Official Speculation Thread I

[orlando1214]

https://twitter.com/VicOladipo/status/3 ... 08/photo/1

McCollum is listed at 6 foot 3. Oladipo is listed at 6 foot 4 IIRC.

Doesn't McCollum look an inch and a half taller than Oladipo?

Ground looks slanted and also McCollum is closer to the camera. If you went by that then you could say that McCollum is about as tall as Noel, which is obviously not the case.

[Hotshot Hower]

^ yeah, the interest in Bargnani seems to suggest they want Nicholson and we aren't budging. They want a shooting big. Sterling will be mad as heck having to pay both those salaries. I just read on toronto's board that some think it'll be Ross and not Derozen but they don't know for sure either.

I've seen small samples, but I think Ross an integral part of their future. Of course, that's why they want to get out of Derozan's contract to give more PT to Ross and to top it off, they already have Lowry.

This is what Hennigan would describe as "fluff", rather than substance.

[KillMonger]

Well we're dodging i bullet with bledsoe if that extension bull is true but to me it's sounding more and more like what Hennigan said is true. The talks was just exploratory and they are doing this to drum up the offers to see if we flinch, but i'm pretty sure when henny got the text that toronto wanted Bledsoe it went a little something like this

At this point, I'd easily offer Bledsoe something along the lines of a 4 year/$28-32M deal with the 4th year being a player option on potential alone.

I wouldn't do that because you would have to give him that deal before you get to see if he can work with this team and fits in with the culture. Doesn't seem like a Hennigan move, he is very calculated he won't walk in blind to something like that without seeing what he's working with first. We need to stay flexible, no need to add unnecessary salary especially when we could get a PG in the draft who could have more potential and will come much cheaper

[Hotshot Hower]

I really want the Bledsoe deal to happen. Bledsoe/Oladipo/Harkless would be the best perimeter defense in the NBA, no? Well, outside of Miami and maybe OKC? Is the kool aid getting too strong?

No way brother, I'm right there with you.

Hark looks HUGE compared to last season, although I think he can play some 2 he's suited better for the 3 and I think that's why Management made the decision on drafting Oladipo. A Bledsoe/Oladipo/Harkless backcourt will cause all kinds of problems, pestering opposing team's offenses that will disrupt their play calling by forcing poor shots/24 second shot clock violations, to forcing turnovers (steals) that translate into easy buckets in transition.

[magicman112]

If Doc's first move is to acquire 2 overpaid players for his best trade asset, the Clipps are in trouble.

When I saw that he was also involved in personnel decisions I was like they're in trouble. He was awful at that here. Jeryl Sasser was his idea for example....

[MagicRays]

Well we're dodging i bullet with bledsoe if that extension bull is true but to me it's sounding more and more like what Hennigan said is true. The talks was just exploratory and they are doing this to drum up the offers to see if we flinch, but i'm pretty sure when henny got the text that toronto wanted Bledsoe it went a little something like this

At this point, I'd easily offer Bledsoe something along the lines of a 4 year/$28-32M deal with the 4th year being a player option on potential alone.

So $7.5M a year AND you give the player the option for the 4th year? Hennigan is too smart for that. If he takes the risk, he will mitigate it with a team optional 4th year, or qualifying year. Regardless, this isn't happening with Jameer still on the books for 2 years.

[InFlames]

Chris Broussard ‏@Chris_Broussard 8m
Sources: Chris Paul's reps telling opposing teams not to bother pursuing him on July 1 bc he'll re-sign with Clippers
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[SOUL]

that's good. i guess.

[Hotshot Hower]

Well we're dodging i bullet with bledsoe if that extension bull is true but to me it's sounding more and more like what Hennigan said is true. The talks was just exploratory and they are doing this to drum up the offers to see if we flinch, but i'm pretty sure when henny got the text that toronto wanted Bledsoe it went a little something like this

At this point, I'd easily offer Bledsoe something along the lines of a 4 year/$28-32M deal with the 4th year being a player option on potential alone.

I wouldn't do that because you would have to give him that deal before you get to see if he can work with this team and fits in with the culture. Doesn't seem like a Hennigan move, he is very calculated he won't walk in blind to something like that without seeing what he's working with first. We need to stay flexible, no need to add unnecessary salary especially when we could get a PG in the draft who could have more potential and will come much cheaper

Although I agree with you to some degree, Bledsoe (although a small sample) is already a proven commodity where as the hype surrounding future point guards as you mentioned (draft) are not. Although I like Marcus Smart and Andrew Harrison, they're still "what-if's" as they haven't played at the NBA level yet and who knows if we are even in position to draft one of them.

We already have our youth and with that, we'll have to pay for it when our current youth are eligible for extensions (Harris and Vucevic will be 1st up). I know a lot of people want to be conservative, but to be competitive you can't keep drafting and acquiring youth. I think it's safe to say we have our foundation, now it's all about developing and letting it grow. With the Bledsoe deal, it's equalivent to Affalo's ($/annually) and in my eyes a safe investment to add to our core hence why I would make it now, rather than later. With Bledsoe added to our core along with the deal I mentioned we'd still be flexible where we could eventually extend Tobias, Vucevic, and Harkless with no problems whatsoever.

[Hotshot Hower]

Well we're dodging i bullet with bledsoe if that extension bull is true but to me it's sounding more and more like what Hennigan said is true. The talks was just exploratory and they are doing this to drum up the offers to see if we flinch, but i'm pretty sure when henny got the text that toronto wanted Bledsoe it went a little something like this

At this point, I'd easily offer Bledsoe something along the lines of a 4 year/$28-32M deal with the 4th year being a player option on potential alone.

So $7.5M a year AND you give the player the option for the 4th year? Hennigan is too smart for that. If he takes the risk, he will mitigate it with a team optional 4th year, or qualifying year. Regardless, this isn't happening with Jameer still on the books for 2 years.

Yeah, that's you, me, and Hennigan's pipe dream though. I would easily push for something like that, but would Bledsoe and his agent? No. I'm just being realistic and for any extension (up to four years), a player with the potential that Bledsoe possesses and has shown would most certainly demand that (player option). Regardless with/without Jameer on the books, Affalo would be shipped out which "mitigates" the $7.5M/Annually anyway.

[KillMonger]

Well hey if the price is right then i don't see why not but from what Henny is hinting at they're asking for the moon and rightfully so imo because i don't think Bledsoe is worth that much. Real talk even though i'm probably wrong i think Afflalo alone should suffice but things don't work that way. If they bump down the asking price then maybe they can get something done but i feel like Nicholson is the hang up point and i feel like Henny won't budge on that.

Honestly i feel like there is no rush really it going to be a few seasons to rebuild and we're not in that desperate a situation to try to accommodate that kind of deal. Make em an offer we think is fair they don't like it fine keep it moving to 2014 to other prospects who can be just as good if not better than Bledsoe because really he's proven about as much as them in my eyes and that's not very much

[doct3r dr3]

Well we're dodging i bullet with bledsoe if that extension bull is true but to me it's sounding more and more like what Hennigan said is true. The talks was just exploratory and they are doing this to drum up the offers to see if we flinch, but i'm pretty sure when henny got the text that toronto wanted Bledsoe it went a little something like this

I love that gif so much, but the stamp always bothered me. Here it is without the stamp:



http://i.imgflip.com/27gp2.gif
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8819/y4f.gif
http://i39.tinypic.com/vijfqq.gif

[Hotshot Hower]

Well hey if the price is right then i don't see why not but from what Henny is hinting at they're asking for the moon and rightfully so imo because i don't think Bledsoe is worth that much. Real talk even though i'm probably wrong i think Afflalo alone should suffice but things don't work that way. If they bump down the asking price then maybe they can get something done but i feel like Nicholson is the hang up point and i feel like Henny won't budge on that.

Honestly i feel like there is no rush really it going to be a few seasons to rebuild and we're not in that desperate a situation to try to accommodate that kind of deal. Make em an offer we think is fair they don't like it fine keep it moving to 2014 to other prospects who can be just as good if not better than Bledsoe because really he's proven about as much as them in my eyes and that's not very much

My sentiments exactly. Their backs are against the wall and the rumblings surrounding Toronto is just "fluff", make ZERO sense on the Clips part on taking back all that salary and to a degree, Toronto's as well with Lowry as their PG. They want Nicholson and Hennigan will not budge regardless of the he say/she say (media). Like I said, if the extension stuff is true I'd offer Bledsoe that type of deal which is very fair for BOTH sides. If not, rent him for a year (at the expense of Affalo/2015 1st) and let him build his own value. Though in hindsight, it's kind of what OKC did with locking up Ibaka before he hit free agency, in which they probably saved themselves $3M-$4M annually on his deal had they let him enter FA as a RFA.

I'd prefer to not go down the Otis route.

[Hotshot Hower]

Some food for thought: The OKC Thunder originally drafted Eric Bledsoe and at the time, Rob Hennigan was Sam Presti's right hand man so I'm sure he knows Bledsoe's game/character fairly well and probably even had an influence on that pick too.

[KillMonger]

Maybe, it's not that i'm not sold on Bledsoe i think he can be a solid Player not sure about point guard but he can be a player i just don't want to give up that much for him when he's proven squat. Sure he's got the tools for the job but anybody can look good when you have great talent around you in LA, what i want to know is in starters minutes with much less talent can he run a team and make others better? i think that's a fair question to ask if i want to invest my money right? i just don't want to pay him 7.5 mil a year to find out. That's kinda meh to me, i mean Mike Conley is making what 8 mil this upcoming season and he's a much better player than Bledsoe is. Man IDK either way i like Henny's approach we're in the driver's seat in this situation, we don't need bledsoe he's a want imo

[KillMonger]

Not sure if this was posted but here is some video on Romero osby in the Nets combine this past month or so. Romero is number 50 in the video but it's not focused on him so you may need to look for the number.

[YouTube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2STNPGvIU[/YouTube]

[eyriq]

I'm really intrigued to see how Oladipo plays next season. Should be a good enough sample size to determine his tier? I hope it is, cause I think he has a shot at being a legit tier 1 or 2 guy now that I've swooned. If so, we could start building around him and develop an identity again, which would be terrific.

[Hotshot Hower]

Maybe, it's not that i'm not sold on Bledsoe i think he can be a solid Player not sure about point guard but he can be a player i just don't want to give up that much for him when he's proven squat. Sure he's got the tools for the job but anybody can look good when you have great talent around you in LA, what i want to know is in starters minutes with much less talent can he run a team and make others better? i think that's a fair question to ask if i want to invest my money right? i just don't want to pay him 7.5 mil a year to find out. That's kinda meh to me, i mean Mike Conley is making what 8 mil this upcoming season and he's a much better player than Bledsoe is. Man IDK either way i like Henny's approach we're in the driver's seat in this situation, we don't need bledsoe he's a want imo

Ok, on the extension it could be media fluff for all I know but let's play Devil's Advocate for a moment here.

1) The majority of us here think Affalo is redundant especially with the growth and strides of Harkless and now, the addition of Oladipo which makes him more expendable than ever.

2) If Bledsoe's demand of an extension before October is false, do you make the trade involving Affalo/other asset(s) while taking back Caron's expiring?

3) If Bledsoe's demand on an extension before October is true, do you make the trade above. If yes, what do you think he'd command on the open market and should we lock him up prior to him entering FA? If no, do you just shop Affalo around and for what?

What I'm getting at is we can't have our cake and eat it too. In order to get, you have to give. Simple as that.

[Hotshot Hower]

I'm really intrigued to see how Oladipo plays next season. Should be a good enough sample size to determine his tier? I hope it is, cause I think he has a shot at being a legit tier 1 or 2 guy now that I've swooned. If so, we could start building around him and develop an identity again, which would be terrific.

I think he'll have a similar impact to that of Tobias, in which we'll begin to develop that "blue collar", "come to work with our hardhat" identity. I feel confident saying Oladipo's energy, will power, and hard work will become contagious to others and everyone will push each other to become the best that they can be.

I think Tobias will be that legit tier 2 guy, while Oladipo won't be too far off, but will do all the little things that don't show up in the box score but definitely impact a basketball game. For Oladipo, that's saying a lot for a 1st year rookie.

[KillMonger]

i don't think it's as simple as that i believe, i mean one thing i didn't even think about until now is the new CBA implications that kick in next season. Someone was telling me it's going to be the death of the middle class deals, so more or less with these new contracts you're either going to get underpaid or overpaid lol. So it's like ok you give him that deal now when honestly you can wait and let the market set it and it could go either way but with these strict guidelines that i'm hearing i don't think teams are going to bump up the price for him.

So why pay that much when you can get him for less possibly? It's kind of like what happened to Nick young, dude opted out i believe because he thought he could get more money on the open market but naw man he didn't so the sixers i believe ended up getting him for pennies on the dollar and while he's a knucklehead dude has some talent, maybe not bledsoe talent but close. I might be completely wrong on the cba thing but if im not and i'm remembering correctly that could be why Bledsoe is trying to get an extension Now because he knows he might not get the deal he wants next season with the CBA implications