It’s fine that we disagree. If Eason had shown he could stay healthy and play back to backs, he would receive an offer in line with or higher than what the Rockets paid Jabari Smith Jr. That didn’t happen, and even rebuilding teams like Brooklyn or Chicago do not want to be holding the bag on a contract that pays injury prone Tari Eason 25-30 million a season for three or four years. It will impact their roster construction when they are ready to contend because of how harsh the apron penalties are. My feeling is Eason ultimately signs a deal with a salary between 15-20 million per season. That’s a contract the Rockets match. If they have to, they attach draft capital to Finney-Smith and/or Steven Adams to trade their contracts into a team’s cap space. Or just deal with the situation for a year until VanVleet’s 25 million is off the books.
IF Stone can turn the corpse of Steven Adams and his contract into Coby White - he deserves GM of the year. That would be a massive win for the team. I figure it takes DFS for two reasons - A) it's $188k less money for Chicago, they get slightly closer to being under the tax line and B) Adams won't play at all, not that it matters to the Bulls. You make a good point that they need a center. I guess it boils down to who Chicago prefers on their roster next year, DFS or Adams. Any talk of Tari or Jabari is dead on arrival - Jabari is on a poison pill making it almost impossible and Tari doesn't make enough $$ unless you package him with Clint and that's not happening.
Huh? the team with 1 guy that can beat a person off the dribble and only has two offensive plays as a team ( KD ISO. Sengun do something) don't need a guy that can score?
Initial 2026 Cap Space and Spending Power Projections | Spotrac News Article is nearly three months old so a bit outdated with all the trades, especially the Trae trade to Washington. Six teams with significant cap space. Even after the Trae trade Washington has $48M in cap space. The free agent class isn't very strong. Lebron, Trae, and Harden are headliners, but Trae is unlikely to move and Lebron is either re-signing in LA or going to Cleveland IMO. Harden may be traded for Garland but we'll see. White is among the best remaining free agents after them. I don't see these teams going hard for White, especially Chicago, but you never know. He is a UFA and decides his own destiny.
I've said several times before that I prefer Ayo .... but if they swing deal for White, I won't complain. It's the 2nd best option. I'd give it to them. I wanted Ayo in that draft instead of Christopher / Garuba
You're worried about Tari being pulled away in restricted free agency, but restricted free agency as it used to be no longer exists. Only 3 offer sheets total have been made to RFAs this decade. All of them were matched, none of the players left their teams. And the most recent one was 3 years ago - it's been three years since any RFA offer sheet has happened. The new CBA and salary floor rules etc. have essentially eliminated RFA offer sheets.
