Time to clear the way for Jaylen Nowell

[Q-is-here]

I think one offseason goal for our front office is to go into camp with Jaylen Nowell firmly established as our 6th man. That means moving on from Beasley via trade, which should yield us an equivalent asset since I believe he's on a reasonable contract and is a top 15 volume 3 shooter.

I prefer Jaylen over Beasley because he is a three-level scorer that can create his own offense in isolation, which is just MASSIVELY important in the playoffs. Beasley can shoot us back into games or stretch leads, but he needs quite a bit of help in doing so. You can clear out a side for Nowell and let him go to work.

Here are Nowell's peers in the "final four" of this year's playoffs:
Spencer Dinwiddie
Tyler Herro
Jordan Poole
Payton Pritchard

Now go look at Jaylen's stats against these guys for this past season. He's right there guys - not far off at all.

[Lipoli390]

I think one offseason goal for our front office is to go into camp with Jaylen Nowell firmly established as our 6th man. That means moving on from Beasley via trade, which should yield us an equivalent asset since I believe he's on a reasonable contract and is a top 15 volume 3 shooter.

I prefer Jaylen over Beasley because he is a three-level scorer that can create his own offense in isolation, which is just MASSIVELY important in the playoffs. Beasley can shoot us back into games or stretch leads, but he needs quite a bit of help in doing so. You can clear out a side for Nowell and let him go to work.

Here are Nowell's peers in the "final four" of this year's playoffs:
Spencer Dinwiddie
Tyler Herro
Jordan Poole
Payton Pritchard

Now go look at Jaylen's stats against these guys for this past season. He's right there guys - not far off at all.

I agree, Q.

One of the reasons I loved Nowell coming out of college is that he was highly productive and efficient from day one. As a freshman he averaged 16 points, 4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals in 32 minutes while shooting 45% overall and 35% from behind the arc. He improved significantly beyond that in his second and final college season, averaging 16 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.3 steals in 34 minutes while shooting 50.2% overall and 44% from behind the arc (admittedly on fairly low volume. And when you watch his college highlights you see that he scored in a lot of different ways - at the basket, mid-range and 3-point line. He's both crafty and athletic. Flash forward to this past season with the Wolves and you see Nowell hit 47.5% of his FG attempts and 39.2% of his threes while grabbing 2 rebounds in 15 minutes per game. Again, he was efficient and productive in his limited, often inconsistent minutes. He's a better ball-handler than Beasley and can actually facilitate the offense. I think he'd thrive in a more consistent role with more minutes. When his minutes went up in college, all his key stats went up as well. He actually become more efficient with more playing time and more shots in college.

Moving Beasley is key carving out a more consistent and substantial role for Nowell, but it would also open up some more opportunity for Bolmaro. I've had my doubts about Leandro, but in spite of his shooting struggles, I was impressed by him in his limited NBA minutes last season. He really does have a very good handle and feel for the game. And he seems comfortable with the speed of the NBA game. I assume he's working hard on his game this offseason. I'm excited to see more of him next season. I'd also like to see some more playing time for JMac next season. Finally, I'm really intrigued by McKinley Wright. I love his toughness defensive tenacity. But his 3-point shooting in the G-League is what got me over the hump to the point where I can see him as a bona fide NBA player. I assume the Wolves will bring him back on another two-way deal.

Who would you consider some good, realistic trade targets in a Beasley deal?

[KG4Ever]

I agree. Beasley regressed as a shooter and he is a sub-par defender and I think the money spent on his salary could be better utilized elsewhere. If we can get anything positive back for Beasley, I'd make the move. I am a bit intrigued with Nowell and how he'd perform with more minutes, so sign me up.

[KG4Ever]

Would anyone want to do a Beasley for Luke Kennard trade? This one was actually proposed with the Clippers moving Kennard and a second for Beasley. I like Luke Kennard. He is a decent passer, improving defender and more consistent shooter than Beasley. He seems to be a high IQ guy. A possible bonus is that he is best friends with Hartenstein and they have some nice synergy playing together. If this helped us land Hartenstein, better yet. The biggest negative for me is that Kennard's contract runs longer and if that would hurt our chances to go big game hunting in 2023, maybe I pass on this.

Link to trade proposal: https://heavy.com/sports/los-angeles-clippers/trade-luke-kennard-for-malik-beasley/

[FNG]

While I am a Nowell proponent, I didn't realize just how statistically superior to Beasley he was last season. Take a look at their comparison on basketballreference.com...he was superior to Beas in every measure:

https://stathead.com/basketball/pcm_finder.cgi?player_id2=beaslma01&p1yrfrom=2022&player_id1=nowelja01&p2yrfrom=2022&sum=0&request=1

I also note the improvement Nowell has shown in each of the past two seasons...quite impressive. For instance his TS% has gone from 47% to 53% to 58%. Very good trend lines. And I also agree that his ability to create on his own is a huge asset. My sense is that Finchy has never been pleased with Nowell's defense, and he is encouraging him to "earn" his playing time with more effort on the defensive end. We all know that Beas is a below average defender too, but I'm guessing Finchy at least acknowledges his consistent effort on defense.

All that said, I agree Nowell's time has come to be our scoring 6th man. It's not likely to happen with Beas still on the roster, so I hope Gupta can find a suitable way to move him.

[Monster]

2 things I will add here.

1. I mentioned Nowell's catch and shoot numbers in another thread. The previous season he was at 33% on catch and shoot 3's. This year he was at 38.1% which was the same and Beasley. Edwards shot 41% on catch and shoot 3's.

2. I've had some interest in a Beasley for Kelly Olynyk trade but didn't want to pay Olynyk over 12 million after this year. Well somehow I missed that he only has 3 million guaranteed for the 2023-2024 season. I would want some sort of minor asset coming back to us in that deal (not sure what this would be) but Olynyk would be a solid player to add to the frontcourt. Maybe Olynyk overlaps too much what Naz does. This deal isn't going to excite anyone very much but I wouldn't hate it. I'm certainly hoping for something better but I also see it as realistic.

3. Beasley for Richaun Holmes and filler would be more exciting. I just don't know what the market will be for Holmes. It feels like as Q pointed out Beasley's volume 3 point shooting could have real value so maybe this isn't too unrealistic but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'd throw in at least a 2nd rounder to get this deal done. Harkless or Alex Len coming back in the deal wouldn't be the worst thing ever. At that point you could just look at signing the best FA player/s or value possible (maybe go with an upside guy) with any exception money they wanted to spend. It wouldn't HAVE to be a big.

[thedoper]

If we clear out Beasley for Nowell it better mean we are signing Prince. That would be a huge jump of responsibility for Nowell.

[Q-is-here]

If we clear out Beasley for Nowell it better mean we are signing Prince. That would be a huge jump of responsibility for Nowell.

I agree that Prince needs to be a priority, even regardless if Beasley stays or goes. You have to have capable hybrid forwards and McDaniels is our only other viable 3/4 on the roster.

I saw enough of Nowell last season to believe he can step up and is ready for a bigger role.

[Q-is-here]

While I am a Nowell proponent, I didn't realize just how statistically superior to Beasley he was last season. Take a look at their comparison on basketballreference.com...he was superior to Beas in every measure:

https://stathead.com/basketball/pcm_finder.cgi?player_id2=beaslma01&p1yrfrom=2022&player_id1=nowelja01&p2yrfrom=2022&sum=0&request=1

I also note the improvement Nowell has shown in each of the past two seasons...quite impressive. For instance his TS% has gone from 47% to 53% to 58%. Very good trend lines. And I also agree that his ability to create on his own is a huge asset. My sense is that Finchy has never been pleased with Nowell's defense, and he is encouraging him to "earn" his playing time with more effort on the defensive end. We all know that Beas is a below average defender too, but I'm guessing Finchy at least acknowledges his consistent effort on defense.

All that said, I agree Nowell's time has come to be our scoring 6th man. It's not likely to happen with Beas still on the roster, so I hope Gupta can find a suitable way to move him.

Right, Nowell has the more well-rounded game offensively FNG. He is a better ball handler, distributor, and shot creator than Beasley. Malik is the better volume 3-point shooter.

Defensively, both are similar in that the effort is there but they struggle nonetheless. But I think Nowell still has room for improvement on that end and at the end of the day he's going to get paid to be a shot creator off the bench.

Imagine next season if our bench unit consists of PBev, Nowell, Prince, Vando, and Reid or some other free agent big man. Not a bad balance between offense and defense with that group.

[Lipoli390]

While I am a Nowell proponent, I didn't realize just how statistically superior to Beasley he was last season. Take a look at their comparison on basketballreference.com...he was superior to Beas in every measure:

https://stathead.com/basketball/pcm_finder.cgi?player_id2=beaslma01&p1yrfrom=2022&player_id1=nowelja01&p2yrfrom=2022&sum=0&request=1

I also note the improvement Nowell has shown in each of the past two seasons...quite impressive. For instance his TS% has gone from 47% to 53% to 58%. Very good trend lines. And I also agree that his ability to create on his own is a huge asset. My sense is that Finchy has never been pleased with Nowell's defense, and he is encouraging him to "earn" his playing time with more effort on the defensive end. We all know that Beas is a below average defender too, but I'm guessing Finchy at least acknowledges his consistent effort on defense.

All that said, I agree Nowell's time has come to be our scoring 6th man. It's not likely to happen with Beas still on the roster, so I hope Gupta can find a suitable way to move him.

That's one of the things I really like about Nowell. He's always shown improvement year to year. It shows in his college stats and again since coming to the NBA. It's the sign of someone who has strong motivation, works hard and has a high basketball IQ that enables him to learn.