Another note on Ilyasova. After this coming season he will be owed $8.3 million ($7.9 million next year and a $400,000 guarantee in 2016). IF..............that's a big if...but IF.....Milwaukee cannot find a suitable trade for him.... they could attempt to buyout his last 2 seasons for nothing and simply pay him off for this season. After the Nick Johnson signing (which I haven't seen the contract numbers so I'm guessing a little above minimum first year, probably around $600,000), we should have around $4.7 million of the MLE to sign a guy with. We could give Ilyasova $4.7 million of the MLE with a second year salary of $4.9 million and a guarantee of $3.6 million. This would make Ilyasova whole for giving up the last 2 years of his contract and put him in a positive position in regards to earning another deal in 2016. And a contract structured in this way would become much easier to clear out next summer if needed because the guaranteed portion is only slightly more than the cash ($3.4 million) that can be sent out in trade. In fact, you may be able to get Ilyasova to accept just the $3.4 million guarantee with a promise of at least a minimum contract in 2016. ^^^^^ This type of manuevering with the MLE is something that should be considered as Morey being capable of. I wouldn't be surprised if Morey flipped some players in between now and training camp, possibly using the TPE, and using non-guaranteeds to simulate another MLE signing, and left the MLE unused into the start of the season. The MLE could be used for a guy like Gerald Wallace as well if he agrees to a buyout with Boston as part of a Rondo trade. If Ainge decides to blow it up and go to the lottery and trade Rondo for the Pelies pick and other young assets part of that deal could be clearing out Wallace. He'd be much easier to swallow down after a buyout with the remainder of the MLE than to trade for that crappy contract outright. Teletovic could be acquired in this fashion as well...Nets could get him to agree to almost a zero buyout with us signing him to the balance of our MLE. (Incidentally this would save Brooklyn over $17 million in salary and luxury taxes. Do you think they care?) Brandon Jennings is another candidate for this type of buyout and signing as part of a sign-and-trade for Monroe. He could be bought out of his last year and signed for the balance of the MLE in very similar fashion to the above proposal for Ilyasova. Jared Dudley another possibility here. Clippers are pushing the apron. They could buy out Dudley for his last year and a $1 million cut on this year's salary. We could sign him to the MLE with a small guarantee for next season that could be easily moved with cash. This would necessitate the Clippers handing us a draft pick or some sort of asset like Scotty Hopson for Reggie Bullock. JR Smith could be done this way as well. But I'd make PJax give up Hardaway, Jr. for that privilege. Martell Webster another candidate for this type of buyout and signing. EDIT: And finally, the Knicks could save themselves around $20 million by getting Bargnani to agree to a buyout knocking around $4 million off his salary...which the Rox signing him to the balance of the MLE at around $4.5 million plus a non-guaranteed season next year. If we could get an additional asset out of PJax while saving him $20 million...that would be nice if nothing else materializes. Bargnani at the 4 for us...could be big time..especially with not a real need for his rebounding except to basically box out one of the opposing bigs so Dwight can gobble boards.
I'd love to get Millsap, but im not sure we have quite enough to get both him and upgrade our starting PG. I could easily see either of the Morris twins coming to Houston in a trade for Bledsoe or Dragic. Could also see Bass packaged with Rondo.
Marion would be a fantastic pickup for us. Veteran, championship experience. Good defender and hustler. How do y'all feel about Ramon Sessions? Is he still available? I think he would make a great spark plug and playmaker off the bench. How much would he cost?
can probably package okafor into a s&t if it involves a phoenix pg, people may forget because he didn't play a game, he was a member of phoenix. Also pf wise, probably the most available one would be Ilyasova, but I have no idea what Kidd's MO is.
I think Both would be great sprinkle in Okafor or Oneal as well. Idk what Morey is doing but the FAs are getting signed. I wish we could get some news at least on the FA front.
I'd rather have Gerald Green coming back with Bledsoe or Goran from PHX. He's a cheap backup SF that made the 4th most 3's in the league last year...at a nice 40% clip....in addition to finishing at 60% in the paint. However....I think PHX's plan would be to keep Green and put him in the backcourt with Bledsoe if they move out Dragic. So I'm kinda banking on an acquisition of Dragic WITHOUT giving up the Pelies pick. And in that scenario I can see Marcus Morris possibly coming back with Goran. Wouldn't want Markieff. He's simply not good enough at the 4 shooting the ball to warrant rotation minutes.
Don't know if we'd do a SnT including Okafor considering we could just sign him using a vet min or BAE exception. I like Ilyasova a lot, but considering how he played last year, that's a big gamble to make. I don't think we make that kind of trade until we have our PG locked up.
PHX needs a big and a cheap guard replacement. Their choice of one of Bev/Canaan and one of Jones/DMo. Throw in our 2017 pick. Done. Or....turn it into a 3-way trade with Detroit for Monroe. We send assets to Detroit for Monroe...say one of DMo/Jones and one of Bev/Canaan, plus the 2017 pick. Detroit signs and trades Monroe to PHX. PHX sends us Goran.
Why would you use an exception (min sure, they're infinite, but bae?) if you can combine him into a larger trade and not use the exception?
Apparently if you just make trade proposals as unnecessarily convoluted as possible, you can trick people (and apparently GM's) into thinking they are getting a bargain deal. Why anyone is "banking" on Phoenix to trade either one of Dragic or Bledsoe is beyond me. They obviously played well with each other last year, and there is very little leverage the players have to force their way out. What... Dragic has a player option next year that he's going to use to get paid???... That hardly means he's bolting for greener pastures NOW. The Suns have little inclination to trade him waaayyy earlier than necessary when they don't even know if they are going to lose him or not next Summer.
Milsap was the best Hawks player last season. Nobody trades their best player unless the player asks for a trade.
It's real simple. Dragic is going to opt out and somebody is going to give him a starting salary of around $18 million or more next summer. He'll be a 7-year player eligible for the bigger max deal starting somewhere around $18 million. So if PHX re-signs Bledsoe to $12 million a year..that's $30 million they've got wrapped up on salary cap for Goran and Bledsoe. Then you throw in Isaiah. Now you're up to $37 million wrapped up in 3 point guard/combo guards. Now throw in PJ Tucker and PHX is up to $42.5 million. Now throw in another $4 million on minimum salary roster slots after giving away everybody else and you've got $46 million in salary cap with nothing in the front court. If you keep Alex Len and one of the Morris brothers so you can at least roll out a starting 5, then they're cap space is even less. It's simply a recipe for extreme mediocrity. All the big money in the backcourt. And scraps in the front court. Won't work. Won't get them to the playoffs. Won't make them competitive. PHX knows this. PHX knows they gotta get a big time front court player from somewhere. And they know if they keep Goran and give him a big max deal and they sign Bledsoe that they can't go out and sign an Aldridge type player next off season. So, they're going to wind up having to let Goran walk at that time or trying to come up with some convuluted sign-and-trade agreement for Goran....which most likely won't work with teams like the Rockets sitting there ready to gobble up Goran into their cap space....or try to trade Bledsoe for a big next summer...after running the risk of injury and underperformance from Bledsoe next year. Not smart. PHX's time to sort this out is now...not next summer. That's why all this is dragging out so long. PHX needs a big. They need a big that they can plug into their starting lineup that is a difference maker. Is that Monroe?? Don't know. Or is that DMo with cap space to hand out a max deal? Dunno. How about Hibbert?? Dunno. I dunno the exact solution for PHX. But I know it involves acquiring a big at the expense of moving one of Goran/Bledsoe.
I actually prefer Markieff. He's a little bigger than his brother, and has a good mid-range game that he can probably expand out to the 3 point line at some point. Agree that Green is probably staying. Bass is intriguing. Expiring contract, good (and versatile) defender, good mid-range shooter, playoff experience, has played with Dwight. If we can get him to just take a few steps back on the baseline for those corner 3s, he'd be a great fit. I could see a trade similar to this: Trade #1 - Lin TPE for Bass Trade #2 - NOP 2015 1st, NYK 2015 2nd, TJones, Capela, Rights to Gentile, (plus Gee, Hopson, Powell, and Covington for salary matching) for Rondo. Rondo / Beverley Harden / Daniels Ariza / Marion Bass / Marion Howard / Dorsey With Rondo and Bass, our mid-range game would dramatically improve. Rondo makes Howard look better, and would be a good fit with Beverley/Canaan/Daniels while Harden sits. I'm really not concerned about Rondo "dominating" the ball. Everyone seems to forget that he played with Pierce, KG, and Allen. Small ball looks good with: Beverley Rondo Harden Ariza Howard
Look at Markieff's numbers. He's inefficient. From midrange and especially from distance. Don't want. Brandon Bass...not as good as DMo. Don't want. Unless he comes with Rondo...after we've exhausted all other options (Dragic/Bledsoe/Love/CZeller) first.
DMo and Bass play completely different rolls. Not really comparable. Plus, Bass can guard both forward positions and hit the mid-range jumper at a 47% clip. A very good fit unless the rockets are really hung up on getting a 4 that can hit the 3.
Yes, we are hung up on a true stretch 4. Bass is a decent player. But not one I would park in the TPE slot. That's too valuable for that. I'd blow some non-guaranteeds on Bass if we couldn't do anything else. But that's not a priority right now. Only later if we can't do anything else. Gee/Hopson/Covington is enough to get Bass. Boston gets cap relief.
What makes sense to you based on your OPINIONS doesn't necessarily make sense to all 30 NBA gm's. The facts are- - The Suns obviously were more than comfortable playing Dragic & Bledsoe together last year in their uptempo system, and were pretty good with them on the court together. I'm looking at the lineups now from last year and its pretty obvious that they were a deadly offensive team during the regular season when Dragic & Bledsoe played together. Add in the fact that both Dragic & Bledsoe have good size for PG's and its not hard at all to imagine a GM that would roll the dice with these two as their starters. -Most teams are more than comfortable with a 3 guard rotation that is well paid. (for instance, if Klay Thompson is kept in GS like they want to, than next season the Curry/Thompson/Livingston backcourt will earn close to 30 mil alone) (NOLA Pelles are paying 3 backcourt guards 35 mil+ this year) etc. -The Suns have up until the trade deadline to asses whether to trade one of Dragic/or Bledsoe. The offers they get now in July will most likely be the exact same quality offers they get in February. There is no rush. -There is also no indication that Dragic is dying to leave and wont at least sit down with them on July 1st 2015. Alot of GM's will take that risk with a player that has shown no indication that they want to leave. Ex: The Spurs let Manu become an UFA because they knew he would sit back down with them because he wanted to come back. The Mavs didn't trade Dirk cause they knew he was happy in Dallas and would make it work. etc. If a GM feels like their player wants to be back, and will give them a fair shake in free agency, alot of them will keep that player for the year & take a knowing risk of them leaving rather than get whatever minor assets they can get the Summer before in a trade because they are scared of their free agency demands 12 months from now.
