NBA Rumors: A young team may look to steal Brook Lopez from the Bucks It’s no surprise that Lopez will be on Houston’s radar. They have a significant amount of cap space to utilize this off-season, and a big chunk of that will likely go toward adding veteran talent to put them in a position to contend next season. Iko notes that James Harden is the franchise’s primary target in free agency, so it’s clear that this team is willing to go all-in on contending next season. Potentially coming away with Harden and Lopez, in addition to drafting a quality player with the fourth overall pick in the upcoming 2023 NBA Draft, would undoubtedly be a significant boost. What about the player development of Sengun? If Brook Lopez sign with Houston, who starts? How many minutes you give Lopez a game? How many minutes you give Sengun a game? Lopez will help with interior defense, toughness and 3 point shooting.
With all due respect, your poll is useless. What does overpay mean??? It should be a multi-poll with a stack of options on how much to overpay Lopez.
Udoka is going to make everyone deserve their playing time. If Sengun wants those minutes, he's going to earn them. Kid better be prepared after this offseason.
Its going to boil down to if Sengun wants Lopez to back him up, If Sengun likes him I like him. I think it could be a good signing by Sengun thou if he decides to offer Lopez a contract...
You don't change Sengun's minutes regardless. He's too important a prospect to mess with his minutes in year 3. You have to bring him off the bench but you run offense through him like crazy and really hold him heavily accountable guarding bench units. The idea is that he watches and learns from Lopez and starts winning back that starter spot in 1-2 years as Lopez ages. Remember Lopez is already 35. You want to keep Lopez around 28 minutes per games. You're going to have someone like Garuba taking like 8 leftover minutes. That leaves 60 minutes (average 30 minutes per player) for Sengun and Jabari. Jabari can still steal a few minutes at SF. Those are starter level minutes and it would be nice to see them actually compete for their minutes. Will make them better players. We are not desperate for anyone. We can totally proceed this offseason with 3 extremely low cost high character signings at PG/SF/C and try to make the playoffs. For some reason people are nuclear about missing the playoffs and they blame it on the owner ("he's already decided to spend it all" allegedly). It all doesn't matter. Teams are routinely in our position and fail to make the playoffs. Not making the playoffs on first attempt is not an indicator of a bad core. We have never tested these players in that atmosphere, the last 2 years were heavy handed forced tanking and inevitably garbage roster in terms of ability to make winning plays. We sacrificed some development for some better returns in the draft, it would be stupid to on Day 1 of trying to win treat it like it's a last chance. It's absolutely not a disaster if we don't make the playoffs next season even if the owner is acting melodramatic about it to make you happy. The only important thing about next season is attempting to make the playoffs, weeding out the bad prospects, establishing a championship culture and skills development. Finishing 11th is fine if half your roster is under 22. Finishing 11th is only a treadmill position when your roster is mature and you have spent most of your big assets. We're not that team. We can design this so that we use our cap space next season to acquire the perfect vets and dump the youngsters we're sure are not part of the future. It will be easier to convince vets after finishing 11th with a strong showing from the young guys rather than after finishing 30th. Tatum and Brown are 25 and 26. Tatum is 3 years younger than MJ was when he won his first title. Jokic is 28 and making his first Finals appearance. The guys we drafted are all under 22. It will be 4 more years (more than Udoka's entire contract) before these players hit some semblance of their prime. In truth a player's prime is around 27-28. With Lopez I think his benefits extend past 2 years. When his contract is over, we'll benefit from what he's taught this team and the standards we'll set based on his play. Championship experience. Opens the interior up for Jalen's drives more than we've ever seen before - he will face far less contact at the rim after he's beaten his man. Jabari could very well learn how to protect the paint too. I'm willing to outbid anyone for a two year contract up to $30m. Ideally we grab him around $20-25m but I think there will be competitors for his services. You can't be precious about a few million dollars in the short term as long as it's not conflicting with youngsters' extensions. That's a premium I'm willing to pay vs locking us into a 4 year expensive contract. I mentioned in another thread $30m is now the average salary of a starting PG, so you have to adjust the numbers in your head to the new reality. The salaries are going to get more inflated and you may not even be used to what they were LAST season. A player with this many benefits in terms of skills, overall production and mentorship I don't want us to pass up. Things get infinitely easier after signing him and being left over with $35mish in cap space, #4 and future picks. I would be happy if we did nothing else but sign Lopez and two vet minimum guys at PG/SF in anticipation of better FA/Trade options opening up. Very high on him. Defense is the cheaper, easier and more in-your-control way to improve at 50% of possessions in the NBA. Do it Stone.
Who's coming off the bench Jabari or Sengun? Not sure why Lopez would spurn chasing rings as a desired commodity among actual contenders to come here other than the money so are we really going to make him that type of offer? I dont see it.
Outside of the superstar centers: Embid /Jokic. The centers who are in their prime J. Allen ($20m), Capela ($18m). Jonas and Nurk are 13-14m range. It's less about being stingy, more about knowing the market value for your centers. Some of those deals who locked in few years ago, but even accounting for that, paying low $20m for a center in his mid thirties, is very generous.
Sengun needs to be a power forward and a small ball center versus a full time center... just like KPJ should be a shooting guard or small forward. This positionless basketball has to go.
We have to find a center that will not steal Sengun's mins and also will make an impact when he's on the court unlike Garuba. I'm thinking of a slightly better Bruno Fernando. Sengun might have a breakout season so making a move that might f.ck his progression up would be unforgivable for me and for whom btw? A 34 years old dude that won't even be here when we are good. We are not gonna be a playoff team next season anyway just play the kids and back them up with okayish vets.
I hear you on this. But as I was thinking this through I had to ask myself, would you rather trade say #20, KJ, Tate for Capela at 2 yrs $42 mil left on his contract, or sign Lopez for like 2yrs $50 mil, and instead use those trade assets in another deal that could additionally improve our team? I think something like that may even be preferable considering Capela is 5 yrs younger. But he can’t stretch the court like Lopez with his 3pt shooting.
I'd be good with Capela over Brook. Am not married to a specific player so long as the role is filled.
Because some people here really really really really REALLY want him to. And they're also 100% certain that he adores teaching younger players how to play the game the right way, because EVERY veteran player is like that.
Not sure about Capela but have a hunch is on the decline very soon. Clint came into the league raw. Allen is 24-25, a lot younger than I expected him to be, bodes well for the Cavs and playing with Mobley.
The thing is every team got young players, the Rockets just have an army of them and tons of cap space.....lmao. Underwhelming much?
