2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

Don't care as long as the balance sheet remains clean in 2024.

If it doesn't, then have him opt in and deal with him for another season.

Last thing I am doing is giving any extension to him.

 

Lost season, why even try, there’s no reason, let this roster die

 

i feel like i've explained it in this thread already?

russ making 25 million dollars less gives us the full MLE, which can be used on monk or someone else or two other players.

lebron 44
AD 38
THT 10
nunn 5
stan 1
reaves 1

those are the 6 under contract, save russ, totaling about 100m. if russ makes 47 million, we blow past the tax (137) and apron (143m this year, should be higher next) and can't use anything but the mini mle, which costs an arm and a leg at that tax rate, too.

the tax next year is supposed to be closer to 145 i think? which would mean the apron moves up a bit as well. but still 147 million won't allow the full MLE because you can't exceed the apron once you use it.

if russ makes 25 instead, we've got 125 wrapped up in 7 players. add roster charges (1.7 I think) for the 6 other spots and you're at 135, which allows the wiggle room for the full MLE. ideally, russ takes closer to 20 to give more breathing room.

but then your roster looks like this:


lebron 44
AD 38
russ 25
THT 10
mle 10 (monk or even an upgrade in the classic ariza/artest situation)
nunn 5
stan 1
reaves 1
vet min (melo)
vet min
vet min
vet min
vet min

instead of counting on incoming vet mins as starters, we return a good chunk of an 8-man rotation. further we now have 10 million more in salary that can be moved in trade should a disgruntled star become available or something. and then russ becomes movable later, particularly if we have partial guarantee on the 3rd year.

 

you're punting next year, too, then?

 

Quite possibly

 

i'm not willing to go there. it's just not that bad a situation, and the west really isn't that tough. maybe we get lucky with injuries and opponents don't next year. we still have AD and lebron.

 

Sorry, I’m sure you had explained it. That’s my bad, I’ve been barely skimming and/or ignoring this thread for a bit since there hasn’t been any real news. Feels like just a lot of venting and pipe scenarios.

But thanks for taking the time to explain it again!

Opening up the full MLE and possibly retaining Monk is definitely a game changer that I’d be on board with.

 

yeah, i'm not going to go round and round on it. i disagree that punting next year is a good idea.

 

Agreed. We do not have enough future assets in our war chest to punt anything. And if we do punt, it is more like punting for the next 5 years.

 

I also think keeping Monk, Nunn, THT, Reaves and Stanley is great. That’s 5 legit young guys that can run with some nice athleticism and a bit of skill. They’d also equal roughly 28m in salary. We then add 20m on top in Russ and you have 48m, which is right around the mark of the highest max.

If the young guys continue to improve, In my opinion, this makes us one of the better trade partners for future disgruntled stars.

In a trade you can also bring in third teams to pick up a Monk, Nunn or THT and attach a first in return. Hypothetically, We’d be able to raise 2 firsts, give one of our own and still have some young assets left to make a favourable deal. We could even use some of those firsts we raise to assists a team in taking a partially guaranteed Russ in the trade if everyone thinks he wouldn’t be move able. And I imagine 2 non guaranteed years would be an easy buy out for Russ too.

So in my opinion, resigning Russ does give us more flexibility in future trades while still providing an option in the short term to have everything click.

 

I believe next year will be it for Lebron. He’ll be 38 and we should expect 60 games from him with good offensive output and only situational defence with a good playoffs. After that I think the wheels start falling off in a tangible way as a real contender.

And the question after that is, let’s say we let everyone leave, we don’t have anything trade able, and historically we don’t really sign many free agents. If AD continues to be injury prone, that trend would probably continue.

 

You haven't see anyone that he played with, win a ring either besides KD joining a 70 win team. Why the hell isn't that on them? This Russ noise is a bunch of BS.

 

The end was always near when Lebron signed. I didn't quite expect the last two years on the injuries though. Last year was a fluke, a guy dove into his legs. This year may be more of an indication of what to expect moving forward. I'd bring him off the bench, looking to get about 30 minutes a night out of him. He could go out as the 6th man of the year for another 3 seasons.

 

Yeah.. you don't know that, a bunch of noise dude. Okc could have won a few titles, instead of Golden State, if Harden and KD stayed. That's just as possible, because they did get to the Finals as a young team. Harden played with Paul, and wanted him gone. I'm not sure why he gets a pass. KD has played with the greatest collection of talent, than any player I can think of, and he has 2 rings. Russ isn't responsible for everything. He's not responsible for everything on this team either.

 

That's your version. What I remember is that KD's shot went south in crunch time, for those last two games, and he couldn't guard a parked car for the entire series.