Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

Butler is a trade and not FA. Mitch has had historic success making trades before, but the last few years we've had no assets for him to use. If we keep the pick, he's got a heck of a weapon to make the team better.

Get Butler for Lou/#1/Nick Young and you still have more than two full max slots available. You could conceivable add Butler, Whiteside, and still have over 35 million dollars to spend. You throw a max deal at Durant, Derozan, or maybe Barnes if you'd like and you'd still have a handful of cash to spend on other pieces.

Now you have a core of players who are in their early to mid-20s and can be competitive for another 10 years while the "older" players age and the "young" players hit their prime. If you keep the pick you could end up with a team of:

Russell/Clarkson
Butler/
Derozan/
Randle/Nance Jr.
Whiteside

And STILL have cash to go get a backup SG, a backup C, and fill out the roster respectably. You hire a coach like Scott Brooks, Tom Thibodeau, or Luke Walton and things change immediately. Now you're fighting for a playoff spot and scaring the hell out of other teams.

I'd prefer that then keeping our pick and overpaying for Batum or Barnes or someone else to try to coax other FAs to get here. That's my point.

 

Why would they sign here if we didn't show that we were serious? What about or team right now is all that enticing to those guys? Jimmy Butler, whether you want to admit it or not, is a great player that commands respect in this league. We have nothing like that on our roster right now.

I'm sorry, but we're not going to agree on this.

 

If we can't strike with one of those first couple huge FAs (Durant, Whiteside, then Batum/DeRozan), you could fill out a roster with quality players at slightly overpriced deals, buy us a year or two of growth for our young fellas, and then see what stars we have in a year or two.

Jeremy Lin - backup PG
Luol Deng - SF / Allen Crabbe - SF /Gerald Green - SF
Mirza Teletovic - PF
Joakim Noah - C / Festus Ezeli - C / Ian Mahinmi - C / Biyombo - C

Russell / Lin
Clarkson / Williams
Deng / Nance / Brown
Randle / Teletovic
Biyombo / Noah

Again, it's not a great team, but they don't suck, and that adds two aging vets (Deng/Noah) who could be replaced by a star, two established vets with a few years left before we have to worry about them (Lin/Teletovic), and a young possible starter on a championship team (Biyombo) with the right pieces around him. Especially if we land Ingram in the draft, that's a really fascinating team, and I'd be happy to watch them next year and for the foreseeable future after that.

 

Honestly, I think Whiteside is a REAL possibility. He's not currently on a world beating roster with the Heat. They are only going to get worse from here on out with age. They can't offer him more money than us. He stands to make the most money with the Lakers when you factor in endorsement deals, and if he truly does love the game, and has an appreciation for it, playing center for the Lakers is a big deal. The real question is do we actually want the dude with his enigmatic past.

I know you've been in love with Biyombo for a while now and I totally see the appeal. I like your team except for Lin. It's NOT that I dislike him. I actually wanted to keep him last season, but Russell, Lin and Williams in spots is too much shooting at the pg position. Russell has the ability to be an all world passer, but up to this point he has always been a shoot first pg. I think if we are going to try to go after a new backup for Russell, he needs to be more pass first and a good defender so it's a change of pace from Russell. But I'd love Biyombo, Deng and Noah. Not sure Nance can be a sf yet, but it's possible. He's no bigger than Battier, and he's more athletic than Shane, so the only thing that is really stopping him is his complete lack of shooting.

 

As abeer pointed out, we never could sign a free agent until the last couple years, at which point Kobe was less than a shell of his former self. I mean, if we had max slots available in 2007 or '08 or '09, you could bet that someone would have signed here. It's not even debatable. But when all you have is the MLE to offer guys, they'd have to take a 10 million dollar pay cut. No one would do that either.

And I think Real is right. If you want the FAs to come you would need Butler, not the other way around. Selling Batum or Whitside or whoever on the 16 win Lakers bringing back the same guys with a little more seasoning is a lot tougher than saying we got an all star sg next to young talent and you can talk to whoever you want that's a free agent right now and get them here too to make a big 3 supplemented with really promising young talent.

Landing Butler via trade wouldn't be a "rush to mediocrity." Getting an all star sg on what will be a bargain contract when the new CBA kicks in before he even starts his prime can be NOTHING but positive for the future. Butler + Randle + Russell + new coach + even a couple mid tier free agents (Biyombo , Batum, etc) is not mediocrity. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you want to suck, suck, suck and then be instantly a title contender when all our kids come into their own at the same time and we sign a bunch of free agents. Teams need to be built. Butler is an incredible piece to take a step in the right direction.

Biyombo/Black
Randle/Nance
Batum/?
Butler/Lou
Russell/Lou

I mean, that team isn't one of mediocrity. That's a 5-8 seed who would scare the heck out of a lot of teams. It's also a team with the oldest starter being 27 meaning not one starter on that team is even in their prime yet. Is that team better than OKC, SA, Clippers, or GS? No. But switch out Biyombo with Whiteside (granted he doesn't blow up like a balloon after getting paid which I think he might), then you start to be in the conversation with teams like the Clippers and OKC.

 

Well, you are forgetting Batum was in my lineup as well who is a great 3 and D player. Defensively you have arguably the best defensive center in the league and 2 top 10 defensive wings in the league with Butler and Batum. That starts to become a lockdown defense if Russell can begin to learn how to use his length and we get a coach like Thibs in here. And Russell and Randle would not be rookies. They'd be second year players which is a pretty significant difference. Also, OKC and the Clippers have deep benches? I mean, really? OKC has two all stars, a heck of a player in Ibaka and absolute dog crap everywhere else on the roster. The Clippers are paper thin on the bench. It's why they keep getting bounced in the playoffs because the starters have been run into the ground all season. If you listen to any analyst all they do is harp on how thin the Clippers and Thunder are.

But let's do a little exercise. Over the past several drafts, let's look at the #1 and #2 picks.

Karl Anthony Towns
DeAngelo Russell
Andrew Wiggins
Jabari Parker
Anthony Bennett
Victor Oladipo
Anthony Davis
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Kyrie Irving
Derrick Williams
John Wall
Evan Turner
Blake Griffin
Hasheem Thabeet
Derrick Rose
Michael Beasley
Greg Oden
Kevin Durant
Andrea Bargnani
LaMarcus Aldridge

Of those players how many are currently better than Jimmy Butler, and how many do you think will be better in the next 2-3 years? Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and John Wall are the only three I would take above him. Aldridge, Irving and Blake Griffin are close, but because Blake and Kyrie are both hapless on the defensive side of the ball, I actually would want Butler on the team before them. Aldridge is probably equal and would come down to team needs, but he is also 4 years older. The point is, #1 and #2 picks are no where near a slam dunk. Jimmy Butler is a fantastic player NOW. He's only 26. Looking at that list, only 15% of the past top two picks are unquestionably better than Butler. Any GM in the league would be ecstatic to find out their #1 or 2 pick would turn into Jimmy Butler because of how big of a crap shoot drafts are. Simmons and Ingram are NOT Lebron. They are NOT Anthony Davis.

I agree that there would be some risk in trading, for the sake of argument, Simmons for Butler. But unless Butler gets a career threatening injury, I don't think it would ever be something that would come back and seriously bite us in the butt. I don't think anyone expects Simmons or Ingram to become a top 5 player. In which case the drop of between their peak upside isn't that much greater than Butler is, but Butler brings us instant credibility in the free agent market.

 

Victor Oladipo might end up better than Jimmy Butler. Through age 23, he's a better player, and he's improving every year. I think I agree with everything else you've said.