BloopOracle wrote:Rumors flying that OKC is trying to engage in a sign and trade for GIbson so they can get a trade exception to go after Rudy Gay. I don't know much about sign and trade deals but they were talking about us sending Cole to them in the deal
YES PLEASE, that would be a lot better. I wonder if they could keep Bazz at that point or at least loop in another team to get a shooter.
That's better than nothing, but is he saying "look for" them to try this because he's just guessing, or because somebody from the Thunder has told him they're going to try to do that? It's a thin reed at this point, but that would be nice for clearing up a bit more cap space for us.
He just tweeted sign and trades have to be 3 years so that's not a possibility.
What i really like about gibson beside his defense is he is aggressive on the offensive glass. With guys collapsing on wiggins butler and towns thos will leave a lot of opportunities for him on the glass.
crazysauce wrote:What i really like about gibson beside his defense is he is aggressive on the offensive glass. With guys collapsing on wiggins butler and towns thos will leave a lot of opportunities for him on the glass.
True, although offensive rebounding has fallen out of favor for a lot of coaches now. They are much more concerned about transition defense and hustling back to prevent open 3's and layups. A lot of analytics stuff backs this up....basically crashing the O-glass costs more than it benefits. But yeah, if he's in the right position for an easy put back and the rest of the floor is balanced, that is fine.
If people think this team may have a chance to be tough defensively...just wait till teams have to play them offensively. The Wolves were 8tg in FT attempts and added a top 3 guy in Butler and Teague gets to the line at a hirer rate than Rubio. Good luck defending late if your players are in foul trouble...in the regular season. We won't know how we do in the postseason though but I doubt teams will be able to deal with these guys one on one when it matters.
monsterpile wrote:If people think this team may have a chance to be tough defensively...just wait till teams have to play them offensively. The Wolves were 8tg in FT attempts and added a top 3 guy in Butler and Teague gets to the line at a hirer rate than Rubio. Good luck defending late if your players are in foul trouble...in the regular season. We won't know how we do in the postseason though but I doubt teams will be able to deal with these guys one on one when it matters.
Not sure. I'd have to research it, but I think the law of diminishing returns kicks in sooner with multiple guys that can get to the line versus, say, having multiple great shooters or multiple great defenders. Sure, it will be a strength for us, but it's not the same as having a bunch of 3-point snipers on the roster.
Thibs has built a team in his image. So we roll with it. It's fascinating to hear him repeatedly talk about the need to upgrade our 3-point shooting. He said that publicly and emphasized it internally according to the guys on the inside I talked to a couple months ago. But so far, he's done nothing to improve our 3-point shooting. In fact, there's an argument that swapping LaVine for Butler will result in a net decline in our 3-point shooting, even considering the swap of Ricky for Teague. Teague has averaged one three pointer per game over his career.
I have two main concerns right now absent further significant roster moves:
1. We haven't improved our 3-point shooting. Therefore, we are poised to begin next season again as one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in a League that has become a 3-point shooting League. We have to hope that (a) Wiggins continues to improve his 3-point shot and that he takes more of them in lieu of long 2-pointers; (b) Butler continues to shoot the three the way he did last season and not revert to his mean; and (c) Thibs somehow adds a rotation-level 3-point marksman or two using the limited resources left -- namely the room exception of $4.3 million and minimum contracts.
2. We have absolutely no one on the roster who can be counted on to substitute for Butler or Wiggins at those two wing positions. Belly might be able to give us some minutes at SF, but with the addition of Taj, he becomes even more important as a PF who can stretch the floor. He's also currently in a boot coming off foot surgery, so there's some doubt about when and how well he returns. This concern is even greater than the absence of adequate 3-point shooting. We need at least one really good wing player off the bench to avoid too much drop off while Butler and Wiggins are catching their breath on the bench. Neither one should play more than 35 minutes per game, which means there will be at least 26 minutes per game when we'll be relying on a bench player to play one or the other wing position. Having a really good wing rotation player is even more important when you consider the fact that, before last season, Butler averaged around 65 games per season. Thibs has to have something in mind.
I like this signing and the off season we had so far. Taj is better than dieng and a better pairing with towns.
3pt shooting is still not addressed but the other weakness like defense, bball iq and toughness has been upgraded.
We are a playoff caliber team now. We have a top 15 nba player, 2 elite max level young talent, a starting caliber pg who shoots well. A trio of bigs that are rotation guys and a backup pg. We still need wings and have no more cap space but we still have the room exception and tradeable contract(cole) and asset(okc 1st) that can be package to open up more space or get a player back in a trade. I would say dieng's contract is a moveable one as well. It has been a good offseason.
worldK wrote:I like this signing and the off season we had so far. Taj is better than dieng and a better pairing with towns.
3pt shooting is still not addressed but the other weakness like defense, bball iq and toughness has been upgraded.
We are a playoff caliber team now. We have a top 15 nba player, 2 elite max level young talent, a starting caliber pg who shoots well. A trio of bigs that are rotation guys and a backup pg. We still need wings and have no more cap space but we still have the room exception and tradeable contract(cole) and asset(okc 1st) that can be package to open up more space or get a player back in a trade. I would say dieng's contract is a moveable one as well. It has been a good offseason.
Getting Butler makes it a good offseason. The subsequent moves don't do much for me, but I understand the thinking of those who like those moves. In any event, the offseason will be disappointing to me if we don't substantially improve our bench, especially through the addition of a really good two-way wing who can shoot the three. That's why I was so focused on making a bid for Tony Snell or Joe Ingles. If not them, then Afflalo would be a good get and maybe he's still gettable for the $4.3 million room exception. We should be a playoff team and could finish in the upper half of the West standings, but not if we significantly shore up our bench in my opinion.
TheFuture wrote:Not a fan of the Taj signing. Provides zero shooting, defense has also been declining steadily. An overpay in my opinion, and not a great fit either. Would prefer a gorgui/belly combo at the 4 with the rest of the cap getting some much needed wings.
What's next Drose on the mle?
Other than the fact this is only a 2-year deal, I don't like it either. I would prefer a KAT/Aldrich combo at the 5 and a Gorgui/Belly combo at the 4. In fact I'm not certain that G doesn't continue to start at the 4...Gibson is a higher usage player (not something we need with the other 4 guys we will start, but G was better in almost all other categories last year. And he is coming into his peak years, while Gibson is at an age where players begin to decline. Look at their compartive stats last year:
We also saw that Gorgui might be able to hit the open three last year...something that Gibson will never give us. I don't hate the deal (especially because the 2-year nature doesn't hurt us in 2019-20), but I think we overpaid and I don't love the fit.
Wiggins and Butler will be playing 37 MPG's. Should they be playing that many? No, but that's what Thibs is gonna do so we just have to find someone to fill in the other 22 minutes. There's a bunch of guys available that could fill that role and the longer free agency drags on the more likely we'll get someone decently good for our room exception as the market dries up. For example, McLemore for the room exception would give us a shooter who can fill in during the games Butler will miss. Then get a couple vet minimum guys like Thabo or Caspi, etc. and you have decent enough depth to get by this year which is all you have to do to unlock some exceptions next summer to add even more.
