Timofey Mozgov Discussion: Shut Down For Season (66)

Mozgov is the 47th highest paid player in the NBA this season, and we'll have to see where he is after next year's free agency. I bet he's closer to 100th. He's currently taking up 1/6 or so of the cap, and by next season it will be 1/7. Perspective is important. It's more and more the Deng contract that's looking like it's not close to value.

 

...and I lobbied for Steve Hawes over this guy.

 

20 million would be wildly overpaying and Randle's extension would likely be similar to what Curry's ended up being proportionally. Curry's 11 million dollar salary was back when the cap was in the 60 range I believe. If we say the cap was roughly 65 million, then Curry's contract is 17-ish% of the cap at the time. That would make Julius's salary something like 17.5 million to start.

 

Given Tarik's on-court play as well as his physical limitations, I'd say he's worth less than average. Maybe even much less. If he played like he played against NY every day, that opinion could change. I'd be surprised if Tarik earned 8 figures a year.

 

So 16 million down the toilet for a stiff that doesn't even play anymore...

oh well...Mitch was able to trade Kwame for Gasol and Luke Walton for Ramon Sessions and Brian Cook for Trevor Ariza...I still have hope to get rid of our dead weight.

 

Randle is the one of this bunch that bothers me the most. I think someone will throw stupid money at him. I hope it isn't us.

 

To which part? He's a no defense, declining rebounding, unimpressive shooter. He lost that one elite skill he showed last season. I'm happy to give him another season before shipping him, but I don't want to lose him without getting anything, and I don't want to be a team paying a third player a ton of money with a severely limited skill set. Let me look at contracts quick and make this point more clearly.

 

Suppose we extend Randle after next season. And suppose it's close to $20M. That would mean that in '18-19, we have 18M for Deng, 16M for Mozgov, 12.5M for Clarkson, and 20M for Randle. That's 66.5M tied up in four players, including none of whom I think are longterm starters for us. And they'd all be on the books for '19-20 as well.

In '18-19, we'd have to make a decision on Lou, Black (possibly). And in '19-20, we'd have to make a decision on Russell and Nance.

The flexibility begins to decrease significantly. This is part of why I wouldn't even be opposed to moving Randle as part of an Ibaka deal - but the question is whether we can retain Ibaka.

Randle's numbers are trending down for the most part over the season, even as his USG% has increased. It's not a player profile that gives me much hope.

 

The 4 years number is the killer in this contract. Maybe there wasn't much in the way of the big man market we could have gotten this summer but I would have tried to get another short term rental. Even if we had to way overpay. Moz has been a disappointment. He doesn't rebound well. He has accounted for a couple of Russ's turnovers each game because of his stone hands and he could have his own highlight reel on Shaqtin a fool with his missed dunks.

 

Well Moz is mediocre in about every statistical catagory compared to other centers in the league, so it's not a matter of him sucking. We just found other options that are better, and honestly, no one even knew Black was going to stay, or that Zu would be looking like the future.

This is a matter of the front office knowing the team had a need, and no reasonable expectation that an undersized motor guy (Black), even if he did resign, would be able to be relied upon. Everything else was an unknown.

They had to get a Center and the options were pretty thin, so you have to pay. The really good centers wouldn't sign with a 17 win team, so target a mediocre center and offer a higher pay grade than expected to make sure you get him. Nobody at the time expected to have Zu, a 19 year old rookie looking like the future on the team.

Standing pat also wasn't an option because the hope was that our young guys might be ready to make a leap, and if we lost because we didn't have a center the fan base would be pissed at that too, so your damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

I understand why people hate Moz's contract, but I feel a lot of it is hind sight being 20/20. The situation demanded we get a center that can be relied upon, and we didn't have better options IMO. The better players wouldn't come to a 17 win team.

 

I love this hindsight is 50/50 idea.