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

i'll be watching closely to see what happens with detroit and toronto. feel like both front offices are feeding the trusted media sources pretty heavily right now.

 

I don't see us playing LeBron-Bojan-Rui-AD together at all. There's less driving ability which is part of our DNA and you have LeBron and sometimes Bojan chasing quick guards. LeBron on offense can play anywhere as he always did, but on defense he takes 4s and sometimes 3s.
Makes little sense to make only 2 moves that block each other and taking one of them out of the closing lineup

Also doesn't make sense to make this trade for Rui and block his minutes with another guy for the next 2 years, considering the implications on our cap space and the most likely decision to extend him

Another thing is that we would probably send Bev (and Lonnie?) on that deal so we would be short on guards.
Don't see it at all

 

I do trust the FO here and expect it’s all about the big board they have on the wall prioritizing the basketball talent they have scouted just like on draft nights. That they can reasonably get within the salary parameters and plan that’s been laid out by now. If one drops off because of unreasonable demands for the talent they move onto the next. I seriously doubt they are done.

 

If he follows the lead of our other kids, he should do well here. Play hard on the court and listen to the coaches and your vets.

 

agree. i think we weren't going to comfortably meet det's bojan demands. and that's fine. they might get it. but they don't get to use us as leverage whilst peddling our desperation. we got ourselves a 4/3 without giving up a pick that was setting your market. not our problem if teams saw it. you didn't complain when we moved off bojan so that you could get him for less than what we offered. now you might be danny ainge.

 

Yep. I'm not sure they get it though. But also depends on the team. A FRP in the next 5 years from the Bucks or Memphis is waaaaaay less valuable than ours in 27 and 29.

Just saw that Chicago traded WCJ, Franz Wagner and a possible lottery pick this year for Vuc, in a push to contend and they got nothing out of it.
I'm not even beating the drums again on the Stepien rule, but just the pick itself can be disastrous. A mockery kind of thing when we reach there if Bojan doesn't bring us to the very least WCF.

Also, when you put protections, the pick will eventually convey. So it's not like, it's protected top5 so in case it happens they don't get the pick. A protection means the pick is either moved for the year after or transformed in seconds. I guess it's unlikely a top5 protected pick is transformed in 2nds no? It also doesn't seem to be what Detroit is pursuing here. Then again, if we actually have a top5 pick in 27, it's very likely it will also be a top pick in 28.

Another thing I just realized, if we put protections in our '27 pick that moves it to '28, we can't use the '29 pick anymore.

 

With that I agree 100%.

That's why I like Rozier and Trent. Let me see if I can pull a Pelinka and spot someone off the radar

 

Yeah I think we have a plan, might not be the one the media and fans expected, but that's fine.

There is still the buyout market too..we found Keif there and he was decent in the bubble. This is the fun part of being a fan, we get to speculate, and then see what actually happens.

Hell we might keep Bev and sign and trade him with something this summer, to a team that can accept the hard cap. Same thing with Lonnie.

 

Lol..I thought that position less basketball, was supposed to be the wave of the future?

On another note..we are asking for a lot of new players, to add to the ones we already have, that are already playing pretty well. Someone other than the scrubs that we don't want, has to go.

Minutes are going to be cut come playoff time. What's the dream 8-9, maybe 10 man rotation?

 

Salary Cap 134 m
Luxury Tax 162 m
Tax Apron 170 m (couldn't find an official number so referring to Showtime's)

Here is how I think our team could be built out and order of signings for cap reasons:

• James - 46.9 m
• Davis - 40.6 m
• Christie - 1.7 m
  
• Jones - 2.6 m
  
• Russ - 15 m
• Rui - 15 m
• 1st Rd - 2.5 m (estimate)
  
• Reaves - 10 m
• Gabriel - 2 m (vet min cap hit)
• Troy - 2 m (vet min cap hit)
• Vet min - 2 m
• Vet min - 2 m
• Schroeder - 11.4 m (MLE)
• Bryant - 4.5 m (BAE)

14 Player Total: $158.2 m

This situation hard caps us so our salary spend can't go above the 170 m tax apron number during the season. I don't think it would be a problem because we could get underneath the luxury tax for a year anyway.

However, a major decision comes down to, do you let Beverley and Walker just expire, or do you go into the luxury tax by executing a trade this season?

We could hypothetically get another wing piece like Bogdanovic (20m), Burks (10.5m), Gary Trent Jr (25m) or OG (25m) in a trade. Each would require different pick capital and have varying ramifications on our tax bill.

- Bogdanovic: requires a protected 1st, would need to convince Russ, Reaves & Rui to take a combined 35 m instead of 40 m so we could keep the full MLE and BAE for Bryant.

- Gary Trent Jr: probably an unprotected 1st, if we resign him for more than 20 m per we lose the full MLE (replaced by 7m MLE instead) and the BAE.

- OG: minimum two unprotected firsts and maybe one of Christie or Reaves (could maybe execute this trade in the offseason with our selected 1st round pick instead). Would have to convince Russ, Reaves and Rui to take around 36.5m instead of 40m.

- Alec Burks - requires two 2nds? can fit him in underneath the tax apron without adjusting anyone's wages. In fact can give 4 m extra to Russ, Reaves and Rui. Maybe the best option for simplicity?

Schroeder / Russ / Vet Min
Reaves / Christie
Trade Piece / Rui / Brown Jr
Lebron / Gabriel
AD / Bryant / Vet min

+ 1st round pick

Total salary spend somewhere around $166m - $170m

 

Technical question..can we sign one of our expiring to a new deal after the trade deadline? I know we did that with Kuz and KCP. I don't remember if both were on expiring contracts though.

 

Rui also helps us if Lebron or AD go down being able to play PF.

We can trade Bev, Jones and JTA for Bogdanovic and McGruder. Mcgruder is included because most teams won't do a 3 for 1.

Leaves us with Walker and Reaves as our SGs for this season before Christie steps up next year.

 

Is Burks a better player or fit than Reaves or Walker? Austin looks destined to be playing more guard with this latest trade.

 

It still is. With the right personnel. You don't just chuff a bunch of random guys in the lineup.

You can't go to small (we know that very well) nor too big/not mobile. Cavs went big but not at the 4, plus Markannen and Mobley can move. Bojan can't and LeBron doesn't do it for years nor it makes sense to put him chasing down guards. I mean you play the Warriors or the Grizz and you have LeBron and Bojan chasing guys like Poole, Klay, Morant, Bane. It makes no sense

 

Hopefully we spank the Clippers as is tonight, and make this roster speculation even more interesting.

 

I’m not sure Trent ends up costing as much as we might think. Definitely not 30 million.

 

From what I can tell, that's known as a non bird right exception and you could for example resign Lonnie to 120% of his current wage with to about $7.8 m. Then the following year we would have his early bird rights for a 125% raise followed by his bird rights a year later. The part that I'm not sure of, can we go above the cap to sign these players? My feeling is yes, so technically we could keep Lonnie Walker? But I'm not entirely sure.