Desperate Robin Lopez salary dump coming

tweet tweet

 

Ryan Wolstat ‏@WolstatSun 23m
Lopez finally established himself as solid NBA big. Thought it would come sooner after watching him have great workout with Raps yrs ago

 

Absolutely. I thought he improved a lot last season. At 25, he's a year or two from entering his prime.

 

I love Neil Olshey. Best Gm we have had in a decade.

 

I'm not unhappy with it, if it goes through, and I think it would be a nice offseason overall. I think it gets us into the playoffs next year, which means we lose our draft pick. I'm not sure it's enough to keep LMA happy though. I think we need one more real difference maker on the team. I think Olshey should look to move Matthews and even Batum for a third banana. Adding CJ, Robinson, and possibly Lopez/Wright would be the kind of bench strengthening offseason that we desperately needed, but if we are truly trying to move forward, and keep Aldridge happy, we need a third scorer.

I wonder if Denver would do a sign-and-trade of Iggy for Batum/Freeland. Give Iggy something like 12 or 13 million.

Lillard/CJ
Matthews/Crabbe
Iggy/Wright
Aldridge/Robinson
Lopez/Leonard

 

[video]http://youtu.be/fUILpQCfSBU[/video]

 

I woulda taken a Reke/Lopez offseason.

Guess CJ/Lopez/Wright? offseason will be sufficient. If healthy I see us winning ~45 games next season. If Dame was a DWade like 2nd year jump, I see us winning a round in the playoffs

 

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ELddSafjV0[/video]

 

Don't underestimate the Thomas Robinson pickup. We got the 5th pick in last year's draft for nothing, and I think he still has a ton of potential.

 

Don't see the point of that. Nic > Iggy

Nic (age 24): 14.3pts, 5.6rebs, 4.9asts, 1.2stl, 1.1 blk, 37.2% 3pt
Iggy (age 29): 13pts, 5.3reb, 5.4ast, 1.7stl, 0.7blk, 31.7% 3pt

 

Honestly I think Cj can be more effective for us than Reke. And he costs about a tenth of what reke is getting

 

I still believe Matthews will be traded this summer. What could 4 mil in cap and Matthews net us?

 

But what about a sign and trade for Matthews, Freeland and cap space for Iggy? Iggy can play SG and having Iggy and Batum would be pretty sweet!

 

I'd consider this a very successful offseason dependent on what our finishing move is.

Dorell Wright? Matt Barnes? Yes please.

Want a tough guy, also though. We need some toughness.

 

He can block shots and shoot FTs. Yes, the jump is noticable:
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/3447/robin-lopez

 

Unmentioned in all of this is what Lopez will provide the team and what he won't take away...

He'll provide that rim protection and big body that we've been missing since Joel's healthy years which will (ostensibly) provide more rebounding opportunities, all this while his less-than-stellar rebounding should inflate LA's rebounding statistics. Same goes for his offense - he doesn't need the ball to score, so LA should get plenty of looks down-low.

He also shouldn't take away TOO much PT from Meyers.

 

I think that may work out pretty well actually. One thing about Iggy, he absolutely has to be surrounded by good shooters to operate at maximum efficiency. Here, he would be w/Batum, Lillard, McCollum, Crabbee, etc.

Additionally, he's a good distributor and not bad at making entry passes, which we need for of in our lineup, as Lillard and McCollum are not natural at making entry passes. This is essential to our lineup, rather we bring in a b/u PG or point-forward.

Denver wants younger guys than Iggy, and needs shooters pretty bad to open things open. Matthews is a high character guy who can provide defense and shooting for them, and they have plenty of ball-handlers w/Lawson and Galinari there.

The big question is the amt of money due Iggy: No way we're offering up what Sac did, and what is he actually worth? He's not going to drop off like Gerald Wallace b/c he's a very intelligent player with passing skills too, but he is probably on the downside. I think 4 years 10 mill per is reasonable, and we could pull it off by dealing Matthews + cap space, but after that Sac offer would he take that?

I'd have to think we'd be more appealing than Sac or Detroit, and who knows what the other teams he's met with are offering. I would also think we're closer than Dallas to contention.

Lillard/McCollum
Iguodala/McCollum
Batum/Claver (vet min?)
Aldridge/Robinson
Lopez/Leonard (O'neal?)

I think that's a top - 4 seed in the west, unless you have bad injuries.

 

That's what I was thinking too. And the good thing about Iggy is he loves to drive to the basket and isn't afraid of contact. That is essential for the success of our team.