Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

We will have more wins than the Warriors will have this season.

Once you tally up our next 3 seasons combined...

 

side note-


It's hilarious seeing Spears come up after Woj on about 85-90% of these "breaking" stories. I can almost feel his frustration.

 

I wouldn't mind getting Sasha back as he can and has played both guard positions. That would give us 4 guards that can slide in at either spot with Calderon being the only one that couldn't play the other spot effectively.

 

From this list I'm still interested in: Meyers Leonard, Shane Larkin, Tim Frazier, Ray McCallum, Donald Sloan, Isaiah Canaan, and to a lesser extent Vujacic. Jabari Brown is also on my maybe list. I think Willie Reed is headed to San Antonio or Golden State. Hickson would be okay too. Thompson is uninspiring for me.

 

At this point given our rotation, I'm not sure we need another big piece but I'm also all about acquiring talent. If we think we can get Leonard at a good price, then I'm all for it but otherwise let's just roll with what we've got and save the money.

 

If it's not a rhetorical question, I'll give it a shot - why Mozgov rather than Ezeli. There are lots of reasons. I'll be back with the details.

 

Ezeli had a better year? He played in 46 games and logged 770 minutes. His 7/5 isn't obviously better than 6/4, better shooting, and twice as many minutes. Right?

Ezeli will be 27 next season, and despite being drafted four years ago, he has logged only 2400 minutes in his career, including 1300 over the last three seasons combined. He has missed 158 of 328 games he was eligible for. These numbers raise three key questions:

Can he get healthy?
Can he remain healthy?
What is he worth when healthy?

The first two questions are closely tied together, and the answer has to be leaning toward "That's unlikely." After all, he's a huge guy, he has had one surgery on each of his knees already, and that's a bad combo.

What is Ezeli worth when healthy? Another tough question to answer. He has started only 20 games over the past three seasons, and he has never averaged more than 17 minutes per game in a season. He's a competent scorer, at 11 per 36 including 15 per 36 over the last two seasons. He rebounds well, at 11 per 36 in his career and at 12 this past season. He was in the 21st percentile in PnR scoring (at .79 points per possession) despite taking 28% of his shots that way. He's a great shot blocker, at 2.5 in his career (but down this past season). He's not a good passer, but that's not his job.

He's supposed to be a defensive stalwart, but he hasn't been above 40th at Center in DRPM. His DRtg was good, but both Bogut (who starts) and Jason Thompson (who doesn't) had better DRtgs this past season - both bigs on GSW. That's why I note them.

Mozgov is by no stretch of the imagination an iron man - or at least he wasn't early in his career. But over the past three seasons, he has missed only 7 games, and he has averaged 21.5 minutes per game, 8.5 points, and 6.1 rebounds. He has shot as well as Ezeli ever has, is a better FT shooter, and his career per36 stats are 14/10. He's actually an excellent PnR big, finishing in the 80-something percentile.

So, let's look at those three questions for Mozgov:

Can he get healthy? Probably.
Can he stay healthy? He has started to develop a history as a relative warrior (compared to Ezeli), playing much larger minutes.
What can he offer when healthy? About as much on defense, more offense that fits the scheme. He's a veteran, too, and he offers a kind of stability that Ezeli doesn't.

Does that mean he's worth THAT much more? I don't know, but I'm happier to have him than Ezeli. I can count on Mozgov for starts and minutes. I can't count on Ezeli for that.

Ian Mahinmi is the player I think I'd rather have than Mozgov, for what it's worth.

 

That and his abysmal showing in the playoffs made him not even worth taking a gamble on. Why pay that much for a player who probably has degenerative knees and can't play?

 

That's not even mentioning the fact that Mozgov is a rare veteran with low mileage on his body. He's a champion now and has been the Finals just last season meaning he literally knows what it takes to win in this league and can impart that on our young core. He's by all accounts a tremendous locker room presence which is absolutely vital after seeing the influence that Nick Young and by association Gilbert Arenas can have on young kids.

Sure we overpaid a bit, but to look at Mozgov's deal and give it anything really below average is absolutely missing the point. It was an average deal for an average player that fits well with what we're doing. Plain and simple.