The way too early 2018 playoff picture

I'm not trying to sweep away the great season this has been, but I was thinking. With half a brain that is a dangerous thing sometimes.

With the improvement we made with Nurk, we are much better. But will it be enough to be something more than a low playoff seed?

Taking health and future acquisitions out of the equations, where are we as a team?

GS
SA
UTAH
HOU

Should all be locks for the playoffs as of now

LAC
OKC
DEN
MEM
POR
NOP
MIN
DAL

I don't see a ton of separation between those teams. Min will be a year older. NOP is playing very good right now, and should only get better. Dal playing better with Noel....although I don't think they have enough.

Should be a brutal year in the west.

 

Brutally fun!

 

There's a few teams that should really blow it up.

LAC
DAL
MEM

They're teams that are built to win now, but they're not good enough to beat the top teams in the league. GSW, CLE, and SA are all much better than the Clippers, Dallas, or Memphis. The Mavs should just cut bait and build around Barnes/Noel. The Grizzlies need to trade Conley and Gasol. The Clippers should trade Paul and possibly Griffin.

 

Do we still have an interest in Griffin? Would he work well next to Nurk?

 

Call me crazy but I think we should try to get Nic Batum back. I think he might be attainable. Trade back for him with one of our draft picks as sweetener and I think with Vonleh possibly being ready to start at PF we might be an actual threat in the west.

 

They may not have that option. They players have ETOs this summer. Balmer needs to decide if it's worth it to severely overpay those two for more first and second round exits. If they get bumped in the 1st round, I'd be surprised to see CP3 opt in. He's not getting any younger and right now his legacy is best PG to never make it past the second round. I don't think it's about the money for him (although we shall see). I think he wants to win.

Tony Parker is about to turn 35 and has been fading fast for the last five years. If Paul really wants to win, SAS would be his best move. GSW and CLE don't need him and he would fit in well in Pop's system.

BNM

 

SA would be amazing with cp3, thats a pretty great idea. looks like they will have around 10-12 MM in cap room.

 

the mavs are basically already in rebuild mode. we will see what they do this summer though.

 

We'd need to send out a shit ton of salary to make that work. He's in the 1st year of a 5 year $120 million contract. Kind of makes Turner's $70 million look like chump change, doesn't it.

We are so far over the cap (and at least $12 million over the expected luxury tax threshold) we need to dump salary. Which pretty much rules out a trade with CHO for Batum. If they trade him, it will be to get out from under that contract, which means they wouldn't want to take back even more salary in return. It would require at least one other team, that is WAY under the salary cap and willing to take our crappy overpaid players (Crabbe, Leonard) off our hands - which means bribing them with draft picks.

Batum is simply not worth giving up multiple 1st round picks (one to CHO at at least one to dump Crabbe/Leonard) to get back. Nor is he worth his contract.

BNM

 

He'd be walking away from $24 million in LA, but if they have another early exit, I don't expect him to stick around. SA manged to move a few minor pieces last summer to sign Pau. I'm sure they could do something similar to get CP3.

BNM

 

although...whats the largest contract LA can offer? because if the difference is more than 100MM, he would be a fool to pass that up.

 

Whoops, hadn't thought about his insane new contract. Well...alrighty then!

 

If they lose in the first round again, LAC might not be interested in offering him the super max. They may decide it's time to blow it up and rebuild.

BNM

 

does he qualify for the supermax? i think he would have had to be in LA when on his rookie contract.

 

It looks like five years/$210 million is the max they can offer him.

BNM

 

they would be fools not to approach that. someone needs to take their money, might as well be a first ballot HOF who is still producing at peak levels. you can do a lot worse with the supermax than Chris Paul.

and he would be a fool to pass that up honestly.

 

I think he'll go to the Pels - they'd make a quantum leap with CP3.