Draft well. Ideally a selection that won’t reduce the value of existing talent, eg Sengun, KPJ. Get value for any player who we have already decided won’t be here in 2023-24. EG, Nwaba as priorities. Wood if we don’t see him here long-term. Make extension offer to KPJ at team-friendly terms (eg $10-15m p/a, 2-year guarantee, TO after year 2). No worries if he refuses. No trades for stars until trade deadline. We don’t want to reduce the value of our 2023 pick, as it will be useful in securing a deal. Opportunistic moves in FA if we can sign someone at a price lower than their value that we can then trade easily. No point in looking for role players that can be long-term pieces given we don’t yet know who our cast of star players will be. We can complete our roster in the 2023 offseason once we have made a move for a star player with the Nets picks.
Just to point out our window to add a free agent or trade for one ends next offseason... once extensions kick in we're having to choose between letting guys walk to save cap space or being able to go over the cap to do both...
What i mean by that is if they wanted to keep wood, gordon, or whatever they trade them for salary wise... Tate/Porter extensions will eat up about 30 million. If they do a deal of Wood, Gordon, and a pick or two for a decent star player, that will eat up cap space... They would have max space with Wall falling off prior to extensions with porter/tate...
If our package is Gordon, Wood, and future picks, we would be able to matchup salaries for around 33-38 million depending if Nwaba is included... If dealing for "star" of similar salary, here's the shopping list for potential trade options: Klay Thompson Anthony Davis Tobias Harris Khris Middleton Ben Simmons Shai Gilgeous Alexander Trae Young Jimmy Butler Bradley Beal Michael Porter Jr Pascal Siakim kyrie Irving Cj Mccollum DeAaron Gox Donovan Mitchell Bam Adebayo Jayson Tatum KarlAnthony Towns Devin Booker Brandin Ingram Could be players making less if a second player is thrown in... should give a reasonable expectation for level of talent...
i don't think we need to sign anybody tbh. just dealing Gordon is really the only pressing need. we have 3 more bodies coming into the team with our draft picks. (2 firsts 1 second).
No second. Gordon is only likely to be traded if the trade helps the team bring in talent. As Stone didn't trade Gordon for a late 1st round pick this trade deadline, one can assume Stone wants a better talent than a late FRP flyer this year or what that pick could be traded to acquire.
I'm not saying it's likely, but i could see Gordon, Wood, Nwaba, Tate and the brooklyn pick for Wiseman/ Thompson if Warriors fall flat in playoffs... They could start Gordon at the 2 and Wood at the 5 taking pressure off Draymond to space... A healthy Klay at 80% of the player he used to be could be a good mentor, defender, and floor spacer for the 3 spot... then a flyer on Wiseman to pair with our top pick this year...
For KPJ , if the team feels they want to extend him. I think you’re on point with $10 million per w/ 2 years guaranteed. That’s about mid level money. I’d go 4 yrs- $40 million with 2-yrs$20 million guaranteed. The other two years would be team options at $10 million per. That is basically (3 ) - 1 yr $10 million deals after the first year which he is likely to be on his best behavior. If he screws up the Rockets can move on pretty easily. That way he gets paid and the team is protected. After that, if he shows growth & matures he’ll still be 25 or 26 and in line for a bigger payday.
I think Stone is better at drafting than signing free agents. Probably vets or young players. Heck, i dont even mind keeping Bruno fernando.
Well, I think you study the tape hard for any player, but I don't think Smith has been that type of guy up till now. He's still very young in his career and just beginning to emerge. For his career he's been an off-ball player and bench guy, so part of the question is going to be the type of role other teams are willing to offer him. Is there a team out there that's going to offer him a starting role and 30+ mins per game? If so, I don't think we can compete with that. If we get a top pick, then most likely Smith/Holmgren + Sengun will relegate Jalen Smith to a bench role and I'm not sure if that's what he's interested in at this point in his career. In either case, as I said I think you at least make a pitch, because if you sign him, other players immediately become expendable and this needs to be an active offseason for the FO.
If Houston likes what they see out of Jalen Smith I would straight up do a S&T using Wood. Sign Smith to a 3 year/$40 million deal with a team option on year 3. If he busts it's just a short term sunk cost. If he blossoms we pick up the last year and work out a long term extension. We also get rid of Wood and Indiana gets deeper up front. Jalen can either turn out to be a Christian Wood with better defense or a derivative that we can cut our losses in a few years.
Indiana can't sign Smith to more than 4.5M and only for one year. He'll be gone after this season, and it won't be a S&T for that reason. For Smith, you're paying for upside at a skill position and hoping he blossoms. A team I see making an aggressive move for Smith is San Antonio. He'd start for them over Bates-Diop and pair well with Murray and Primo. They also have a ton of cap room to make a good offer for him, so not sure how much of a shot we'll have.
Ayton is criminally underrated. Dude's the 2nd most important Sun yet people act like Cp3 is the one responsible for everything he has done lol. Ayton is a modern Dwight Howard. He is mobile enough to guard guards on the perimeter but still able to defend centers and pfs inside. Look at the suns roster Ayton is the only defensive guy they have. On offense he has high bball IQ and good hands, his finishing rate is insane he is at a mind blowing 66% TS. If you design a play for him he is an almost like an automatic bucket already. The only thing that give me pause is we have Bruno Fernando and Sengun on the roster. Fernando might give you 70% of whst Ayton does at super cheap price and of course Sengun will need to chsnge if his game if he wants to play with Ayton.
