I'd love to keep Wes but... if he's too expensive... I'd love to only pay Green ~$10mill (IF this is possible) to replace him
DeMarre Carroll - Underrated, solid advanced defensive numbers. Jae Crowder - A lot like DeMarre Carroll. KJ McDaniels - Started out strong, fizzled as the season went on. Has a lot of potential on the defensive end - RFA.
Problem with being under cap is not having MLE. Signing WES, Lopez, our other FA and Aldridge will have us over cap. That means we can grab another player that's close to 6 mil per. Letting Matthews go will insure that we have roughly 2.8 mil. That's a completely different caliber of player IMO
All these role players we are talking about getting max or near max deals... don't we already have one of those? And doesn't nearly everyone hate him because he is a role player making too much money? Maybe I'm mistaken, but Im pretty sure everyone will be freaking the fuck put when Khris Middleton is scoring 11 ppg on a max contract.
Well we saw the downside of a great defender with no 3 point shot. Golden State had Bogut "guarding" Tony Allen which basically meant he played a zone at the rim. Memphis was playing 4 on 5 offensively and couldn't do any of their normal plays with the big men. Golden State won both the first and second quarters by 10 points and the game was over at half time. So defense is important but if a player can't make wide open jump shots it destroys an offense. One of the reasons I don't want Andre Roberson or any player without a jumper.
You are spot on man! Batum's contract is going to be fine compared to some of these mid-level players this summer that get outrageous contracts.
We need a better defensive scheme more than we need any specific defensive players. The idea that funneling the offense to midrange shots because they are the least efficient is so flawed. They're an extremely high percentage shot when unguarded, but the stats say otherwise because most teams are intelligent enough to challenge those shots. We simply encourage a team like Memphis to get into a rhythm from their favorite spot. Imagine what Kobe in his prime would have gone off for against that type of defense! A second problem is Stotts' insistence on not doubling. It makes the defense so predictable, a good offense can patiently carve it up. This gets magnified in the playoffs when everything is scouted so well and the game slows down.
Stotts basically said the same thing about him. He needs a training camp, so does AAA. They both were often out of position not quite knowing where our guys liked to be on the court. Both Afflalo and Gee are solid players. Gee can slash and finish in traffic. As for now, they're in limbo until we see if LA comes back. I wouldn't be surprised to see both of them back next season
The trick is to get these guys when nobody's heard of them. To think that we were blasted for the contract we gave Wes to pry him away from the Jazz. Now he looks like he was underpaid. But think of how the Grizzlies got Tony Allen, or Philly got Raja Bell, or Detroit got Ben Wallace, or San Antonio got Bruce Bowen, or Atlanta got Carroll - that's what you have to do. So it's too late on people like Middleton, Carroll and Draymond Green. Basically, if we know about them because of their sustained minutes in the NBA, it's probably too late.
Here's a guy who's a total star in Europe (i.e., probably the highest paid American, playing for the team that pays the highest salaries, CSKA Moscow) but could probably be had for the mid-level (you may remember him from his time with the Raptors):
You remember it quite differently than I do. The contract was considered pretty reasonable on a yearly basis, but we front-loaded it to keep Utah from being able to match, and the dumb journalists couldn't see past the initial salary when they're accustomed to seeing the big numbers at the end.
Front loading didnt matter. Very overreported in the media in my opinion. NBA teams have plenty of money to make payroll one year vs three years from now. What mattered was the total cost of the contract as Utah and most critics didn't think Wes was worth the $35 million.
I was bummed when Houston traded for him for so cheap. And then he never got any time with them which surprised me. I'd definitely be interested in bringing him in. Of course, as a RFA, anything cheap or reasonable, and Houston probably matches. And what it'd possibly take for them to not match, I'm not all that intrested in.
