Seems to be on the same page as a lot of us -- Matthews, Middleton, Asik. Depending on what we do in the draft, I'd welcome any (or any combination) of them. I also wouldn't consider drafting Okafor or Towns as a reason not to add Asik. If he can be had for $7-8m, I'd consider paying that even with Okafor. They can't play together, but we'll still need rebounding and a rim protector. It gives Okafor a couple years to fully develop (I'd still start Okafor, just limit his minutes), gives your protection during his run in with the rookie wall. Rather pay Asik that vs. paying Hill $9m.
Honestly if we're going after a guy to anchor the defense with size, fouls, and shot blocking I'll just keep Davis around. Davis has said he wants to be here and he's almost certain to be cheaper than Asik just on reputation alone. I know Asik is bigger, but Davis is cheaper and already here. If we can nail down a big in the draft I really would test some of these RFAs at SF. Throw the bank at 'em and dare teams to match. They'll leave us enough cash to go get a viable SG/SF anyway and then if we get the RFA we want, we could end up with a great combination of SFs suddenly. For instance, if we throw even the max at Middleton (which is too much), we'll have another 4-5 million or something to spend roughly. Use that cash on a guy like maybe Chase Budinger or John Salmons. Chase isn't a sexy name anymore after a couple tough injuries, but he's a decent player when given minutes. He's a good shooter and still a good athlete. Salmons' best days are behind him, but he's a body you can plug in there. If you nail him down you get at least a decent player. Then if Milwaukee balks at the cost of a max deal, you get Middleton too. Suddenly we've got a decent SF rotation.
Absolutely love Middleton but Parsons money is a little out of what I expect to be a fair contract for him. 10-11M a year like Batum is as high as I'd go, then I shift my focus to trying to steal Matthews.
Pretty much my take as well. I was just throwing out there some numbers and saying we've got options.
I like how they said we're 'leaning' toward keeping Hill. We haven't even conducted the exit interviews which starts today, actually. Then after those are done, Mitch and Jim meet with Byron to determine what course of action they might take for each player; there's no 'leaning'...
remember to factor in the new cba while valuing players, though. what is parsons money now won't be the following year. I promise that agents will be tooting that horn loudly.
