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

Is Ham maybe into The Dirty Dozen mindset for this team? If he could somehow really get Russ to play the "good" soldier and do whatever is asked with his remaining skills and athleticism in the spirit of team first to win a ring, including coming off the bench without a problem .....




Nah .... Russ ?

 

Yeah, we can't wait till the deadline.
1) with a new coach and culture, you need camp and the full season with the roster you're using for the entire run.
2) we didn't give Bron his money and give away our only tradeable young assets to sit on the sidelines even for half a season. West is too competitive to wait until the deadline to get serious about the season. This roster as is, is not serious about the season.
3) Russ and Pat Bev hate each other more than any two players in the NBA in the past decade... maybe longer. You don't do that to team chemistry and you don't do that to a rookie head coach. Russ has to go. Whether it's to his house or another team.

Problem is I just don't think that team is very good. If SA gets involved, I think it's as a 3rd team to eat the Russ contract. They don't do so for free and will require pick compensation. So maybe if we expand the Utah deal and both Utah and SA each get one of our 1sts.

I think as currently constructed we are a play in team with an 8th seed ceiling. With the SA deal, we're probably a 7th seed. With the Indy deal, we're a 5th seed.

 

They could has sign Caruso for cheaper for a more expensive Beverly

 

Agree with everything but especially that breakdown. We're already going to experience growing pains with the new staff and new additions. I'd rather give Ham all the tools he's working with right off the bat so the team can have all the time its going to need to fully gel.

And the beef between Russ and Beverly is already bad. It would go nuclear the moment Bev points out bad defense from Russ which we know is inevitable. That's a sideline blow up just waiting to happen.

Also agree with the seeding and the chances of us being in that 7th to play in range works against waiting until the deadline. Teams will still consider us desperate to move Russ to get into the playoffs and I'm not sold the deals will be any better than they are now absent a player forcing their way here.

 

mgmt already look like that

 

Yeah. Especially when we traded for Russ and signed the oldest team in the league last season.

 

They could be waiting until September 6th, when the restrictions come off of some of the Jazz players. Who knows, a deal could have already been discusses or even agreed upon with Utah. Something along the lines of:

WB/Wenyan/2027 1st for Bojan/Beasley/Gay + 8 million in salary savings + luxury tax savings

WB/Wenyan/Nunn/2027 1st for Bojan/Beasley/Conley + 4 million in salary savings + luxury tax savings

The 2029 1st could be used during the season (along with some of these newly acquired players), if they come across a better deal.

 

I was wondering too about this. Giving Ainge two players with the upside of especially THT and now seemingly some new upside to Johnson .... for the disgusting 34 year old homeless looking and obnoxious dude who is costing Utah 13M while there .... maybe got Rob a handshake for something along the lines of what you have above after the September 6 trade restrictions come off?



Though poor THT .... to have Brick follow him there too would suck.

 

Could be. I mean, Lakers probably don't like that Gay is guaranteed 6.5 million next season and Conley 14.3 million. But, at the same time we dump THT's 12 million lekley player option for next season. Lakers could opt to include Vanderbilt in the trade, who is only guaranteed 300 k.

 

Until now I've been pretty baffled/annoyed with the extreme reluctance to give up the second FRP. Odds are that player won't be significant and I'm not sure why Rob would care about trading a 2029 pick since he's getting fired this year anyway if there isn't a significant turnaround.

But maybe Rob thinks we need to keep that pick in a Hield/Turner deal to potentially get off Hield's salary for next season. I'm not a cap guru, is there a scenario where we could make a Hield/Turner trade, dump Hield after next season, make a viable offer to Kyrie/another significant free agent and still resign Turner with his bird rights? I'm not sure what Turner's cap hold would be.

 

If there was an agreement already, there wouldn’t really be a need to wait until September 6th to announce it.

Woj broke the AD trade as an “agreement” even though it wasn’t formally completed until like a month later due to cap ramifications.

The teams themselves couldn’t legally talk about the trade until then, but it would be understood to be a done deal. Sure technically that opens the risk of making a trade public but then someone backing out before it’s made official, but that doesn’t really happen. Too risky for a GM to damage their reputation like that.

My main point being, I can’t give the FO the benefit of the doubt of a Russ trade being imminent until I hear it from Woj or Shams. Going to start getting concerned if we don’t hear anything by middle of next week.

With the KD/Kyrie saga done, there isn’t really much reason for anybody to wait around anymore. Frameworks of negotiations have reportedly been discussed for months, so if something doesn’t get done soon, I’m worried.

 

Interesting, I'd never really considered an Indiana deal expanding to incorporate a third team. If the idea that Hield/expiring Turner in a vacuum costs a 1st, its hard to think of a three-team scenario where some third team is facilitating (likely by taking Russ) and it not costing us the second first. Is there some other bad contract out there that Indiana wouldn't mind taking for less than a FRP? My first thought was Hayward (they've wanted him before), maybe the Pacers take back Hayward/Oubre and Russ ends up in Charlotte. So Indiana essentially swaps Hield/Turner for Hayward/Oubre/2027 FRP and Charlotte swaps Hayward/Oubre for Russ's expiring and maybe a 2nd round pick? Idk, its hard to think of a third team that would get involved unless we're shipping out additional assets that aren't picks (maybe Reaves and/or Nunn, hence the Schroeder rumors).

 

Same. We thought a Kyrie trade was imminent and look how that turned out. When is LeBron's San Diego minicamp thing? Training camp is being viewed as the unofficial deadline for a Russ trade, but I think they want whatever players we get in exchange in the fold by then.

 

But you're not the one writing a $35 million dollar plus check when he requests a buyout, right?

Pincus is right on the money; our best chance is using other teams as leverage to help assist us in getting a deal done with only 1 FRP going out.

IMO.

 

this was my point about just sending russ home. we can't do that. we'll be even worse than the SA trade hypothetical and thus even more desperate. you either play him or trade him before camp, imo. if he's in camp, it has to be with eyes open to the fact that he just might come off the books if nothing materializes.

if we hadn't extended lebron, i'd have very different opinions.

i also highly doubt a utah deal is coming, as if we were planning on working with them on something bigger, we'd have done it all at once, imo. instead, we gave up a useful player to match beverley's salary (which could have been drowned out in a bigger deal).

 

THT was a disappointment. He never evolved from his 1st year, same player.

 

We have gotten really unlucky with the teams that we have to work with here. Overall though, I think a deal that works to Indy's liking is possible if that is the direction we want to go in.

 

I can't see a second deal with Utah either. We seem to have fewer options than I hoped for. Indy and San Antonio might work with us. I'd still be calling Mitch and the Hornets to see what they might be interested in doing. I'd probably even call up OKC. Maybe they want to go ahead and stink it up for another high draft pick with Chet getting hurt.

It's a tough market right now but it is hard to believe no one is interested in a large expiring contract like Russ.