Minnesota Sports Forum

Durant is the only player in this free agent class I give max money to. No need to go out and overspend on role player types. Do the short term deals and bargain hunt. We see year after year teams hamstrung with bad contracts prohibiting them from making moves. We can get some nice players at some decent contracts, and I agree with taking other team's salary dump guys.

TRKO wrote:Anyone else interested in Terrence Jones. I think he would be a nice upside signing. Deng makes the most sense as a 4. Would agree we need a 4 and a shooter minimum.

He is the type of player I would be looking for in th bargain bin.

TRKO wrote:Durant is the only player in this free agent class I give max money to. No need to go out and overspend on role player types. Do the short term deals and bargain hunt. We see year after year teams hamstrung with bad contracts prohibiting them from making moves. We can get some nice players at some decent contracts, and I agree with taking other team's salary dump guys.

Well said

Bjelica's deal could be considered the crime of the century (in a good way) if he develops some consistency this year.

Q12543 wrote:Bjelica's deal could be considered the crime of the century (in a good way) if he develops some consistency this year.

This just can't be emphasized enough. After the all-star break he shot 57/48/88 (difficult to find 5 other players who shot that well after the break), and added 9 rebounds and 3 assists per 36. It's easy to buy into a narrative that he needed a half season to adjust to the NBA, and that his second half performance was legit...especially since it looked so much like what he did in Europe.

And we have him for 2 more years at less than $4 million per year!

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Bjelica's deal could be considered the crime of the century (in a good way) if he develops some consistency this year.

This just can't be emphasized enough. After the all-star break he shot 57/48/88 (difficult to find 5 other players who shot that well after the break), and added 9 rebounds and 3 assists per 36. It's easy to buy into a narrative that he needed a half season to adjust to the NBA, and that his second half performance was legit...especially since it looked so much like what he did in Europe.

And we have him for 2 more years at less than $4 million per year!

He just didn't play enough for those numbers to mean much.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Bjelica's deal could be considered the crime of the century (in a good way) if he develops some consistency this year.

This just can't be emphasized enough. After the all-star break he shot 57/48/88 (difficult to find 5 other players who shot that well after the break), and added 9 rebounds and 3 assists per 36. It's easy to buy into a narrative that he needed a half season to adjust to the NBA, and that his second half performance was legit...especially since it looked so much like what he did in Europe.

And we have him for 2 more years at less than $4 million per year!

He just didn't play enough for those numbers to mean much.

Could be...but in a very small sample size (his last 7 games of the year), Sam loosened the reins and gave him 25 MPG. He responded with 10/6/2.4 with ridiculous 64/63/89 shooting. He may regress back to his unconfident fall play...who knows? But it's easier for me to argue that his play in March/April is more indicative of his play going forward than his first 2 months in the NBA. His play the last half of the year has to have him feeling confident coming into the season, and the fact that he has been in town working out since the end of the season has to make him feel a lot more comfortable in his new country too.

longstrangetrip wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Bjelica's deal could be considered the crime of the century (in a good way) if he develops some consistency this year.

This just can't be emphasized enough. After the all-star break he shot 57/48/88 (difficult to find 5 other players who shot that well after the break), and added 9 rebounds and 3 assists per 36. It's easy to buy into a narrative that he needed a half season to adjust to the NBA, and that his second half performance was legit...especially since it looked so much like what he did in Europe.

And we have him for 2 more years at less than $4 million per year!

He just didn't play enough for those numbers to mean much.

Could be...but in a very small sample size (his last 7 games of the year), Sam loosened the reins and gave him 25 MPG. He responded with 10/6/2.4 with ridiculous 64/63/89 shooting. He may regress back to his unconfident fall play...who knows? But it's easier for me to argue that his play in March/April is more indicative of his play going forward than his first 2 months in the NBA. His play the last half of the year has to have him feeling confident coming into the season, and the fact that he has been in town working out since the end of the season has to make him feel a lot more comfortable in his new country too.

I can buy that LST

The other thing we have to look at with a guy like Bjelly is production per dollar spent. Given the numbers being tossed around today going forward, Bjelly can practically sleep walk out there and still be a bargain. We don't need him to be great or even good. Just be solid-ish and he's a fine value.

So, my FA prediction was Deng, Noah and Crawford. Looks like our first attempts are Deng, Gasol and Moore.

I approve of the candidates!