Plus he is only 22 and at the age a lot of bigs start "getting it", he's my fave target as a PF/C, if we could get him for 7-9 mil per IMO it would be a steal. Also, would help immediately and fits both the Dame and non-Dame "younger" timeline
Okay after digging deeper we need to sign Hartenstein. His future wife would be a good addition to our sidelines
I think we have one glaring need and it's at backup C, so I hope that's addressed early but not necessarily with anything more than the vet min. Now unlike Hartenstein and Bamba, Jalen Smith definitely has played at PF effectively in the league so he would give us a lot of flexibility, if he comes in and lights the world on fire while Grant shows in training camp that he's able to guard guys like Ant or even Dame out in space/on the perimeter and Smith shoes he can keep up with guys like Justise and Josh maybe we have our starting PF that can slide up to C. So I think he's the only one... even though he's the least proven and possibly the one demanding the least, that I would be OK spending the full MLE on. I don't want close to 30M dedicated to two guys who can only play one position. I hope that rumored Ant 4/80 deal gets announced right away so if one of the teams vying for Brunson doesn't extend an offer sheet that makes the deal worse for us. I think that there is a deal out there that Joe sees as a big splash otherwise I don't think he could have been so bold as to say we aren't good enoug, have to get better and are going to take it to the limit. I think he could have committed to doing everything he can but would have chosen some less demonstrative language so I think after the blitz of announcements about new deals being reached that there might be a trade that Joe sees as a large piece of the puzzle, it could be just Thybulle, it could be Collins or it could be something all of us would see as a big splash. If it was for the right guy it would be fantastic if by the end of the day we had guaranteed the Bulls our pick in 2024 and had three less future first round picks. Exciting times! Go Blazers!
Jalen Smith will get a lot of attention. He will get the full MLE from someone. I am still confused about whether or not we have it available. If FA starts today how does the league know how much we are signing Nurk and Ant for? Didn't someone say we could not spend over 31 million on those two if we wanted to use the full MLE? Can we backload one of those contracts in order to do so?
Those contracts and order of operation are important. Also, we need to move a couple smaller contracts out like Didi, Keon, and then of course Bledsoe. That will help.
By my count, if they re-sign Nurk to 68/4 and Ant to 80/4 as speculated, and waive Bledsoe and just eat the 3.9M, they'll have 12 players under contract and about 19M space under the apron. If they want to go full MLE, I see no reason why they can't.
It's not about whether they know how much we have, it's what we are allowed to do after using the full MLE. Using it hard caps us at the tax apron. So using it first, using it last, timing doesn't really matter. It' all about where our final salary lands.
Kyle Anderson Alternatives; Otto Porter Jr Jalen Smith Isaiah Hartenstein TJ Warren Austin Rivers DeMarcus Cousins Robin Lopez
Don't see any chance at this; Clippers can give him about $10 million per year as early bird free agent. For same money he'd rather live in LA and doesn't like that we traded him away. If we could offer him much more than LAC maybe he would've considered this.
I imagine we use Bledsoe today or he's pretty useless to us? When's the deadline to move him? Trade for Thybulle Sign Kyle Anderson, Batum, Jalen Smith or Hartenstein. Any of this would be a win.
they're loaded at the wing/forward positions. George/ Mann Kawhi/ Roco/ Coffey not to mentions Powell and Kennard at SG. Can Nico get minutes there? Not sure they'd give him the 10 mil he is seeking. We can bring him in for slightly below the full MLE. I don't think he holds any resentment btw.
Forward is the only position we don't have a clear starter. It is also a position that is much harder to acquire a passable player with either the vet minimum or trade. If we can get a forward (ie Kyle Anderson, Otto Porter Jr, TJ Warren, etc) with the MLE I would go there first. If no forward worth more than the BAE is available then I'm fine throwing the MLE at a center. There are a lot of veteran minimum center options. Even guys like Eubanks or a similar mid season pickup can always be plugged in if need be.
tbh, i don't think we'll really focus much on getting our target today. I think the focus is still to trade Bledsoe for someone.
We can likely use the full MLE with those salaries. However it puts us just barely into the tax, hard caps us, and limits flexibility for the rest of the season. If a valuable talent is available for the MLE then go ahead and agree to it. Later we could even trade away Bledsoe contract with a 2nd round pick, trade away Winslow or Little, or make other such maneuvers. But if the full MLE targets are at Derrick Jones Jr level its better to just stick with the tax MLE. We gain flexibility in being able to sign players during the season, or take on salary in a later trade. We might be able to dip the tax, avoiding repeater in future years.
I don’t know what happens at 3 pm today, but I’m pretty sure that if nothing is announced by 3:05 pm, the first post complaining about Joe sitting on his hands gets posted here.
Order of operation doesn't really matter. We either use the full MLE and thus are hard capped, or we're not.
