Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

If we revive the hero/zero thread, I expect DD to be recipient of the zero quite a bit on the thread. Not because he's a bad player but he's a bad fit. We need outside shooting and the guys a 28% career three point shooter. He is not going to space the floor. Motion offense needs shooters from the outside to work. I like DD, just not for our team. I know we are starved for talent and we have to start somewhere. If it happens, so be it. I just think there is going to be a lot of frustration on the game day threads when he's clanking wide open three pointers and the middle is a clogged up mess.

 

We need the Hero/Zero, but I don't know that we deserve it.

 

I'd rather be frustrated by that than watching Nick young again or... I don't know whomever SF we'll have to settle for that will likely still be overpayed for. I'll also be happy watching him get to the rim, get to the free throw line, and do dynamic things only a young athletic player in his prime can do!

 

Totally. I think about two to three weeks into FAs we'll have a good idea of whether or not Mitch and Jim will keep their jobs.

 

Yeah. Toronto can't keep both of them. And I'm not sure they need to keep Biyombo with Valanciunas coming back. The Valanciunas injury actually really hurt us because Biyombo was probably getting 10-12 million. Something I would have entertained and actually been happy with. In a mere 4 games he has possibly DOUBLED his salary next season.

I want to point out Toronto as an example of why it's important we don't go out and overpay players this offseason. If they sign DD, they can only sign MLE players. The reason for this is they have people like Patrick Patterson and Cory Joseph for 7 and 6 million. They have Ross for 10. Valanciunas for 14. None of these are big contracts. I'm sure they thought the same thing for a guy like Ross where "Hey! 10 million is going to be a bargain when the cap goes up!" If you fill your roster with a bunch of good, but not great players, you end up like this team. Good, but not great. This cap jump has so many people thinking that a bloated contract isn't going to hurt their team as much. Valanciunas is twice the player Ezeli is and Ezeli is going to get paid 15 million. The Raptors will be over the cap (if they resign DeRozan) and they have their center signed to less than we would if we inked Ezeli.

The attitude seems to be like when people win the lottery and think they have a bottomless pit (in this case cap number) so they buy a boat because it's only this % of my money, then they buy a ridiculous car, then they buy a tricked out golf cart...before they know it they are bankrupt.

 

All I know if people on here are not going to be happy with how much being are being signed for. Before we over react I'm just gonna site back and trust the process because your right with all these new contracts its going to be hard to know for sure initially what is a good deal and what isn't

 

Again you're extrapolating negatively one way, but positively the other which I don't think is a fair representation of the players. You assume that the kids will have what would end up being a meteoric rise in their 2nd/3rd seasons, matching their Per36 (or approximating it) while also presumably winning games at a rate they're unfamiliar with? I don't see it. You are willing to make the leap though that Luke will change those three for the better. That's fine.

But then you bash the heck out of DeMar saying he's going to play nothing but isolation ball and take inefficient shots. Why wouldn't Luke help DeMar? If he can turn the three youngsters into potential All-Stars all reaching their max potential in a year or two, then what could he do with an already established All-Star who still has room to grow?

I get you don't like DeMar, but I don't follow that line of reasoning. I stand by the only negative aspect of DeMar is three point shooting. He's not a good shooter which could hurt the offense if Julius still can't hit a jumper next season. I still maintain that his ability to get to the line and to the rim outweigh that negativity though.

 

I'm not denying that the kids can and will improve. I think one of them (probably Julius for various reasons) can be a MIP candidate. I think under Luke they'll grow and will be fine players in 2-3 years, maybe even fine enough to challenge the Warriors/OKC/Cleveland/etc. who should all be declining by then.

My only point is that while DeRozan is not the perfect fit, he's still a good one. He's better than the more likely alternative of nothing. I understand not wanting him because he's not a perfect fit, but I think we sometimes get carried away poking holes in some players when the reality is we stink! We need the help! We need any kind of help. Even if DeRozan isn't the absolute perfect or ideal fit, I don't see his value decreasing significantly here either. That means we get an All-Star type of player who could easily be flipped if we need him to be. If DeMar comes here and does nothing different (which I don't believe will be the case), he'll still be an asset that can draw FAs or be used to trade for a FA.

I flip flop between Barnes over DeRozan. I admit that for sure. DeRozan might not be the absolute perfect fit, but he's proven he's got All-Star game in him. Some days I'd prefer paying DeRozan the extra 4-5 million per year in order to have a sure return on my cash. Barnes has tremendous potential, but he's done almost nothing to deserve a 21 million dollar payday... Some days I see him as a perfect addition and some days I cringe at what could end up being a terrible contract if he doesn't pan out.

Still the player I want most is whatever freaking player we can get. If DeMar is willing to come here, then bring it! If we can get Barnes, awesome! I'm cool with whatever we can end up pulling off here, but I'm just not ready to give everything to the kids and expecting 35+ wins next season. If we sign Deng/Noah to long-term or high-price deals then I'll be okay with it, but I'll also temper my expectations on how much we'll win while the kids learn and grow. If we got say DeRozan and Horford or something, then I could see us trying to compete for that 8th seed while the younger guys continue to grow and develop with less pressure on them.

 

Fair enough. I think we're closer to the same page than not. He's not the bottom of my list though. After DeRozan the names that come up are pretty underwhelming. Evan Turner, Jeff Green, Marvin Williams... Jonas Jerebko. And we'd probably have to overpay for those guys to get them.

That's okay though. I just want someone. I want some players that'll help us moving forward and I understand that DeRozan will make us better, faster. Someone like Deng is cool, but we're more likely to win more games with DeMar than Luol.

 

That's fine, but those two years are likely 30 win seasons. I'd like to not suck that much. If that's where we end up, I'll be okay but it's not ideal to me.