2013-14 FA targets?

[pacers70]

I have changed my philosophy on what the Pacers should do this off season.

If Carl Landry opts out, we should sign him and let West walk. We will then have enough money to sign Jack, Mayo or Reddick. I prefer Jack myself. We could also sign Amundson and Young for 1 year.

We should draft a PF and PG.

We would also have enough cap space to buy out Green's contract.

If everyone is healthy, we would be looking at Hill,George, Granger, Hibbert and Landry as the starters. Jack, OJ, Lance, Mahamini and Lou on the bench. Filling out the roster would be Plumlee, Young and our 2 draft picks.

Hopefully either Plumlee or our PF draft pick will develop into a good back up PF. Our PG selection will hopefully become a good 3rd string PG.

The key to this plan is the summer of 2014. By signing Landry at a lower salary than West and buying out Green's contract, we will have enough money to resign Lance at $5-6 million, and if he is just a back up he would probably only be worth $3-4 million. We could also resign Granger (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) for $8-10 million.

[Wizop]

adding Wolters into the list is fine. I hope the draft gives us a PG.

I have no interest in giving up West. He has been a wonderful player and a super leader. Certainly it is possible that someone else will make him an offer we can't afford to match but I'm not ready to cross that bridge yet. Hansbrough has been very good as a starter. If Plumlee is truly the next Jeff Foster, then when he figures out the game he'll be able to play four as well as five. Even Pendi has shown more than I expected. I believe in taking what the draft gives you and if it gives us a PF so be it, but I don't see PF as a problem. given West's age, he'll soon start transitioning to the bench but I think he can be a valuable part of the team for a long time.

We are short a backup SF if Granger will not be Granger and Green doesn't have a light go on over the summer. if the draft gives us a SF rather than a PG, that would be okay too.

[Starkiller]

I would love to scoop Russ Smith at some point in the draft. Maybe another Kemba Walker on our hands?

[8305]

Giving up West (one of the better 4's in the league) for a borderline starting 4 and a borderline starting 2 makes no sense to me. I think it would be easier to draft and develop players who might be as good as a Landry/Jack than to acquire a player as good as West.

I actually heard Dakich and a guest discussing Smith. They said he's not a pg. He looked to me like a 6 foot version of JR Smith circa Denver Monday.

[Scoot McGroot]

I have changed my philosophy on what the Pacers should do this off season.

If Carl Landry opts out, we should sign him and let West walk. We will then have enough money to sign Jack, Mayo or Reddick. I prefer Jack myself. We could also sign Amundson and Young for 1 year.

We should draft a PF and PG.

We would also have enough cap space to buy out Green's contract.

If everyone is healthy, we would be looking at Hill,George, Granger, Hibbert and Landry as the starters. Jack, OJ, Lance, Mahamini and Lou on the bench. Filling out the roster would be Plumlee, Young and our 2 draft picks.

Hopefully either Plumlee or our PF draft pick will develop into a good back up PF. Our PG selection will hopefully become a good 3rd string PG.

The key to this plan is the summer of 2014. By signing Landry at a lower salary than West and buying out Green's contract, we will have enough money to resign Lance at $5-6 million, and if he is just a back up he would probably only be worth $3-4 million. We could also resign Granger (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) for $8-10 million.

1) You can sign Landry for 60% of the cost of West, but you'll get 50% of the production and value.

2) "Buying out" Green doesn't remove his cap number off the books, necessarily. You can waive him via the stretch provision and it lowers his cap number by about $2m in this situation (but he'd be on your cap for another 2 years at about $1 million or so a year). It doesn't make his contract disappear though.

3) Letting West "walk" wouldn't give you a ton of salary cap. Ultimately, if you renounce your MLE, Hansbrough, Augustin, Pendergraph, etc, counting the cap hold for the picks, minimum roster spots, etc, you're looking at about $8 million in cap space. So, you'd have to convince those guys to split $8m. I don't see it happening. Landry around $3-5m, Jack about $4-5m? It's possible, but then you have no one else, other than vet minimum spots.

Or, you could re-sign West, use your MLE, and then find a way to dump Green for an expiring. You'll be fine. If you're worried about re-signing Granger, then find a way to dump Mahinmi's contract for an expiring as well.

[8305]

Assuming the Pacers resign West and keep Granger they are very near luxury tax level and that's assuming qualifying offers aren't made to Ben and Tyler Hansbrough, Jeff Pendergraf and DJ Augustin. So the free agent route will be a moneyball search. With that in mind I'll suggest Shelvin Mack.

In his limited minutes with Atlanta I thought he looked pretty good. Adequate height, unusually thick and long for the point guard position. It looked like he can keep his man in front of him and he has the strength to fight through screens. His shot looked ok. I could see him being as or more effective than DJ at a fraction of the cost.

I think this is the type guy along with the 2013 draft choices who will fill those last four spots on the roster next year. Assuming Granger is back the rotation will be shortened. Granger, Johnson, Mahamni or Plumlee with the as yet unknown backup point guard.

Thoughts?

[Grang33r]

A cheap veteran, like Francisco Garcia could be an option. Not sure how much he'll be asking for on the market, but if the Rockets are not interested in $6 million, then i'm sure that price will fall pretty far. Very solid defender who can score.

Rockets don't want him http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... sco-Garcia

[Scoot McGroot]

A cheap veteran, like Francisco Garcia could be an option. Not sure how much he'll be asking for on the market, but if the Rockets are not interested in $6 million, then i'm sure that price will fall pretty far. Very solid defender who can score.

Rockets don't want him http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... sco-Garcia

I imagine he'll be somewhere between vet minimum and $2.5m. He could be a competitor for the "Sam Young" minimum spot, if he'll come that cheap, or maybe a bit more if we can dump Green's deal.