They’re fairly deep, and if they are healthy should make a playoff push. Love’s opt-out isn’t until the summer of 2015, so they have that long to try to build something he’ll stick around for. This Martin signing, and re-upping with Pekovic, are a good start.
Probably that, or he wants that 5th year for security, even at less per year. He’s been in the playoffs in 6 of his 9 seasons, but never for a real contender. Boy, if the Bulls amnesty Boozer (I’m obsessed with that, I know) and start Gibson at the 4, they could make a very nice offer to Iguodala. His defense and super-versatile game would fit right in.
Right. They may want to throw their fans some kind of a bone as a post-script to keeping the team in Sacramento, but long-term, they should stay the course, draft in the lottery, and not commit long-term money unless it’s a very young guy, until they get a decent foundation.
Speaking of the Kings, rumor has it that Tyreke Evans got a 4 year, $44 million offer from the Pelicans. Is that insanely high, or is it just me?
And they do have to meet the salary floor, although the best way to do that would be getting expiring contracts instead of offering big deals to guys who will be free agents again by the time the team is any good. But yes, the ownership situation complicates things: they’ve stunk for a long time now and I am sure Ranadive wants to give the fans a reason to get interested again.
It seems really high to me and it seems like the Pelicans are overcrowding their backcourt. I don’t know what they’re planning to do.
That Timberwolves starting 5 is the worst defensive group I have ever imagined starting for a decent NBA team. It’s unspeakable. I endorse its existence wholeheartedly. We may see a two hundred point night.
Neither did I- and they gave him a big contract. As the link says, it’s $22 million over six years. SI theorizes that this means Rondo is going to be traded because the Celtics would not want to inflict him on a first-year coach and because the length of Stevens’ contract suggests the team is ready to tear everything down and start over and build a team around him.
Kyle Korver is staying in Atlanta. ESPN perhaps over-enthusiastically says the Hawks are keeping “one of this summer’s most coveted free agents” for four years and $24 million. Tyreke Evans will sign that $44 million offer sheet with New Orleans and doesn’t want to go back to the Kings, not that it’s up to him.
Back to the Bucks for a second: someone on Grantland pointed out that the team swapped Tobias Harris for Redick for two second-round picks. Viewed in that light… they suck.
Sacramento Bee is reporting that the Kings won’t match the offer, and are instead trying to work a sign-and-trade for Grievis Vasquez and Robin Lopez. How that shakes out will indicate what the Pelicans were thinking: did they want to try Tyreke at small forward (their biggest "need’ position, and Evans is pretty tall and thick for a guard), or at guard? Is he just (expensive) Eric Gordon insurance? Lopez is one of the best values in the league right now, a very competent center for $5 million.
Ack, that’s too much for Manu.
Good for the Bucks, I guess. Definitely means Monta Ellis is leaving. At least Mayo is young.
Yeah, that was unexpected. A college coach is in the business of developing raw young talent, which is what the Celts will need over the next few years.
Dammit, they better not. Rondo is young and cheap, he’s a great piece to build around.
A heavy price to pay for a single playoff appearance and sweep, no question.
The Knicks have re-signed J.R. Smith for a very modest $24.7 million over 4 years. If they could go back in time and not sign Amar’e Stoudemire, they’d be right in the mix for the Eastern Finals.
Oh, sure, Vasquez is expendable, but not Lopez. While their future plan is probably Anthony Davis and center (and probably Ryan Anderson at the 4), he is not physically prepared for that.
That’s my guess. The Kings used Evans at the 3 at times, he’s a quickness mismatch for most opposing forwards and yet big enough to defend them credibly. I’d say their ideal lineup with Evans would be Holiday-Gordon-Evans-Davis-Lopez, so (being a Kentucky partisan and thus a Davis booster), I’d rather they keep Lopez, unless they have something in the works to bring in another center.
Al Jefferson will go to Charlotte for three years and $41 million, although he can opt out after the second year just in case for some reason things aren’t going too well at that point.
He is, but they’d be foolish not to at least see what they can get for him. The fact that he’s young and cheap makes him more valuable as a potential trade piece. He’s under contract for two more seasons, and no matter what they do, they’re not going to be any good during that time anyway. So does it make more sense for them to keep him and stockpile assets and draft picks as they rebuild and then re-sign him when he’s 29 and the team might be ready to go somewhere, or does it make sense to wait for him to come back and establish his health, then trade him to complete the tear-down and have even more assets as they start over? I can see an argument either way.
The Spurs are getting Marco Belinelli (two years, $6 million) and they want to re-sign Gary Neal, who is a restricted free agent. I was just thinking they really didn’t have much three-point shooting.
The Evans thing turned out to be a three-team deal: Evans to the Pelicans, Vasquez to the Kings, and Lopez to the Blazers. The Kings wanted to sign Jose Calderon and trade Vasquez away, but Calderon decided he didn’t want to go to a team at the start of a rebuilding project.
Well, good on them for actually trying to address their weaknesses and improve sometime before the year 2016.
Nothing wrong with shopping the guy, but if they accept a deal as weak as the one they made with the Nets, it’d be a travesty. That’s the problem, really: I have zero confidence in Danny Ainge. Since 2008, has he made a single good move? The only one that comes to mind is Big Baby and Von Wafer for Brandon Bass.
That’s foolishness by the Pelicans. They were at $40 mil in salary on the books, added Evans’ $11 millionish…now they have to unload the high-value contracts of Vasqeuz ($2.1 million), and more egregiously, Lopez ($5.1)? Why??? Hell, even if they do have a plan to bring in another center, or think Davis is ready for the role, keep Lopez at that price as a highly-competent backup. This nickel-and-dime attitude is part of what keeps crappy franchises crappy. There was no reason for this to be a sign-and-trade and not just an offer sheet, and certainly not a sign-and-trade that included Lopez. No way the Kings match $44/4, and if they do, big deal, it saves the Pelicans from overpaying for Evans. This way, the Pelicans still get to overpay Evans, and their team is worse off in the net, with the loss of Lopez.
I’ll research it further, but the cap is $58.5 million. Holliday gets $11 even, the team has $40.077 on the books, that makes $51.077. Evans’ deal is reportedly 4 years, $44 million. The normal raise for non-Bird free agents is 4.5% per year, so Evans’ first-year salary would be right at $10.5 mil. That puts the Pelicans at 61.577 mil. Trade Vasquez (- $2,150,188) and Jason Smith (-$2.5 mil) and you’re there, and keep Lopez. Or, trade Vasquez and decline the team options on two of Darius Miller, Terrel Harris, and Lance Thomas. They’d still have their full mid-level to fill out the roster.
Unless there’s a cap hold issue (those are arcane and complex), they could have just snuck under the cap and kept Lopez.
New Orleans also picked up Portland’s second round pick Jeff Withey. He projects as a solid defensive specialist and opens up some interesting options with Anthony Davis. Could be a potent defensive frontcourt.
I’m not sure I like the move for Portland, even if Lopez is a credible player at a terrific value. Two second round picks and a younger “center(fielder)” for Robin Lopez seems like a lot to give up for no gain. But if nothing else, it isn’t a move that cripples the team in any way. The core of that team is in town, you just have to juggle some secondary pieces to find the right mix.
That makes it a little better, I guess. At least they got another center back, albeit a rookie. Davis isn’t ready to play center, at least not full-time; he could handle it against certain opponents.
Depends on what the plan is in Portland, they are presently in the no-man’s-land of not good enough to make the playoffs, and not bad enough to get top lottery picks. They need to either get better or get worse; this deal makes them better, IMHO.
Dwight Howard’s decision is expected today. I’m thinking Houston, myself.
It sounds that way. The Warriors are getting a little bit of buzz now but they’d have to quickly trade away a bunch of guys to make room. The proposed deals sound like ones that would really damage the team: Curry is untouchable but the thinking is they’d have to trade Bogut and a big expiring contract plus Thompson or Barnes. I hate seeing teams cripple themselves just to make room for a star player. I guess they’d be better after that trade, but they wouldn’t improve as much as they could- and they’d be less fun.