Around the NBA - July 2017 Edition

Sure, if you have $10 million and need $13 million, move Davis or Aminu as an expiring contract for a deep bench guy that makes less per year, but has more years left.

Point is, without those bad contracts we'd have a lot more flexibility and a lot more options.

BTW, I'm not saying this is what we should have done, just answering your question about how we could have done it. That's just one example and it's based on the signings to date. The first guys to sign are the guys that get the big bucks. Once everyone blows their cap space wad, there are bargains to be had. Unfortunately, because we are over the tax apron, we aren't in the position to get any of those bargains.

If we had the full MLE, we could use it to pick up a player that would replace Crabbe or Turner for a lot less money - so replace one with a free agent of comparable quality for less money. Replace that other with the MLE and why worry about replacing Leonard. Most would consider him a net negative who's production should be more than replaced by our rookies.

In this alternate universe, we are at least as well off as we are now, in terms of talent and not entering year one of luxury tax hell.

P.S. I realize I am typing this with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight - which is why I'm not on the fire Neil bandwagon. Those contracts looked questionable at the time, but a year later they look downright terrible. He was banking on the cap rising to $108 million and individual contracts continuing to escalate. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

BNM

 

I'm guessing you prefer to build through the draft then

 

That didn't take long:

 

Why? We still wouldn't have the money to overpay Plums

 

It doesn't do anything for us. We lose Crabbe, Turner, Nurk...

Would've signed whoever our next target was in free agency (even though our priority was signing a 3rd ballhandler, per request of Dame and Cj)

We would've been eligible for S&Ts, but since contracts are still bloated, there is no one we could trade for that is realistically worth the value of Nurk, Crabbe and ET. And we wouldn't be able to sign comparable players.

They also don't acknowledge that we don't get Nurkic if we don't blow our cap space, essentially forcing us to trade Plumlee.

 

If we didn't pay for Meyers, Crabbe, and Evan Turner?

Yes we would, I'm not sure what you're talking about. Hell Neil almost didn't make the trade THIS year even though he HAD to!

 

He was a rental at best and we sold high on him....brilliant move by Olshey in my book...I'm sure he's been on the block since he put on a Portland uniform..nice guy and all

 

$500 for a bottle of what? Viagra?

 

Good time to open a donut shop in OKC.

 

In the land of cattle stockyards...he'll fit right in! BBQ!! Felton will be in hog heaven!

 

Tyreke Evans is literally a more injury prone version of Evan Turner. Evans is the most similar comparison for Evan...

And he got 1 year, $3.3M and Turner got 4 years, $70M. SMH.

I wish we used our Bi-Annual Exception to land Evans, and then shipped out Turner, Leonard, and a 2018 1st to BKN.

Evans would've replaced Turner's role, we would've saved $24M.

 

Per 36 Career Stats:
Evan Turner:_13.4 ppg / 6.4 rpg / 4.7 apg / 43.1 FG% / 29.8 FG3% / 78.2 FT%
Tyreke Evans: 18.0 ppg / 5.3 rpg / 5.7 apg / 44.4 FG% / 29.5 FG3% / 75.7 FT%

 

Pacers might be in a 2015/2016 Portland position. They lost their all-star, but are they really that much worse as a basketball team??? I think they might be a playoff team with the way the Eastern Conference is.

Collison / Young
Oladipo / Stephenson
Bogdanovic / Robinson III
Young / Leaf
Turner / Jefferson

 

Why you gotta brings facts into this?

 

Avery Bradley for Marcus Morris... that's kinda crazy, Avery and Smart were a big reason for their success.

Unless Tatum is having an insane rookie year, i just don't see how Boston got any better than they were last season. They are still in the same tier.

 

Hayward will be a pretty important addition.

 

Why would preferring $20M in cap space this summer to fill 2 wing spots mean I like building through the draft?
Based on deals signed this year, we could've had backup perimeter combos of:
George Hill & Tyreke Evans
Rudy Gay & Bojan Bogdanovic
James Johnson & Jodie Meeks
etc.

All those combinations are better than Crabbe and Turner. We would be a better team with:
Lillard / McCollum
McCollum / FA
Harkless / FA
Vonleh / Davis / Swanigan
Nurkic / Collins

Hell, if the front office was confident in a Vonleh and Swanigan PF combination, we could've traded Davis and had $27M in cap space to fill the 2 backup wing spots. We could've had the chance to sign Johnson and Gay for $2M more than they signed for with other teams, and then use the Room Exception for Meeks, who is a Crabbe type player.

Lillard / McCollum
McCollum / Meeks
Harkless / Gay
Johnson / Vonleh / Swanigan
Nurkic / Collins

Basically, we would've had a lot of free agent options this summer, with those options being better players than Crabbe and Turner, and at a cheaper price. If we saved our cap space till this year, we would've been golden. However, we're stuck paying Turner, Crabbe, and Meyers, and we won't have cap space when they come off the books because Nurkic, McCollum and Lillard will make a combined $85M.

 

Facts are painful. I know. I'm sorry.

 

He may have been a rental; I have trouble believing his plan going into the season was to ship off our starting center with no center depth behind him.

 

Losing Bradley sucks.... but smart can play good d too. I can't see how people are saying they got worse.