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

I think its okay for the front office to kick the tires on certain things i.e. make a phone call.

But I agree that we shouldn't waste too much time/energy in lost causes. Basically, if a window opens for a great young player, then yeah, jump on it. But I think the focus should be on adding some more good role players to the team in the near term.

 

to clarify, the model that DOESN'T work is three stars + vet min/scrapheapers. obviously having three stars is great. but every team you mentioned had at least three (usually more) other very good nba players who were not vet min mercenaries.

boston had rondo, perkins, and tony allen. miami had miller, haslem, battier, etc. SA had david robinson early, kawhi leonard late, bruce bowen throughout, etc.

maybe lebron's cleveland team is the closest?

so, yeah, having three stars is great. but only if you also have at least three other non-minimum players who are high quality nba guys.

it also depends heavily on the quality and salary structure of your three stars. for years, the spurs had discounts on parker and ginobili, for example. if all three are at max money and you don't already have salary placeholders around to work the margins via trade, you're in trouble.

 

Actually I think LeBron's Miami is the closest. The 4th best player would be.... Haslem? Corpses of Ray Allen or Mike Miller?

 

haslem took less money than other teams offered him to stay there and was still a very useful role player. their title teams also had battier when he was still very effective in his role.

having haslem and battier then would be like having...i don't know...horford and pj tucker as your two guys after your big three now? that battier was better than this tucker and this horford is better than that haslem, but you get it.

further, the heat are one of the only examples wherein all three stars were in their absolute prime, too. that's basically impossible to pull off given the rules the nba has put in with respect to supermaxes. so even if it's the platonic ideal of three-star teams, it drives the point home that it's not the most effective team-building strategy going forward.

 

chalmers?

 

I think this is where my mind was going in regards to comparing our assets to the Mitchell package.

Sure maybe right now it’s nowhere near as strong as what the Cavs offered when our only tradeable salaries are Westbrook, Beverley, and Nunn.

But let’s say hypothetically we keep our current momentum going and end up being a solid team this year, as is. We stand pat and keep Russ, sign him to a cheap two year deal. Use the resulting cap flexibility to re-sign Reaves, Walker, and Brown to team friendly deals. Keep our picks. Maybe you have a little left over cap room or exceptions to add another well fitting role player or two. Let the team maintain their continuity and allow the young guys like Reaves/Walker/Brown to continue improving as they get heavy minutes playing alongside some historically great players.

Maybe you keep building around that core, or maybe the following summer a package of Westbrook (now on a cheaper expiring contract), Reaves, Walker, Brown, and the 2027/2029 FRPs allows you to go star hunting. Let’s say Lebron leaves in free agency, now you have cap room AND some solid trade assets and can swing for the fences to rebuild around AD.

Of course there are a lot of ifs here, the main one being that this all depends on IF we can continue to show success with this current core. If we regress to the mean and remain a mediocre team, I think we would have to shake things up significantly.

 

LOL. That's even sadder.

 

How do you know that 3 stars and vet minimums don't work? Where is this evidence? Our trio played 21 games together last season, nothing works with that, 3 star or 2. Besides that we have Reaves, Walker, Dennis, Brown, Bryant, Gabriel and Nunn and Bev...that's solid NBA talent. This bunch is a playoff team ( as currently constructed) forget about this struggling to make the playin stuff. I can't think of any 3 star models that haven't worked if they were all healthy. It's easy to point out teams that were missing 1 or 2 of thier trio. That's not some kind of evidence that it doesn't work. That just shows what we already know, injuries can kill your season.

 

chalmers is probably a slick special, in that lebron made him, but you can't say that for miller, battier, and haslem.

and no, slick, YOU have to show ME the team that turned over its entire roster save for three players with vet mins and won a title.

 

Deflection. Show me the team that had 3 players the caliber of Lebron, AD and Russ healthy, that didn't win at least 1 title.

 

Nope..what 2 star team won a chip without both of their superstars healthy? Where is the example of this superior supporting cast bringing home the chip? Almost isn't doing it..but the Bucks have 3 stars, not 2. And what failures are you referring to in Cleveland? Losing to the most stacked team of all time? The Warriors have won with 3 and 4 stars.

 

Yeah losing 10 out of 12 can muck up your record 21 games in..correct. However winning 8 out of 10 can most definitely improve said record. I guess we'll have a clearer picture after these next 10 games. I say we will be much closer to 8-2 than 2-8..then what? I can point to the C Bags last season as proof of not writing off a team due to a poor start.

 

Next 10 games.....

Clev
Tor
Phi
Det
Bos
Den
Was
Phx
Sac
Cha

7 of these games are on the road. This is a stretch of games against some quality teams. By the Christmas day game against Dallas, Slick is predicting folks around here singing a totally different tune. With this squad ( as currently constructed). Top 3 in the West, I wasn't joking. Might take longer to get there than I expected, but we will be closer to that goal by Christmas. Without making a trade.

 

Hah..yeah they got to the Finals and lost to Lebron, Wade and Bosh. You know 3 stars?

 

Fwiw the Lakers with Shaq and Kobe, Kobe and Pau, and Lebron and AD are the outliers. We are different, we can do it either way, I shouldn't have to bring up Magic, Worthy and Cap.

 

No.