Dave D has been a bit annoying lately with some of his opinions on what will happen or what should happen...but hey he is entitled to his opinioon like anyone else. At least he finally got back to actually wrting an article for what is going on IN HOUSE. When he is on his game...you can get more insight from him than others. But when he starts playing Vecsey...I think many of us start realing.
This article is basically what I have been saying since I came back...plus a few nuggets from what he is actually hearing after making a few of his own calls. I think everyone but Demens will enjoy it since well...he basically wants whatever is worst for the Nets.
I am posting this sucker in a few spots...I feel it speaks to a few different discussions we are having right now....
Nets' draft-day strategy will unfold with LeBron James in mind
They’ve got every ball in the air right now, with a singular purpose in mind, and it is only partly related to tomorrow’s draft.
Indeed, you might say the Nets are far more preoccupied with how this dovetails into free agency than the pick itself.
Here’s the directive, and it really hasn’t changed: Rod Thorn, more than anything else today, is still trying to create the second full max slot in case LeBron says, “Okay, I’m coming, and I’m bringing along so-and-so.”
That’s the ticket, and we’ll say it again: If you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound. The Nets would have to use $16M of the $27M they have in cap room on LBJ, and his friend isn’t necessarily going to be had for the leftover $11M.
So one day before the draft, everything is in play – a Devin Harris salary dump, a trade down the first round to save a few million, and virtually anything that will maximize their chances of bagging the grand prize a week from Thursday.
Can they pull it off? Who the hell knows? But it would basically put the Nets on a even playing field with the Knicks.
And you can’t go forward without creating the best possible scenario for LeBron if you’re one of the five teams on his list – which they are. They truly believe they have a shot at him – at virtually every free agent, actually – other than D-Wade.
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But here’s the explosive factor, as far as the rest of the league – and maybe the Nets – is concerned: Chris Paul is back in play, no matter what George Shinn says, according to an agent and exec we talked to today.
Typically, that might lead to low-ball offers. But teams are so motivated to at least play along with that CP-LBJ scenario – because they are truly close – they’re going to dance to the Worldwide Wes tune as long as he keeps singing it.
But Shinn, we’re told, has reached the conclusion that he should consider moving CP because a) He’s beginning to realize that the sale won’t happen; and b) he’s going to take a bath next year unless he trims payroll.
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Meanwhile, here’s one thing Rod Thorn knows:
“It would be so much easier for us if free agency was before the draft,” he said. “Then you’d have some idea what you can and cannot get. So as far as drafting goes, you have to just go for the best guy for us.”
We’re told that he’s getting offers that might be attractive in any other era – Al Jefferson for basically nothing, as long as they swap spots – but there’s no way he can do that without blowing up his cap space.
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Sometime before July 1, the Nets will announce that they’ve divested themselves of Chris Douglas-Roberts and his $845,000 team option, shipping both to Milwaukee for a future second-round pick. It wasn’t clear whether they wanted to keep him around anyway, judging by Thorn’s last word on the subject the other day:
“We have not exercised the option at this time,” he said Tuesday, “but we will make that decision next week, and I’m not really leaning either way – it depends on the draft.”
Then again, maybe it didn’t.
In other words, the Bucks did them a favor, because they weren’t particularly happy bringing back the King of Twit and letting him hang around with another impressionable group of kids.
But he still wasn’t as bad a kid as they made him out to be, and it’s a pretty safe bet that Skiles was sold on him after a discussion with L-Frank, who still loves him.
The Nets’ bankroll, meanwhile, is up to $27 million for free agency. And, perhaps, still rising.
