2019/20 Players' Transactions: Breaking News , Trades, Free Agents, And Rumors

The same Griffin that quit on his team in the Playoffs with a foot bruise or something? No I'm good. I wanted him as a draw for other players, but that ship has sailed. I'm not giving him all that money when he can only stay on the court for 60 games a year and disappear when games matter.

 

He doesn't play too many minutes at all. In fact he's played over 35 minutes just twice in his career and that was his first two years. The last two years he's played under 34 minutes a game. His usage is high, but not abnormally high for an All-Star.

Blake's usage percentage the last 4 years: 27.8% (28% in 2017)

Other All-Stars this year:

Antetokounmpo: 28.3%
Butler: 26.5%
LeBron: 30%
DeRozan: 34.3%
Irving: 30.8%
Davis: 32.6%
Durant: 27.8%
Leonard: 31.1%
Curry: 30.1%
Harden: 34.2%
Westbrook: 41.7%

If he can't provide that sort of 28% usage and stay healthy, he's not worth my money. Counting his skipped rookie year, he's averaged under 59 games played per year. If you take that season away, it's still 67.2 games played. I'm not paying max money for that. I'm not convinced Julius Randle is significantly less valuable on the court over the next 4 years (the length of the contract we'd give him) and Julius will be half the cost.

 

Forwards

All Alone
Paul Millsap +13
--Millsap is two Standard Deviations up - he's simply the best FA as of right now at the Forward spot. He’s higher than Gasol, Whiteside, and Horford – who all got massive paydays. Gasol’s age limited him to ~15.5M per season. The others saw max.


Second Tier
Last years: Deng, Parsons, Lee, Jefferson, Pachulia were all in this range.
Deng got 4/72, Parsons 4/92, Lee 2/3 for a ring chase, Jefferson 3/30, and Pachulia 1/3 for a ring.
Serge Ibaka +9
*Otto Porter Jr. +8
David West +8
Amir Johnson +7
James Johnson +4
--Assuming these players don’t chase rings, they’re looking at about 17M a season. I can see Ibaka getting that for three or four years. Porter is getting max. West will presumably stay put or retire. Amir Johnson is going to get paid. Four years, $70M probably. Not sure about James Johnson. Some really good defenders in this batch.


Third Tier
Not a lot of players in this range last year. The players “framing” this group were Parsons’s +4, H. Barnes’s 0, and DeRozan’s +1 was in the range. They all got massive paydays, but all were in their prime or entering their prime.
Michael Beasley +3
Taj Gibson +3
Nene Hilario +3
Tiago Splitter +2
Alan Williams +2
Nikola Mirotic +2
Zach Randolph +1
Nick Collison +1
Mike Muscala +1
--Nene is worth a season or two. He’s a stout defender. Splitter is probably an even better option on a two-year deal. Either would be excellent on a one-year overpay deal. Mirotic and Williams are the best candidates for long-term contracts, but the market will be tricky. They could both find themselves making 10-15M a season.

Middle of the Road
Lots of players landed in this range last year, including Amare, Ian Mahinmi, and Jordan Hill among Centers. Courtney Lee was there, too. Unclear what the market will be, but some of them will make lots of money.
Cristiano Felicio 0
Brandon Bass 0
Ersan Ilyasova -1
Matt Barnes -1
Joe Ingles -1
Thabo -2
PJ Tucker -2
JaMychal Green -2
Tyreke Evans -3
Tony Snell -3
Christian Wood -4
-- Felicio and Wood are super interesting given their age. Barnes, Bass, Thabo, and Tucker are all aging. Snell is probably the best shooter in the bunch. Thabo and Tucker are the best defenders.


Lower Side
Gerald Green, Bazemore, and Solomon Hill were in this range. So was Motiejunas and Tarik Black. Some of these guys were seriously overpaid (Bazemore), while others were sensibly paid as bench players or spot starters.
Jonas Jerebko -5
Alex Poythress -6
Kris Humphries -6
Thomas Robinson -6
*Bojan Bogdanovic -6
Udonis Haslem -6
Dante Cunningham -7
Patrick Patterson -7
Metta -9
Donatas Motiejunas -9
Omri Casspi -9
James McAdoo -9
Reggie Bullock -9
--Haslem and Peace are done. Bogdanovic and Cunningham might be the best shooters. Motiejunas is probably the best defender. McAdoo and Poythress are the youngest.

Getting Rough
Bayless and Canaan were in this range last year. They made wildly different salaries: 1-9M.
Luke Babbitt -10
*Shabazz Muhammad -10 (worst defender at his position)
Adreian Payne -10
Dahntay Jones -10
Jeff Green -12
Joffrey Lauvergne -12
Troy Williams -13
--Muhammad is the best shooter and the worst defender. Babbitt is the only remotely intriguing player here for me.

Just Not Good
Anthony Brown was a -17. He couldn’t stick in the league. Others in this range: Sloan (out of the league), Dion Waiters (2/6), Ian Clark (1/1).
Patricio Garino -14
Derrick Williams -16
*Damjan Rudez -17
--None of these guys showed much – Rudez should be out of the league. Williams may be, too. Garino didn’t play enough to make an informed choice.

 

I admit I was all for Blake earlier in the season, but unless PG13 is saying he wants him on the roster (in which case we'd have to trade for PG13 because of salaries), I want no part of him. Just a hypothetical though, I wonder if the Clippers would be interested in a sign and trade of like Nance and JC for Blake if Blake made it clear he was going to leave. I'm not saying I like that move, but I wonder if it's something the Clippers would do.

 

First Tier - one SD up
Last year, David Lee +6, Al Jefferson +5, and Zaza +4 were in this range. Their average salaries were low because of age and ring-chasing (we’re talking about 5M a season).
*Kelly Olynyk +8
Zaza Pachulia +7
*Nerlens Noel +6
*Mason Plumlee +5
--This sounds strange to say, but Kelly Olynyk is going to get paid a ton of money. Even Boston friendly sites realize that $15M a season is a possibility. Honesty, he’s probably worth it. Zaza would be fantastic again on a one-year deal, but he’s interested in rings. Maybe if he wins, he could be lured elsewhere for a short, high-paying one-year deal. Noel and Plumlee are also RFAs like Olynyk. I’m utterly enamored of Noel’s game. Some good all-around players here – defending and scoring.


Second Tier - average
Nene, Amare, Jordan Hill, and Ian Mahinmi were in this range last year. One retired. The other three averaged just over 8M a season.
Dewayne Dedmon +4
*Alex Len +2
Roy Hibbert +1
Marreese Speights +1
JaVale McGee +1
--Len and Dedmon are probably the most interesting, as they’re the youngest and highest ranked. McGee wouldn’t be a bad short-term add for this team.


Third Tier
Speights, Aldrich, Mozgov, Ezeli, Noah, Hibbert, and Biyombo were here last year. One of them is out of the league. The others ranged from Minimum to 18M. They averaged $11M per season.
Jeff Withey -1
TARIK BLACK -1 (was -7 last year)
TIMOFEY MOZGOV -1
Joel Anthony -3
IVICA ZUVAC -4
--I include our non-FA players to show a few things. We already have players this good – a bunch of them. No one should be paying this sort of money (11M) for those players.


Fourth Tier - two SDs down
Jason Thompson, Jason Smith, and Motiejunas were in this range. So was Tarik Black. Other than Black, they made little money. Near Vet Min or leaving the league.
Walter Tavares -7

 

After running some numbers, I came up with two moves that we could do - and what the team would look like.

I'm not giving up on JC, JR, and the #2 for George. I think we do it now.
I saw a suggestion that was Deng and the 28th pick for Augustin, Watson, and a re-signed Rudez.
I'd look at Pachulia on a one-year, $15M deal - and we could take a team option on year 2 maybe.
We'd be a couple to a few million under cap, and we'd have:

Russell/Augustin/Watson
George/Nwaba/Rudez
Ingram/Brewer/(Cunningham)
Black/Nance/Cunningham/Robinson
Pachulia/Mozgov/Zubac

That team needs some shooting from the PF spot, so we could use the remaining salary cap to add Dante Cunningham on a two-year, $12M deal. That's about the cap space we'd have. Brewer and Black would expire the next season, opening up some further options and allowing us to re-sign our young guys.

 

Waiters lands in that -3 range among Guards. He's statistically better than JC - both on offense and on defense, but he's a poor defender (JC is atrocious) and he's a decent offensive player. I'd be disappointed if we spent 8 figures on him. In fact, I really don't want him given our other needs.

 

I'd ship Ball, Randle, and something else for George then. Do it immediately.