Phunkabilly

Wow! That's crazy!

Obviously the JC trade had a lot to do with the money. But I really think the main reason he is gone is because we have a better fit waiting in the wings with JJ. If you have a player Y who can be more impactful on your roster making a fraction of the money as player X, then it only makes sense to reallocate funds to address a bigger weakness on your roster. And I know Diesel disagrees with me here, but I saw enough from JJ towards the end of the season that leads me to believe he'll have more of an impact on this team than JC. No, he's not gonna be a 20 ppg type of guy, but he's going to fill up the box score doing everything else... passing, rebounding, blocking shots, getting deflections, etc. Earlier in the season I saw too much nervousness/hesitation in his game to believe that he was ready for significant minutes. You can attribute that to his inexperience, Nate's influence, or both. But by the end of the season, he looked SOOO much more comfortable out there to me. Yes, he was still making some rookie-like mistakes, but most of those mistakes were aggressive in nature, which I can live with. Quin seems to like him too, and I really believe he's going to bring the best out of JJ. I would be willing to bet we'll forget all about Collins halfway through next season.

After reading the FVV news, this feels like a bargain

I had to re-read the headline 3 times because I thought I had to be missing something... $40M+ for FVV is cuckoo bananas

Marc Stein is reporting that Rockets are making a 2-year max offer to FVV

A+++ post

Lol, you may want to slow your roll there, Diesel. JC's fit on Utah is arguably worse than it was with us... they have no PnR PG to get him the ball, and their front court is awfully crowded, so I don't see his usage rate being much better over there. Of course that could change as free agency hits, but right now it looks pretty bleak from where I'm sitting.

Yeah, I'm excited to see what Quin and his staff can do with OO over a full offseason. OO is about the only one of the upcoming free agents I'd be willing to make an early extension offer to because of this, as I think his value could really skyrocket this season.

I definitely think the answer to the last question is going to be "yes". I think a lot of these guys with dreams of $20M and $30M bags swimming in their heads are going to end up settling for the MLE.

I think you've summarized my thoughts on the Schlenk era to a T in this post. I'd give him a solid "B" for the work he did here. One thing that irks me is when people complain about a GM's draft history by cherry-picking the one or two good players that went after a "miss", but completely ignore the dozens of bad players that went before a "hit". Schlenk certainly didn't hit on all his picks, but I thought his overall draft portfolio was pretty darn good.

I'm a huge fan of Wright's and would be all for bringing him back. I love him as a DJ replacement option in case we need to move him for a big fish. But the guard room as of now is pretty crowded already. IIRC, part of the reason Wright left us in the first place is that he was unhappy with his playing time. I don't see that getting any better on our roster as currently constructed. BUT, if we do move a guard in a separate deal, then I am all in on Wright... Caruso is another favorite option of mine as well. And for what it's worth, I don't know if someone like Wright is really the appropriate use for the TPE. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from my understanding, the TPE is generally used where either 1) the team you're trading with really needs the cap space, so the straight salary dump is the value they're seeking in return on a trade, or 2) you want to sign a free agent but don't have the necessary cap space to sign them outright, so you use the TPE as part of a sign & trade (along with other assets) so that you can get them on the books. Washington isn't hurting as far as the salary cap goes, and I don't see them too concerned about freeing up extra money to go after big money free agents. In other words, draft compensation is the value they're after, not the cap space. I don't think they would care if we use the TPE, or if we send out matching short-term salary (Gay + Vit). If that's the case, then probably just better to save the TPE in that case?

No argument from me that Bud and his staff had a positive influence on JC's development early on. My response had more to do with the finger injury and Cap's presence having more of an influence on his reduced production than the coaching changes. Impossible to prove either way of course... just my opinion.

Yeah, I had similar thoughts in an earlier post. The only ones out of that group that I would be interested in and could be a fit for us are A. Wiggins, A. Gordon and D. White. But those guys serve important roles on championship contenders, so I don't see those teams letting them go for cap space. Best bet may be to take the TPE into the season and use it to fill a hole with a useful player from a non-contender at the trade deadline.

Yeah. Let's not bid against ourselves this time around, for goodness' sake.

Exactly. Think there's going to be some reality checks in free agency this year. Hopefully that'll help with negotiations with our own free agents next year. Bey, for instance, would probably be lucky to get anything more than the MLE from another team in this year's class.

He was thriving under Lloyd. You can make the argument that Nate had something to do with his decline, but I think the finger injury and Capela's presence squeezing him out of the PnR game probably had more to do with it.

There's gonna be some disappointed free agents this year...

Not that I'm advocating it because he can't stay on the court, but this would fit within the parameters you're talking about and kinda makes sense for both teams... Clips would probably want to ship Zubac out in this scenario though.

My guess is Dame is giving them until the free agency period to build a team he's happy with. If they're unable to do that, then he may ask out.

Indy got Walker

The candidates with a 23/24 salary in this range and who might reasonably be available looks pretty grim. Maybe Vuc or BLopez in a SnT? Hard to see Milwaukee being motivated to do that though. Maybe the best option is to hold until until the trade deadline in case we need reinforcements at that time.

I'd love to have Delon back. I thought he was great for us. Not sure we have the minutes for him though, and don't think he was real pleased with his limited minutes during his stay here either.

Wasn't Soth saying that it was Ressler that vetoed the past JC trades, though? If that Lauri trade was legit, I don't think anybody's head would roll if it was the boss man himself making the call.

Man, I hope you're right! I would LOVE seeing the Braves have the two best players in baseball!

And while I'm in agreement with most on here that I am disappointed in the return for JC, the fact is that I'll miss the person a lot more than the player. I'm admittedly much more bullish on JJ than most, but I'm extremely excited to see the impact he'll have with increased minutes (assuming we don't sign/trade for another starting caliber PF). I personally felt like JJ was outplaying JC during the second half of the year, so this may even be more of an addition by subtraction type of move. Not because JC was a bad player, but because we may have an even better player ready to take his spot. It's the same reason why I wouldn't mind seeing Capela moved (to give OO more minutes), or to a lesser extent, to see Hunter moved (to give AJ more minutes). The added financial flexibility to make additional moves is icing on the cake.