Getting to max contract range in 2013-2014...

certainly a target, but I think Bynum wants a party town. thinking somewhere like Atlanta which is good for young, rich black athletes. :MARIS61: they should be well under the cap as well.

just strikes me as that type of guy.

 

This thread is the reason I'm fine with letting Nico go. We have too much money committed to too little production. Wes Matthews is a backup SG. Period. If he's starting for you, you're not going far in the playoffs.

There are a lot of unknowns on this team. Some of our young players may pan out, some certainly won't. Why commit salary when we have no idea how players who we're banking will be our future centerpieces will pan out? It's poor cap management.

Let Nico go and allow Minny to hope and pray he lives up to his contract.

 

Some intriguing names on that list... If you figure Lillard, LMA and Batum are our #1, 2, and 3 scorers (not necessarily in that order, just how they spilled out of my brain), we wouldn't necessarily NEED a stud scoring 2. You could look at a guy like Shumpert or Kahwi Leonard to do a lot of the dirty work...

Then again there's other guys like Paul George and Evan Turner who, if we really CAN offer a max deal, would be pretty seriously enticing...

 

That's quite the list!

 

Granted, you're catching me after summer league game 2, but I think we need a Center.

 

But would we want Vagynum? Purple and Piss is strong with that one!

 

You are barking up the wrong tree.

I posted over a year ago that the OKC would not be able to keep all 4 guys. I already know this and see it as a major challenge for OKC in the near future.

But, that doesn't change the fact that at the new Mini-Max rate Harden will be a very valuable asset. If the OKC are in the Finals again, I think OKC ownership would have no problem paying the luxury tax for just one season. That allows them extend Harden and Ibaka. In two years they would need to trade one of the big 4.

There is simply NO WAY they allow Harden to just walk next summer. If the ownership group refuses to allow the payment of the lux tax, then MAYBE the team decides to move early on Harden and/or Ibaka in a trade. In which case they will be asking for a lot in return. They wouldn't want Hickson as the centerpiece of a Harden trade when the have Ibaka.

Either way, we or any other team with cap space is not going to simply snag Harden as an RFA next summer.

 

I could see okc trying to move harden for a lotto pick likebthey were rumored to be trying this year.

 

PG: Lillard
SG:
SF: Batum
PF: Aldridge* (I still believe next summer is the right time to deal him)
C: Leonard

Make a play for Harden or look at an uneven trade for Eric Gordon. I honestly believe the Hornets are in for a rude awakening with Rivers at PG. That is going to be a disaster, he's a SG! We'll have many options next summer.

 

Well it sucks that they would most likely not trade with us; but I suspect we could offer them quite a bit of rookie talent for Harding.

 

Worth remembering that we're talking next offseason, for the 2013 season, and beyond. Which means that Leonard will have more than a year to get stronger and develop before the window of this conversation really even opens, and even then, if you're being realistic, we're looking at the future of the franchise. Very limited sample size to go off of here, but if our offensive core looks something like Nico, LMA, Lillard a max $ FA wing, 2013 lotto pick, Freeland, Claver, and Ewill and/or Nolan chipping in a few per night, we really only need Leonard to develop defensively, and I've seen no reason why that couldn't happen fairly easily...

 

Again, you're focusing on the tree, please step back and discuss the forest with the rest of us. This is not a thread about James Harden, please stop trying to make it one.

 

See the bolded part.

Where is the forest?

 

Some interesting names include iggy, kevin martin, monta ellis, tyreke evans, bynum and pekovic

 

Read the title of the thread. He's the prize free agent at that position so I threw him out there, but if you can't understand the general idea behind the post (or the rest of the thread) then you need to work on some reading comprehension. Your literal interpretation of an abstract concept is bringing next to nothing to this conversation.

 

It's time for the rhetoric police to step in. As a minutiae Nazi, I'm afraid I have to rule in favor of Masbee's fully intact reading comprehension. Glazeduck used a specific name (Harden) thus rendering his abstraction argument null and void. Point, set and match to Masbee.

 

Funny, seems as though everyone else got the gist of the post. Heaven forbid ANY thread NOT be hijacked by a stupid, personal vendetta.

 

So, you guys actually think OKC is gonna commit 59 million to 4 players...? Leaving them 10 million (approximately) to fill out the roster - and then they'd take the bullet for Lux cap tax in the following years with the new CBA? As a matter of fact, I think in 2015, they'd use nearly their entire salary on Westbrook, Durant, Harden, and Ibaka, given the raises...

At any rate, I'd love to go after Tyreke, Pekovic, Jefferson, Harden or Paul George (if they somehow didn't pick up the team option for him.)

 

Vendetta? What did I miss?

 

I honestly don't know what I think. As an outsider I'd say no, but I guess it all boils down to how much the bottom line is going to dictate business in OKC and that's something that only Clay Bennett can answer.