Free Agency with Other Teams

[Monster]

Boston and OKC need to trade away guys to clear cap space (OKC to get below the tax because of Roberson and Boston to sign Hayward). Spotrac has a weird cap number for us. They have Casspi on the cap at 1.5 million with potentially 5 million practical cap space for 10 players (including Casspi). That's enough to obsorb a McBuckets or Smart from either of those teams. It just sucks not knowing our cap space because that would be huge to get a McBuckets and still have our exception to land another wing.

Kahns we likely don't have anywhere near that much money available. Below is a tweet of a cap guru I follow on twitter with his salary/cap for every team. Obviously there can be some variance because we don't know exactly how the Teague And Gibson contracts are structured but I would trust this guy over sporttrac. I've seen a few problems with sporttrac looking at their numbers for the total cap. One thing most people including myself forget is that each roster spot up to 12 has a roster charge. You can see how much that adds up to on the chart I linked to and it looks to be around 800k for each of the spots we don't have filled. He has us at just under a million in cap space. I would assume that the roster charge for a spot and the cap space would be combined if we added a player but that's still under 2 million. Basically at this point there isn't much we can do unless there is some sort of surprising different contract numbers etc.

http://heathoops.com/salary-index/team-salary-2017-18/

One thing that's a positive is that we are one of the teams with the fewest roster spots at 10. Eventually teams will have loaded up on roster spots and won't want to sign anyone to a guaranteed contract so even a giant red vet min deal will probably sound good to some guys.

Think about how each year how many spots there are for each teams even this year with the nifty split contracts. The draft brought in 30 first round picks and most of them will take up a roster spot. I don't think there are many draft and stash guys in the 1st round. Then you have another 10 or more guys in the 2nd round that are basically locks to make rosters and a few more will make rosters. Then you have a couple undrafted guys that will get a shot and or make a roster. On top of that you have a few international guys that are coming over that are either former draft picks or older players that were never drafted etc. you also have a couple younger players that have gotten some seasoning as fringe players that now will make it. Contrast that to the few guys that are retiring and even if every team had one guy you didn't think would ever play in the league again like a Payne type there are still more guys coming in than out. It's gonna force some guys to the fringes that are probably at least NBA players. We need to wait and sign some of those guys cheap youngish fringe guy that would be relatively happy to have a contract to a multiyear vet min deal. The guys I wanted last year on that type of deal was Acy.

[TheFuture]

Thanks for that info monster.

You made me feel positive and negative simultaneously for a moment. How? I do not know..

I reread it, and now I am mostly negative about our chances of fielding a bench outside of the room exception.

Sounds like RE, vet minimums, and undrafted trash (*gems).

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Now I'm really starting to get pissed about the Taj deal.

So if Thibs had just kept his powder dry after the Rubio and Teague deals (I get it - he was never going to embrace Ricky), he could have patiently waited for opportunities just like the one Boston is presenting now.

Think about it. With a bit more patience, we could have eventually landed Patrick Patterson and Jae Crowder for the same price we paid for Taj Gibson. Chew on that for a bit.....

[Monster]

Now I'm really starting to get pissed about the Taj deal.

So if Thibs had just kept his powder dry after the Rubio and Teague deals (I get it - he was never going to embrace Ricky), he could have patiently waited for opportunities just like the one Boston is presenting now.

Think about it. With a bit more patience, we could have eventually landed Patrick Patterson and Jae Crowder for the same price we paid for Taj Gibson. Chew on that for a bit.....

Crowder likely would have cost an asset like that that pick we got for Rubio. That's a no brainer for me but it's still an asset.

Edit: I agree with you point though. Let's see how this plays out. It's possible we still get some worthwhile bench players and Thibs gets what we need out of them. Gibson or Dieng added to the bench is a pretty decent upgrade.

[Lipoli390]

Now I'm really starting to get pissed about the Taj deal.

So if Thibs had just kept his powder dry after the Rubio and Teague deals (I get it - he was never going to embrace Ricky), he could have patiently waited for opportunities just like the one Boston is presenting now.

Think about it. With a bit more patience, we could have eventually landed Patrick Patterson and Jae Crowder for the same price we paid for Taj Gibson. Chew on that for a bit.....

I've had that same thought and wrote about it in another post as I was reflecting on Flip telling me that patience is the most important thing in an NBA front office. It was his patience that eventually led to getting Wiggins for Love. I hated the Taj signing the moment I heard about it. At the the time everyone knew the Celtics were pushing hard to sign Hayward and one look at their roster would tell anyone they'd need to dump a lot of salary. So the current scenario with Boston was a very foreseeable one. But there were other possible scenarios -- some foreseeable, some not. The point is you don't spend the rest of your cap space to the tune of $14 million per year on a 32-year old 25 minute per game career bench player.

We'd have a very good shot at getting Crowder in exchange for cap space and our OKC pick. If not, we'd have a great shot at getting Avery Bradley.

[60WinTim]

Now I'm really starting to get pissed about the Taj deal.

So if Thibs had just kept his powder dry after the Rubio and Teague deals (I get it - he was never going to embrace Ricky), he could have patiently waited for opportunities just like the one Boston is presenting now.

Think about it. With a bit more patience, we could have eventually landed Patrick Patterson and Jae Crowder for the same price we paid for Taj Gibson. Chew on that for a bit.....

I've had that same thought and wrote about it in another post as I was reflecting on Flip telling me that patience is the most important thing in an NBA front office. It was his patience that eventually led to getting Wiggins for Love. I hated the Taj signing the moment I heard about it. At the the time everyone knew the Celtics were pushing hard to sign Hayward and one look at their roster would tell anyone they'd need to dump a lot of salary. So the current scenario with Boston was a very foreseeable one. But there were other possible scenarios -- some foreseeable, some not. The point is you don't spend the rest of your cap space to the tune of $14 million per year on a 32-year old 25 minute per game career bench player.

We'd have a very good shot at getting Crowder in exchange for cap space and our OKC pick. If not, we'd have a great shot at getting Avery Bradley.

You don't think Taj is coming off the bench for us, do you?

He's been a starter the past two years. Before that he had a handful of starts, but he was playing behind Noah and Gasol. I suppose you can hold that against him, but I don't.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Now I'm really starting to get pissed about the Taj deal.

So if Thibs had just kept his powder dry after the Rubio and Teague deals (I get it - he was never going to embrace Ricky), he could have patiently waited for opportunities just like the one Boston is presenting now.

Think about it. With a bit more patience, we could have eventually landed Patrick Patterson and Jae Crowder for the same price we paid for Taj Gibson. Chew on that for a bit.....

Ugh.

While it was no guarantee that the Wolves would be able to win the fray for Crowder... I agree about patience and flexibility.

And if the Jazz get Crowder out of this? Kudos to them. Remember when people argued Rubio was worth a lottery pick (even a high one)? They got him for a pick in the 20s (probable) that's not even theirs. And now they have a chance to land a starter level wing on a great deal for multiple seasons?

Not bad. Not bad at all.

[TheFuture]

Now I'm really starting to get pissed about the Taj deal.

So if Thibs had just kept his powder dry after the Rubio and Teague deals (I get it - he was never going to embrace Ricky), he could have patiently waited for opportunities just like the one Boston is presenting now.

Think about it. With a bit more patience, we could have eventually landed Patrick Patterson and Jae Crowder for the same price we paid for Taj Gibson. Chew on that for a bit.....

I'm with you. I hated the Taj deal from the very beginning, because it is obvious what is coming in the last part of free agency. Assuming we couldn't get Crowder, we still could have just signed CJ miles outright 3/24 and 2Pat 3/18.

I still don't understand how we only have around 1 mil left. Every time I add it al up I come up to around 4 mil left, including the rookie and 2 roster spot charges.

It boggles my mind knowing that many teams have multiple true max contracts, and still can make some moves. Yet here we are with an underpaid Butler, average paid Teague and Dieng, the Taj contract, zero other bad contracts, and KAT/Wiggs still on rookie deals and we can't do a damn thing.

[BloopOracle]

I don't mind missing out on Patrick Patterson at all, I lost interest after watching him completely shit the bed for the 2nd consecutive postseason. What use is a stretch 4 that can't hit a shot when the playoffs roll around? In my opinion Taj isn't overpaid and Patrick just got his market value after wilting again. Crowder wouldn't have been a simple absorb either, whoever gets him will have to give up some kind of asset.

[Lipoli390]

I don't mind missing out on Patrick Patterson at all, I lost interest after watching him completely shit the bed for the 2nd consecutive postseason. What use is a stretch 4 that can't hit a shot when the playoffs roll around? In my opinion Taj isn't overpaid and Patrick just got his market value after wilting again. Crowder wouldn't have been a simple absorb either, whoever gets him will have to give up some kind of asset.

I see your point, Bloop. But I do think Taj is overpaid in this market. More importantly, I don't think it was a prudent expenditure by the Wolves under the circumstances. I'd prefer to be in a position where we could deal our OKC pick for Crowder, Avery Bradley or even Marcus Smart and still have around $8 million left over to sign another high quality FA, not necessarily Patterson.

Don't get me wrong, I like Taj. I just don't like the we gave him under the circumstances. At this point, I hope we keep the OKC pick and use the RE and vet minimums to get the best bench possible. No doubt Taj makes us a better team.