my wish is that our back court develops so quick and is so dynamic that we might not want Westbrook anymore
I find it funny that CBS sports is dumb and said that we need to beat out both the Pelicans and the Suns for that 8 spot. We actually only need to beat out the Suns or Jazz for the 8 spot. The Pelicans are locked into the top 8. Spurs Warriors Thunder Clippers Rockets Grizzlies Pelicans ? We have a realistic shot at the playoffs if everything goes right and our youngsters take a huge step this year. I do not think the Jazz or Suns are significantly better than us.
nope, i was actually being serious. i like the home-grown laker for like players... d'angelo and randle for 15 years as the 1-2 option is just so appealing to me.
I think that's the rotation on paper. In reality, Upshaw working his way into the rotation, strong play from Hibbert, strong play from Black could push Randle to seeing some minutes at SF. Weak play by Russell could move Clarkson back to starting PG & Kobe back to SG. Nance could get minutes at SF.
I don't care if Houston says they'll match an offer on KJ. I offer him the full 2.8 for 2 years & dare them to match. They'd have to use nearly half of their MLE to match, for a player that couldn't break their rotation last season. I think they're bluffing. I don't mind tying up the cap space because our roster is already full & there's no impact players left in FA outside of KJ.
Could see him turning it around in Dallas. He needs a great coach & it doesn't get much better than Firemarshall Bill. Wonder if DJ is kicking himself right now.
And he's never played with a pass-first guard like Russell. If we can make some noise with our squad this year we have a real shot at Durant.
Regarding the "2nd max slot"....we're gonna lose that money re-signing Clarkson and Hibbert (or another center). Then there's the possibility of Kobe, and we'd probably need to pay him $10M. So without Kobe we're looking at $15M for Clarkson & another $15 (at LEAST) for Hibbert. What we have left is for Durant. Obviously if Kobe still plays I think he pulls a Timmy D and takes whatever is left. Then we still want to retain guys like Black. That cap space might be gone very quickly.
Yeah I asked earlier but what does a max offer to Clarkson look like next year? We have to take care of our own players before worrying about Durant.
I think for JC because he'll have two years with us we would have a MLE-type of Early Bird Exception to sign him, but I don't quite understand what that means - could we offer more if we wanted?
I don't really care how much it costs us. I just want to lock him up for 5+ years. Because I know we get to keep our 1st rounders (D'angelo and Lotus Flower) for at least 7-8 years before they become unrestricted FAs.
That's exactly what happened with Draymond. Draymond was on a 3-year deal though, we had Clakson on a 2 year. I didn't explain my rationale: We wouldn't offer it outright, but some team, like Philly might offer him HIS max. Based on the new cap, and what Draymond got I don't see $15 being out of the question the way money was flying around last week. Obviously I'm long on Clarkson. I feel like he's going to be a starter in the league. Not saying he'll be Draymond good but I'd be shocked if we kept him on our roster for under $10M. What are Early Bird Rights? Why wouldn't Clarkson do what Jimmy Butler did in terms of rejecting the QO and getting his market value?
If I understand it correctly, Clarkson can get essentially the MLE over the next two seasons (after this one), then 15 or something over the two after that, but they take the average of the entire contract as the cap hit. So if it's 5/5/12/12, he'd cap a cap number of like 8.5. The way it's looking, Black and him both might get that deal. If this was NBA Jam, Clarkson/Black would beat Russell/Randle.
