Official 2016 Offseasont Thread (Free Agents/Trades/Front Office Moves)

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

How about Pau Gasol? Ricky could talk him into coming.

He's old but could make a nice 4 off the bench to play with Bazz/Tyus/and our new rookie. Belly isn't cutting it. KG at Center...

1. Gasol wants $20M per year on his new contract and he'll be 36-years old next year.

2. Gasol isn't coming off the bench, especially not here. Remember how disrespected he felt coming off the bench in LA.

3. Gasol wants to stay in Chicago. Chicago's FO wants to keep him.

Don't get your hopes up.

[Woomanchu [enjin:10956828]]

I would move to a small ball lineup right away

- Hire Tom Thibodeau and Mike D'Antoni as a special assistant/consultant

- Sign Nic Batum

- Draft Buddy Hield

Starting Lineup would be Rubio, LaVine, Wiggins, Batum, and Towns.

Bench would be Dieng, Hield, Jones, Muhummad, and Bjelica.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I would move to a small ball lineup right away

- Hire Tom Thibodeau and Mike D'Antoni as a special assistant/consultant

- Sign Nic Batum

- Draft Buddy Hield

Starting Lineup would be Rubio, LaVine, Wiggins, Batum, and Towns.

Bench would be Dieng, Hield, Jones, Muhummad, and Bjelica.

Very few teams actually start a small ball lineup like this. It would be an interesting experiment, but my guess is that this team would be hammered on the boards by most opposing starting lineups.

Small ball lineups seem to work best when you have some not-so-very-small athletes with handles. Draymond Green at the 5; Iggy at the 4; LeBron at the 4. All of these guys are built like linebackers, but they can handle and pass too, thus giving you the best of both worlds: The ability to play small while still being pretty big!

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Most of the time, small ball lineups are most effective when they're used as a change of pace. Look at Golden State as your best example of small ball. They can't use their "lineup of death" all game or else they absolutely would get hammered on the glass. That's why they have Bogut, and even though he doesn't get a lot of credit by the media, he is super vital to their team and their success. It's the same thing for football. You don't use your no-huddle offense the entire game. You use no-huddle to change the pace and rattle the defense. Same idea with small ball.

[bleedspeed]

Leaving this here.

http://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles/report_sixers_may_trade_jahlil_okafor_during_the_summer/s1_127_20563252

[thedoper]

This teams payroll is already going to be stressed over the next three years as all four of our young core, and currently starters come up for their second contracts. For this reason I'm not interested in trading first round draft picks, especially when they're top 5. This team needs to become good at restocking solid players on cheap, rookie contracts to complement the core, not pay 2nd contract prices for players other playoff teams are letting go for just that reason.

- First round pick, take the best player available, period, end of story, and I don't care what position he plays.
- Resign Prince for a similar contract to what he had this year if he's willing.
- Make sure Garnett opts into his second year. I want that $8M to open up as they begin paying the big four, this year is too soon and they have more than enough open space anyways, and I still buy into his influence being a huge positive even if he never leaves the bench.
- No free agent is signed to a contract longer than 3 years with the 3rd being a team option.
- Gauge what the market for Bazz would be, make a deal if something worthwhile is available.
- Rudez is cheap, and a better coach would have used him more/better, I pick up his option as a 14-15th man.
- Trade Payne for that previously mentioned chicken salad sandwich and/or 2nd round pick, depending on how hungry I am.
- Talk to Pek about what it's gonna cost to send him into retirement. Is there a number he'd be willing to forgo to not have to spend 8 months a year following his old team around? There's hopefully some middle ground that saves the team enough, yet is acceptable to Pek.

This team has the luxury of looking for players 6-15, no need to break the bank for anyone. In fact doing so only makes keeping the top 5 together more difficult, so unless you're talking about a 6th man of the year type of 3&D wing don't do it.

It goes without saying rather than doing the above, if I'm actually making the decisions for Taylor I simply hire the best qualified PBO to a five year contract with the promise that Taylor will stay the hell out of the way. No matter what happened after that I would consider the offseason to have been a success!

I don't agree with this. The cap is making huge jumps. We only need to be stressed if Taylor won't pay. The time is now to overpay because we will be able to sign over the cap with our players. Take advantage of the room this year I say. In fact I will be disappointed if we aren't at least in the mix for a top tier fa.

[TAFKASP]

This teams payroll is already going to be stressed over the next three years as all four of our young core, and currently starters come up for their second contracts. For this reason I'm not interested in trading first round draft picks, especially when they're top 5. This team needs to become good at restocking solid players on cheap, rookie contracts to complement the core, not pay 2nd contract prices for players other playoff teams are letting go for just that reason.

- First round pick, take the best player available, period, end of story, and I don't care what position he plays.
- Resign Prince for a similar contract to what he had this year if he's willing.
- Make sure Garnett opts into his second year. I want that $8M to open up as they begin paying the big four, this year is too soon and they have more than enough open space anyways, and I still buy into his influence being a huge positive even if he never leaves the bench.
- No free agent is signed to a contract longer than 3 years with the 3rd being a team option.
- Gauge what the market for Bazz would be, make a deal if something worthwhile is available.
- Rudez is cheap, and a better coach would have used him more/better, I pick up his option as a 14-15th man.
- Trade Payne for that previously mentioned chicken salad sandwich and/or 2nd round pick, depending on how hungry I am.
- Talk to Pek about what it's gonna cost to send him into retirement. Is there a number he'd be willing to forgo to not have to spend 8 months a year following his old team around? There's hopefully some middle ground that saves the team enough, yet is acceptable to Pek.

This team has the luxury of looking for players 6-15, no need to break the bank for anyone. In fact doing so only makes keeping the top 5 together more difficult, so unless you're talking about a 6th man of the year type of 3&D wing don't do it.

It goes without saying rather than doing the above, if I'm actually making the decisions for Taylor I simply hire the best qualified PBO to a five year contract with the promise that Taylor will stay the hell out of the way. No matter what happened after that I would consider the offseason to have been a success!

I don't agree with this. The cap is making huge jumps. We only need to be stressed if Taylor won't pay. The time is now to overpay because we will be able to sign over the cap with our players. Take advantage of the room this year I say. In fact I will be disappointed if we aren't at least in the mix for a top tier fa.

The cap is jumping and so will the amount players get paid, from 15th man through top stars. The increased cap space will not make it easier to keep three potential max players in KAT, WIG, and Zach, along with Dieng and Rubio. What we used to consider crazy money for a star is going to become common for quality rotation players. Each team will still only have 15 players, the money goes up, the ease of signing players does not.

Don't fool yourself for even one second into thinking that keeping a stocked team together will be easier. A top tier free agent mistake this offseason could reverberate for years limiting their flexibility when they're ready to contend for a title, which is when they'll need it most.

[TAFKASP]

Leaving this here.

http://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles/report_sixers_may_trade_jahlil_okafor_during_the_summer/s1_127_20563252

I feel for 6ers fans. They're counting on either of Embiid or Okafor, neither of whom has shown an ounce of maturity, and both have had season ending injuries. The Wolves seem to have a team filled with good guys with relatively level heads, the 6ers appear to have a few head cases on their hands, and they're supposed to be franchise cornerstones.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

With all due respect, SP, you're not understanding that once we give these second contracts to Dieng and the rest of the young guys, the wiggle room cap-wise to sign free agents that could significantly help this team will no longer be there like it is now. We'll be able to re-sign every single player we have regardless of what we do in free agency because of Bird Rights, which states that we can go above the cap to re-sign our own players. The question then will be about paying luxury tax, but that's even if it gets to that point. I'd love to have that problem, though. I'd love to have all this talent that's good enough to be maxed out. Right now, however, we need some surefire veteran help and we have the cap space right now and next year to add it with no problem at all. We need to take advantage of it while we can.

[TAFKASP]

With all due respect, SP, you're not understanding that once we give these second contracts to Dieng and the rest of the young guys, the wiggle room cap-wise to sign free agents that could significantly help this team will no longer be there like it is now. We'll be able to re-sign every single player we have regardless of what we do in free agency because of Bird Rights, which states that we can go above the cap to re-sign our own players. The question then will be about paying luxury tax, but that's even if it gets to that point. I'd love to have that problem, though. I'd love to have all this talent that's good enough to be maxed out. Right now, however, we need some surefire veteran help and we have the cap space right now and next year to add it with no problem at all. We need to take advantage of it while we can.

I'll be very surprised to see this team go into the tax and this starting five has the potential to put them there, or damn close, all on their own. I may be wrong, but I think it's far easier to build a contending bench with relatively inexpensive contracts when you have your contention quality starting unit in place and I personally would not risk that.

As I said in my original post, if they could get a 6th man of the year type then I'm good, but otherwise I'm looking for good bench players on 2-3 year contracts to maintain flexibility going forward. Flexibility is also why I'm not interested in trading the top 5 pick as we know Payne is going to cost us one already and cheap young talent is the key to a long window of contention that players like KAT, Wiggins, Lavine, and Rubio present.