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

i was one of the people who first noted this when everyone was screaming for shooters, but we really only have a few penetrators, too. russ, reaves, walker, lebron, schroder. is there anyone else you really trust to floor the ball and make something good happen?

and even though i pushed back against it, you do nee more shooters than we have, too. it just doesn't require everyone to be a shooter.

in milwaukee, everyone but giannis is at least a threat, and several of them can both shoot and drive.

 

McLung showed some exciting flashes, but it seems he’s too small to make it in the league.

Going from the days of stars in the dunk contest to now having G-League players who literally aren’t even on an NBA roster is a bit of a shame

 

Yeah, I think his only valuable contribution is as a lob threat. That was his bread and butter during his last brief stint here and largely is why he was remembered so fondly.

I liked the signing but I was concerned that he wasn't getting burn on an awful Kings team and that they kept bringing in other centers. They had 4 centers on their team. That's a red flag.

He's just not a high IQ player. His hands are only meant for catching lobs. That's his sole offensive skill that can be relied upon. If he has to gather or dribble or do anything with the ball that requires bringing it down... it gets rough.

His shot blocking ability is negated by him jumping at everything. If the defense even thinks about a pump fake, he's already in the air. His defensive profile puts him in drop coverage, but he can't make the reads in that or as a weak side help defender.

These have to be loud crimes in practice because we would rather look at guys who haven't been in the league in years instead of letting him log 1 minute in a game. TB must be getting 40 points a practice on him.

 

But the fact that Jones did get a PO means we did? I mean, Damian has missed a lot more games than TB. It would have been just as easy to deny Jones the PO, he would have signed regardless. I mean is that really what Jones came to the table with "I've got a 2-year offer, vet min in Sac, so give me 2 or I stay, in beautiful Sac Town"? I know we are talking pennies here but our '23 needs to be clean.

 

Jones seemed like a good gamble with a minimum signing.

You're just not going to hit on all of those and unfortunately he hasn't been able to do much for us.

 

Zillgitt with USA Today links is to FVV and Lowry

Some other notes from his article...

Joe Harris available

Detroit's asking a lot

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...rs-raptors-heat-could-make-moves/11026786002/

 

It's not a seamless fit, but his talent really outweighs what he's going to go for. I think it works better in duos with either Bron or AD, but he was putting up respectable 3% on a make a game so maybe he can succeed out of the paint. Sure the Hawks want a Jazz/Minny or Jazz/Cavs package but if they move him is going to be for much less than that. Their front office and the Trae/Nate dynamic is a bit of a mess right now. If they drop in the standings, maybe they want to come off long term money (they have to prep for Murray's extension, too) and get picks back since they shelled out some for Murray.

He's young, athletic, and mobile. He's locked up long term and developed into a 20 & 10 guy before the Hawks spiraled and tanked his value. He has the tools Ham could get something out of defensively. If you can get Bogi and one of their defensive sized wings, I'm good with that deal.

I think Collins would benefit from a more structured hierarchy vs the Trae show.

 

VanVleet turned down an extension right?

 

JJ Barrera n Alvarado are sub 6", jj had long career and Alvarado is a key bench player for Pelicans

 

we had a guy similar to Collins that everyone couldnt wait to see go, Randle

 

I would have like a big time shot maker like FVV here.

 

yeah, the hand wringing over jones makes zero sense to me. i actually think a 2 year guaranteed min for a young player you like is smarter than a 2 with a PO, which is basically guaranteed to result in having to repeat the process. we hit on every other signing, and we've got three pages of jones complaints when it has impacted our season in no tangible way.

and our 23 cap is not impact by his vet min, unless you think like 800k is the difference between success and failure.

 

lol, "miami is willing to part with lowry". where's all the "rival gms are demanding 2 unprotected 1sts to take on lowry's bloated salary. between that and the disastrous duncan robinson contract, pat riley is scrambling and on the hot seat."

also beginning to think det's gm is who's leaking all the high price rumors there, too.

 

Here’s a recent article of Golden State owner Joe Lacob acknowledging their huge salary and luxury tax bill that would reach $500 million if they re-signed Draymond Green:
https://bluemanhoop.com/2023/01/08/golden-state-warriors-lacob-uncertain/amp/

Then yesterday a report comes out that Draymond acknowledges the writing is on the wall he probably won’t be back due to the financial costs to the team:
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...r-quite-frankly-the-writings-on-the-wall/amp/

I think the best case scenario for the Lakers and our two precious first round picks would be to send the expiring contracts of Westbrook, Beverly, 2 FRP for Draymond AND Klay Thompson.

This season has been obvious that the Warriors have peaked, the beginning of them becoming more mediocre moving forward.

They are basically going to let Draymond walk and receive nothing for him, so that’s why we try to get Klay for the 2 FRP and help them with their luxury tax bill by shedding more salary. The Warriors commitment to keep Wiggins and Poole this past summer removes the status of Klay being untouchable to them, it makes him expendable if the cost doesn’t make sense anymore.

That’d be the Warriors perspective on why they would do this trade.
2 lottery FRP and saving hundreds of millions off the tax for Klay and a Draymond they won’t be re-signing anyway.

For the Lakers, I hate to say it but I truly believe if we walk into the summer without doing a trade, we probably end up signing Draymond anyway. This way we get Klay, who I think is worth the picks, because his age and skill set fit perfectly with AD/Lebron. We can still re-sign draymond with his bird rights.

A starting lineup of AD/Draymond/Lebron/Klay/Schroeder could be very very good in my opinion.

 

I don’t any part of Green but for the 2 FRP they need to give us one of Kuminga Poole or Wiseman

 

Is anyone else not excited at all about the idea of Dennis Schroder assumed to be our starting PG going forward as it would certainly cost much more than the great salary we have him for this year at vet min? Ham’s man crush on him notwithstanding?

 

Interesting approach.

I'm not sure GSW does it, they can just let Green walk. The 2 FRPs would entice them for sure. Not sure if they trade Klay, despite making sense from a management perspective. But I agree with your take on Poole and Wiggins. It's worth mentioning they have been having injuries, their healthy starting lineup is the best in the NBA (in +/-)

On our side, that's an all-in in our current window and definitely an interesting combination of skills that could make sense on this team. Maybe we can switch one of the FRPs to a swap to ease the blow, but I find it interesting.

 

My preference is definitely Klay if we could get him, but I also thought about it being a real possibility that GSW never does it because Klay and Steph are the foundational pieces to that team.

Having said that, I probably still do the deal for 2 picks if it was Draymond and Wiggins. Wiggins has improved to become a really good 3&D player that he would be fine as the 3rd or 4th best player on a team.

I am kind of on the fence if it were Poole instead, mainly because of defense and how he’s the smallest of the bunch.