2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

He’s redundant.Floor spacer or bruiser rounds out the 5

 

Two seasons ago is an eternity for guys in their mid 30s though, plus I don’t think he’s a great fit for us anymore. With Vogel he was almost always playing next to AD so McGee’s role was very simple; defend the rim and finish at the rim. With Ham, all of our 5s will most likely be asked to anchor the defense next to non-rim protecting forwards. I’m not sure even 2020 McGee would be a good fit for us right now, Dwight was the one who could anchor the bench unit defense next to Kuz and/or LeBron.

 

Age progression definitely speeds up at the end. No doubt. I just do not think that he went from a very good 12-15 minute a night big to unplayable. There's more stages of regression unless there's an injury. That makes me lean towards fit.

I don't think anyone available is a great fit and that's why they are currently or soon to be available. It's a bandaid or break in case signing. Worst case whoever has to give us a little coverage during AD's misses until Feb. If Hayes is a bust and Bismack/Wood/McGee/TT can't hack it then we trade for an upgrade or see what comes from the buyout market. This is a 14th man, they're going to be severely flawed.

That said, I'm looking for certain things from them to fulfill in that role for us.
- bring something defensively
- grab rebounds
- mentor
- bench and/or locker room leader
- accept DNPs and never say a damn word about role

Those are my priorities for this signing.
Bismack does two.
TT does 4.5.
Wood kind of does 1.
McGee does 5.

 

not all signings and players are equal.If you want Woods you wouldn’t be signing him for the same reasons you would sign TT or McGee.

 

People really want McGee? He was the third choice center by the end of the Bubble season and he's noticeably declined since then.

Biyambo and Wood are just much better options . Wood on a vet minimum is an amazing value add

 

Only issue is Wood is a thin PF and Lebron/Rui will get all of the minutes there. Wood is 220lbs and gets bullied when he’s at the C. I don’t even think Ham would want to play him much.

 

He's got range though. Makes putting AD at PF a real option. Even if Wood gets bullied you can legit have AS behind him.

Again we're talking vet minimum here. A guy who can legit get you 20 minutes in a playoff game and actually be a guy the opposing team to adjust for is just huge.

McGee is at DeAndre Jordan stage of his career. Glorified bench warmer that you only play on load management days

 

The ideal would be to get Wood at the minimum and play him in the 2020 McGee role from a rotation standpoint (not in terms of what he actually does on the court). 6 minutes to start each half, all next to AD. Then you get into the Hayes or AD at the 5 lineups with some combination of our forwards.

Just don’t know if Wood would be okay with that. If he’s signing for the minimum somewhere, it’s probably to play 20+ minutes and rehab is value.

 

Wood won't come here, he'd be looking for 25+ mins. I just don't see how we fit him into the rotation successfully:

LBJ (10) / Rui (28) / Prince (10) / Reddish (0)
AD (20) / LBJ (18) / Vando (8)
Wood (28) / AD (10) / Hayes (10)

Do we really want Prince & Hayes at 10, Vando at 8 and Reddish at 0 just to fit Wood in? I'd much rather just go:

Rui (28) / Prince (20)
LBJ (28) / Vando (20)
AD (32) / Hayes (16)

Just sign TT as a backup and I'm happy with that rotation. Let Max & Reddish fight for the backup SG spot and let Vincent and DLO fight for the PG starting spot.

 

I don’t think we can get Wood tbh. Obviously he is the pick if we can.

Biyombo and McGee to me are a wash. I’d prefer McGee personally because of the familiarity with AD/Bron, but it’s not like acquiring either of these two is really moving the needle.

I do think if we somehow convince Wood to come, that is an insane value add that helps us when AD inevitably takes 20 games off.

 

Yes but think about things from the other shoe. Wood comes here at the minimum to play starter minutes for 20 games and 14 mins the rest of the time? That's basically a death stroke for his career. He'll be out of the league in a season or two then.

 

Not really "news" but LeBron is going back to #23. Switching to #6 in 2021-2022 was at best just odd, and at worst a weird attempt to get two numbers retired with us like Kobe. Got me thinking about our jerseys though, and I hope we get a new design for the purple away jersey sometime soon. Can't stand the black stripe.

 

How would he get number #6 retired? No titles with us under that number. Only #23 would be considered so if anything he can add to that.

 

If we won this year.

 

And the canary yellow of the “gold” jerseys.

 

I’ve never really cared for jerseys. I know it’s a big thing state side but I couldn’t care less about numbers or color ways. As long as they aren’t offensively ugly, I just wanna see good basketball.

 

Same