Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

Courtney Lee would make a lot of sense.

 

The title is a little misleading. He's literally picking Los Angeles as his meeting place for all the teams he's going to talk to.

Apparently there's real, legitimate mutual interest between Durant and the Warriors which means guys like Iggy and Bogut and Barnes should be available for pennies.

 

I'd love to take all three

 

Great Breakdown Doc, I say the answer is no. What no one will talk about and is an important point is what price do you put on team chemistry and fit amongst players. With Durant they are definitely more talented, but it comes at the price of cohesion and players knowing how to play with each other. They would have to learn how to do this again to a certain degree with the kind of player Durant is. Granted, I always believe in cases like this its the new player that has to be the one conforming to the new team and not the other way around.

 

Wouldn't they basically have to be swapping Barnes and Iggy for Durant and dumping Bogut? And that's just for next season. Look at Steph, Klay, and Draymond's contracts, Steph is cute tho on a bargain salary. He's gonna get PAID next time around, and you'd have to think Greeb and Klay would be too. So that leaves you needing to have 4 guys with MAX salaries. They'd still be great if they cleverly filled out the rest of the roster, but the team would be gutted, wouldn't be the same at all. On paper they look unbeatable with those 4, but I don't see how it could realistically work even with the cap raise.

 

Just looked it up so here's the deal:

- to sign and trade an RFA that RFA cannot sign another offer sheet. So Barnes can ruin this if he signs an offer sheet right away.
- the team receiving the signed-and-traded player (Warriors AND Thunder in this case) must both be below the tax apron (4 million above tax level) which I think both technically are right now, though I'd have to check.
- sign and trade contracts are for 3-4 seasons, no exceptions so Durant cannot do his 1+1 that way.
- raises in sign and trades are limited to the 4.5% amount (can't get the 7.5% bonus).
- a team cannot sign and trade AND go over the apron, it becomes a hard cap for the team that season.

 

My understanding based on a breakdown by Pincus and Alex Kennedy I believe is that they'd have to shed everybody but Green, Thompson, Curry, Livingston, and one of Barnes or Ezeli. Everyone else would pretty much have to go in order to clear the appropriate room and in that case I say no deal. Bogut was a big loss for them in the Finals. Iggy carried them for probably 8/13 games in the Finals the last two years. I think it'd be a big mistake.

But if that's what they want to do, I'm more than willing to give up a draft pick or something for Iggy. Hell yeah. We're your perfect dumping ground!

 

I still get a slight nausea at the thought.

He redeemed himself a bit to me in these finals but I haven't forgotten the entitled attitude, check my stats, holding franchises hostage mentality. He's still the opposite of what I want in a franchise player in that his ego is a distraction and not a driving force for team decisions.

And if he leaves Cleveland (again), I don't like this pattern of touring the NBA, jumping from team to team. This would be his 3rd move if he does this.

 

It's that and I believe picking between Livingston and Bogut.

They would really have to gut their team. I kind of hope they do honestly. Sure those four together are a fearsome team, but without their stellar depth (something they touted all season/playoffs) they'll be insanely top heavy like the 04 Lakers.