Ah, ok. So Utah’s backcourt is in even worse shape than I thought. Poor Favors had terrible guards in college, too, which has probably hindered his development.
The list of free-agent centers Chicago could get is now very, very short. Brandan Wright?
Why are the Spurs so averse to bringing in veteran free agents? Did Rasho Nesterovic give R.C. Buford PTSD or something? Damn, it’s frustrating.
YES! The team video for the intro sequence can be a getting-the-band-back-together montage! Man, I hate the Lakers!
Randy Foye was folded into the Iguodala deal. They made it a sign-and-trade so GS could keep their full mid-level exception (if they had signed him as a free agent, they would have gone under the cap after the trade with Utah, and a team gets a more generous MLE if they’re over the cap). Denver got a trade exception for dealing Iggy, part of which they used to acquire Foye for a 2nd round pick (they still have $9 million remaining). Utah gets expirings and all those picks, most important being the unprotected 1st rounders from GS (2014, 2017).
The Timberwolves and Nikola Pekovic are supposed to be close to a deal for about $50 million over four years. I don’t think anyone expected him to go anywhere else because he’s a restricted free agent, but we hadn’t heard much about the actual negotiations.
I don’t think they can afford him unless they do a sign and trade.
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Can I ask in what way? He’s a terrible three-point shooter.
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There’s no way shooting below 30% from 3 is anything but terrible, but he’s a career 45% from the field, 6 assists, 3 TOs last year. I wouldn’t want him on my team, but as I said, I think there’s a place for him somewhere - just nowhere that has any money left. San Antonio could maybe do something with him, like Stephen Jackson.
Yeah, but with Rondo, Green, Bradley, and Wallace, they’d still have a shot at an 8 seed in a very top-heavy Eastern Conference, even if the team didn’t particularly want it. Milwaukee won it last year with a 38-44 record, and the conference has gotten worse overall since. They may end up trading Rondo, with Wallace’s contract as a fee, next season (Wallace isn’t eligible to be traded until December, IIRC, and Rondo’s hurt), but with the roster as it exists right now, they’d have a chance at the #8.
Yeah, I hadn’t even heard if anyone else had made a formal offer sheet; I figured somebody would make a crazy-high offer and force Minny to either lose him or lock up a lot of their cap in a mid-level player.
Then don’t give Ginobili $14 million! Dammit, I want Duncan to win another title before he retires.
Human-I absolutely agree hanging onto Rondo consigns them to no-man’s land. (too good to get into lottery, not good enough to truly contend) Which is why I assume they’ll dump him eventually.
Chris Broussard on Twitter is saying that Bynum has signed with Cleveland. 2 years, $24 million. Only $6 million is guaranteed in year 1, year 2 is a team option.
Nice signing (well, if he’s healthy; a defensible gamble regardless).
Yup, I think that’s a risk well worth taking for them. Dallas was apparently not as sure about Bynum’s health or less willing to gamble on it.
The Kevin Martin deal turned into a sign and trade, so the Thunder get a trade exception out of it. Minnesota also signed Corey Brewer and traded Luke Ridnour ($4.3M expiring contract) to Milwaukee.
Maybe, maybe not. While they need to do some rebuilding, Boston isn’t in the same boat as a Phoenix, Philadelphia, Sacramento, the Lakers, or Orlando. They have a core of productive players that are young, but not that young: Rondo’s 27, Jeff Green is 26, Brandon Bass (who is one of the best in the league at what he does: space the floor with a highly accurate midrange shot) is 28, Gerald Wallace is 30, Courtney Lee is 27.
Then, they have another group of truly young up-and-comers: Avery Bradley (22), Jared Sullinger (21), and Kelly Olynyk (22).
So, there are two paths before them: clear the deck of the first group and bottom out and build through high lottery picks, or keep most of the first group and bank on the improvement of Green and the young guys, while adding new pieces as needed through mid-draft pciks and trading expiring deals, or taking on other teams’ overpriced contracts, or signing free agents (which is easier for a team that’s not awful).
Yeah, that’s a really smart move, it’s about as hedged a bet as you’ll see in the NBA (partially guaranteed, second year is a team option), and if it pays off, the Cavs get a 20-12 guy who’s playing for a future max deal.
Which means the Bucks won’t match whatever offer Brandon Jennings gets, unless it’s for a sign and trade…I like the move by Milwaukee, I like Teague more than Jennings and 4 / $32 is a little high but not awful. I can’t figure out what Atlanta’s up to, they’re clearly trying to stay a playoff team by signing Millsap and Korver and trying to get Bynum, but they’re downgrading their point guard position, and if they end up with Jennings, probably not saving any money in the process.
Speaking of Millsap, Chad Ford reported on Simmons’ podcast that the reason he went so cheap is that his agent spent the first 10 days or so of free agency trying to get him $15 million per year, and when sanity finally set in, most of his suitors had already signed other guys. So, expect to see his agent fired soon too.
:smack: Chauncey Billups to sign two-year deal with Detroit. Please retire, Chauncey, you were embarassingly bad last season, especially in the playoffs. Become an assistant coach if you want to stay close to the game, but please retire instead of burning the last fumes of athletic ability you have left.
Easy for us to tell others to leave millions of dollars on the table. I would play as long as someone was willing to pay me, and when they stopped I’d go to Europe and play some more.
It is easy, you’re right. It’s just tough to see players you admire decline into irrelevance, and then incompetence. I know they aren’t playing for my memories of them, but I wish they were.
Marcus Camby, Steve Novak, Quentin Richardson, a first-round pick in 2016 and second-rounder picks in 2014 and 2017. None of those guys are very expensive but they’re all under contract for two or three more years.
I knew that actually; I was making a rhetorical point.
Bargnani is a disastrously bad player, especially for his salary, one of the lowest-value regular players in the NBA, and the Raptors would have gotten great value for him if the Knicks had simply given back nothing at all. Last season he did nothing well; he didn’t shoot well, didn’t rebound, didn’t control the ball, didn’t play defense. He was, by NBA standards, bad at everything. That’s not an exaggeration; if I was the GM of the Raptors I would have given him away for a used basketball if that was the absolute best deal anyone had offered. He was good as recently as 2010 but has declined precipitously since then and, to be honest, I can’t see him being much better in New York. That the Raptors got a first round pick is astounding.
The price the Knicks paid for him - when he was at the lowest value he’s ever been at - is just staggering. Camby, Richardson and Novak are all throwaways, but a first round pick? Even one that far out? Jesus.
I agree that getting rid of his contract is a huge win for the team, and it’s kind of amazing the Knicks would decide he was worth $22 million or $23 million over the next two years when they’re already spending so much money on other guys. People kept saying maybe the Raptors would use the amnesty provision on him, too. You would think that would make his trade value almost nil, but somehow it didn’t. Novak is a decent three-point shooter and I guess they see a little value in the other guys as placeholders while they rebuild.
I forget who it was, but one NBA writer I read wrote something that comes to mind. His idea was that a guy like Kwame Brown, who, while far less productive than projected, still has a 13+ year NBA career, is actually a worst bust than someone like Greg Oden, who’s barely played at all. The reason was that a guy like Brown gets multiple GMs fired, because they keep falling for the same raw potential that lured in his first team, and have a hard time accepting that he’s just never going to put it all together.
Andrea Bargnani is in that group. 7 feet tall with three-point range, and he can handle the ball! That’s going to keep enticing GMs who will talk themselves into him: maybe Toronto was just a bad fit, or his coaches didn’t develop him properly or use him correctly…maybe he just needs a change of scenery…better give him $22 million and give up three players and a first round pick and two second rounders to find out.
You can see some of that with Tyreke Evans too…the Kings were a mess, it wasn’t his fault, they had a coach carousel and played him at three positions, he could be really good on our team! Better give him $44 million and give up two very valuable players to find out.