2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

From Irwin's pod yesterday...

said the interest in CP3 is "very, very real" and a situation the Lakers are monitoring closely.

Someone asked him about Kuz. Said there's mutual interest (he's said that all year long), the current ask is reportedly 2 firsts and a good player.

 

ballmer offers paul max deal.

ok. dlo and two lotto-protected 1sts that turn into 2nds immediately. deal.

 

Even protected, if we lose those picks we are out of Luka, Ant, Tatum, Booker fight if any of them asks out in the next 3 years.

Actually I hadn't thought that, but this year's Conference Finals has 3 of the main guys I was targeting for the post-LeBron era, not a good sign

 

I would try to get back both Kuzma and Avidja if they want to keep those lottery protected first for a year or two instead of converting to 2nds.
I don't Avidja really fits their time line.

Both Kuzma and Avidja would really shine as your 4/5th guys in a lineup: good size, can't leave them open, work hard on offense/defense. I could really talk myself into something like that. The size/switchability of Lebron/AD/AR with those 2 is actually very intriguing.

 

I would love to see Kuz come back home.
He’s not the big splashy name to land, but he obviously fit in well with LeBron and AD before. Was he a “perfect fit?” No, but you aren’t going to have a chance at that type of player every year. You have to just keep improving where you can.

 

Not sure where I stand on CP3. For the vet’s minimum, it’s difficult to pass up.

But I just don’t think you can construct a roster that’s going to depend on CP3 as a rotation player given his age and injury history.

If we could bring him back at the minimum, I’d probably just prefer to bring back Dinwiddie. I think he’d be more effective in his PG duties in a bigger role, and he’s an infinitely better defender

 

Have both NBA conference finals ever ended in sweeps?
Long story short, no. If the C Bags and Mavericks each win their next games, it'd be the first ever time both NBA conference finals ended in sweeps.

So something gotta give either Kyrie perfect record in closeout games or that

 

i think if he can be a backup, you can roll with it. but you need a heavy lifter at pg ahead of him.

i think there's no way dinwiddie takes the vet min to stay. if dlo just walks, we should have the full mle, and a chunk of that might get dinwiddie if we promise him a big role (and i think that would be an easy promise to make).

after washington didn't trade him at the deadline, i figured they planned on keeping him at something over the mle. in which case i'm not sure how anyone but orlando and philly could be considered serious suitors here.

i think with lively out, the mavs are going to have to just go supernova from three for this series not to get to 6 games. i don't think minny will lay down.

 

i guess paul on a vet min wouldn't be the worst option, but the less old guys the better. don't need another repeat of 21-22

 

CP3 looked cooked with the warriors last year and didn't do much for them. I would have very low expectations if he did anything positive. As for Dinwiddle, I don't think he's going to get a significant contract because he can't shoot. The only place where his shooting wasn't bad was Dallas.

I guess if we get that full MLE, would that put us more into the Tyus Jones sweepstakes? I feel he'd really shine here.

 

If Reddick is going to be the coach I don't mind CP3 as essentially a player-assistant coach. But we can't count on him to be more than a 10-15 minutes per night guy, if that.

 

NBA trying to extend series .
Game 4 Crew Chief is Scott "The Extender" Foster

Home teams have won 66.1% of games officiated by Scott Foster in 2023-24.

Foster will be an official in a game tonight

Home teams also outscoring road teams by an average of 7 PPG in Foster's games'.

 

it wasn’t weak ! It was all the injuries .


It’s over ! MAVS will get swept and Boston will hang 18 . Same happened to us when Kobe passed !

RIP Bill Walton

 

paul's advanced numbers in 26mpg last year were better than any of our guards (reaves, dlo, vincent).

but yes, he's been in a steep drop for a couple years, and that will continue. but at the vet min for a backup or even as a low-minute starter...you can't say no. and this isn't a russ situation, where he's a terrible fit. paul can fit anywhere, in terms of on-court fit. he can still shoot and is still a plus defender who doesn't turn it over.

i actually like dinwiddie at a lower price more than jones at a higher one. you may be right that his price will be lower than i'm anticipating, too. he fell out of the rotation, but i think with a full camp and defined role, he could work here. he's a big guard who showed me some things defensively last year.

if we can get him with a vet min, that would be awesome. given that we signed him off waivers, would that mean that we'd have early bird rights after next year? might be worth it to him to take a prove-it contract with his hometown team whilst gaining early bird rights in the process.

game's being played in dallas, though. do agree that foster definitely fits the fixer role, though, so whatever he thinks the bosses want, he'll try to deliver lol.

 

What do you think LeBron is going to be? Isn’t that kind of the unspoken likely effect of hiring JJ … these 2 guys on the same page scheming together as they do on the podcast? At least that’s what makes sense to me …. and a “good” idea to boot IMO. Screw C. Paul “just because”, not related to my point.

 

I hate CP3, not to Bev levels. CP is at least a HOFer and not fringe NBA player. But yeah, that's kind of what I expect. Him to be a bridge between JJ and the players. You want all the experience you can get on the roster and staff. No where else can you get that for the minimum for a player who played with JJ and knows some of the stuff I'm sure he'll be implementing into his playbook.

15 minutes a night as a backup. Giving the second unit structure and playing a few of the quarter wrap around minutes with the starters or closing if we're lacking stabilization that night.


Edit:

Yeah, if we lose DLO and don't trade for a starting lead guard I think that's our best play. I wanted to get a few more looks at how he'd do as the starter because the one game he filled in for DLO he looked really good out there (26 & 5 vs Indy) and was much more aggressive in the larger role. I really like the buy in and commitment to defense throughout his short stint with us.

He really liked being here so I think he'll give us a discount especially if we can promise role + we'll take care of him when we can give him a more appropriate raise. I don't think that's for the minimum though, although a lot of team writers are including him in their vet min candidates pool. There's always that connotation of once a minimum player, always a minimum player. I still think he'll get more and deserves more.

A Dinwiddie/CP3/Bronny PG spot is pretty solid. You can slide AR in there to eat the backup minutes when CP is hurt.

According to Scotto, it seems they want to but there's going to be plenty of other options.

If he can get the NTPMLE, it's only $1m-ish less than he was making (and he can easily) it might be a time to bail. His value isn't going to get any hirer there. The longer you're on a tanking team, the more likely they stink sticks and begins to concern potential interested parties

For us, I'd prefer Spencer. Jones is a really bad defender. I think Spencer is a better starter.

 

"Throw it down big man, throw it down!"
"Michael OlowiKANDI with the POWER REBOUND!!!"
"The greatest .... in the history of western civilization!"
"Mitch Kupchak should win executive of the decade!" Bill Walton after Pau Gasol trade

RIP Bill Walton

 

this would open the door to trading gabe for a gabe-level center, too, which i think would be helpful.

i think the smart play is to get washington to pay you 4/80, then be ready to get traded to a contender some time in the next two years. it's not like jones has made HUGE nba money yet. and again, if the wiz failed to move him and weren't planning on at least giving him a slight raise in FA, that's just terrible asset management. it's ok if orlando shows up with a boatload of cash and you're not sure you want to go there, but you can't let him walk for the MLE.