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

Still Star chasing I see. SMH.

 

russ for kyrie would solve nothing when the latter decides to sit out games to protest something

 

huh? why?

anyway, i agree that getting lavine doesn't make sense. ironically, it's like getting derozan last year. you'd have to basically accept a completely stripped down roster again. no thanks. if lebron and AD are that sure they need a third star, maybe we do need to move them to places where that can happen. i don't think they're that sure, though. hoping they learned their lesson.

also, as i alluded to earlier, lavine hasn't played more than 63 games in the past 5 years. hate to see what this fanbase would do to him.

 

Things went really poorly for Philly. I think they need to do something drastic...



Come on Morey, don't you want Russ again? You can reunite him with Harden or send Harden somewhere else cause that s*** didn't work next to Embiid. Maybe send Beard back to New York (Knicks this time), I'm sure his tab is still open at the strip clubs up there.

 

I wonder if Russ, KD and Harden have any desire to reunite in OKC. All 3 had their worst seasons by far and underperformed a ton to finish off their 2021-2022 campaigns. If any of them have any thoughts of "going home"

 

Was Haren hurt at all? If not LOLOL way to crap the bed in your elimination game with 11 points in 44 minutes. Disgusting player who’s a loser if not propped up with refs supporting his attempts to draw fouls. If he was … guess time to be calling him Mr Glass too with his injuries last few years.

 

I’d bet OX’s house KD wants NO part of Brick as a teammate ever again, as he’s nowhere near the player now he was when KD had to get away from him the first time.

 

Blurb about GH

Get Rozier or Plumlee and Washington included, then we can take him off your hands (don't really want Oubre). As long as we sign enough wing depth to properly manage his PT, then he's a great fit next to our big two.

 

Next free agent position to take a look at...

POWER FORWARDS

Some interesting names here, but with our glaring need at the wing we can't sink money into the position and will have to go back to the vet min well with older players (unless we address it in a Russ trade, ie. Washington/Plumlee from CHA).

Prince, Trez, and Bagley are way out of our price range. Don't think Trez would come back either way. Looney is due a raise and will be out of our range. Boucher will get up to that $10m range. Jalen Smith probably will get closer to that price point too ($8m-ish?).

The player options will probably get picked up by the Denver Greens and PJ Tucker in MIA. If Portis turns his down, it's for his true market value since he signed a cheaper deal last summer.

Claxton is a RFA for pennies, he's not going anywhere. Lyles is Klutch but it's a TO in Sacramento. They're dumb but don't think they're that dumb.

The only name from the half way realistic options that I like: Thadd Young. He's made over $120m throughout his career. He'll get to pick his next spot, think he'll find a better one than LA but he could have a big role and play for a theoretical contending team. If he's willing to take the minimum, you have to push hard for this one. Can play multiple spots and defend.

After that? Yuck! Maybe Morris will want to come live with his brother again. We love former Lakers from the bubble squad.

Strike out there and you're stuck with Blake, Aldridge, or Millsap.

Factoring in limited options, age, and the games that Bron is going to miss; I'm going to go a little heavy at this position and bring back Melo and Gabriel.

Targeted positional depth:
Bron/Kief/Melo/Gabriel

Kief brings back some toughness and D with a little shooting. He and Melo splitting those backup minutes keep both from being overplayed. Next coach has to understand to never play Melo back to backs or more than 26 minutes. We also have Stan who can play up a position when needed.

 

Slim pickins indeed for what we will be spending. Hmmmmmm.
Thanks for the info, JSM!

 

Oh yaaaaaaaaa?

 

Slim pickings...

Not much too do besides what you brought up. Maybe Dean Wade if we'd rather go with some youth instead of Melo and Morris. He was competent out there for the Cavs.

I'd like Melo back but only for third string, he can't be the second best PF on the team... he can't be asked to take up bulk big man mins again when AD or Lebron are out.

Thad Young would be the win here. He fits the build of someone Raptors would go after, maybe they try and keep him. But apparently Thad is looking for stability for his fam... maybe SoCal is it?

 

We don’t need anything at PF really, our best two players can play there in AD and Lebron. Bring Stan and Melo back and you’re sorted. You’ve got an offensive and defensive option off the bench there.

 

Wasn't Covington available? Though I kinda remember he resign recently

Not much to pick. Agree with you in almost everything. Thad would be a super win. He still got it, don't know why Toronto haven't played him more, he always delivered when given the time and really balled in San Antonio.
If he wants stability, I would even give him a multi year contract.
Kieff would be a great addition too. I think he can still be a reliable backup.

It's a good perspective. It's more worthy to focus on other positions if we can't get one of the two above. We also have to count with the games AD will miss though

 

I just don’t see the point of investing in high end PF redundancy for AD. If he is healthy, you won’t really play that player much, and if he isn’t healthy you aren’t winning anyway.

 

They can. BUT AD needs to be at center unless it's against the few guys he prefers not going against in the regular season. Bron has more miles on his legs than anyone ever, continuing to not monitor his minutes is bad business. I know you can only do that to a degree because he's chasing records, but we need to be more responsible here. Melo can't and shouldn't be playing the minutes he was last year. If you drop Bron from 37 to 32 a game and Melo from 26 to 17, you're creating 14 minutes (two shifts for another player). You can flop that distribution around a bit based on opponent and need. Then you factor in that Bron and AD are going to miss time and not banking on that is the same foolish planning our FO did last year. I would rather them bake in 25-30 missed games by each of them vs. expecting them to play for 82. I'd rather have excess you can move around vs holes you're trying to cover with single ply store brand toilet paper.

And Stan I want to spend 95% of his minutes at SF. We have to put the off season emphasis on building up our perimeter D and I think he plays a big part in that. Again, this largely depends on what we do with Russ but there's a good chance that Stan is our backup SF going into the season.

He was but reupped for 2 years/$24m, which I'm really hoping didn't set the market for big wings. We're going to have a tough enough time getting one of them to take our MLE and if they follow that price point, we're out on all of them.

I think familiarity, family ties, and Balmer still paying for both brothers could help us out. The fact he's only played 17 games this year because of the injury and then didn't get back into the rotation after should help cap him at the vet min and limit the number of suitors chasing him.

 

i agree. again the philosophy has been to shoot for a high (championship ceiling) instead of a high floor. the clips invest heavily in guys that can step in for george and kawhi, and they'll make the playoffs/play-in because of it, but that money might be better spent on guys who could help them win more when their stars are healthy.

if we could had split russ's cash on big 2/3 and a shooting pg, i would have been happy. honestly, even players like the ones we gave up for russ would be great. maybe slightly better-fitting versions, though that ship has probably sailed, value-wise.

anyway, yes, pf is the last place i'd spend a ton of money. i'd rather have gabriel and stan playing the non-lebron/AD minutes at pf.