2015 Free Agent Discussion

If we're going after Monroe it's because we missed on Jordan and Aldridge which means we're not going after big FAs next summer anyway. At least not likely to be guys like Durant. If Monroe is who we get, it's similar to getting Harris: Really good young player that can grow with the team.

 

You'd have money left over to get Davis, even at Davis' requested price. And if we can't get Aldridge, not really much reason to think we can convince Chandler to come either. Ultimately it's up to them where to go.

 

Then the same logic applies to Tobias Harris?

This is a foolhardy position to take. What other player are you going to spend your money on? He fits a position of need. It's not like we're going to be a top defensive team with Russell, Kobe, and Randle in our starting lineup anyway. Aldridge isn't going to be a defensive stopper here. Last season Monroe averaged 16/10 in 30 minutes while scoring near 50% of the time. He's a good passer out of the post too.

Spending money on a good player south of 25 years old? How is that a bad move? What are you saving your money for? If we don't get any of the Top Tier Free Agents AGAIN this year, we're definitely not getting any of them in the future. That'd make 3 seasons in a row where people turned down Los Angeles. Howard in 2013, Gasol in 2014, and then Aldridge/Jordan in 2015 that's a huge blow to us.

We might as well start digging in and going for young pieces, there's no point in saving your money for a player that's not coming.

 

If it looks like the winds are shifting away from us getting a premiere big, we better pray that Butler signs a QO. If Aldridge or DeAndre aren't here, Durant ain't coing (barring INCREDIBLE rookie campaigns by Russell and Randle [I am aware he isn't technically a rookie]).

 

I really don't see a ton of distinction. I have Harris slightly ahead of Monroe, but that doesn't mean remotely that Monroe is some bum that nobody needs. If we landed Monroe, we're getting a great asset albeit maybe not a great player.

Even with your proposed Harris/Defensive Big team, we're not defending most of the league. There's one defensive player that might be enough for us to impact that end with the rest of our team and that's DeAndre Jordan. Asik, Chandler, Davis ain't making that team defensively capable.

If we're going to be bad defensively, we might as well be great offensively. Monroe is extremely capable of scoring the ball. You're underselling him here by a wide margin. It doesn't make a ton of sense to like Okafor for this team, but hate Monroe.

 

Can you imagine if Chandler, Jordan, and Pierce don't sign? What's he left with on the market to save that team?

 

Shouldn't basketball adopt a rule like baseball does? Maybe 500 minutes logged to be disqualified from rookie status?

 

I think Harris is a significantly better player and prospect than Monroe, but these two players would do very different things for us. Harris would shift our lineup and give us a polished all-around player who can handle the double or kill it one-on-one. Monroe would give us a big who can score, he won't make us shift our players around, but he won't stretch the floor and he won't play defense.

 

Well that's why I have Harris ahead of Monroe: he's better. However, Harris means pushing either Randle or Clarkson to the bench which is okay, but then we're taking a step back in the whole "let the kids play" thing. Either way, it's a good addition to the team. Monroe is no scrub.