Agreed completely. I think a Randle/Jordan defensive duo would be fantastic. That and a pick-and-roll with Jordan and whatever guard we draft or sign are the main reasons he's on my radar. Not to mention... we'd weaken the tenants which would be fun.
I'm not a fan of Deandre for the Max. The guy is on a team with (before this season) arguably the best PG in the league & arguably the best PF in the league(before Davis came along). If you can't win with that, what exactly are we going to put around him that makes this a team he can win on? That said, if it's Deandre or Monroe, I'll take Deandre. We definitely need a defensive presence next to Randle.
The Pistons have one of the best pf/c combos in the league, yet they are 2-11 since he joined them...in the East. They have losses against the Knicks, Lakers and Sixers in that stretch. There were people saying Reggie Jackson was a max contract player.
Pistons traded in one selfish cancerous player (Smith) for another one (Jackson). Chemistry killers, locker room problem child, and general bad fits. I want no part of Jackson, regardless of talent. He's going to get vastly overpaid this summer and I've yet to see why.
I keep hearing "insider" radio interviews that the Lakers will definitely be pursuing Rondo this summer as their number 1 target assuming LMA and Marc aren't realistic. God I hope Dallas does well and resigns him!!
Honestly, I do not get it. It's the most illogical signing I could think of. We have a player starting at pg in Clarkson who is a rookie and ascending that is already comparable, if not better than an older player who has lost his explosiveness and is descending. I almost hope we pick 3 or 4 so we are almost forced to draft Russell/Mundiay thereby giving us two young studs at pg. I don't think there is any way we could justify signing an expensive pg at that point. I really want Towns or Okafor at this point, Okafor being my #1 choice now by a pretty wide margin. But I think it would be almost worth it to miss out on him and get Russell so we blow our load on Monroe rather than Rondo.
I'd be stoked with Russell or Mudiay. I kind of don't want Monroe either though. I hope we draft Okafor or Towns and sign some B-level FAs like Mo Williams and Green, Green, or Middleton and then re-sign Davis, Black, and Ellington.
You pretty much summed up my ideal offseason. Sign Mo and Middleton. Draft Okafor and George Lucas with our 2 picks. Resign Davis and Ellington. (We actually already have Black under contract).
Middleton or either Green is good with me, though ideally I prefer Dramond. I like Lucas, but if we draft Okafor, Tyus Jones would be my pick. If we get Towns, Lyles would be awesome with our Hou pick.
I like Draymond Green too. I'm just a little iffy on whether or not he's a system guy...Same with Danny Green. As for Lucas, I think he has the most upside of the unknown pgs in this class. If we have Mo Williams and Clarkson playing in front of him, he'll have plenty of room to develop. Tyus Jones just strikes me as a safe pick that'll be a career backup type guy. From what I've read on Lucas, he seems like he has starter potential. Not sure how good he can be though.
Throw DeMarre Carroll in that midrange two-way SF discussion too. He's been very instrumental to Atlanta's success. He's like a small Faried with his nonstop energy and defense, and he can shoot from downtown effectively.
Carroll & Danny Green scare me. Green is playing in Pop's system where role players rarely ever play as well after leaving. Carroll is playing for 1 of Pop's longest running assistants who is also running a system that finds ways to get important contributions from many role players. I just hope we get Middleton so we don't have to worry about those guys.
Assuming we find a way to dump every single salary on the books except Kobe, Randle, Clarkson, Black, + cap holds for draft picks we're at roughly 35.3M + 6 cap holds = roughly 38M with the cap at 67.4M. We have a little over 29M to spend. Draft Okafor or Towns. Draft Tyus Jones, George Lucas, or whatever PG they're high on as a 3rd string PG with the Houston pick. Sign Middleton, 4/32. Frontload it like Houston did with Ariza, make it start at 8.6 & ascend to 7.4 in the final year. Say what you want about him being a RFA, a small market team like the Bucks aren't matching that kind of deal for a backup when they're going to be giving Giannis & Jabari every minute they possibly can at the wing positions, not to mention they still have 1 more year of paying Mayo 8M. We might even be able to get Middleton cheaper but I'm just making it indisputable. 21.9 remaining to spend(subtracting a cap hold by adding a player). This is where it gets tough, to we go for 1 major impact player or 3-5 good players? Marc, LMA, Love aren't options because our 2 young guys we're putting the most hope in are bigs. We just locked in our SF for right now & the future. I still don't think Clarkson is a PG, but he's at least a combo guard who can play enough minutes at PG that we don't need to be desperate. A max offer to Knight probably gets matched by a rebuilding Suns team that can't get off the treadmill. No better young PG's are available. Dragic probably laughs at us offering the 14-15M you'd pay on a max deal for a young guy like Knight. Rondo honestly scares the crap out of me, even at a bargain rate starting around 10M I don't take the gamble. So I go the 3-5 good players route. Sign Mo Williams. He played for 3.75M this season & has put up better numbers than Rondo without the huge questions about his health, not to mention he can shoot. Give him 2 yrs 7.5M with a player option & the promise of starting. Judging by the way he's been balling in Charlotte, he's probably confident that he can opt out & get 1 last decent contract next season when the cap goes crazy. I'll add that I'd offer Lin this same contract before it's official with Mo, chances are slim to none that he takes it but can't hurt to ask. Either way, we aren't going to get a cheaper/better starting PG than 1 of these guys. Bring back Ed Davis. Hopefully something around 3/14 but I'd give him 2/10 if that's what it takes. With our 2 young bigs it's extremely important to have a capable shotblocker/rebounder ready to step in at either position. Sign Wes Matthews. 2 yrs/8M. Try to get a team option but I'd be fine with player too. Extreme low risk/high reward signing. With Kobe/Middleton/Clarkson we can afford for Wes to take his time getting back, & if he's even 80% of the player he was before the injury, he'd be 1 of the biggest bargains in the league. That's another 12M gone - the 1.5M cap holds were taking up for those 3 players. So we have 11.4M remaining. I don't really think we have any major holes to fill at this point so I gamble on the highest risk/highest reward player available. Sign Biyombo to a deal starting between 6-8M. Frontload it if you need to, to make it as hard for Charlotte to match as possible. He hasn't progressed like a lot of people thought he would & he's still playing very few minutes, but his PER48 block & rebound numbers are right there at the top of the league & he's only 22. He's still extremely raw & Okafor/Towns probably will be too, so I don't think we have to worry about stunting growth. We're just doubling our odds of ending up with a great C. With the remaining 4M or so, I'd go after a SG & SF. We still need a fulltime backup SF & with Matthews likely missing half the season, need a backup SG incase Clarkson ends up needing to play a lot of minutes at PG. I'd go for Dunleavy & Ellington, I think they'd take around 2M each. I'd just use the minimum for our 3rd string C. We have 2 guys capable of becoming stars + Davis who can play C. No idea what C's would be available for the minimum so I'll just assume we bring Sacre back. We hold on to our Room Exception to see if injuries force us to fill a hole during the season or a good player hits the waiver wire. Mo Williams/Jordan Clarkson/Jones Kobe/Matthews/Ellington Middleton/Dunleavy Randle/Davis/Black Okafor - Towns/Biyombo/Sacre
I Love LakersN4's plan. Pretty much exactly what I would like to see happen. My dream, realistic scenario Okafor/Davis/Sacre Randle/Black/Davis Middleton/Young Kobe/Ellington/Clarkson Mo Williams/Clarkson/Lucas That comes out to be around 63 or so.
ESPN is really going in on the Kevin Love / Lebron James relationship. I have always thought there was a high chance that wouldn't work out. Like it or not, I still think the chances of seeing a guy like Love or Rondo in a Laker jersey are very high.
