Around the League: 2018 Offseason

[Mori Chu]

I don't know if a package without JJ gets it done for Love. The Cavs have said they have no plans to move him so it'd have to be an attractive package. Don't know if Chriss/Bender/Warren and picks gets it done.

I don't know that I'd make that deal with JJ, but seeing Bridges light it up is certainly encouraging. I love JJ's athleticism, defensive potential and ballhandling ability, but those might be luxuries for us if he can't be a consistent shooter or cut down on mistakes (which I think is due to playing with lesser talent). And I'm still very intrigued by Reed. We're certainly overloaded at SG/SF and if getting Love, who can post and step out, balances things out, he might be worth it. We've never had great pieces that really fit together. Love could be a step in that direction.

Josh Jackson has done a lot to impress me in the past year, but as I've said in other past threads, I would definitely include him in a trade if I thought it made us better. We have such a glut of SFs, and I'm not at all convinced that Josh Jackson is (or will ever be) the best of them. Jackson is the best playmaker, to be sure, but I don't know if I want or need that from the 3 spot. For pure shooting, I prefer Bridges or Reed or Ariza. For defense, Jackson is also strong, but I would be fine with Bridges or Ariza for that, too. For non-3-point scoring, I'm fine with Warren.

Ultimately I really think the bad shooting is going to give Jackson a low ceiling for his career. I like all the things he is good at, and he does seem like a gamer who has a certain "it" factor. But if he can't shoot, I don't think he can be an elite SF, which makes him expendable and replaceable to me. So I just see the loss of trading Jackson as somewhat minimal given the other SFs we have available and the other things we could acquire using Jackson as an asset.

In this specific example, I would absolutely throw in Josh Jackson to help get Kevin Love, if that's what it took. Love is an imperfect player, but he could step right in as our starting PF, which would be much better than our existing young PF rotation. The roster would essentially look like this:

PG: Knight - Okobo - Harrison
SG: Booker - Reed
SF: Ariza - Warren - Bridges
PF: Love - Bender - Chriss?
C: Ayton - Chandler

Call me crazy, but that might actually be a playoff team. And if it isn't, it will be a team that grows and gets better and would probably become a playoff team in 1-2 years. It'd also be a team with really only one position of weakness, the PG position. We could work to get a better PG in free agency or trade, either during the season or after the next season.

And I don't think the above team represents mortgaging the roster or giving up a bunch of young assets. We'd still have most of our picks and a ton of young talent. That team looks like a team that will get better and better for 5 years running, peaking right around the time that the Warriors are done winning every title.

[bajanguy008]

Morey gonna Morey
always willing to gamble

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1016445597266558977

[Superbone]

I guess D'Antoni and Anthony must not have such a bad relationship after all.

[Hermen]

It's weird that they went all in with Paul and then didn't pay key role players. I get Ariza was expensive, but Mbah A Moute got $4.3M. They also pissed of Capela. Maybe they hope GSW is even lazier next season, or that they still have a shot in 2020 and KD goes somewhere else, but to me it's starting to look like they had their best shot this year.

[ShelC]

Rockets just lost a lot of ground. Melo can step up offensively, but he's not a banger/gritty guy like Mbah Moute was. And being able to rotate Tucker and Mbah Moute at the 4 to switch everything from PG to PF was key. Melo ain't doing that. Paul's a dick like that. I don't blame him for getting his money, but if he wanted to win, he'd have found a way to make it work with the Rockets to keep either of those guys.

[Mori Chu]

Just to be clear, as of this moment, the Rockets have not signed Melo. The Woj tweet says simply that they are targeting him.

[BlaCkAdDa]

This is the same problem well have in future if we get competitive.. Max guys get theirs and you can only put together a winning roster by getting vets to come cheap if they think you're a legit contendor (ala golden state or wherever LeBron plays) or by having rookie contracts still in place.

With Booker taking up to 30 percent of cap in future there's not much room for too many more stars when role players like Ariza are getting 15m per yr if they are at market

[In2ition]

This is the same problem well have in future if we get competitive.. Max guys get theirs and you can only put together a winning roster by getting vets to come cheap if they think you're a legit contendor (ala golden state or wherever LeBron plays) or by having rookie contracts still in place.

With Booker taking up to 30 percent of cap in future there's not much room for too many more stars when role players like Ariza are getting 15m per yr if they are at market

Well, unless you are ok going into the luxury tax to keep your guys together. If Ayton is the real deal, you give him the money and if one of Bridges or Jackson stands out, you pay them. After that, you might be able to keep Chriss or Bender on a cheap deal do to the fact that they hadn't "broken out" yet, and then hope that they outplay the contract. Maybe that happens with multiple guys as they grow up and that's the way you keep it going without paying a super tax.

[INFORMER]

I still can't understand how we were willing to give up a second rounder for Elfrid Payton and not for Willy Hernangomez.

[In2ition]

I still can't understand how we were willing to give up a second rounder for Elfrid Payton and not for Willy Hernangomez.

It's simple. We needed a semi competent option at pg, even though we were losing and tanking, it was horrendous how bad our pgs were and only made the rest of the team look even more incompetent than they were. PG and something of leadership of the offense was a much much higher need at the time.

[UglyTruth]

https://twitter.com/ASherrodblakely/status/1016486133461422082

[The Bobster]

The Kings are showing exactly how free agency shouldn't be done.

[Hermen]

The Kings are showing exactly how free agency shouldn't be done.

Why not make other teams pay their RFAs?

[Flagrant Fowl]

The Kings are showing exactly how free agency shouldn't be done.

Why not make other teams pay their RFAs?

It's great from the Suns position.

[Split T]

Ya, I'm glad some team is out there giving big contracts and making sure these teams don't get major bargains on their restricted FA's. Hopefully they sign smart and maybe Parker next.

[In2ition]

Ya, I'm glad some team is out there giving big contracts and making sure these teams don't get major bargains on their restricted FA's. Hopefully they sign smart and maybe Parker next.

Don't forget Capela. I wouldn't mind seeing these teams take it in the shorts long term as they are forced to match for their RFAs.

[Split T]

Yep, knew I was forgetting someone

[UglyTruth]

I think teams should do 1 year deals with role players more often. It gives the players the motivation to actually contribute and improve or else they won’t have a job next season.

It sickens me how there’s players like Mozgov, Deng, Parsons, Mahimi, Teletovic, and Noah who have current contracts that total more than half a billion and yet these players don’t play and are basically robbing these teams. Yeah the GMs were stupid to give away these contracts in the first place but still.

1 yr deals are the best counter to guaranteed contracts.

[UglyTruth]

Ya, I'm glad some team is out there giving big contracts and making sure these teams don't get major bargains on their restricted FA's. Hopefully they sign smart and maybe Parker next.

Don't forget Capela. I wouldn't mind seeing these teams take it in the shorts long term as they are forced to match for their RFAs.

Rodney Hood as well.

[UglyTruth]

I’m surprised that there has been zero news regarding Alex Len. Thought for sure some team would’ve taken a chance on him by mid July but that doesn’t look to be the case.