Around the League News - 2022 Offseason Edition

[Mori Chu]

I think Rudy Gobert has become underrated. Everybody focuses on how he can't hit jumpers or 3s or whatever and how you can "play him off the floor" in the playoffs. But I think that is mostly about the shitty team Utah has around him. As others have said, they got a bunch of offense-only wings and just throw Rudy out there and hope it adds up to a decent defense. Rudy is -almost- able to just cover the whole court by himself, but not quite. Good teams figure out how to move the ball fast enough where Rudy can't help on everyone. I agree that if you put Rudy on a team with a generally good defense, he would be a monster.

I think of Draymond Green in Golden State as a good example of this; Green has pretty horrendous offense, but he has a huge value anchoring their defense (full of guys who are also trying hard on D and generally do not suck at defense). I actually think Gobert would be really good on the Suns in place of Ayton, though I would generally prefer to keep Ayton over having Gobert.

[Indy]

This is crazy. To find this out the day before FA begins? How can it be this high and nobody knew?

[Indy]

[Indy]

That makes so much more sense.

[Split T]

Ya I think it was 10% increase from the 112, not the 122. Made that Fischer tweet misleading…this should bump the tax line and tax apron as well, so that’s good news for us.

[Indy]

Orlando is not giving an offer to Bamba, clearing cap space. Now they can make a 25% max offer to a FA. I mean, it was a 10M QO so I get it.

[Split T]

How much do we think Bamba gets in free agency? I wouldn’t mind targeting him if we can get him for the TPMLE. He can space the floor a bit and defend the rim. Hasn’t shown he can do it as a full time starter, but if we’re moving to C by committee, Bamba, Saric, and a small ball 5 would seem to be an option.

[Indy]

How much do we think Bamba gets in free agency? I wouldn’t mind targeting him if we can get him for the TPMLE. He can space the floor a bit and defend the rim. Hasn’t shown he can do it as a full time starter, but if we’re moving to C by committee, Bamba, Saric, and a small ball 5 would seem to be an option.

I think he gets more than that, but not the 10M of his QO.

EDIT--I just saw the updated numbers. I think he could be had for the TPMLE.

[Indy]

[Mori Chu]

Why go for Bamba when JaVale is a better version of that kind of player? Just re-sign McGee.

[Indy]

McGee was not very good. I mean he was fine for a half MLE guy. But he was awful on defense. I am not saying we should sign Bamba. I shared that because Orlando needed to clear some room if they wanted to offer Ayton the max.

[specialsauce]

Javale is an end of bench minimum player guy, he cannot be our main backup big. Not related to Bamba, just saying

[Split T]

Why go for Bamba when JaVale is a better version of that kind of player? Just re-sign McGee.

I don’t think Javale is a better version. I think Bamba is better. Bamba can shoot.

[Shabazz]

Javale was highly productive for us for most of the season. He’s exploitable in the playoffs but I think he’s an important piece to have on the roster.

[Shabazz]

I think Rudy Gobert has become underrated. Everybody focuses on how he can't hit jumpers or 3s or whatever and how you can "play him off the floor" in the playoffs. But I think that is mostly about the shitty team Utah has around him. As others have said, they got a bunch of offense-only wings and just throw Rudy out there and hope it adds up to a decent defense. Rudy is -almost- able to just cover the whole court by himself, but not quite. Good teams figure out how to move the ball fast enough where Rudy can't help on everyone. I agree that if you put Rudy on a team with a generally good defense, he would be a monster.

I think of Draymond Green in Golden State as a good example of this; Green has pretty horrendous offense, but he has a huge value anchoring their defense (full of guys who are also trying hard on D and generally do not suck at defense). I actually think Gobert would be really good on the Suns in place of Ayton, though I would generally prefer to keep Ayton over having Gobert.

I think people recognize how good he is. His perception takes a hit because he makes $40M a year and at that price point a player should be able to create offense (beyond screen assists).

[specialsauce]

Javale was highly productive for us for most of the season. He’s exploitable in the playoffs but I think he’s an important piece to have on the roster.

Huh? This is interesting. So you think we should keep him because he was highly productive in the season that doesn’t matter and basically not playable when it mattered ?

[Shabazz]

There are benefits to having a good record in the regular season. I also think we could utilize him better in the playoffs. He didn’t get completely played off the floor the same way for the Lakers and Warriors when they won their titles and he’s basically the same player.

[specialsauce]

He barely played in the playoffs for the Lakers. 13 minutes per game in the first round , 7.5 in the SF and WCF, none in the finals.

For the Warriors, the most he ever played was 16 mpg and he was mostly in the single digits.

He’s a minimum salary guy. The fact we wasted our MLe on him was a huge mistake. He is a dime a dozen, should have used the MLE to get someone better than Cam Payne.

[Split T]

Well to be fair, we didn’t know Cam Payne was gonna turn into a g league level player again.

[TOO]

Well to be fair, we didn’t know Cam Payne was gonna turn into a g league level player again.

Fair, but his history says otherwise. He's kinda always been shit aside from last year. This just felt like regression to the norm.