Trade Talk (Part 17): Early Offseason Planning

[BlacJacMac]

That starting lineup has almost no playmaking at all. We become a worse rebounding team and we lose the one guy who can play defense against the more physical players.

Agree. Trade Reid, keep Randle? Will it look better?

Gobert/Raynaud/Fleming
Randle/McDaniels/Fleming
McDaniels/Johnson/TJ
Edwards/Clark/DDV
DDV/Dillingham/Conley

I don't want DDV starting ever. He's proving to solely be an off ball player and I think that lineup relies too much on Ant running the show. Randle helps, but then you have two guy that can get super turnover happy at any point.

[Domejandro]

Maybe this is the wrong time to ask, but do you think that reaching Western Conference Playoffs again this year is enough for ARod and Lore to want to bring it back, or do you foresee changes?

I think that we are going to see Tim Connolly get more aggressive with shaping the roster around his vision. Glen Taylor famously forced him to resign Naz Reid, and while that has worked out for the most part, I am not confident that he will stop Naz from walking if he receives more money elsewhere.

That said, a consideration is that there aren't many teams with cap space (technically only one, but there are a couple who could finaggle it with some roster/cap manuevering), which may limit Naz Reid's market.

[moss_is_1]

Can we get an actual PG to play? One that isn't 10 pounds, or 40 years old would be cool.

[cmoss84]

I might get booed off this site.

***Build around Ant, Jaden, and KD***
subtractions: Randle/Naz/NAW/Rudy (trade Rudy/Randle for KD/Richards and other teams overpay for Naz and NAW)
additions: KD/Richards/Kornet/Jones/Robinson-Earl
Tyus gets to start. Bigs by committee. Also allows for future financial flexibility.

PG: Tyus-Mike-RD
SG: ANT-DD-Clark (extend Clark)
SF: Jaden-TSJ-Minott
PF: KD-JRE-Miller
C: Kornet-Richards-Garza

[minimus]

That starting lineup has almost no playmaking at all. We become a worse rebounding team and we lose the one guy who can play defense against the more physical players.

Agree. Trade Reid, keep Randle? Will it look better?

Gobert/Raynaud/Fleming
Randle/McDaniels/Fleming
McDaniels/Johnson/TJ
Edwards/Clark/DDV
DDV/Dillingham/Conley

I don't want DDV starting ever. He's proving to solely be an off ball player and I think that lineup relies too much on Ant running the show. Randle helps, but then you have two guy that can get super turnover happy at any point.

I am with you, mate. I wish MIN had a big defensive minded pass first PG, because it would absolutely unlock our scoring. Both DDV and Dillingham could play more efficient roles. Guys like healthy Lonzo Ball, Andrew Nembhard. Too bad there is no such player on FA Market, nor in draft

[BlacJacMac]

Agree. Trade Reid, keep Randle? Will it look better?

Gobert/Raynaud/Fleming
Randle/McDaniels/Fleming
McDaniels/Johnson/TJ
Edwards/Clark/DDV
DDV/Dillingham/Conley

I don't want DDV starting ever. He's proving to solely be an off ball player and I think that lineup relies too much on Ant running the show. Randle helps, but then you have two guy that can get super turnover happy at any point.

I am with you, mate. I wish MIN had a big defensive minded pass first PG, because it would absolutely unlock our scoring. Both DDV and Dillingham could play more efficient roles. Guys like healthy Lonzo Ball, Andrew Nembhard. Too bad there is no such player on FA Market, nor in draft

We desperately need someone that can take control and settle things down. Conley had a crappy game last night but he was still +14. And I think that's mostly because we didn't turn it over when he was in.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

At that stage and to become as good as OKC, for me we need :

- A starter PG, unless Rob improve fast. Mike should come form the bench and play 15-18 min only.
- I'm ready to move on from Rudy. He is overpaid for a one way player. He give 90% in defense but nothing on offense, specially at PO time. I would prefer a guy who is not as good in defense but provide at least 15 points each game.
Our team is not 100% balance yet. And it put lot of pressure on ANT who is yet not smart enough to carry the team alone.

Maybe KD should be the option ?

[m2002brian]

At that stage and to become as good as OKC, for me we need :

- A starter PG, unless Rob improve fast. Mike should come form the bench and play 15-18 min only.
- I'm ready to move on from Rudy. He is overpaid for a one way player. He give 90% in defense but nothing on offense, specially at PO time. I would prefer a guy who is not as good in defense but provide at least 15 points each game.
Our team is not 100% balance yet. And it put lot of pressure on ANT who is yet not smart enough to carry the team alone.

Maybe KD should be the option ?

In thr nba more than most other sports, due to how all the man to man defense, alll you have to do to win is have each guy score more than the guy they are covering. Rudy doesn’t do that 90% of the time, and that’s a problem. In this series Chet is eating him alive. Even hark is winning the 1v1 points battle. It creates far too much pressure on the rest of the team to cover that slack.

[karch34]

Maybe this is the wrong time to ask, but do you think that reaching Western Conference Playoffs again this year is enough for ARod and Lore to want to bring it back, or do you foresee changes?

I think it depends on what you mean by changes. Outside of a championship, I don’t see any way we go over the second apron. And we are fairly asset poor to make major deals. My guess is we try to lock in Randle, Naz, and NAW to reasonable deals; maybe a small deal or free against contract to a backup center and/or PG; and run it back. NAW the most likely to not be back. If we could get value for Rudy, real value, I’d move him. He is a very helpful floor raiser during the regular season, but I don’t see any way he’s a top three player on a championship team. He just is too useless on the offensive end. Which makes it difficult on everyone else. As OKC shows, you need everyone to be two-way to some extent. Rudy would be fine at 15-20m/year, but he hurts at 35m.

Great post! Making major change last minute before regular season, I think same ceiling as season before is a win, but still when this close disappointing. It’s kind of like first Rudy season. Does next season have same exponential growth like Rudy season 2? Probably not. I think everything was to get long term core meaningful experience in post season.

I think there’s changes for sure. How drastic I don’t know. Might just be Rob, Clarke,and TSJ taking the NAW role and giving us 1-2 shot creators ideally including draft. I could see them wanting to move the Gobert contract with idea that the floor lowers, but you’ve had the core get 3 years of understanding importance of D. I don’t know who takes that contract though regardless of what we’d get back. The apron has made it tough.

[minimus]

Maybe this is the wrong time to ask, but do you think that reaching Western Conference Playoffs again this year is enough for ARod and Lore to want to bring it back, or do you foresee changes?

I think it depends on what you mean by changes. Outside of a championship, I don’t see any way we go over the second apron. And we are fairly asset poor to make major deals. My guess is we try to lock in Randle, Naz, and NAW to reasonable deals; maybe a small deal or free against contract to a backup center and/or PG; and run it back. NAW the most likely to not be back. If we could get value for Rudy, real value, I’d move him. He is a very helpful floor raiser during the regular season, but I don’t see any way he’s a top three player on a championship team. He just is too useless on the offensive end. Which makes it difficult on everyone else. As OKC shows, you need everyone to be two-way to some extent. Rudy would be fine at 15-20m/year, but he hurts at 35m.

Great post! Making major change last minute before regular season, I think same ceiling as season before is a win, but still when this close disappointing. It’s kind of like first Rudy season. Does next season have same exponential growth like Rudy season 2? Probably not. I think everything was to get long term core meaningful experience in post season.

I think there’s changes for sure. How drastic I don’t know. Might just be Rob, Clarke,and TSJ taking the NAW role and giving us 1-2 shot creators ideally including draft. I could see them wanting to move the Gobert contract with idea that the floor lowers, but you’ve had the core get 3 years of understanding importance of D. I don’t know who takes that contract though regardless of what we’d get back. The apron has made it tough.

I wonder if it makes sense first to lock Randle, Naz, and NAW to reasonable deals, re-group, start new season and only then if things are not better try to make trades before deadline, but after new contracts will be eligible for trades?

[FrenchMinnyFan]

I think it depends on what you mean by changes. Outside of a championship, I don’t see any way we go over the second apron. And we are fairly asset poor to make major deals. My guess is we try to lock in Randle, Naz, and NAW to reasonable deals; maybe a small deal or free against contract to a backup center and/or PG; and run it back. NAW the most likely to not be back. If we could get value for Rudy, real value, I’d move him. He is a very helpful floor raiser during the regular season, but I don’t see any way he’s a top three player on a championship team. He just is too useless on the offensive end. Which makes it difficult on everyone else. As OKC shows, you need everyone to be two-way to some extent. Rudy would be fine at 15-20m/year, but he hurts at 35m.

Great post! Making major change last minute before regular season, I think same ceiling as season before is a win, but still when this close disappointing. It’s kind of like first Rudy season. Does next season have same exponential growth like Rudy season 2? Probably not. I think everything was to get long term core meaningful experience in post season.

I think there’s changes for sure. How drastic I don’t know. Might just be Rob, Clarke,and TSJ taking the NAW role and giving us 1-2 shot creators ideally including draft. I could see them wanting to move the Gobert contract with idea that the floor lowers, but you’ve had the core get 3 years of understanding importance of D. I don’t know who takes that contract though regardless of what we’d get back. The apron has made it tough.

I wonder if it makes sense first to lock Randle, Naz, and NAW to reasonable deals, re-group, start new season and only then if things are not better try to make trades before deadling, but after new contracts will be eligible for trades?

Could make sense. But on my opinion, we should let NAW go . It's time to give more min to Rob, Clark and NAW is not consistent enough.

[Klomp]

Maybe this is the wrong time to ask, but do you think that reaching Western Conference Playoffs again this year is enough for ARod and Lore to want to bring it back, or do you foresee changes?

They didn't technically "run it back" this season year after advancing to the WCF, so I don't really know that I can confidently say they will this year, especially with so many contracts up in the air.

[shrink]

Maybe this is the wrong time to ask, but do you think that reaching Western Conference Playoffs again this year is enough for ARod and Lore to want to bring it back, or do you foresee changes?

They didn't technically "run it back" this season year after advancing to the WCF, so I don't really know that I can confidently say they will this year, especially with so many contracts up in the air.

True, but the plan was to run it back, including the draft and free agent signings.

NYK made an offer Connelly didn’t think he could refuse.

[jpatrick]

This is recency bias and I know he was bad earlier in the playoffs, but I think NAW is too valuable to let go. If we could get value for DDV, which hurts because it’s such a good contract, I think I’d move him if we could use his money to keep NAW.

DDV/something for a 10-12 pick in this draft and take Jakucionis, who could play on and off the ball. Just spitballing.

[Klomp]

Maybe this is the wrong time to ask, but do you think that reaching Western Conference Playoffs again this year is enough for ARod and Lore to want to bring it back, or do you foresee changes?

I think that we are going to see Tim Connolly get more aggressive with shaping the roster around his vision. Glen Taylor famously forced him to resign Naz Reid, and while that has worked out for the most part, I am not confident that he will stop Naz from walking if he receives more money elsewhere.

That said, a consideration is that there aren't many teams with cap space (technically only one, but there are a couple who could finaggle it with some roster/cap manuevering), which may limit Naz Reid's market.

I have a gut feeling Tim has yet another big trade in him.....I haven't centered in yet on who it might be for sure. Might be someone we've pegged for a while in Durant. Might be a total surprise.... I don't know why, but I have wondered for a while if Memphis will indeed be committed to re-sign Jaren Jackson Jr to a massive deal.

[Rookie-Mistake]

I think we still built around Ant and Jaden long term. Whoever fits around them is who we should have.

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[Klomp]

I think we still built around Ant and Jaden long term. Whoever fits around them is who we should have.

Absolutely. And if he makes it through this summer, I'd include Naz in that group as well.

[moss_is_1]

This is recency bias and I know he was bad earlier in the playoffs, but I think NAW is too valuable to let go. If we could get value for DDV, which hurts because it’s such a good contract, I think I’d move him if we could use his money to keep NAW.

DDV/something for a 10-12 pick in this draft and take Jakucionis, who could play on and off the ball. Just spitballing.

It is a luxury to have both of them, if someone overpaid for DDV I think it'd be a no-brainer. Then bring back Naw and let Tj/Clark fill in the rest.

[Rookie-Mistake]

I wonder if arandle takes his player option?

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[Guidus88]

If Randle is gone, can we try to sign a FA for the same money? (ie Myles Turner type of player)