2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

Just Rob checking in on his buddy

 

If the Lakers are going for Hield only, they need to include Nunn & prob a pick, better be a 2nd. Hoping the Jazz would take THT+PICK for JC. Keep Russell for a potential Kyrie trade.

 

The Lakers can not really match Hield’s salary without including Westbrook.

Nunn and THT is not enough salary for Hield. It would have to be something like Nunn, THT, Reaves, and Johnson to work salary wise. But obviously that would be giving up way too much.

So any Hield discussions are likely based around Westbrook.

I would much prefer Kyrie and some of the other ideas discussed, but Westbrook for Hield straight up wouldn’t be the worst backup option in the world.

Although I’d be upset if we rushed into such a deal primarily for the cost savings. Since the Pacers are so far under the cap, they don’t have to match Westbrook’s salary outgoing. That’s why Hield for Westbrook straight up could work, and would clear a good amount of salary from the Lakers books this year.

On the other hand, we’d be adding long term salary to the books since Russ is expiring but Hield has 3 more years. So you could argue that the Pacers should have to throw in another asset or two into the deal to make it worthwhile for us.

 

hield alone doesn't excite me. why did we sign walker if we were just going to pay big for another sg? reaves is better than either of them. and we'd need another pg, too.

the idea that we'd move another first with russ to get hield after turning down a smaller package than the one we gave up for russ for hield last year is just gross.

edit: and i think a 1st is what indy would charge for the cap space rental, even though we're eating buddy's salary next year in the process.

wonder if we could get mcconnell coming back as part of negotiations to keep a 1st out of it. because he has three more years at MLE coming (last year is a partial guarantee).

 

I’d assume a Hield deal would be one of the few options on the table that would NOT require sending out any future draft capital.

If Rob DID include a first with Russ for Hield, he absolutely deserves to be fired.

 

can you imagine the pacers just eating 26 million in salary this year with no compensation? the counter is that hield is on the books next year, but they have to get to minimum salaries and aren't a FA destination, so hield's money shouldn't kill them. i think they'd view this as doing us a pretty sizable favor, even if we don't see it that way.

 

Hield doesn't move the needle enough and we take on another bad contract... it's a no from me.

I'd prefer to blow it up than do lateral moves that barely improve the team and put us in a worse position long term

Kyrie or bust

 

Maybe the idea is Russ is the only player we trade for Hield, so we still have Nunn/THT to man the point.

THT / Nunn
Hield / Reaves / Walker
LeBron / Brown Jr.
AD / JTA / Johnson
Bryant / Jones / Gabriel

I think THT is a long guard rather than a wing like they tried to play him last year, and I do believe there's a chance we see a big bounce back from him next year if he's still on the roster. That said, Walker on the MLE makes no sense in that hypothetical rotation. The whole season would rest on THT make a BIG jump.

 

i'm not sure hield's a "bad contract", but he's certainly not a great one.

but i generally agree that just bringing in hield would be pretty depressing. i wasn't for it last year, either.

 

Harden doesn't want to share the spotlight with 2 other superstar perimeter players, one of which plays his position and the big thing, Daryl Morey is his guy. His pitch was easy, let me bring you to Philly, inside out game with you and Embid like Kobe/Shaq, you guys can share the spotlight.

 

it's funny, i still see THT as needing to be a forward to work out. he can be a point forward on offense, but i'm just not sure he can guard pgs, and almost every team employs a pg that can roast in isolation.

 

Russ and THT for Hield and Turner?

LOL.

 

i'm in! turner gets hurt a lot but is a great fit. think THT is going to get squeezed out again this year.

 

They'd probably want the 27 pick.

 

lotto protected, and i'm ok.

 

I am not on board with Hield, I think even giving up Nunn for him is a mistake. I mean Nunn, bone bruise jokes aside, is essentially a 40/50/90 guy and can get steals and play off-ball for cheap. If Nunn works out, with his early-bird rights we can resign him for 9.18. Buddy Hield worked his way from Vivek Ranadive's golden boy to coming off the bench in Sac. Hield wasn't even considered the big value piece in the trade to Indy, Tyrese Haliburton was. Why do you think Indy turned right around and wants to trade him?

Additionally Indy just wants too much for him, they tried to work out some trades for him earlier and couldn't get their asking price.

 

If there is no Kyrie deal, doesn't matter who the Lakers get after, anything is better than having WB on the team as long as they don't ruin their future.

 

I was under the impression there was a salary floor, and so the Pacers would HAVE to eat a lot of salary one way or another. I.e, with no remaining free agents left that would be worth Indiana spending that money on, a Russ/Hield swap might be mutually beneficial in terms of salary.

But yeah, just looked it up and while there is a salary floor (90% of the cap), sounds like the Pacers have until the end of the year to reach it. And if they don’t, it’s not exactly a big deal. They just pay out the difference to their players.

So yeah, on further thought I don’t think the Pacers would be too interested in taking on that extra 25 million of Westbrook’s salary unless we incentivized them. Which would then be a bad deal for us.

 

i don't think hield is a very good player, tbh. he's a backup on a good team. i'd start reaves over him.

someone said nunn/THT become the pgs, which is a scary proposition. maybe schroder does come back in such a scenario.