Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

Pass me the pipe...

 

For the lazy like me: Thunder will not accept trades for Westbrook without Russell and/or Ingram, as other star players with one year left to on their contracts have yielded their former teams pretty good hauls from that point in time. However, neither team has really benefitted from the trades so far.

For the bored:

The Thunder will not accept a trade that doesn't involve Russell and/or Ingram, especially since we don't have any picks to trade until 2020 or something like that. Sam Presti would easily rather trade with Boston instead and try to get a combination of IT, Bradley, Crowder, and the Brooklyn picks because they are all solid players are on great contracts for multiple years and it gets Westbrook out of the conference if we don't include Russell and/or Ingram.

Plus if you look at the recent history of superstars getting traded with one year left where people knew the superstar was going to leave, the team trading the superstar still got a great haul of players. However, in the end, there are no real winners for the most part in any of the trades as most teams range from crappy to mediocre.

Carmelo Anthony was traded for Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, a 2014 first-round pick and the swap rights in 2016. At the time of the trade Chandler was in his 4th year and was averaging 16 points, 6 rebs, and 1.4 blocks. Felton (6th year) was averaging 17 points, 9 assists, and 1.8 steals, and Gallinari (3rd year) was averaging 16 points and a little less than 5 rebounds. Mozgov was a rookie who barely got any playing time. Denver was able to get a solid group of young players for Carmelo even though everyone knew he was going to the Knicks during the offseason. Verdict: No one wins this trade since neither team hasn't really done anything since the trade.

Deron Williams was traded for Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, two first-round draft picks and cash considerations. Derrick Favors was a rookie who was the third pick in the draft in a highly regarded draft and Devin Harris was a decent but injury prone player at that time averaging 15 points and 7.6 assists but did average 21 and 7 two seasons before. Got a decent player at that time in Harris and essentially three first round picks, one being a top 3 pick in Favors and the other two I have no idea and too lazy to look up. Verdict: No one wins this trade either since neither team hasn't really done anything since the trade.

Dwight Howard was traded for Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Moe Harkless, center Nikola Vucevic, a second-round draft pick from Denver next year, a first-round pick from either Denver or New York in 2014, a conditional first-round pick from Philadelphia and a conditional second-round pick from the Lakers in 2015, and a conditional first-round pick from the Lakers in 2017. Mediocre package of players except for Afflalo who had good scoring seasons with Nuggets the year before and the Magic and Vucevic who is a double-double machine and improving, but the Magic got a lot of draft picks. And for Lakers, along with the draft picks and other insignificant players, we had to give up Bynum, who was coming off an all star year but became useless as a player right after. Verdict: None of the four team (other teams being Nuggets and 76ers) wins this trade since none of the teams have done anything at all so far.

Kevin Love was traded for Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett. Both first picks but Andrew Wiggins was one of the most highly touted prospects while Bennett was considered a bust after his first year. Verdict: Looks like a good trade for both teams so far. Love helped his team win the championship and Wiggins is showing his potential. Doesn't look like Cavs gave up that much but could be out to be a lot.

I am never writing this much again.

 

Good points. Like I said though, I wouldn't trade unless the condition was "Westbrook demanding the Lakers" The Thunder will be forced to be low-balled by us. No other team will not gut their team for a guaranteed rental. Otherwise, pass on a Westbrook trade.

 

Boron thinks we should trade Ingram, DAR and more picks for Westbrook. Which means it's a bad idea.

 

^ DUDE... SPOILERS!!! The last thing i wanted is to see b0ron's face

 

Just like the Heatles' decision was all about stopping Kobe and the Lakers. That was Riley's pitch - Bron and Wade would have no comparable legacies if Kobe won one or two more.

 

100% this, especially with no guarantee he would even stay.

 

I'm fully on the Russ as a FA train and most assuredly NOT giving up DLO AND INGRAM for him, but...

I haven't seen anybody react on here to the Windhorst plan that was thrown out on M&I yesterday.

Basically it was: trade for Westbrook TODAY (no more $ gets spent before this happens), offer him $8M raise, taking him to the max this season in exchange for a small extension, buying him out until 2018-19 season. Russell would possibly be open to it since the 2018-19 season would represent his ability (along with his Bird Rights you get) for him to get the 10-yr vet supermax to resign (35% of the cap, which is why KD only signed 1 year in GS, his 10 year is next offseason).

This basically gives you two years of commitment from Russ along with the supermax bullet to get him to stay long term as well as a two year window to make corresponding moves to build the team back to title contention.

Now, it's a complicated move. And I'm not necessarily for it, but it's interesting to be sure.

 

Yeah, people can listen to Windhorst explain it on M&I (I listened via the podcast this morning). He blah-blahed over moves/restructures that may be needed for existing contracts on the books, so if the numbers are a tick off that may be a part of it. Still not sure I do it, but it is interesting.

 

Wade is meeting with every team that has interest in him. If I had to guess, our FO isn't interested.

 

This just shows the Lakers are loyal to their stars. Not sure that means much if anything, but hey at least it was a good PR move. Riles is doing the smart thing, but can't really say it looks that good on him.

 

Doesn't mean anything. Nothing means s*** anymore. If you take care of your stars, you overpaid. If you do not take care of them, you ruined your team and are a crappy owner. If you get a free agent, he sucks. If you do not get a free agent, you run a lousy front office. If you take the most money, you are greedy, if you leave to win, you are ring chasing. (Bleep) the media and (bleep) Jim Buss.

 

That's what the media/fans say. That matters little. However, the players do take notice of how teams take care of their stars. If OKC took care of Harden, they wouldn't have lost Durant.

 

his plan also means LA gives EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that OKC wants. So do you take 2years of Westbrook and gut the team? What does that accomplish?