Now that OKC has matched (phew), I suggest we use the cap space to absorb players from luxury-tax-paying teams. I understand that the luxury tax is extra bad if you're a repeat offender. I don't know how many teams are, but I know Brooklyn is, so my suggestion (as I said in the Kanter thread) is to absorb Joe Johnson's salary in return for picks, unprotected like the one we got from the Nets that turned into Lillard. But: what picks do the Nets have? There's also Miami:
Unfortunately for my idea, it looks like the Deron Williams waiving already drops Brooklyn below the line. I didn't know that waiving could do that. They still have to pay the bulk of his salary, though.
The Cavs basically have to sign him, as LeBron has told them to. Also, he wants to stay and he's a RFA. (I like him a lot, but he's sort of a super-duper version of Ed Davis, with similarly non-existent offense.)
Ahh, gotcha. I haven't really kept up with that. Think we should throw an offer out anyway, or it ties up too much time when we could be offering someone else?
Doesn’t matter, according to RealGM, the Nets do not have any picks worth trading cap space for. 2016 none 2017 second round pick from Boston 2018 none 2019 their own 1st that can not be traded until after the 2018 draft http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed
OKC is going to want to shed salary after matching, but I don't really like what they've got. They'll want to send Novak, presumably, but I don't want Augustin. I guess I'd be happy to have Roberson. Anthony Morrow is sort of Kyle Korver-esque, but at 29 he may be too old for us.
I might, if I or anyone had any idea who they are. As it stands, I could post the exact same tweet that Aldridge did, and it would be no less accurate.
Back to your original topic..........I am all for absorbing the contracts of good young talent. Players who fit the plan. However I am not for absorbing a large contract if the carrot is a draft pick. Any draft pick we get will be non lottery IMO, so instead of gambling on whether or not the draft pick works out 3 years from now, try to get a player who is young but has more of a resume. Either way it is a gamble, but if he has been in the league for a few years, you get a better idea of his skills and work ethic. Any draft picks should be icing, not the cake.
Agreed. I want to bring in young guys who have shown that they can play at this level, not just a bunch of scratch-off tickets.
Id love to take a chance on Perry Jones, and Augustin is a solid backup PG. Maybe we could get a pick or 2 or even a decent player out of Boston by taking on Gerald Wallace's contract. I believe Boston has the Nets unprotected 1st next year.. maybe we eat up Wallaces contract for the right to swap with the Nets pick if ours falls inside the top 14. Then we could try to trade for Joe Johnsons contract to make the Nets even worse, using Johnson as a perfect mentor to CJ. Who knows, the Nets could have the 5th worst record, which, coupled with our own pick, would give us a solid chance at the top 3.
Either: the contracts are small enough for young players that it's not worth it to the other team to trade them, or... well, there aren't any.
