Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

don't know him...

but we need to find a guy like Whiteside...whether this dude is it, no idea.

 

Horford has been high on my list ever since we hired Luke. Is he the perfect fit? No probably not, but he's such a terrific fit for the offense that it would be worth it to me. Sure, it's dangerous giving that much money to a guy his age, but that's what we're going to have to do anyway. We might as well do it with a guy who will check off a bunch of boxes for us:

Can he space the floor? Yes for a big man. He has made 34% of his threes over his career and last year took over 3 a game making 34.4%.
Is a good passer? Yes. He's averaged 2.7/1.6 assists and turnovers throughout his career, but the last two years has increased that to 3.2/1.3 assists to turnovers.
A solid veteran? Yes.
An All-Star? Yes, four times.
A defender? Maybe. He's averaged over a block a game his whole career and his DWS last year was 4.5 which is exactly 4.5x that of our best last year, Roy Hibbert.
A winner? Maybe not at the highest level, but he's lead Atlanta to the playoffs at least.
A smart player? He's excelled with Mike Budenholzer who runs a system similar to Popovich's which Kerr has also borrowed from (especially Motion Weak).

Now he does come with some injury concerns, but he's now played two years in a row missing only 6 games total. He's also not an ideal fit at Center for a lot of minutes, but if we sign a backup Center along with him (Mahinmi, etc) then he can play there for stretches like he did for Atlanta. I love the move if we can do it. Sure it's overpaying, but he's such a great fit and we'd FINALLY attract a medium/big fish after all this time. He'd be our best FA signing in a long time.

 

He had to ruin all the fun.

edit- OR DID HE?!?

 

Horford or Whiteside are right at the top of my list. Biyombo and Noah behind them. We need a center!

 

I'd prefer Whiteside, but Horford will more than do.

I've wanted Horford on the Lakers for a long time, but if I had to pick, I'd lean more toward younger players at key positions for our starters, and veterans off of the bench.

Still getting Horford would be a big win for the team.

 

I went back and checked, his numbers were similar to his regular season but he shot less for some reason.

Reg. Season: 15.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 0.8 steals, 1.5 blocks, 1.3 turnovers, 50.5% fg (6.5/12.8), 34.4% deep (1.1/3.1)
Playoffs: 13.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.2 steals, 2.4 blocks, 1.7 turnovers, 46.6% fg (5.4/11.6), 39.3% deep (1.1/2.8)

Not too far off, but you'd obviously hope for more.

 

Yay! More people on that Noah train!

@abeer3 and I have been using his name a lot. I think he's a tremendous fit for what we need and can be a better version of what Bogut is up in Oakland.

 

I outlined his fit here:

No it's not perfect and yes there's problems there, but it's far from paying for a name with no production and it's also a tremendous fit even if it's not perfect. Whiteside does a lot of great things, but because he can't shoot (not even a free throw) he can bog down the offense. He's also not a good passer averaging less than half an assist a game, but almost two turnovers. In this system, that passing ability is going to be vital. Whiteside also has only 1.5 seasons of evidence behind his talent while Horford is a 4 time All-Star. I'm not saying we shouldn't sign him or anything, Whiteside would be a terrific addition and would make or defense better, but offensively he's not much of a fit in Luke's system. I'd take either in a heartbeat, but Horford brings plenty to the table.