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

one reason i want the fournier/reddish deal is it prevents us from overpaying green in the summer.

 

He's on my "Bev hate level". I'll smash my head against a wall if that douche ever wears P&G

 

isn't this the same guy who tweeted all summer 2019 that kawhi to the lakers was 100% happening?

and again, do not want kuzma. he's putting up these numbers on a bad team with zero expectations. put him back in LA with lebron/AD and he'll go right back to playing like he did during his first lakers stint

 

That’s a good point, but I guess the idea would be that Kuzma could help us now.

And if the alternative to trading a first for Kuzma now would be trading a second to get Fournier/Reddish, well that would significantly eat into our cap space and likely eliminate the possibility of signing Kuz in free agency.

I think Kuz is a more reliable player than the combination of Fournier/Reddish. He’d help us more this immediate season, and assuming we re-sign him I think he’d have more long term value as well.

I’m not entirely sure he helps ENOUGH right now to warrant a fully unprotected first round pick compared to other deals that are hopefully going to come to the table, because as pointed out he’s not a consistent enough 3 point shooter. But it’s something I’d definitely consider, and the fact that we already traded him away in the past wouldn’t really factor into my decision making about it.

 

I'm becoming a broken record but I'll say it again, Evan Fournier sucks and won't help us at all. The NBA is not as simple as just adding a guy who can shoot threes well (although he's not doing that this season) to a team that shoots threes poorly. He can't even get minutes on a mediocre Knicks team whose best shooter on the year is Obi Toppin at 35%.

Fournier is a bad defensive player that doesn't fit into a defensive scheme that's somehow managed to put together a solid defense from an undersized roster. If we ask him to guard 2s he'll get blown by by pretty much everyone, if we ask him to guard 3s or 4s he'll get bullied by pretty much everyone. Last year Fournier was at 39% from three on 7.7 attempts, the highest volume of his career. That's three makes per game. I think Fournier making a few threes per game on average is easily outweighed by his poor defense and limited athleticism. Reaves, Walker and Brown are all better options, so we'd be trading one of our two significant tradeable salaries (Bev) for what would be the 4th best shooting guard on the team, wiping out our 2023 cap space in the process. The C Bags were in a very similar position when they traded for him in 2021 (solid defensive team that desperately needed shooting around their 2 stars with limited options to acquire it) and couldn't wait to get rid of him. I don't really care if the Knicks would send as a 2nd round pick back, we literally just bought a pretty good 2nd rounder for cash last draft.

I'd much rather send them Nunn + a second rounder for Reddish than have to take Fournier too.

 

Kuz doing some playful tampering?

 

The ideal players that fit this criteria would be:

- OG Anunoby(ehh)

- DeAndre Hunter(our pick we traded no thanks)

- Miles Bridges (He’s the type of player on the court we would need. It gets complicated when factoring in his legal issues)... What's the worse that can happen why not

- Mikal Bridges (I would even consider 2 FRP for him, with lottery protections)smoking some good shht aren't we?

- Tobias Harris(no thanks overpayed disappearing act)

- Harrison Barnes( big contract but we should look into

 

i'd trade a 1st for hunter, and i think atlanta would consider it with griffin ready to step in and contribute right away.

no on miles. don't think the suns are sellers on mikal unless it's for a durant.

no on harris (you give me the 1st rounder)

no on barnes, not worth a 1st, nor do i think sac is selling him, either.

yes on anunoby, but again, toronto's not in the business of just dropping players.

 

if we could get Kuzma and Kcp back for a first I would do it. Just Kuzma no way I would do that. Won't move the needle to a championship team, not what we need, etc.

 

The ask on Kuzma is too high, not gonna happen. He happens to be a fine role player though despite some trash talk here.
KCP is well situated in Denver, and won't be moved for us.
Bojan's ask is too high for an older player who fakes like he plays D but really doesn't get anything done on that end. Literally averages 0 blocks. For a guy with a 7' wingspan and fast hands, that's a joke. He produces so much on the other end, that gets overlooked but imo it lessens his value quite a bit.
Fournier/Reddish is not worth it without a FRP coming back. Top 3 protection ok.

Most things out there seem to be fan speculation only with no real substance other than Turner/Hield. But we can go all out and bring them in and make a move with Nunn/Beverely/Jones (+SRPs if necessary) to pull in a couple guys as well (this is where Fournier/Reddish with an attached FRP works for me).

 

I don’t recall what Cuffs was saying during the Kawhi saga, he’s never really tried to be a “reporter” or anything. He’s apparently close to Lebron’s camp. You might be thinking of Arye Abraham who was a kid trying to roleplay as a Woj-esque, or rdambition. They were claiming Kawhi to the Lakers was a done deal. Cuffs was probably expressing confidence too, because I’m sure Lebron and his camp thought Kawhi was on the way.

On Kuzma, I’m confused how the fan sentiment goes from “the Westbrook trade was terrible, we should have kept that championship core including Kuzma” to “Kuzma isn’t worth trying to reobtain because he’d be the same player we had before”?

I happen to think Kuzma has legitimately improved, but even if he regressed to the same player he was last we had him, we currently would have a lot of use for that type of player!

I just find it strange the aversion to trading for Kuzma. I don’t think some of the other trade ideas fans have been clamoring for (at least the realistic ones) are much better

 

I dont mind Kuzma, I just wouldnt give a pick for him, when 2 FRPs is all we have to make this a championship team.

not that hard to understand that Kuzma by himself doesn't move the needle that much. He'll marginally improve our D, and will not improve our shooting.

 

takes two to tango. lots of buyers, not a lot of sellers. sort of the opposite of what folks were thinking given the wemby situation. a couple of teams that i thought would be sellers have been better and legitimately should consider not selling.

still think that SA and charlotte should be selling hard, and we should be talking there for russ deals.

i imagine we're shopping for something better than fournier/reddish for bevs/nunn but will return to that soon if nothing else shows up.

 

The season ain't over whether we any trade or not.

This is exactly why the season is NOT over, if we don't make some big trade right now. Healthy ...this team hasn't been overmatched by anyone we've played. The squad that played Boston, Phl and Mil, is far from being( too far out of the play-in) caliber. We should have beaten Boston and Philly, if AD doesn't miss his FT , and if Lebron doesn't pound out the shot clock, only looking to launch another fadeaway 25 footer. Those things can be corrected, we just need health, a minor trade dumping Bev is still a good idea.