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

Lebron will be 38 next season. I don't know of many high level defensive players around these days at that age. Especially wing defenders.

 

I like THT a lot, but he might have to go.

If Monk is back (value signing), we need to target a wing. There was a guy I was listening to a couple of weeks back who proposed: THT/Nunn for a high level initiator and two names that popped up were: Gary Trent, Jr. and Bogdonovic.

Bogdonovic has knee issues but Trent Jr is an interesting name. I don't have access to his synergy stats off too, but he had a good season last year. He's 6-6 with a 6-9 wingspan.

Just throwing stuff out there; either way, THT will likely be gone, IMO.

 

Put it this way...

The RW trade was "toddler thinking bad".

It should not have been hard to understand what it takes to win with AD and LBJ, especially when you just won the whole damn thing.

Size, spacing and defense and "hopefully" adequate outside shooting that comes along with that spacing.

We traded for RW- who brings none of those things to the table- and then filled our roster with either undersized guards or old farts who were pretty much washed up. And we did it while trading away the players who basically brought those things to the table (Kuzma, KCP) or we were too cheap to re-sign (Caurso). To make it worse, the one we did keep (THT) struggles in those areas as well.

Now we still have those two players who don't bring those things to the table (THT, and midget Nunn with a bad knee, who missed the entire season) and we want to use our MLE on another midget guard?

I like his youth and his outside shooting- AND I WANT HIM BACK- but we simply can't afford him....he is a LUXURY.

Forget RW.....we either are able to unload him or not, and I still think it is highly unlikely without adding one or both of our future #1's....and our formula to success is no different know than it was before last off-season's train-wreck.

1) AD must be healthy and back to his 2019-20 self (mentioned this in previous post as nothing matters more)
2) LBJ limited to 32-34 minutes so we can get 60-70 games from him and healthy in playoffs

3) Add wings any way possible and preferably a stretch center.....

PERIOD

 

then he needs to take a pay cut so that we can bring in someone who will, i guess. when you're a max guy superstar, you play both ends and you take the tough assignments. else you're not a max guy superstar.

didn't toronto already tell us no on trent for the same package?

 

Did they? Try again.

 

i mean, you can wish for #3 as hard as you want, but i've yet to see any actual targets given our resources.

edit: to clarify, i mean FA resources. i think it has to be via trade if it's a wing. maybe some vet min cs (dedmon, dieng) can suffice though.

 

I'm not sure we need all these long wings everyone is talking about. We could use a couple of bigs though. Kcp is 6'5, so is Caruso and while Kuz had length at 6'9 he couldn't guard a parked car. That team last year still had a top rated defense for the folks that feel like being ranked 1 or 2 is imperative. That was for stretches without James or Davis or both. A lot of things go into defense besides one on one coverage. Holding the ball until late in the shot clock, not crashing the offensive boards so you can get back on defense and limit fast breaks, good defensive rebounding, trapping or doubling guys at the right time etc. This year's team had the right mix of height(more akin to the chip team) with Melo,Ariza,Dwight and Jordan but they were old, and with James and Davis only playing 21 games, I'm not sure what folks should have realistically expected.

I'd rather see two young bigs with some athletic ability, springs, and lateral movement. I don't really care about three point ability but it would be a nice added plus. Then 1 guy that could spell Lebron and just be decent. So..give me Hartenstein, Jones and Warren and bring back Monk and I'm cool with that haul. I'm not really even pressed about trading anybody just yet, especially just for the sake of making a trade for " depth" that comes with long term money owed. I'd liked to see us healthy and whole, going into and out of training camp first, and then make an assessment. I like Nunn, still like Talen. Discarding Baze,Duke,Ariza,Dwight and Melo and going younger and more athletic can make a world of difference too. The only problem with my wishlist is that Hartenstein and Monk are both deserving of our mini slot IMO. Still a healthy AD and some fresher legs around him is a defensive upgrade on it's own.

 

of course no team is going to part ways with anything of value for westbrick without the lakers also sending something along with him

no one wants to get near that contract

 

They have been shilling the same take since December. There still isn't any trade floated that makes any sense. Taking back injury prone guys on long term deals, and to give up a 1st round pick to boot, that's as foolish today as it was 6 months ago.

 

Then we should keep what we have and pick up a couple of young bigs, and keep it moving.

 

me too. all we need is three mini mles!

 

Love Gary Trent Jr but no way Toronto will deal him for THT and Nunn. Trent's one of the few players on that team that doesn't need the ball to be effective.

I'd love to be wrong though, that deal would be amazing

 

more garbage, imo. teams don't want to give up good players on good contracts for westbrook. if that's what we're asking, we're dumb and or insane.

but teams definitely want to get off of salaries, and we can help with that. again, charlotte should want to talk. guessing they need to see what happens with bridges before they're willing to engage seriously on russ. but hayward/plumlee/oubre helps us and helps them get off 30 million next year.

russ being replacement level doesn't matter when you're just going to cut him anyway.

 

He wasn't doing all that last season and we still had the top rated defense in the NBA. It's more to it than plugging in a "high level " defender at Lebron's spot..who is he? Name that guy you speak of. Furthermore who was he last season or on the chip team? The whole team sucked on defense last season. It wasn't exclusively Lebron James or any other individual .

 

don't know what you're talking about here. i'm not the one claiming we're getting all-defense wings for the mini mle in this thread.

i'm saying lebron is paid a lot and needs to defend. and yes, if we played the clippers in the playoffs, i expect him to guard paul george or kawhi leonard. if we have to hide him on defense, he's not worth his contract.

 

What is Hayward going to improve not making it past the All Star break 4 seasons in a row? For 60 million dollars? He's no defender either and he's 33 next season. Plumlee, Oubre..pftt..we could do better than them in FA. That deal still sucks, it's only moderately better if they gave us a 1st round pick.

 

1. he's not westbrook. it means westbrook doesn't play here. again, westbrook was a MINUS on the floor last year. sending him home would improve the team. hayward's the pricetag.
2. plumlee would have been our best center last year. is that good? NO! but we were terrible, and honestly, i'm not sure we can do better in FA. there's competition for the few centers out there.
3. who's the better FA wing than oubre for the mini mle?

also, plumlee and oubre both expire this year, so they can either help us keep some FA flexibility next year or be used in a trade. consolidating all that cash in one guy has made any incremental improvements really difficult.

so yeah, i'm listening to almost any charlotte package that doesn't involve us sending picks.