too lazy to do the math, but i think we'd have to drop both clarkson and deng and pick up nothing in salary to make something like that work.
I think you're right, and we actually have a bit of an advantage with this in that Randle and George have the same agent Aaron Mintz. If Mimtz knows George is coming to LA he can tell Julius to just wait a minute to sign after PG and whoever else because Randle’s cap hold is only 12 mil. That’s a lot less than what he’ll probably get on his next contract, so i think it works out to not impact our salary as much if we can sign him after we get two stars. We’d still probably be going over the cap to do it. We can probably still keep Lopez as well if he keeps playing like this because there will be a bunch of bigs on the market this off season and not a lot of teams with a lot of money to spend in free agency.
While I am excited to see how we do in FA, I must admit I am more excited about how are young players are playing, specifically Ingram.
We can certainly keep Julius and sign two max FAs, but @abeer3 is right: we'll need to get rid of both Clarkson and Deng for almost no money back. Here's how much it'll take to sign two max deals: George/Cousins ~ 58 million George or Cousins/LeBron ~ 63 million LeBron/Chris Paul? ~ 68 million (just for reference) If we can get rid of Clarkson for no cash and we stretch Deng we're at 44.7 million which leaves 56.3 million dollars to spend which isn't even enough for George/Cousins. In order to clear up enough to get to the ideal George or Cousins/LeBron area we need to find a way to clear both Clarkson and Deng for no cost back.
I honestly think if you add PG to this roster and they have a year under their belt, they can manage a 6th seed without another max guy. Lots of declining bottom half playoff teams in the west.
i agree but its smarter to add a 2nd max now cause you wont have this type of cap space for a long time once ball/ingram maybe randle get their extensions
Precisely. It's not that they wouldn't be successful with "just" Paul George, but we have a rare opportunity to add two great FAs with our young players. Why limit ourselves? If we have the opportunity to get two max FAs, we need to capitalize and since two are more likely to come than one, there's no reason not to aim big.
Would yall trade Clark,Nance,Zu,Hart,Deng and two future firsts for a 2nd round pick to unload Deng without stretching? I was just thinking it might take Kuzma and Clark to move Deng :/
Probs knows if he comes then eventually someone would be bound to IF a player doesnt legitimately come with him next off season. Can always make a move in trade deadline next year with George on our side. Who knows.
I would trade Zubac/one future 1st/Deng for expiring contracts. We've brought it up with Chicago and Atlanta both and either team would be a good trade partner if they were willing.
Chicago is tanking, who would be a better tank commander than Deng? Gets to go back to his original team, help bring them the #1 pick in what looks like yet another really solid draft.
Closer to the deadline: Clarkson, Zubac, Nance, Deng, future 1st for PG, Singler, Abrines. Thunder get a talented young guard, a cheap project big, a hustle guy that should work well with Russ, and a draft pick. They aren't a free agency destination so Deng likely wouldn't cost them prospective free agents. Lakers get PG and 2 guys that equal nearly half of what Deng makes annually. Ideally PG opts into the last year of his contract at $20.5M. Correct me if I'm wrong, but even with Randle's $12.4M cap hold we should be around $42M which gives us enough (or very close )to 2 max guys and retain Randle by going over the cap.
I know I know .... again ... LOL you can claim being quoted out of context (and it's true) but you should just stop "thinking" now. .... errrrr ..... along those lines .....no disrespect intended
id unload deng, honestly i rather just let things progress with okc n hope they continues to lose unless theyre willing to take something like jc/hart or nance/2nd rd for pg....id offer up deng/zu or bryant along with 1 unprotected 1st n their 2nd rd back to chi for Mirotic
If you had to decide between Julius and Kuz who do you choose? Cant have both. It IS true doe like it or not. He might be the only one on a dirt cheap contract to compensate for Dengs bad salary.. Nah mean?
