What Is Your Top Method for Filling Our PF Void?
Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 8:02 pm
As you all should know, the Nets have a gaping hole at the power forward position. Yi Jianlian has made strides, but with his foul-, injury- and passivity-fueled inconsistency, looks more and more like a backup.
We have several routes of improving this situation. One is through free agency. I stand firm on the belief that we should seek out a star swingman with the majority of our under-the-cap money, and nab a PF with whatever's left. Assuming a salary cap of $56mil, we should have around $25mil to play with, and most FA's max salary is going to be just under $17mil. If we land a max guy like James or Johnson, we will have around $8mil left to spend; that won't afford us an elite PF like Amar'e or Bosh, nor even Boozer or Lee. We'd be in the Haslem/Gooden/Harrington zone, which may work out well, but may not be a huge upgrade over Yi.
Another way to "skin the PF cat" is by eliciting a TPE trade. In the recent past, useful but overpaid veterans like Marcus Camby (from DEN to LAC) and Jason Richardson (from GSW to CHA) have been traded by teams facing financial pressure, to teams that have space under the cap. Many in the NBA believe that this is a more cost-efficient method of securing a star than trying to "outbid" other teams for a FA of similar ability. Conversely, it is the most short-term of these options. Guys like Kenyon Martin and Andrei Kirilenko can contribute to a winning team, but their current teams are looking to unload them for younger players. If Nets wanted, they could probably "juice" either Denver or Utah for valuable youth assets, just for taking the aforementioned large contracts off of their hands.
Finally, the draft is a risky but often rewarding way of finding a franchise PF. Trading some of our established assets to land a boom-or-bust draft pick like DeMarcus Cousins or Derrick Favors could be a disaster or a dream 5 years from now. For every Traylor-Nowitzki deal, there's a Brand-Chandler or a Jefferson-Jianlian deal (sorry, Yi, I had to say it).
So, which would you choose?
We have several routes of improving this situation. One is through free agency. I stand firm on the belief that we should seek out a star swingman with the majority of our under-the-cap money, and nab a PF with whatever's left. Assuming a salary cap of $56mil, we should have around $25mil to play with, and most FA's max salary is going to be just under $17mil. If we land a max guy like James or Johnson, we will have around $8mil left to spend; that won't afford us an elite PF like Amar'e or Bosh, nor even Boozer or Lee. We'd be in the Haslem/Gooden/Harrington zone, which may work out well, but may not be a huge upgrade over Yi.
Another way to "skin the PF cat" is by eliciting a TPE trade. In the recent past, useful but overpaid veterans like Marcus Camby (from DEN to LAC) and Jason Richardson (from GSW to CHA) have been traded by teams facing financial pressure, to teams that have space under the cap. Many in the NBA believe that this is a more cost-efficient method of securing a star than trying to "outbid" other teams for a FA of similar ability. Conversely, it is the most short-term of these options. Guys like Kenyon Martin and Andrei Kirilenko can contribute to a winning team, but their current teams are looking to unload them for younger players. If Nets wanted, they could probably "juice" either Denver or Utah for valuable youth assets, just for taking the aforementioned large contracts off of their hands.
Finally, the draft is a risky but often rewarding way of finding a franchise PF. Trading some of our established assets to land a boom-or-bust draft pick like DeMarcus Cousins or Derrick Favors could be a disaster or a dream 5 years from now. For every Traylor-Nowitzki deal, there's a Brand-Chandler or a Jefferson-Jianlian deal (sorry, Yi, I had to say it).
So, which would you choose?
