Official 2014 Free Agency discussion

aaron_gray · Post #2481 » by **aaron_gray** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 6:53 am

Pretty sure Zach Lowe mentioned multiple times that the Suns were better with just Dragic on the floor, but whatever. Not giving up Randle for the deepest position in the league where you can find a replacement just about every summer.

Penberthy · Post #2482 » by **Penberthy** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 6:55 am

aaron_gray wrote:Clippers
Thunder
Spurs
Blazers
Rockets
Warriors
Grizzlies
Mavericks

These are the teams who have better rosters than us. They have players who are vets/have mashed together already. They all have superstars, superstars on the decline (who have yet to suffer a career altering injury) or players on the cusp of superstardom.

Here is the group we will be competing with:

Phoenix: Has one of Thibs assistants who runs the defense. Lost Channing Frye and could potentially be dealing with an unhappy Bledsoe. They have IT as insurance though, and will most likely finish with at least 40 wins (thanks run and gun).
Pellies: Davis+Asik duo, which I think will limit Davis but the rest of ya'll have told me that they will be a 60 win team.
Sacramento: Could potentially add Josh Smith, who would provide rim protect next to Boogie. That duo fits better than you think, since Boogie is a big man who can put it on the floor.
Minnesota: Top 10 in points and points allowed last year, which would have equated to a 50 win team had they not sucked so badly in close games. Looking to be this year's Portland.

We have:
Linsanity at 40%. Why did we even bother to draft Randle if we're going to have 5 guys on the floor who needs the ball at all times. Might as well have taken Vonleh.
Carlos Boozer who may or may not have been on the Booze cruise last year. Posted his worst statistical season since his rookie year.
Ed Davis, who apparently took a massive dump in Memphis.
I was looking forward to X, R Kelly, Randle and Clarkson getting touches and developing, but it looks like the return of Linsanity is more of a pressing agenda.

Outside of harden, who dribbles out the clock every possession, who does Houston have that's makes them a better roster than us? Dwight is a good help defender and and rebounder but that's it. At this point he is basically a wash with Hill who gives more effort on the glass and was kind of knocking down jumpers last year. Hou does not have a better roster. Mem has marc and zbo, who take touches from each other, but outside of Conley their roster isn't that impressive.

If we are healthy and any of the remaining teams have injuries like we did last year, we are a 7 seed. People forget we went the whole year without our starting pg and sg. And large chunks missing the other starters. What team in the nba can survive without so many starters?

LApwnd · Post #2483 » by **LApwnd** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 6:59 am

ginobiliflops wrote:I love making trades with LA!

should've done the Pau one, 8th seed might not have said bye so easily

aaron_gray · Post #2484 » by **aaron_gray** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 7:11 am

Penberthy if you're not being sarcastic, here's my serious answer:

That team was the fourth seed last year in a brutal conference with 9 50 win teams depending on whether you count Dallas/Phoenix or not, and they replaced Parsons with Ariza. Not going to fall out of the playoffs.

Marc, Conley, ZBo, Allen > Any combo on our roster. They also have a defense strategy set in place that produced 50 wins last season. Again, not going to fall out of the playoffs. Both Courtney Lee and Nick Calawhatever gave them valuable dashes of offense last year, and they added another shot creator in Vince. Adams has looked like a stud in summer league and Beno Udrih proved to be a big time pickup for them.

oldschooled · Post #2485 » by **oldschooled** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:09 am

Sign Matrix instead of Sessions and call it a day. Would love to see Lin play PG full time and see Jordan play minutes.

Post #2486 » by **crazyeights** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:08 pm

Looking at our roster, it's clear we need another guard--if nothing else a 2/3, more so than a 3/4 in Marion.

You have to assume Nash is going to play less than 20 games at this point. This is why guys cheering for Marshall to be cut were a little short sighted. Hopefully we can replace him with an upgrade, but for the minimum and a very uncertain opening for playing time: that's easier said than done.

If we suffered an injury to Kobe/X/Swaggy/Lin it'd bring down the whole damn ship.

Lin/Nash/Clarkson
Kobe/X
Wes/Swaggy
Boozer/Randle/Kelly
Hill/Davis/Sacre

I like every single one of these players individually. I'd guess we'd need one more combo guard and either an upgrade to Wes or a 3rd stringer and be done. I just hope we sign 15 bodies...enough of this 13 crap when you have such an aging core. Nash and Kobe are almost surefire injuries.

Hero Ball · Post #2487 » by **Hero Ball** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:44 pm

ArC_man wrote:Ed Davis is more PF than C but I really like this signing. He's still really young as well. He always killed us when we played Toronto

He can't play C. He has the slender body of a guard. He's a stick and has trouble handling PF's that have even a bit of strength. Against strong PF's he literally gets backed down within a couple of dribbles.

Unlike some over at the Raptors board, I haven't done the Kool-Aid on this guy. He's always been a per-36 beast but those stats mask a lot of what's wrong with this guy.

His glaring weaknesses 4 years ago are still his glaring weaknesses today. His lack of lower body strength, his lack of moves (he still only has the hook from his strong hand), his jumper is non-existent, his foul shooting is broken.

People over on the Toronto board make excuses about the lack of playing time holding back his development but those specific weaknesses are the types of things that can be improved on in the off-season with work in the gym. It only requires dedication and effort. It's too bad he hasn't bothered and the result is a very limited player: a garbage man who can barely defend his own position (don't let the blocks fool you).

It's not particularly surprising considering one of the flags on this guy when he was drafted was his drive. Ed seems like the type of guy who is happy with where he is at now and would rather coast than get better.

Good luck to you but no one in LA should expect much from him.

AcecardZ · Post #2488 » by **AcecardZ** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:02 pm

Hero Ball wrote:
ArC_man wrote:Ed Davis is more PF than C but I really like this signing. He's still really young as well. He always killed us when we played Toronto

He can't play C. He has the slender body of a guard. He's a stick and has trouble handling PF's that have even a bit of strength. Against strong PF's he literally gets backed down within a couple of dribbles.

Unlike some over at the Raptors board, I haven't done the Kool-Aid on this guy. He's always been a per-36 beast but those stats mask a lot of what's wrong with this guy.

His glaring weaknesses 4 years ago are still his glaring weaknesses today. His lack of lower body strength, his lack of moves (he still only has the hook from his strong hand), his jumper is non-existent, his foul shooting is broken.

People over on the Toronto board make excuses about the lack of playing time holding back his development but those specific weaknesses are the types of things that can be improved on in the off-season with work in the gym. It only requires dedication and effort. It's too bad he hasn't bothered and the result is a very limited player: a garbage man who can barely defend his own position (don't let the blocks fool you).

It's not particularly surprising considering one of the flags on this guy when he was drafted was his drive. Ed seems like the type of guy who is happy with where he is at now and would rather coast than get better.

Good luck to you but no one in LA should expect much from him.

Rather long winded way of saying "you're getting what you pay for"...

Hero Ball · Post #2489 » by **Hero Ball** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:37 pm

AcecardZ wrote:Rather long winded way of saying "you're getting what you pay for"...

I saw where some were penciling him in on the depth charts. If he's first or second, you're probably tanking.

EArl · Post #2490 » by **EArl** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:19 pm

Hero Ball wrote:
AcecardZ wrote:Rather long winded way of saying "you're getting what you pay for"...

I saw where some were penciling him in on the depth charts. If he's first or second, you're probably tanking.

I think he will see some bench minutes at center and power forward and hopefully he hits the weight room and we will see what happens. Hes a low risk high reward if he ends up doing good. If not we don't sign him again next year.

AcecardZ · Post #2491 » by **AcecardZ** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:23 pm

He's a replacement level position player that came at replacement level cost. Suggesting we didn't get a reasonable deal is silly.

tugs · Post #2492 » by **tugs** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:49 pm

It just hit me. Why waive Marshall to free up cap for Swaggy? Waiving Nash makes more sense since he occupies a larger salary amd would free up more space and we'll be able to keep Marshall. What's up eith that? lreason I can think of isthey are still hoping he can contribute on the court and mentor the younger players since he won't beaccepting any other role while on the team.

What's the reason?

Post #2493 » by **crazyeights** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 11:01 pm

$$$

Marshall's contract was non-guaranteed, while with Nash, they probably prefer to either eat his salary to maintain capspace for next year while he mentors our guards or use him as a trading chip at the TD.

tugs · Post #2494 » by **tugs** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 12:13 am

Sensible. Hope it pays of big.

Pointgod · Post #2495 » by **Pointgod** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 1:34 am

The whole trading Randle for Eric Bledsoe rumour is stupid on so many levels. If the Lakers wanted Bledsoe they would have just offered him a near max contract and called Phoenix's bluff. They still could have made the Jeremy Lin trade and signed Johnson,Henry,Kelly and Ed Davis.

aaron_gray · Post #2496 » by **aaron_gray** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 3:07 am

Nah they just want to trade some of their point guards for some of our power forwards

LApwnd · Post #2497 » by **LApwnd** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 3:22 am

Hero Ball wrote:
ArC_man wrote:
It's not particularly surprising considering one of the flags on this guy when he was drafted was his drive. Ed seems like the type of guy who is happy with where he is at now and would rather coast than get better.

Good luck to you but no one in LA should expect much from him.

dude he's gona be the backup, whos expecting anything really? also how many legit 7ft monster backups are there? Only 2 I can think of and it either Mozgoz if Mcgee is starting or vice versa and Lurch (koufos). There might be more but those are the 2 I recall us having the most problems against even when we had legit 7fters of our own with Bynum and then Howard. Lets face it this team is gona have problems defensively against all bigs that like to play in the paint but I'm pretty sure our bigs will do the same to their opponents with their hustle play and distruptive energy....I know Faried aint the biggest big in the game but I bet Howard or any big hates playing against him because of his constant motor.

LApwnd · Post #2498 » by **LApwnd** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 3:24 am

tugs wrote:It just hit me. Why waive Marshall to free up cap for Swaggy? Waiving Nash makes more sense since he occupies a larger salary amd would free up more space and we'll be able to keep Marshall. What's up eith that? lreason I can think of isthey are still hoping he can contribute on the court and mentor the younger players since he won't beaccepting any other role while on the team.

What's the reason?

as explained by one below your comment, you can waive Nash but if nobody picks him up we're still responsible for his salary and it still counts against the books. Its worse than an amnesty.

TylersLakers · Post #2499 » by **TylersLakers** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 3:42 am

Hero Ball wrote:
ArC_man wrote:Ed Davis is more PF than C but I really like this signing. He's still really young as well. He always killed us when we played Toronto

He can't play C. He has the slender body of a guard. He's a stick and has trouble handling PF's that have even a bit of strength. Against strong PF's he literally gets backed down within a couple of dribbles.

Unlike some over at the Raptors board, I haven't done the Kool-Aid on this guy. He's always been a per-36 beast but those stats mask a lot of what's wrong with this guy.

His glaring weaknesses 4 years ago are still his glaring weaknesses today. His lack of lower body strength, his lack of moves (he still only has the hook from his strong hand), his jumper is non-existent, his foul shooting is broken.

People over on the Toronto board make excuses about the lack of playing time holding back his development but those specific weaknesses are the types of things that can be improved on in the off-season with work in the gym. It only requires dedication and effort. It's too bad he hasn't bothered and the result is a very limited player: a garbage man who can barely defend his own position (don't let the blocks fool you).

It's not particularly surprising considering one of the flags on this guy when he was drafted was his drive. Ed seems like the type of guy who is happy with where he is at now and would rather coast than get better.

Good luck to you but no one in LA should expect much from him.

My exact opinion on Ed Davis from watching him play for the Raptors for many years. I thought I was one of the only ones.

dub81 · Post #2500 » by **dub81** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 2:51 pm

Pointgod wrote:
dub81 wrote:Smh...Lance signed a fair market deal with Charlotte. We stay losing.

At this point I can't do anything but laugh. Jordan Hill pretty much got the same contract as Lance Stephenson I guess all the scaoegoating in Indiana must have pissed him off. For all the naysayers about Lance Charlotte should be worse with him and Indiana should be better without him right?

Agree...say what you wan't about Lance..but the boy brings it every game. Something Paul George didn't do. He was to busy getting girls pregneant and trying to pay them off to get abortions. #scum. Lost alot of respect of Paul George when he didn't back up Lance and threw him under the bus.