What a revelation! Who knew if we struck out with all the top tier agents we'd then have to look at the second tier? GROUNDBREAKING JOURNALISM!
^My understanding was that if we strike out on first tier FAs, we don't screw the salary cap in a panic move. That was one of the main reasons Mitch and Jimmy got sacked. I don't want a bad contract for a player that doesn't fit. I would prefer air, which doesn't have a salary cap hit. My fear is that the FO is feeling the pressure of LeBron's biological clock ticking down and might end up doing something dumb to satisfy James rather than have sustainable success of the franchise in mind. If we end up with Middleton for more than one season...
It’s appeared for months now the top tier free agents don’t want to come. But let’s say with the 38 mil in cap space we have, if we can get Kris Middleton for $20 mil and Boogie for $18 mil (he’s looked good returning from his injury and we can get him at a discount because nobody will max him still). That’s still a pretty good summer considering we are able to keep all the kids. It actually rounds out the roster much better. If you resign McGee, Rondo, and Bullock while Durant leaves the West to goto New York... dare I say it, Western Conference Final contenders? The lineup would be: Ball/Rondo Middleton/Bullock/Hart Ingram/Hart LeBron/Kuzma Cousins/McGee Kuzma would come off the bench but still get 30-34 min a game because the rotation could be much better where either Ingram or LeBron should be on the court at all times while Kuzma plays power forward for the substitution.
I think Rondo wore his welcome recently, and Bron doesn’t like PF. I like the better roster construction , but it is a Stars league. Old Bron and recovering DMC, followed by Khris and our developing talent. Is it enough to matter in the West? Hard to say
It would depend on his price though, outside of AD, 2020 is pretty bleak, maybe you can get a few lower tiered players on 2+1 deals. Or you could go the Smooth Operator route and maybe you can get Middleton + Cousins etc. Going full max on Middleton would be awful.
I agree that this team would be enticing....till 2009. In a shooters league, this team gets wh00ped sooner or later!
middleton's not coming for 20 million. milwaukee will offer over that for more years. and if cousins is available for 18--it probably means he played poorly and you don't him. if we strike out, which looks likely, i'd look at indiana and milwaukee's FA role players: thad young, cory joseph, bojan bogdanovic, eric bledsoe, brook lopez (shoot me), and mirotic (i'd add brogdon, but he's restricted) i suppose patrick beverly is a stop gap type that could help. elfrid payton and noah vonleh are potential reclamation projects. otherwise, it's pretty bleak. i suppose vucevic and kemba walker are guys that are likely to fetch max that you might consider if you're desperate. but understand how bad those contracts could look in two years. the lack of available defensive centers troubles me.
not that I want Khris but Kb24, he's def. NOT a "non-shooter." He's having a down yr this yr but he normally shoots nearly 40% from 3's
No to Middleton for the money that it’s going to cost. As I said in the Magic thread, we should be looking at above average role players that we can spread the money out on and not invest in just one player like a Middleton type. This team outside of Lebron, Lonzo, Ingram, Kuzma, Bullock sucks. (Hart is hurt so he gets a pass from me). Bringing in top shelf role players on good contracts helps us win now and can be used to trade if need be.... This will never happen though as cap space is so got damn important. Would it be a championship level team? Probably not, but we’d be in the playoffs and have more important pieces for the next disgruntled superstar.
You only spend big money on Middleton if you have AD already in tow. Overpaying for that last piece is something you can stomach. Middleton can be a great 3rd option if your first 2 options are both top 5 players. But if we save cap space and then blow it on Middleton, essentially making our team Old Lebron, Middleton, Ingram and Ball with Kuz and Hart off the bench, we become a middle of the pack playoff team.
Bigger problem is who the **** keeps leaking any of our plans to the freaking press. Fire his MF *** like yesterday.
This isn't really a leak on this. The whispers are from all over the league about players not wanting to play with Lebron. I doubt we're the one whispering that. The author then makes his own leap that we will go sign Middleton or Kemba since we won't sign anyone else. There aren't really any sources here. He just took information that everyone kind of already knew (Kawhi prefers the Clips and Durant prefers the Knicks) and used deductive reasoning to come up with our backup plan. This article is essentially a glorified message board post.
right. we did some silly stuff to get the extra max. using it on a player that can't be a mantle-bearer post-lebron would be even sillier. but that doesn't mean you have to punt like we did last summer. you can offer more than one year, just don't mozdeng. no big money, long-term deals for non-allstars. it's pretty simple. almost the whole league operates this way.
eh, you'll start the big debate regarding whether lebron would have come alone (i mean, obviously yes, but we didn't know it at the time). but i agree with the general sentiment. we've given up on a lot of opportunities (both by moving guys/letting guys walk and not pursuing other trades and free agents) in order to get this second max. if it ends up not wow-ing us (durant, kawhi, klay, kyrie), that's pretty sad. but don't compound the problem by using all that cash on an undeserving player. rather, stop repeating the mistake of saving big wads of cash for one player and instead focus on actual team-building. if the lakers were a middling playoff team, stars would still demand trades here, and we might have more enticing trade pieces (in part due to the fact that we're winning).
Wow time sure mcflies...now where have I seen this biffore? An Oct 15 2018 article showing up now. I wonder why such an anti-Lebron/FO article would come out now? #LeBorean
