Sign Brook Lopez for 22 million Sign FVV for 32 million for 3 years…team options Cut Tate’s salary 6.75 million Sign Cam Johnson for 30 million Cut KPJ’s salary 15.5 million FVV and BROOK Lopez are CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYERS….WON A CHIP….have the experience Cam Johnson is a great shooter and being 6’8 will be a good defender
Sign Brook Lopez for 22 million Sign FVV for 32 million for 3 years…team options Cut Tate’s salary 6.75 million Sign Cam Johnson for 30 million Cut KPJ’s salary 15.5 million FVV and BROOK Lopez are CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYERS….WON A CHIP….have the experience Cam Johnson is a great shooter and being 6’8 will be a good defender
I'd be fine with FVV if we got rid of Porter and used him as PG with Green to start but then slid him to the two with Thomson and Washington on the Court. Christopher has a lot to prove but has real talent. Brook Lopez for sure is a perfect backup to Sengun. Tate needs to be traded along with KJ for future picks or a signed and traded Cam Johnson. Not sure if Johnson can man the backup 4 spot but that would be ideal. Well, take that back, Eason could man the backup 4 if Johnson started and Garuba could be special teams kinda guy for end of game stops. PG - VanVleet / Thompson / Washington SG - Green / Christopher SF - Johnson / Whitmore PF - Smith Jr. / Eason / Garuba ..C - Sengun / Lopez I'd be happy with that roster for a bit. Won't win any Championships but at least it's balanced.
First thing will be to see how free agency shakes out. A consolidation trade (or 2) seems inevitable. I would think KJ would be one of the guys leaving since his contract is set to expire. Do the Rockets want to extend him...
Trade Tate for a future 2nd (salary dump) Sign Fred Van Vleet: 3 years $100 million, last year team option Sign Dillon Brooks: 3 years $45 million, last year team option Sign Brook Lopez: 2 years $45 million Pick up KJ Martin’s option. Trade him for a protected 1st. Trade Christopher for a 2nd. Sign Vet Mins: Pat Beverley, Rudy Gay, Robin Lopez FVV / Amen / Tyty Jalen / KPJ / Beverley Brooks / Whitmore Jabari / Tari / Gay Lopez / Sengun / Garuba / Lopez
I think Cam Whitmore would start if we drafted him last year. Cam can shoot and has a elite 1st step and size. However, he is very young with age and mindset. He needs a veteran to help him how to play in the NBA. He is a true top 10 player in this draft but he is very immature. Our 6 core players Green, Sengun, Smith, Eason, Thompson and Whitmore were all picked to be lottery prospect. Green, Smith, Thompson and Whitmore were top 10 prospect in each other draft. There is no other team in the league have drafted the QUALITY and QUANTITY of talented prospects in a 3 years span.
When talking about what's next another question: when can we see these guys in summer league and will Tari and Jabari play?
I know Stone won't do this, but this is what we should do: Trade KPJ for Tyus Jones straight up Cut Nix Get some "lob threat"/"rim protector" backup C Dunno what else, just trade KPJ and cut Nix
Do people realize Dillon Brooks is not an elite defender and a garbage offensive player who is always unhappy about the number of shots he's taking? Do you know that for years, he takes boneheaded shots with great players around him wide open and easy passes clearly available to him? This is not your PJ Tucker. This is not your KCP. If he's a reclamation project, you don't pay $15m/yr to a reclamation project. NO ONE is offering him more than the full MLE, absolutely no one. This is the type of guy where his GAME should excuse his behavior but it doesn't. This guy is a lesser, taller Pat Beverley. It's all bark. It's all about getting his own name in the media. There are no elite playoff scorers he has any effect on and a mediocre defender can hold him to 40% from the field. Why anyone would pay him more than $5-10m is crazy to me. He is the opposite of an Udoka type player. Fake toughness. Doesn't care what's good for the team on defense, offense or in the media. Memphis DESPERATELY needs a 3&D wing and they announced the day after the season they are happy to let him walk for no assets. This guy's whole team and coaching staff wanted him to stop poking Lebron and he just wouldn't stop no matter how it affected the team. Why is it so hard to understand that pointing out 2-3 good things about a player out of context is NOT an analysis? Any horrible player in the NBA has 2-3 good general features. The game is offense and defense. This guy is selfish on both sides of the court. We have Sengun and Amen now, so another poor shooter on the floor is not an option. The rest of our shooters still have to pass their first test and get better, it's not the time to bring in this poor 3 and mediocre D guy. That's NOT the culture change we've been wanting. That's EXACTLY the culture of the last two seasons we want to get away from: do what's best for me, give up when I want, ignore the coach's instructions. We don't have to be anyone's savior and take on reclamation projects. We're rich by NBA standards guys. Get out of the poor man's mentality.
we're already loaded with wing players anyways, even if we lose kenyon. a rim protector is who we should open the bank for, and then roll over the rest of the capspace till next summer
I hope we keep cap space for 2024 and add a few vets for the bench. PatBev to annoy everyone, Montrezl or Tristan Thompson as a backup rim protector. KPJ should get the Rockets a nice bench player or draft rights for someone Udoka is high on. Let some team get caught up in Harden and Kyrie mega deals. 2024 free agency is gonna see 20 teams waiting on max deal offers too LeBron, A. Davis, Kawhi, George, Klay Let them sit on those offers and come with max deal offers on Anthony Edwards, J. Brown, D. Murray, Siakum. I feel someone from that group would be open too realistically coming here.
Look they're all kids so we can USE vets anywhere. However by priority I think we need a rim protector and then a veteran PG too. With Amen on board and him being quite the project (tweaking his shooting, finishing and even positional defense) we have to give him a mentor who is also a stable alternative option for us. To go into the season with Amen and the guy who ran PG last season and Sengun would be a disaster. There has to be some contrast so that you know when you're doing something wrong. If everyone is a project, mistakes become ok. We're not in that phase anymore. At C I'm hoping for anyone who can give us 20-25 minutes of rim protection such that he can teach it to Sengun as well. Brook Lopez would convince me to bring Sengun off the bench and let him win back the starter spot as Lopez ages. Otherwise there's plenty of decent options out there for a vet rim protector who can give us 20 minutes off the bench. I think although there's a chance KPJ can turn it around here as a 3&D player, we don't really need someone at his size who can do that. What we need is a guy with floor general sensibilities at the PG spot who can steady this ship when needed. I'd be happy with a Dennis Schroeder even here but I'm not opposed to a short term (or flexible) big contract with someone like FVV who can bring championship experience, 3pt shooting, defense and a great asst/to ratio. What we don't need at this spot is someone who leans more towards being an isolation scorer.
We absolutely must make a consolidation trade (or more than one). There's no room on this roster for Martin, TyTy, Nix, Tate. Ideally I'd like to package multiple of these guys to pick up a veteran point guard on a 1-year deal like Tyus Jones, Mike Conley. There's also the question of what to do with KPJ. There have been strong signals that the KPJ at point guard experiment is over, and Udoka is not interested in continuing it. If we add a veteran point guard, does KPJ slide over to the 3? If so, where does that leave Tari and Cam? If Amen starts right away, will KPJ be willing to come off the bench without throwing soup at people? (I have my doubts.) Honestly, after the Whitmore pick, I'm wondering if there's a place for KPJ on this roster. It's possible he may need to join that "consolidation assets" group above. As for our main needs, they're still the same. We need some good veteran shooters and defenders, with the most obvious holes being starting point guard (unless you want to throw Amen right into the fire, which I doubt they do) and backup center. There also may be room for a good defensive wing, but now that we have both Tari and Cam Whitmore, I'm less interested in adding another guy who plays small forward and more interested in just developing our in-house options and seeing what we have.
I like some combo of Bruce Brown/Gabe Vincent/Grant Williams - younger role players that aren’t going to be stars and won’t be overly expensive but that pair nicely with our current core - alongside Brook Lopez on a short contract. Those 3 role players also all were on teams going deep in the playoffs and I think we just need some players with that experience. I would be disappointed if we spent a lot of $$ on FVV. Less so with Harden, just because I have 5 of his jerseys and it’d be a reason to dust them off!
This is where I am at. We don't have enough minutes for all the guys we have - especially considering we will be adding some high prized free agents. I think there is not question, that we will try to get enough minutes for Green, Sengun, Jabari, Tari, Amen and Cam. That's 6 players already. If we don't trade KPJ he will play heavy minutes as well. So what about Martin, Tate, TyTy, Garuba, Christopher and Nix? As far as free agents go, I believe a rim protecting C should be the priority - with a veteran PG close behind, preferably one, that can shoot and set up his teammates. We have been in the "collecting young assets and see who sticks" phase for long enough, to set us up for the future we need to make some moves in order to avoid stunting the future developement of the young players we believe in.
