RealGM

Same stuff, if you think Iggy and/or Millsap are realistic targets please stop reading this and go do something else

At the draft night, if Orlando does not draft Burke and the Pelicans are not super high on him, that means Burke would be drafted by Sacramento at #7 so. (I can't see Washington, Charlotte or Phoenix drafting him no matter what).

Buy a pick in the 20's with 3 million. Use the pick + #8 + Kyle Singler (Pelicans need a SF badly even if they draft one to be their backup) and trade for the #6. Throw in our 2nd if needed who cares.

Draft Trey Burke.

We waive English and Amnesty Villanueva

We would enter Free Agency with

Rodney Stuckey $ 8,500,000
Jonas Jerebko $ 4,500,000
Greg Monroe $ 4,086,454
Brandon Knight $ 2,793,960
Trey Burke $ 2,554,200
Andre Drummond $ 2,462,400
Vyacheslav Kravtsov $ 1,500,000
Khris Middleton $ 788,872

$27,185,886

We should waive English and Amnesty Villanueva adding the cap holders we would have ~30 millions to burn in FA.

So back to my original offseason play from a few months ago. Mayo/Aminu/Hickson.

With Dallas wanting to pursue a big name that makes acquiring O.J. Mayo easy. Offer him a 4 years 30 million contract I doubt anyone else will offer him anything near that.

Offer Al-Farouq Aminu a little over the MLE, I doubt anyone with raw cap space pursue him anyways so all we need to do is beat MLE teams. 4 years 24 million should get it done.

Portland will likely draft a center who fits better with LMA, that means J.J. Hickson should be available and there are some more sexy names out there that teams with cap space will pursue at PF (Paul Millsap, Josh Smith, Al Jefferson for example), So once again, we basically need to beat MLE tems to get him. 4 years 28 million should get it done.

Jordan Farmar wants to return to the NBA, he is not great but he is a very good 3 point shooter and he can run the point. He would be good competition for Burke and Knight for minutes. A Will Bynum-esque contract should get it done, he is making 4 million/season in Europe, I bet he would get a small pay cut to return to the USA. 3 years 10 million.

O.J. Mayo $ 7,500,000
J.J. Hickson $ 7,000,000
Al-Farouq Aminu $ 6,000,000
Jordan Farmar $ 3,500,000

Andre Drummond / Slava Kravtsov
Greg Monroe / J.J. Hickson / Jonas Jerebko
Al-Farouq Aminu / Khris Middleton
O.J. Mayo / Brandon Knight / Rodney Stuckey
Trey Burke / Jordan Farmar

We would have somewhere between 5-8 million in cap space to make a lopsided trade whenever the opportunity presents, we also would have Stuckey and Kravtsov's expiring contracts to make a play at the deadline.

I hope Burke can shoot lights out from long range... because if he can't the starting line-up struggles for shooters

Unless you believe Jerebko is a "stretch 4" we lack outside shooting up front too...

What makes Farmer a better choice than Bynum? Bynum and Drummond already have some chemistry and for all we know Farmer just doesn't fit (if Shaw and Phil are involved you'd imagine he'd be happy though)

Instead of waiting for a deal to fall from the sky and trading Stuckey I'd pursue Marion/13....

I'd send them Stuckey and another $3 mil.. they waive him and get additional cap space

I love reading all the plans though - shows how many options are out there for Joe to pursue. Here's hoping we make a splash and kick start this franchise

Vege has been a good poster so he deserves a fair answer... start with removing Farmar (many better options at this price).
Waive Stuckey for the cap relief (or trade his expiring before the year starts to relieve the backlog at a position we clearly need to improve.
Hickson at 7M is is fair... Mayo will likely go for 8M+
Aminu could work and will provide more than some of these draft pick stretches being proposed.
Agree with P that Bynum is being underrated by our own board compared to some of the scrubs folks are asking for.

Thanks mercury.

The thing Farmar adds and Bynum doesn't is 3 point range. Farmar is a career 37% shooter for beyond the arch. Last season on the Nets he shot 44% from 3. Farmar is almost 4 years younger than Bynum. Farmar has a much lower TO% compared to Bynum. Bynum is a much better scorer tho.

Bynum had a great career for us, I just think there are better options for us at the backup PG at this point (younger and better fit skill-wise), if we can't get any of them I would not be disappointed at all with Bynum returning to be our backup PG for the next few years.

If Dallas decides to go crazy and pursue a big name, there aren't many suitors for Mayo, it would likely be between Detroit and Phoenix and Phoenix is just starting their rebuilding while we already have the foundation for ours (Drummond/Monroe) so for Mayo we would be a much more attractive option.

Pharaoh you can only trade 3 million per season. If you use 3 million at the draft night to buy a 1st round pick to land Burke you cannot send 3 million out in any more trades this season.

I agree we would lack a stretch 4 tho. Jonas is one of the best players in the league from mid range but he does lack 3 point range.

However, that team does not lack 3 point shooting. Knight (37%), Farmar (37%) and Mayo (38%) are proven well above average 3 point shooters. Middleton (31% as a rookie) and Burke (38% at school) could also become above average 3 point shooters.

If those guys can nail it at those kind of percentages then we're fine for spacing on the perimeter...

I didn't know you can only send $3 mil out once in a trade for the season... will have to look that up.

At the end of the day Vege you've put together a quality squad moving forward.

Burke, Mayo and Knight appears to be a quality 3 guard rotation

Monroe, Drummond and Hickson would be a quality 3 headed monster up front

Aminu and Middleton at SF round out a nice 8-man rotation... if you could move Stuckey for #13 and Marion you'd have your 9th and 10th men... with Slava, Jerebko and Farmer here for depth/situational roles

vege wrote:Andre Drummond / Slava Kravtsov
Greg Monroe / J.J. Hickson / Jonas Jerebko
Al-Farouq Aminu / Khris Middleton
O.J. Mayo / Brandon Knight / Rodney Stuckey
Trey Burke / Jordan Farmar

Decent idea if we're truly committed to Knight as our 6th man...Here is a couple little moves I would have made though...
-Traded Jonas and keep expiring Charlie V...
-Trade for Wilson Chandler...He's a better shooter compared to Aminu plus Chander can play multiple positions...
-Re-sign Calderon as our back-up PG instead of offering Farmar a deal...

It does seem REALISTIC. And that bothers me.

You are willing to give a lot to move up for Trey Burke. Possibly move up one slot.
Singler is likely to be just as valuable as Aminu in a different way, but I like Amnu. And Farmar too.

Hickson? Mayo?
A lot of years and money for MEDIOCRE players. I hope that doesn't happen. They technically fill needs - especially Mayo, but we can wait.

I like the idea of buying one year deals more than signing Mayo and Hickson. Leave open the possibility of something better - especially when we are so unlikely to have a 1st coming next season. And the fact is we will be a big money team soon. Monroe, then Knight, then Drummond, then....Burke? but probably somebody else. Will we reach an elite level before we reach any realistic spending limit? Doubt it if we go for Mayo or Hickson.

coolness wrote: And the fact is we will be a big money team soon. Monroe, then Knight, then Drummond, then....Burke? but probably somebody else. Will we reach an elite level before we reach any realistic spending limit? Doubt it if we go for Mayo or Hickson.

THAT is the big drama with this off-season

We need to be certain before we start throwing around 4 year contracts worth millions and millions of dollars

Monroe is looking at a max or near max contract next off-season.... Knight may or may not get a rather large contract and we all believe Drummond will get a max deal!

IF we blow it this off-season we'll be in cap hell... trapped as a mediocre team, capped out with very little flexibility

Lucky we have Phil Jackson to advise us

This is easily the best "plan" post I've read so far, and I really like the final depth chart. Very well done, Vege.

Just a few points to nit-pick for the sake of discussion —

- I wish I was as optimistic about what those free agents would cost, but I think you're shy on Mayo and Hickson (I agree that Aminu will cost just over the MLE, though). Players and their agents usually aren't quick to accept that "the market" is dictating they accept a lesser deal than they want / anticipate, so even if Mayo doesn't get big offers at first, I'd suspect he'll sit back, wait for teams to strike out on the big fish, and then take a "sloppy seconds" offer later in the summer. Likewise, I think Hickson will get signed in the third wave of free agency, hoping teams who strike out on the second tier guys get antsy and overcompensate by literally overcompensating him. I'm thinking Hickson costs at least $8.5M, and Mayo at least $9.5M – $10M. Fortunately, as you wrote, we'd still have ~$8M in cap space using your projections, so would you use it to secure those guys?

- I think you're actually overpaying for a two-spot jump on draft night. Just last year, it only cost Houston Samuel Dalembert (a ~$7M expiring) to jump two slots; as such, either Stuckey or CV (who has already opted in) should be more than enough to swap picks with NOLA. There should be no need to send them both a cheap, All-Rookie 2nd Team prospect AND a first round pick (especially the pick; if we buy an extra first rounder, we should get to keep it).

I think Burke is worth trading up for and would be happy with a Burke/Mayo back court. I'd be happy if these were the only 2 multi-year contracts we added.

I don't think Aminu is worth that kind of money or a good fit. New Orleans benched him for a while last season. Why would he be a starter for us? I'd target Martell Webster instead, or just keep some cap flexibility and wait for a better option.

Thank you DocRI. Those are fair points, however there aren't many suitors for Mayo and Hickson and Detroit could decide to go after other players.

Stuckey and Kravtsov for Eric Gordon could be an alternative to O.J. Mayo and PF is a really stacked position in the NBA there are countless alternatives to Hickson. West/Josh Smith/Landry/Millsap/Al Jefferson/Speights/Blatche/Splitter are SOME of the names of FAs competing with Hickson for money.

Mayo and Hickson could both sit waiting for a better offer and end up having to settle for the MLE and a lesser role. Their loss imo

vege wrote:Stuckey and Kravtsov for Eric Gordon could be an alternative ...

I know I'm getting greedy, but think we could combine both of your trade ideas? Injury concerns notwithstanding, I think Gordon is simply better than Mayo and our best shot at getting a legit #1 offensive option this offseason. Any chance that Stuckey, Krav, Singler, & #8 nets us Gordon & #6? 'Cuz a three guard rotation of Burke / Gordon / Knight could be pretty damn potent, especially playing off of Dre & Moose.

DocRI wrote:Cuz a three guard rotation of Burke / Gordon / Knight could be pretty damn potent, especially playing off of Dre & Moose.

That actually sounds good if we're committed to Knight as our 6th man...If, if, if...

DocRI wrote:
I know I'm getting greedy, but think we could combine both of your trade ideas? Injury concerns notwithstanding, I think Gordon is simply better than Mayo and our best shot at getting a legit #1 offensive option this offseason. Any chance that Stuckey, Krav, Singler, & #8 nets us Gordon & #6? 'Cuz a three guard rotation of Burke / Gordon / Knight could be pretty damn potent, especially playing off of Dre & Moose.

I honestly believe that's possible and would not be a bad idea, I'd stick with my original plan because I think it's more realistic, worst case scenario we would have to pay more for those Free Agents.

Jodi wrote:That actually sounds good if we're committed to Knight as our 6th man...If, if, if...

I don't think we should plan ANY of our Franchise moves based on Knight. The guy is pretty bad. If he develops into a good player, AWESOME. But you do not plan your franchise around a guy who isn't even a capable starter going into his 3rd year, that's nonsense.

ChipButty wrote:I don't think Aminu is worth that kind of money or a good fit. New Orleans benched him for a while last season. Why would he be a starter for us? I'd target Martell Webster instead, or just keep some cap flexibility and wait for a better option.

Aminu is an extremely physical gifted player and his potential is the moon. He is still very young and he has shown flashes of greatness last season. Yes he is still extremely inconsistent and can be frustrating at times, however, I believe in the right situation he could be an excellent player.

Webster is just too limited offensively to be a starter. He is a very good defender and excellent hitting corner 3's but that's about it. It would be awesome to have him as a backup. Webster also has serious injury concerns.

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vege wrote:

Jodi wrote:That actually sounds good if we're committed to Knight as our 6th man...If, if, if...

I don't think we should plan ANY of our Franchise moves based on Knight. The guy is pretty bad. If he develops into a good player, AWESOME. But you do not plan your franchise around a guy who isn't even a capable starter going into his 3rd year, that's nonsense.

I wouldn't say Knight is bad, he's just inconsistent...I understand what you're saying and can sort of agree with you though...

vege wrote:

ChipButty wrote:I don't think Aminu is worth that kind of money or a good fit. New Orleans benched him for a while last season. Why would he be a starter for us? I'd target Martell Webster instead, or just keep some cap flexibility and wait for a better option.

Aminu is an extremely physical gifted player and his potential is the moon. He is still very young and he has shown flashes of greatness last season. Yes he is still extremely inconsistent and can be frustrating at times, however, I believe in the right situation he could be an excellent player.

Webster is just too limited offensively to be a starter. He is a very good defender and excellent hitting corner 3's but that's about it. It would be awesome to have him as a backup. Webster also has serious injury concerns.

Aminus ceiling is a Trevor Ariza at best. He's a high energy athlete but 6m/y is overpriced for Aminu. If its around 3.5 - 4m/y then I'm sold. My reason behind this is just I don't have any idea what he brings to this team other than his freakish athleticism. He's at the same boat as Knight, at their 3rd year and haven't realized their potential.