JeffS17

We aren't a tax paying team* to much of this forums displeasure. We do not have immensely valuable trade assets right now, outside of Murray, JJ, and maybe Bufkin. Our improvement is going to come from development, no matter if we stay the course with this roster OR if we make trades, because trades will be for better fit, not talent upgrades. Trading for someone like Ingram (or Siakam) is precisely the move we need to make as playing with Trae would certainly bolster their value. There is no home run trade this team can make to contend because we don't have the assets for it, so we need to make savvy incremental moves, sign reasonable/team friendly extensions, and continue developing players to outplay those reasonable/team friendly contracts, which will make them more valuable to us and for trades. We don't even have the talent to just pay to win right now, so going into the luxury doesn't change the fact we need better, more concentrated talent in our best 3-5 players.

I don't know.... NO isn't willing to pay him a max -- is anyone else? There's definitely an extension salary range that would make this deal attractive. Probably somewhere in the $30-35M per year range. Ingram fit on this squad is much better than DJ and I really believe Quin could elevate his game immensely if Ingram buys into Quin's philosophies.

Which is why our front office declined those offers. Yet people here still criticize them for not making enough moves, when these are the types of moves that have been available to us. I think most of this board is still in somewhat of a denial of how little we could have done the past two years due to Schlenks overpays. Those extension overpays that had long-term ramifications and we're still unwinding them. We're going to be in such a better place when Clint is off the books, and we get deeper into Hunters extension (his pay relative to the total cap gets smaller every year), particularly knowing that Landry has not made these same mistakes and has been signing reasonable deals.

There's almost no practical way to end up over the tax -- it's difficult to even come up with a scenario that makes sense. The only extension kicking in is OO and even including that, we have $15M of space before the first apron with the current roster. Maybe you take a flyer to extend Bey and use the MLE to barely creep over the tax line, but that doesn't make much sense to do. The one exception here is we make a splashy trade and take in a lot of salary and send out the least possible. The most logical time to enter the tax would align with JJ's extension in the 2025-2026 season, assuming we are on an upward trajectory this year.

Any trade that includes McCollum is unserious. I would rather just develop our bench guards than have him suck up minutes from players that need to develop. He's not a winning player and his fit with Trae would be horrendous -- they would set new lows for how bad a back court can be defensively.

I read your whole response and still couldn't find an answer to this question:

Which bench players could we have signed? Who wanted to play here on our bench and why didn't it work out?

How can you say there weren't serious attempts when we were heavily rumored in the only available all-star level talent (Siakam) this summer? Not to mention the very real talks reported by Sothron and Supes about us targeting Karl Anthony Towns. How much more serious can you get? My understanding is that the front office was working the phones to bring in a star player and that was their #1 goal this season. You guys act like we're the Charlotte Hornets with this rhetoric lmao

My hopes for this offseason: We need to find the best offer available for Hunter and trade him. Play JJ at SF for minutes next season and see how he does. IMO he can play as a big wing. Extend Bey on a team friendly contract as a good bench piece. He's not championship starting talent but he's a championship bench player imo Trade CC, salary dump if necessary, take best offer available Trade AJ, package him with Clint if needed, get guys on the roster who want to play And most importantly, trade either DJ or Trae $68M dual PG back court just isn't it Hopefully get back talent at PF as that's our biggest gap in the rotation. Or SF if we do move from Hunter We gotta fix the roster fit this year and keep developing guys. I want to see Kobe get more minutes, I want to see JJ play some SF minutes, I want to see OO starting at center and playing some PF minutes. We need guys who can play 2-3 positions offensively and defensively. We need better POA defense and we need size on the bench. Obviously we can only make moves that are available but I'd be happy with any combination of the above.

To add to this, we were targeting Siakam over the summer and this group wasn't even happy about that. Now he's playing well in the playoffs and has the Pacers with a very real chance to make the ECF this year.

And you haven't given a single realistic thing we could have done to be better. Is it George Niang? Thybulle? Shake Milton? Who is that elusive needle mover you guys keep referencing? Is it a trade fabricated in the trade machine?

There are 6 teams in the east that have made the conference finals in the last 10 years. We made it twice with different cores. How is that incompetence? Incompetence is the Charlotte Hornets, the Chicago Bulls, the Brooklyn Nets org... we are not incompetent -- the NBA is hard man, there are 30 teams. Every single one of them can try to win, make good moves, and make logical decisions and half are still not making the playoffs. This idea we can spend to win is just not reality. And trades are great and all, but you gotta trade talent to get talent, unless you want to give up a bunch of picks like we did with Murray. This isn't 2k

You guys are just applying blame as a coping mechanism. There is no way to improve a roster that has 5 guys on rookie deals out of the top 7 minutes played. The only way to improve is development of those players. Adding players makes no sense. Again, this payroll and roster isn't even guaranteed to get out of the play-in:

This is such an egregious wording lol no one is saying Trae is on the phone with other GMs. He's putting pressure on them. Surely you understand that a GM is handicapped to do a good job if the outcomes of the decisions they are making change from "Trade X player for Y player" and end up with Trae Young + Y versus "make no trade and end up with No Y player and no Trae Young". Putting the front office on notice with artificial timelines that might not be the best course for the team is harmful. You can plug your ears and pretend like the front office should delete Trae's number from their phone or you can acknowledge the reality of how business works. With that said, I still blame our front office and ownership because they gave Trae the keys to the city from day 1 and enabled his diva behavior instead of nipping it at the bud.

Heat, Nets, Raptors

Love these suggestions -- I think people here underrate Reaves and how much Trae would elevate him. He puts a lot more pressure on the defense than DJ and would probably open up CnS opportunities for Trae. Herb Jones is the golden goose of this list of course, but savvy moves around the edges to get better roster fit could go a long way next year. Look at these playoffs right now -- just getting a top 6 seed is enough to give us a chance if we have a roster that fits and has chemistry.

You guys realize the NBA is a business, right? With the exception of just 1-2 owners, all of them are here to make money. The faster everyone here moves from denial to acceptance on this, the quicker we'll be able to have productive conversations around ways to move forward that don't include going into the tax for John f*cking Collins or throwing a tax bag at Matisse 5 ppg Thybulle

Trading DJ to the suns makes no sense for them, though. Now they have all their eggs in three guards, with a horrendous front court. That roster construction might be worse than what they have now... a trade that would make more sense for both teams, but will likely never happen because Book is their franchise player And Trae ours, is a Book/Trae swap. That fixes both rosters: gives us a true SG with Murray, gives them an all-star PG to pair with KD, lets Beal play more off-ball, etc.

Do you think Trae is a diva and acting completely entitled after we gave him the keys to the city, marketed him heavily propping up his image and brand, ended the tank early for him, aggressively put together a roster that made the ECF, and gave him DJ Murray at his request? A simple Yes or No please.

Yes

This comment absolves Trae of any responsibility. But anyone that understands power dynamics and nuance understands he has influence and should be at least partially accountable. If Trae wants to leave as soon as things get tough, imo he should just leave. I'd rather not have a diva/quitter on the team eroding the lock room culture.

So just to be clear, you guys are all saying Trae will leave unless he gets what he wants, and then when he gets what he wants, it's ownership/front office fault? That's what already happened with the DJ trade. Some real astounding mental gymnastics happening here.... yall both blame the front office for not making Trae happy and also blaming them when they make a move to make Trae happy lmao.

Imo Trae and his camp (read: his dad) will be in for a world of hurt when they realize there is not another franchise in the league that will give him the free reign Atlanta has. I doubt most teams would even want him for any kind of reasonable price with the exception of some bottom feeder teams that need butts in seats, i.e Pistons. I waffle on whether I want to move forward with DJ or Trae, and I think it makes the most sense to move DJ, but there is definitely a part of me that struggles to see a championship path with Trae on a 35% of cap max in 3 years.

I mostly agree with you but it is nice to have guys that can contribute on rookie scale deals. We have never been able to sign great vet mins so it helps with depth.

I'd take our situation 10 times out of 10 over the Suns who are balls deep into the tax with a complete albatross contract with a NTC in Beal (who is completely redundant with Booker), and an over the hill KD. And they do not have any of their own picks until the next decade lol... Our season was disappointing but getting swept in the first round and having no control over your future with that chemistry-less roster would be depressing.