SameOldNudityDrew wrote:It would have been nice to have a guy who shot 40% from 3 on the squad, but he would be a bit redundant with Crawford in other ways. So, who are some guys to try to get for the vet minimum? I'm thinking we could still use a versatile defender, preferably one who can hit a few 3s. Presumably, some of these guys might not accept the vet min., but the money is drying up everywhere, so we could probably add somebody off of this list. I moved guys a like closer to the top of the lists and vice versa
Bigger Guys
Ilyasova-should have gotten paid more money this summer, he's a solid defending stretch 4.
LRMAM-very good defender, can defend multiple positions, had a good year shooting the 3 last year (39%), but it was kind of an anomaly
Tolliver-again, another versatile defender who can stretch the floor a bit, lunch bucket kind of guy, good fit with Thibs
Dante Cunningham-has stretched his shot the last couple years and has always been a pretty good, long defender
Mirotic-another stretch 4, had his best season under Thibs, flip side is he hasn't been as good the last couple years, and he's not as good a defender as Ilyasova
Udoh-seems like he'll get more than the vet min, but you never know, he'd be good insurance if we traded Aldrich in particular
Smaller Guys
Afflalo-Can defend and also hitting 3s at a decent clip, he might make the most sense
Sefolosha-a good defender who can switch and guard 2s and 3s well, as well as 1s, picks up steals at a decent rate, doesn't need shots to be effective, relatively efficient.
Tony Allen-the yin to Crawford's yang, a great on-the-ball defender, great fit for what we need in a defender who doesn't need offensive touches
Jason Terry-ok I know he's not a great defender, but he'd probably give us 40% 3 point shooting, which is nice
Bazz-seems crazy, but who else is going to pay him?
Brandon Rush-he's probably gettable for the vet min! And I felt like he wasn't horrible filling in for Zach at the end of last season.
Reggie Bullock-seems like he could potentially be a 3 and D guy
Good list, Drew.
AVOID LIST:
There are a couple guys from your list I wouldn't pursue at all: Jason Terry and Tony Allen. Jason can't defend a chair and Tony provides little if anything on the offensive end. We already have a non-defensive shooter in Crawford and we have no two-way wings off the bench. That's a huge hole and it's hard to believe that Thibs has put the team in this position with nothing but the vet minimum available. The Wolves absolutely have to find a two-way wing player who can actually be counted on as part of the rotation and not simply someone you plant on the end of the bench for emergencies.
A few guys I'd add to your list are Aaron Brooks, Ian Clark, Tyler Ennis, Luke Babbit and Trey Burke Aaron Brooks would give us a vet backup PG who can also shoot the three. He's a career 37% three-point shooter and shot 35.7 % last season. He'd be insurance at PG in the event we don't want to count one Tyus Jones as our sole backup at that position. Ian Clark would give us a younger SG with some upside. He looked great in the playoffs and shot 37.4% from behind the arc last season on an admittedly low volume. Ennis would give us an even younger prospect with significant upside who hit 38.6% off his threes last season. He's a PG, not a wing, but he'd be a nice addition in my view. Luke Babbit is probably the best pure 3-point shooter left among available FAs. He's a career 40.6% three-point shooter who hit 41.4% of his threes last season. He's still only 28 years old. Trey Burke would be an interesting signing. He's still young at age 25. Highly regarded coming out of college, I could see this guy as someone who could suddenly find his game at this point in his career. Again, he's a PG, not a wing, but I like the ideal of adding more upside talent. He hasn't shot particularly well from behind the arc over his still relatively short career, but he did hit 44.3% of his threes last season on very low volume. I like that he hit over 45% of his field grows on 4.5 attempts per game.
Of the guys on your list, I'd prioritized them as follows:
WINGS AND PGs:
1. Afflalo: I see him as the best two-way wing in the group. He's a career 38.6% 3-point shooter who hit 41.1% of his threes last season. Looking back over his career, he's been amazingly consistent. Some players have some pretty big swings in their 3-point percentages over their careers, but that's not the case with Afflalo. He's not a high volume 3-point shooter, but he's consistent. He also has a nice mid-range game. He's the guy I'd be most comfortable with filling in for Butler or Wiggins off the bench for extended significant periods.
2. Brandon Rush: The fact that I have him second on my list of available FA wings/guards says a lot about the quality of the remaining FAs. But there's not denying that Brandon is the remaining three-point shooter among the remaining wings with the exception of Luke Babbit. He's a career 40.2% three-point shooter who shot 38.6% last season. He's not a particularly good defender, which is why I'd prefer Afflalo, but he wasn't terrible last season.
3. Thabo Sefolosha: It's a close call between Rush and Thabo. Thabo is clearly the better defender of the two, but he's only a marginal three-point shooter. At this point, beggars can't be choosers. We need a quality two-way wing off the bench who can be counted on as part of our rotation. And after using our RE on Crawford, it has to be someone who can defend and who is likely to agree to sign for the vet minimum.
PFs:
1. Ilyasova: Definitely my first choice, but I doubt we can get him for the vet minimum. I would have signed him instead of Taj and we would have had money left over to sign CJ Miles. Again, I'm not impressed with Thibs after the Butler deal. But enough about that. If we can get Ilyasova here for the vet minimum, that's what we should do.
2. Anthony Tolliver: At this point, he's probably the best alternative for us given our need for three-point shooting and Thibs' continuing interest in stacking our roster with toughness. Tolliver is a career 36.2% three-point shooter who shot 38.6 % from behind the arc last season. He's a smart player who is generally in the right place at the right time on both ends of the court. And importantly, I think we can probably get him for the vet minimum, although I could see him getting part of a contending team's MLE.
Assuming we sign two more veteran free agents, and being as realistic as possible, I'd favor signing the following two (I'm assuming we can't get Ilyasova for the vet minimum):
1. Arron Afflalo, and
2. Anthony Tolliver
