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

lillard's probably done for good. if it is the achilles, he'll be 36 by the time he's ready to play again

bucks are toast and giannis probably ends up in houston this summer

 

^ or OKC

 

two centers and a POA defender is what we need ...

 

Reaves, Rui and Luka are all weaker defenders. I think most likely Rui needs to go out, even though he has been our best shooter this year.

Right now we don’t actually have an athletic SF. All 4 of Lebron, Rui, Vando and DFS are PFs at this time. Lebron is one of the best PFs in the league, so he starts. And you probably have Vando back him up in the regular season.

DFS will continue to back up the SF spot. But I think we need an athletic SF to start that can shoot and defend 1-3. That’s what we’re missing.

 

Luka is a better defender than he's getting credit for, just saying.

 

Honestly, I feel like we’ve needed the same things for several seasons. I expect us to be all in and very active in the offseason to address our need for a quality big man and wing defender

 

I’m not saying he is bad, I’m just saying he isn’t a premier defender. And you probably don’t want two many average defenders in your team if you’re trying to win it all. If we had good defenders at the 3, 4 and 5 - we can afford Luka and Reaves at the 1 and 2.

 

felt like dallas really took off with djj in this role. he can defend 1-3 and finish plays. hyper athletic. they picked him up off the scrap heap. who's the next one out there right now?

i've liked dsj for a career revival for two years now, but he's more of a 1-2 defender and still hasn't come around on the shot. but djj was a similarly bad shooter prior to dallas, too.

i think the hope was that fudge character we had last year in south bay might be that kind of player eventually.

one luxury you have with reaves/luka/lebron is you can afford to play these willowy 6'6" guys who don't have great ball skills but can defend the perimeter and finish plays.

 

Will be an interesting offseason to say the least. We're in a weird situation where we have to build around a Luka/LeBron pairing for next season but also think about what the team looks like around Luka beyond that. Austin is at the center of that conversation. If you have Luka and LeBron, I've come around to thinking that it might be a net benefit to turn Austin into a more defensive-minded, super high-level role player or two good role players. But LeBron is 40 and the second he's gone having Austin here with Luka long term makes more sense. It will be interesting to see how they navigate that.

Beyond that, it's clear we need a legit starting caliber center and then more athleticism among the back half of the rotation guys. The stuff we have to trade isn't super compelling. We have $11 million expirings for Kleber and Gabe. We have Vando also at $11 million but for three more years. That won't be easy to move, but considering this team committed to playing small with shooting at the 5 spot and Vando was still too bad offensively to make much of an impact in the playoffs...it may be time to pull the plug. We have Knecht, whose value I'm unsure of.

So I think we need:

• A starting caliber, rim-protecting center (and maybe a new backup, not sure Hayes is back after that vote of no confidence from JJ)
• An athletic two-way wing that can play 20ish minutes a night (I like Rui and DFS, but they're not 40+ minutes in a must win playoff game guys. We need to one more guy to complete a LeBron/DFS/Rui wing rotation)
• Athletic backcourt POA defender that can stay on the court offensively (maybe Goodwin can become this guy, I really appreciate what he gave us after showing up late in the year, but we need a better version of him essentially)

And that's assuming Austin isn't going out to get those guys. If Austin is in a trade to fill one or more of those spots, then you need someone that can handle the ball and score off the bench. Same issue we ran into when we traded DLo for DFS, before the Luka trade came out of nowhere.

 

we could go all in and try to get claxton from bkn with our two expirings and knecht (maybe a 1st, too, though).

we could go big salary with a vando/gabe/kleber for ayton trade, though i'm not in love with that one.

we could split the difference and give one of the expirings and some seconds for robert williams, then sign capela as the other center (which you'll need if you have williams).

last scenario preserves one of the expirings for an upgrade at wing/guard, possibly using knecht and/or the 1st to sweeten the pot. would have to see who's in the salary range there, but herb jones jumped to mind if NO blows it up.

 

I can't get on board with Ayton. The last thing this team needs is a soft, apathetic big regardless of his talent. I feel like he gets punked by the Wolves if he was in this series.

Here's one that would restore us to Kobe-era levels of league wide hatred: AR/Kleber for Lively/Christie/Klay. Double down Nico!

 

Kornet, Schroeder, and Jerome are all UFA. All would be good adds for the Lakers.

I suspect we're going to use Gabe and Kleiber for a bigger piece.

 

Man, that was a rough trip to Minnesota. Going into the playoffs...


Thought we were one short, but based on the balanced cluster in the West I thought we could get to at least the WCF with a good chance of the Finals.

Boy was I wrong. Even though it's only been 4 games, I'm willing to say if you're name isn't Bron (+ jr), Luka, or Austin then you are expendable if it is an upgrade or gives the roster a healthier balance.

1) We have to have a center. A real one. Not one teetering between being a backup and a 3rd stringer masquerading as a quasi starter. You go get Claxton or get Gafford routed to you via a 3rd team (keep Dallas in the dark, just how we blindsided Ainge). And probably another center after that. A penciled in starter and then at least a situational backup. Ideally, you nab Claxton AND Adams. Then if Jax wants to stay to be part of the stable, along with Adams and whichever two-way we keep between Koloko and Jemison, cool. If not, go get Paul Reed.
2) You need to up the athleticism on the wing -- NAW, Oubre or similar
3) a POA defender

Probably not getting all three needs, unless #2 can also do a little of #3.

One plus this summer is there are a lot of teams shaking it up or blowing it up. Lot of new front office guys in place, they're looking to make moves. Pelicans, Suns, Kings, Grizzles, Bucks, and Hawks could all be open for business. You have to poach. I don't want their stars, I want their athletic scraps or playoff caliber role players.

We have four 16 game players. Bron, Luka, Austin, DFS. You NEED 8 if you want to win.
Rui is one foot in, one foot out. He counts as a .5
Gabe isn't consistent enough with his shot. He's a .5
Combined they equal a whole, so if you're being generous that's 5 playoff players. I think Goodwin can be one moving forward, he has to work on the 3 ball this summer. But he's impressed me in his brief playing time in these 4.

 

If you are committed to playing small ball, Vanderbilt has to play more with this roster. He's a better defender at 1-3 than Finney-Smith. Dorian's talent is that he's a good defender on 3-4, in spite of being a bit undersized. However he is NOT an elite caliber perimeter defender. If you can't play both of them, one of them has to go. OR..maybe some else has to go?

This puts the spotlight on Rui IMO. He's on an expiring deal next season too. Rui,Gabe and Maxi, gives us 40M in salary matching next season. Me...I'd be looking at Brooklyn. I'd be trying to add Dalton in a trade, to the Nets, for Claxton and Cam Johnson.

You just upgraded 4/5 with some length, athleticism, and better defensive chops. I'd follow up with promoting Goodwin, into a regular rotation player, coupled with a vet ring chaser at PG, like (gasp) Shroeder. Dennis is still a better PG than Gabe IMO. That's because he's actually a PG, with a good handle, that can alleviate some of the ball pressure on Luka and Austin.

Lebron
Luka
Austin
Claxton
Johnson
DFS
Vando
Dennis
Goodwin
Hayes or another vet min ring chaser.

That's a more defensive inclined squad, but we still have guys that can score outside of Lebron and Luka. That's still a legit title contender IMO.

 

I'm not sure i agree that Vando is a better defender on a playoff team. At least the version of Vando we got this year. Vando is an agent of chaos with volatile variation. He can either shut down the opposition or get played off the court, while having the worst hands we've seen since Kwame and an offensive game of DJ Mbenga (maybe worse... he had a mean hook). DFS has a more reliable median and can be counted on for 26-32 mpg at the playoff level.

 

It's the roster fit, DFS isn't that effective on perimeter players. He's known as a good defender on 3-4. If you brought in Johnson and Claxton, that becomes a bit irrelevant. Vanderbilt is still more valuable as a POA defender IMO. This allows us to unleash DFS and Vando, as tip of the spear tone setters more frequently. While still having legit 4 and 5 options.

In my scenario, we kept both of them. To keep it real, Vando gets played off the floor, because we value Rui’s offense over Jarred's defense. That creates a shorter hook for Vando IMO. Cam is Rui, with better defensive chops.

Rui’s contract is also easier to move IMO, he's on an expiring deal. Jarred has 3 more years left.

 

You guys are talking like the season is over



We still have 3 games to win or 1 to lose

It's not over until it's over

 

Consummatum est