevin Durant, Warriors – signed with NETS
2. Kawhi Leonard, Raptors – no decision yet
3. Kyrie Irving, Celtics – signed with NETS
4. Kemba Walker, Hornets – signed with CELTICS
5. Klay Thompson, Warriors – resigned with WARRIORS
6. Jimmy Butler, 76ers – signed with HEAT
7. D’Angelo Russell, Nets – signed with WARRIORS
8. Tobias Harris, 76ers – resigned with 76ERS
9. Kristaps Porzingis, Mavericks – resigned with MAVERICKS
10. Khris Middleton, Bucks – resigned with BUCKS
11. Nikola Vucevic, Magic – resigned with MAGIC
12. DeMarcus Cousins, Warriors – no decision yet
13. Julius Randle, Pelicans – signed with KNICKS
14. Al Horford, Celtics – signed with 76ERS
15. Marc Gasol, Raptors – opted in to stay with RAPTORS
16. Bojan Bogdanovich, Pacers – signed with JAZZ
17. Brook Lopez, Bucks – resigned with BUCKS
18. DeAndre Jordan, Knicks – signed with NETS
19. Malcolm Brogdon, Bucks – signed with PACERS
20. Nikola Mirotic, Bucks – signed with BARCELONA in Europe
21. Paul Millsap, Nuggets – NUGGETS exercise option to keep Millsap
22. Goran Dragic, Heat – opted in to stay with HEAT
23. Danny Green, Raptors – no decision yet
24. JJ Redick, 76ers – signed with PELICANS
25. Harrison Barnes, Kings – resigned with KINGS
26. Marcus Morris, Celtics – no decision yet
27. Thaddeus Young, Pacers – signed with BULLS
28. Rudy Gay, Spurs – resigned with SPURS
29. Ricky Rubio, Jazz – signed with SUNS
30. Derrick Rose, Timberwolves – signed with PISTONS
Only 3 left without a decision.
Some other moves:
Al-Farouq Aminu – signs with MAGIC
Trevor Ariza – signs with KINGS
Jordan Bell – signs with TIMBERWOLVES
Patrick BEVERLEY – resigns with CLIPPERS
Reggie Bullock – signs with KNICKS
DeMarre Carroll – signs with SPURS
Willie Cauley-Stein – signs with WARRIORS
Wilson Chandler – signs with NETS
Seth Curry – signs with MAVERICKS
Ed Davis – signs with JAZZ
Dewayne Dedmon – signs with KINGS
Jared Dudley – signs with LAKERS
Wayne Ellington – signs with KNICKS
Taj Gibson – signs with KNICKS
Gerald Green – resigns with ROCKETS
Jeff Green – signs with JAZZ
George Hill – resigns with BUCKS
Rodney Hood – resigns with TRAILBLAZERS
Dwight Howard – opts in to stay with WIZARDS
Cory Joseph – signs with KINGS
Frank Kaminsky – signs with SUNS
Enes Kanter – signs with CELTICS
Jeremy Lamb – signs with PACERS
Kevon Looney – resigns with WARRIORS
Robin Lopez – signs with BUCKS
Boban Marjanovic – signs with MAVERICKS
Wesley Matthews – signs with BUCKS
Markieff Morris – signs with PISTONS
Emmanuel Mudiay – signs with JAZZ
Nerlens Noel – resigns with THUNDER
Elfrid Payton – signs with KNICKS
Bobby Portis – signs with KNICKS
Austin Rivers – resigns with ROCKETS
Terrence Ross – resigns with MAGIC
Mike Scott – resigns with 76ERS
Jeff Teague – opts in to stay with TIMBERWOLVES
Isaiah Thomas – signs with WIZARDS
Anthony Tolliver – signs with TRAILBLAZERS
Jonas Valanciunas – resigns with GRIZZLIES
Hassan Whiteside – traded to TRAILBLAZERS
Marvin Williams – opts in to stay with HORNETS
Umm wow!
Clippers to sign Kawhi AND are trading for Paul George. Clippers are giving up a fortune to get George. The Thunder is getting Gallinari and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a boatload of draft picks–4 unprotected first round picks, 1 protected first round pick, and two pick swaps. Apparently Kawhi was taking his time with the choice in order to recruit George and await the trade to happen. There’s gonna be some good basketball in LA next season. LeBron and AD on the Lakers. Kawhi and Paul George on the Clippers.
I was literraly LOLing yesterday when even my favorite nba media guy termine said something to the effect that “i’m guessing the clippers are out of the running since you dont hear anything about them anymore”. After weds and the longer this went on the more I thought it would be the clippers and then the lakers. Somehow the general feeling from the media was that the longer it took the more likely it would be raptors. Never made any sense.
The big surprise isnt what the clippers gave up but that they managed assets so well in order to give em up. And that it was enough for OKC. Seems that other teams could have given up more. Maybe not.
Apparently the Thunder were playing the Clippers and Raptors off of each other in trade negotiations. If the Raptors had outbid the Clippers, Kawhi would have stayed in Toronto. Lakers were completely out of it since they didn’t have the assets to trade.
It’s now being reported that the contract that Kawhi signed is for 2 years, plus a player option for a 3rd year. This aligns his contract with Paul George’s contract, so both can leave in 2 years if they don’t like the way things are going. Coincidentally, 2 years is also when LBJ could also reenter free agency. The summer of 2021 could be wild.
With the Lakers losing the Kawhi sweepstakes, they’ve started using their cap space to fill out their roster. So far, they’ve signed Danny Green and resigned KCP and JaVale.
The Lakers continue to add, signing Cousins and Cook away from the Warriors, Jared Dudley, and resigning Rondo. So the Pelicans’ twin towers are now both in LA. I’m guessing you’re looking at a Laker starting 5 of Rondo, Green, LBJ, AD, and Cousins. Other than Green, the shooting leaves a little something to be desired.
The Cook signing surprises me.That’s an excellent pickup for the Lakers. But I have no idea why they went after Danny Green so hard while letting Marcus Morris go the the Spurs. Seems like a mistake to me.
As stated, the Lakers aren’t the shooting threat they’d like to be. It presents an important question to Vogel, Kidd and LeBron: for this group is there any reason they should fall in line by playing 3 ball like almost every other team? I’d much rather see LeBron, AD, & Cousins shooting from 16-20 feet than 23. With all three able to post up and pass from there I think you offset the need for getting up a bunch of 3s over the course of the game.
Still, hard for me to imagine they can’t still make a move or moves that land one more shooter this year.
And for all those mediots (media idiots) who had the whiney approach claiming the Suns failed by choosing Cam Johnson so early in the draft … this is one of the reasons why. A team like the Lakers will be looking for shooters at a bargain. Maybe not this year but sometime between now and 2021. By selecting Johnson high you can sell him high to Lakers or whoever needs him. Anyone having a problem with that pick may need to study economic theory.
I’m a little surprised that Cook didn’t end up with the Nets and good buddy KD. Despite the Cook and Rondo signings, I’m reading that the Lakers may simply use LeBron as the starting PG. A line-up with LBJ, AD, Cousins, Kuzma, and a SG TBA would be difficult to defend, though I suspect that most teams will pack the paint and dare them to shoot from outside.
I’m trying to get a sense of what the Eastern Conference will be like next year. We are barely a week into the off-season maneuvering and the cream of the East has seen this happen:
Milwaukee: traded away former rookie-of-the-year Malcolm Brogdon rather than pay him the big salary increase he would have gotten and instead pay 33-yr-old George Hill $10 million a year on a 3-yr contract. Also lose Nikola Mirotic to Europe.
Toronto: Lose Kawhi. Enough said.
Philadelphia: Lose Butler and Redick, but gain Horford. Still an impressive squad, but may have just lost their 2 best shooters.
Boston: Lose Irving, Rozier, and Horford, but gain Kemba. It’s possibly that losing Irving will be a blessing in disguise, because of his unhappiness there and inability to fit in. But losing Horford, who was a glue guy in the locker room will hurt.
Indiana: Lose Bogdanovic, Matthews, and Collison, but gain TJ Warren, TJ McConnell (thereby cornering the market in TJs), Brogdon and Lamb. Some pretty nice upgrades.
Brooklyn: Lose Russell, but gain Irving, KD, and Jordan. Won’t have KD for a year, but still significant upgrades.
Orlando: retain Vucevic and Ross and add Aminu. Slightly better, but not significant enough to become contenders.
Detroit: add Derrick Rose. Also not a significant move.
Charlotte: lose Kemba, gain Rozier. Definite downgrade.
Miami: lose Whiteside, gain Butler and retain Dragic. Nice upgrade, but doesn’t look like the Heat have enough yet to contend.
The rest of the East were also runs last year and will remain so, though the Hawks look like they will start ascending.
So basically, the top 4 teams in the East have been downgraded, last year’s 5th and 6th teams have upgraded, though the complete upgrade for one will be delayed a year. Milwaukee is probably still the best as the downgrades to their roster were not as bad as what happened to Toronto, Philly, and Boston. I don’t like the East’s chances in the finals next year.
The Warriors are trading Damian Jones and a protected 1st round pick to the Hawks for forward Omari Spellman, who will get to reunite with Villanova college teammate Eric Paschall on the Dubs. This was another move designed to create more cap space which the Dubs used to sign Alec Burks, formerly of the Jazz, to a veteran minimum contract. I really like DJ with the young core that the Hawks are building around. The writing was probably on the wall for DJ when the Warriors signed Cauley-Stein. Dubs probably didn’t need 3 centers and were certainly in need of another forward with some shooting ability, so looks like a decent deal for both sides.
I don’t understand the Jones trade. Not unless Spellman has greater upside. Was Jones causing problems? Was it concerns about injuries?
No, it was simply a money thing. They saved half a million by swapping DJ for Spellman. That gave them enough room under the hard cap to sign Alec Burke to the veteran minimum. If the Dubs hadn’t signed Willie Cauley-Stein (for less than DJ was making), they probably would have kept Jones.
With Paul George off to L.A. and the Thunder looking a huge number of draft picks over the next 4-5 years, there is a realization that it probably doesn’t make sense to hold on to Westbrook. So they are looking to trade him and completely rebuild. The Heat are the rumor of the moment, though they apparently don’t want to give up young assets. I’m unclear what young assets that refers to since they’ve already given up Josh Richardson to get Jimmy Butler. Justise Winslow? Bam Adebayo? I don’t see any young player on their roster that I would refuse to trade. I’m sure they would willingly hand over Dion Waiters, but the Thunder should refuse that. Other teams I’ve heard mentioned as possible Westbrook destinations are the Suns, the Knicks, and the Bulls. Hopefully, the Suns won’t do it. As good as Westbrook is, he seems to drive away other superstars and the Suns should be looking for a young PG, not a 31-year-old with a huge contract. Trading for Westbrook is absolutely something I can see the Knicks doing. After they bombed in free agency, it would be exactly the kind of desperation move they would do.
And action is quickly taken. The Thunder are trading Westbrook to Houston for Chris Paul, two first round picks (2024 and 2026) and two pick swaps if the Thunder want them (2021 and 2025). I don’t know if Westbrook and Harden will work given how ball dominant both are. And other than getting a bunch of draft picks, all the Thunder has done is trade one huge contract for another huge contract of an even older player. With the Thunder rebuilding, I can’t imagine that Chris Paul will stay in Oklahoma City for a long time. Nice job by the Thunder with the picks though. By getting Houston’s 1st rounders 5 and 7 years from now, they get past Harden and Westbrook’s primes, so the picks may actually be pretty good then.
Regarding Justise Winslow … I have no idea why Riley would let him go in a trade for Westbrook. But then, I was surprised he let go of Richardson in the Butler trade. If Miami had a ton of picks and other assets fine, but all they really have now are Winslow and Dragic.
Isn’t the word out now? Don’t all the upper echelon GMs realize that they’re less likely to win a championship with Westbrook than without him?
I’ll start the 2019-20 Season blog soon. Here’s the first post for that …
Who will win MVP? List top 8 in order …
1. Curry
2. Jokic
3. Embiid
4. Freak
5. Kawhi
6. Doncic
7. Harden
8. Lillard
I assume Kawhi won’t play enough games but people will still vote for him simply because they’ll continue to be stunned in two ways by what just happened (1. In 1 year only won a championship for an entire country, 2. Showed that he’s not only a real person but possibly even likable???) . Davis won’t play enough games, and LeBron will defer up through February so, enough games or not, he won’t be trying to score enough.
I’m thinking it is a little too early to have Doncic on this list. Dallas will be improved this year, but probably not a contender yet and we don’t know if Porzingis might pull away some attention to Doncic. And I would probably put Paul George on the list. He will play more games than Kawhi and still put up great numbers with Kawhi. He did so last year playing with Westbrook and ended up 3rd in the MVP voting.
Don’t know how the addition of Westbrook will affect Harden’s MVP chances.
The Doncic inclusion was not without detailed thought. It begins with my assertion that he’s one of the greatest rookies of all time. Continues with my conviction that he slowed down mid-season simply because of conditioning. He’s outrageously competitive, and I see that ramping up from day one this season. My feeling is that he has a chance to be as good this year as LeBron was in his rookie year. But as a better rebounder and shooter. That means a heck of a lot more wins for Dallas as Porzingas contributes.
The only question for me was whether I should put him 1 or 2 spots higher on my list.
I had George on there originally but then thought that Kawhi would get votes by default and then remembered issues George had after his surgery(ies?). I don’t expect George to be very strong out of the gate, but I do expect all these other guys to be that. I’d be extremely surprised if we had a 2 or 3 man race at the end, but then I thought that last year as well.
Sixers signed Ben Simmons to a five-year, $170 million max extension. That works out to $34 million a year, which wouldn’t be impossible to trade if they sour on him.
This is a mistake, and I think will keep them from winning a championship. At best he is currently about the 30th best player in the league, and even if he improves dramatically this year he’s just barely as good as Horford around top 18.
He’s just not assertive enough. He’s the Anti-Magic in my opinion.
A trade of Simmons and O’Quinn (for example) for Rubio, Jerome and Saric makes the Sixers the best in the East and a title contender in my opinion. This contract convinces Simmons that he’s 2nd best and possibly even best on this team when he’s not even 3rd best.
The biggest mistake in this is that the 76ers didn’t have to make the deal now. Simmons is signed through next summer, so why not wait and see if he make a dramatic improvement? Simmons has yet to prove that he is worth that kind of money and despite his obvious talent, this situation is one that cried out for the Sixers to wait.
Agreed. If I didn’t make that exact comment here about a month ago I meant to. As much as I’d be all in on trading Simmons if I was a Sixers fan (and I suppose I am), they need to wait for his value to rise some. I’m sure he’ll only get better, and has a good if not great chance to be a top 20 player within the next 3 years. However, they signed him as if he’s already top 20 and has a chance to be top 10. I don’t see that ever happening.
This is so much like the Wiggins contract. Possibly worse because Brett Brown should have the perspective to see how that contract has hamstrung the Wolves for at least half a decade. Same with the Wall and Paul contracts. It’s what you absolutely do *not* do. Every case is the same: you convince both the player and owner that he’s the best or 2nd best on the team. You *must* give the player tons of minutes to justify the contract. You end up giving very good players *fewer* minutes (e.g. Dieng, McCollum).
It’s all so obvious when you take just a few steps off your platform. My guess is that Brown & the owner made the decision that they’re comfortable with their own analyses rather than doing what the Clippers (and other do) stocking up on tons of analysts who most likely feed the top analyst (West) who then discusses with the GM. How is that (or something like it) not the most obvious recipe for making the most informed decisions?
And, back to the original point, how is making the quick & unnecessary decision ever the best recipe for anything? If you’re trying to send Simmons the message that you will do anything to keep him around then you’re telling him he’s your best or second best player. How much time was spent on considering the possibility that this is the *wrong* message?
Another one for the soon-to-be-created 2019-2020 Regular Season post …
Rank top 8 teams in each conference according to their final regular season W-L record (I’m starting this now because I’m astounded at how wrong this list looks according to ESPN and one other ranking that I can’t remember) …
EAST
Bucks
Pacers
Sixers
Raptors
Nets
Celtics
Miami
Atlanta
WEST
Clippers
Lakers
Warriors
Jazz
Blazers
Nuggets
Rockets
Dallas
I’m not confident at all in my Western Conf rankings because teams will need time to get things to work, and because the Kings may have a big surprise for us this year knocking some team out of the top 8.
hilarious. at first I left out the Warriors completely. can’t explain why. I guess I have the Spurs not making the playoffs. wow – seems completely wrong, but there it is. I think the only way the Spurs make the playoffs is if they come out of the gate a-blazin racking up wins, because either the Mavs, Kings, Grizz, Pels or Suns are going to get it. Really hard to imagine at least one of those teams not getting in. West is amazing from top to bottom with the Wolves being the exception.
I think it will be particularly hard this year to make good guesses at the playoff teams because of all the turnover. You don’t know how quickly things will gel for some teams. That being said, I will say that I initially think you’ve got the Pacers and Raptors too high. I expect the Raptors, without Kawhi and Green, with Lowry, Gasol, and Ibaka all getting older, and VanVleet and Siakam still pretty young, to take a big step back this upcoming season. Still a playoff team because they are on in the east, but not top 4.
The Pacers lost Bogdanovich, possibly their best shooter. They did gain Brogdon, but Oladipo is coming back from a ruptured tendon. I don’t know how quickly he will get up to speed. Still a good team, but not top 2. I’d probably go Bucks, 76ers, Celtics, Pacers, Nets, Raptors, Heat, Pistons or Magic.
I don’t know what to make of the West yet.
We’ll see, but Pacers gained TJ Warren!!
In any case, my ranking is more about lowered expectations for the Sixers, Nets & Celtics than it is about excitement for the Pacers and Raptors. I’ll stick with what I have based on what I’ve seen of Oladipo’s most recent workouts.
By the way, that list is just a pre-cursor and less meaningful than the one listing best teams in the league by the end of the season which I’m more confident about …
Clippers
Bucks
Rockets
Lakers
Pacers
Sixers
Warriors
Jazz
Blazers
All this changes if somehow Porter Jr. rises from the ashes by April.
I’m revisiting this. I don’t know why I’m shortchanging the Pacer’s chances. I think they’ll be the best in the east by May if all are healthy …
Clippers
Rockets
Pacers
Lakers
Bucks
Sixers
Warriors
Jazz
Blazers
Pretty fun stuff here. Worth a look …
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/carmelo/
ah ha! this is news! the perfect team for him, and the perfect signing for the Bucks. excellent!
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27228002/korver-agrees-one-year-contract-bucks
Yep, perfect place for him. He will shift around the 3-pt line and await the Freak passing out of double and triple teams in the paint. He’ll more or less take over the Mirotic role.
another for the upcoming reg season post …
https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2019/7/30/20747672/vegas-projects-phoenix-suns-to-win-27-games-finish-14th-in-western-conference
not a chance in hell (unless 2 major players are out for a very long time). rubio alone is worth 5 extra wins.
Wow! One of the top stories in the offseason in my opinion. Top 10 anyhow.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27314349/green-warriors-reach-four-year-max-extension
Yep, just saw that. $25 million per year for Green seems very reasonable. Since this is an extension, the higher amount doesn’t kick in until next year.
So in reading about this, the deal is a max contract extension for Draymond. Because it is an extension of his current contract and not a new contract, the raises available to him were limited. If Draymond waited until next summer and became a free agent, he would have been eligible for a max contract of 5 years for around $200 million. Green agreed to the lesser deal today rather than the bigger deal next summer because he wanted to stay and it gives him security against injuries/changing plans that might happen next season. Obviously, it helps the Dubs to have him on the books for less than $25 million a season instead of $40 million a season.
Right – that’s what I meant by writing it was a top 10 off season move (my opinion). He took the lower amount which tells me that he’s in Golden State to stay for some time to come. That’s a big surprise (and disappointment) for a lot of franchises across the league.
Kevin Durant did an interview with Chris Haynes. A few notable things to come out of it.
1. Warriors did not mishandle his injury situation in the playoffs. From the beginning of the finals, he targeted Game 5 for his return and felt he was ready. KD said “Hell no” to the question of whether the Warriors were to blame for his torn achilles.
2. KD didn’t make the decision to go to the Nets until June 30th because he didn’t think about it the situation during the season.
3. KD chose the Nets because he liked what they were building. Thought they had some good pieces and a creative front office.
The story is here: https://sports.yahoo.com/kevin-durant-on-if-the-warriors-mishandled-his-calf-injury-hell-no-211347829.html
This is fun to watch. Of course, almost video of Steph Curry is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXc4daz5gI
Really bad news for DeMarcus Cousins. Now he’s suffered a torn ACL. Looks like he won’t be playing again this year. Really sucks for him.
The Warriors were going to beat the Raptors before the two big injuries. It wouldn’t have been easy, but when KD came back I was sure Cousins would have been the 3rd best scorer and facilitator on the team. He was getting better as a distributor/facilitator.
Lakers could have run their offense through him in the post a lot. Very much sucks.
Coupla late additions … Dwight Howard signed a weird contract with the Lakers – something like a per game contract that can be terminated at any time. Redick signed with the Pels and Joe Johnson with the Pistons.