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

He's the one... pipe dream but I'd do whatever it takes to get him here

 

Nah man ... dude is Covid prone.

 

Westbrook led the NBA in assists. He was 6th in the NBA in rebounding. 14th in steals. That is a major impact player, in exchange for guys that we want to move anyway. I just don't get the pushback surrounding him. If Beal really wants to be moved as reports say, Russ is on the move too.

 

right. we have no shot at lillard or beal. just have to hope they don't go anywhere that would doom us. gs is a bad spot for beal to land. the good news is that supposedly teams don't want wiggins as the major vet in a deal, which is the starting point of all gs offers. that said, wiggins' contract is only two more years, and only for 30-ish per. him/7/14/wiseman should be the offer any suitors for lillard/beal have to beat. we simply can't.

i do agree that if beal moves, washington will move westbrook, and i think we're certainly competitive in that arena.

i think the idea is that if it costs us more than schroder/kuz/trez (assuming he'll opt in). if that happened, this is our roster:

russ/AC
kcp/tht
lebron/mckinnie
AD/
marc/

we'd have only the taxpayer MLE and vet mins to fill in the rest of the roster, as russ/lebron/AD/kcp puts us over the tax just by themselves, and THT/AC re-signings push us into the stratosphere.

is taxpayer MLE and vet mins enough to provide us with a center who can split time (or more) with gasol, two more credible backup bigs, and probably a veteran guard? maybe.

 

^^^ Kief has already said he wants to be back, at what we are paying him so that's back up at the 4? I'd be surprised if Marc comes back. Who knows what the hell Drummond is thinking he is going to be paid if he stays?

 

ok, so kieff has to play 20mpg for us? and we need two credible centers, one for the vet min and one for the taxpayer MLE.

for a team that feels like it needs to protect its stars from injury, that's a pretty weak frontcourt outside of AD, right?

 

i'm not anti-westbrook. i just don't like it as plan A. i feel like we'd be better off moving schroder for a lower-salaried, younger player who fits our roster better than he did (or who will actually do what we wanted him to do?). i could even see moving him for two players like this.

i follow dallas a bit, so i'll throw out examples from there:

schroder for WCS plus kleber or powell and brunson or trey burke.

you get a bench scoring guard who can handle the ball, a mobile backup big who can play in either spot, and another backup big with athleticism.

bonus is that we get to keep kuz/kcp/trez for other trade opportunities, should they arise.

is it exciting? no? is it better than just letting schroder walk? yes, imo.

is this particular idea better than schroder/kuz/trez for westbrook? probably not, but it's more in line with what i'd prefer.

all of this stems from my general feeling that we had a great shot at winning it this year had we been healthy, so there's no need for massive overhaul.

 

I don't think we need anymore guards with that roster. If AC and THT are worth the money to resign, then it's their time to man the rotation. I would take Melo at the minimum, Kief too. However there could be some better options available. At center, I really think that Drummond would come back for 1 year at the MLE. He might get offered more money somewhere else, but the chance to get a ring could sway him to stay. If not there will be some bigs out there, to be had on the cheap...Javale, Dwight, Deadmon, Whiteside. We also should keep our draft pick IMO. Rob doesn't have to outbid himself for Westbrook, Washington doesn't really have any leverage. Giving them three starters for a guy that could walk for nothing is a good deal IMO. Yes we are stepping up in payroll, but just running it back would have the same results. Now we have the option of having at least one of the big three on the floor at all times . I'd go for it. Lebron will be 39 after his contract runs out. We have to start thinking about being in the best position to win now, and be able to sign big time free agents or make trades for them, once he retires.

 

i'm being swayed--particularly when i saw his player option, which might mean that we don't have to give up too much. but i still think a) we could have won with what we had and b) if we are just patient, we'll have plenty of moveable contracts for trade deadline season if things aren't working out early. if you get one of these 40 million dollar men, you're sorta stuck.

 

Maybe it's because his team was .472 on the season as the primary ball-handler in the weak Eastern Conference and with another star on his team. Major impact is right. No one denies Russ' individual talents but if it never ends up in deep playoff runs (minus with Durant and Harden on your team).... Stats can be used for just about any point. Likewise, Russ is 3rd in the league in touches yet points per touch is .200 while the #1 and #2 guys (Doncic/Jokic) are .345 & .296. Luca, a kid that was 21-22 years old this season. Trea Young is 4th at .318, from a 22 year-old, nvm a center as the primary assist guy outshining him too. And we all know how Trea, Luca and Joker's teams benefit from their play.

 

He has never played with Lebron James and Anthony Davis either. Those guys are pretty good. You are picking random stats about stuff that has no bearing on, Westbrook being paired with James and Davis. His role would change, his numbers do indicate, that he obviously has a lot left in the tank, and makes a big impact on the court. You can't just minus KD and Harden and ignore Lebron and AD. Besides the fact that Tre, Luka and Jokic aren't available.

 

15sec in the clock, 2 down. You can't have a 40M salary in the court. Not sure he survives that with all the media picking on it. A bit like they pick with Ben FTs and it destroyed him this year.
He's known as Westbrick for some reason

I do agree he would give us a lot in regular season games and would save LeBron's legs. But championships are won in the playoffs

Kieff said last year that it would be his last as a vet min

AC, THT and KCP are our 2 guard rotation. We need one more and have Mclemore or someone alike as the 5th guy

I wouldn't go after a third star. I prefer flexibility. I would run the same crew minus Schroder and Drummond (I can sleep if we keep this one). Trez is fine with the group, Kuz is used to it and KCP is untradable for me (barring we don't get Beal or wtv lol). Chase the McConnell and Olynyk kind of guys, they know their role. And bring back Javale, everybody loves him

 

I like that 3 of those teams are in the eastern conference

 

We are not running it back. Schroder doesn't count against the salary cap, there isn't enough cap space to sign anyone of note left. Russ is going to brick his way to the Hall of Fame. First ballot too. He'd brick his way to a couple of chips with James and Davis

 

Helpful with these hypothetical numbers with all these rumors flying around