Official Speculation Thread (Pt. XXXII Off-Season Edition)

[glennathan]

I think people are wanting so many moves made by Rob because of the fact they are used to Otis making quick and thought out decisions and that he came in and fired the front office in the first week.

I wish I was more patient but giving Rob only two weeks to repair 4 years of Otis mess is by no means fair. Give him a year to see what has happened. If nothing occurred in 1 year except for signing Jameer and drafts then being angry or disappointed is rightfully so

[NEM]

Who did you have to play point for us?

DUHON!!!!!!!

Lol, I guess we could have just tried to tank hard with Duhon but we can still tank with Meer. I am thinking more people like Meer and identify with him and maybe JJ or Big Baby so maybe they well sell these two as the faces of the franchise and the loyalty-wants-to-be-here angle to get fans to still come to games. That and a price decrease, lol. No one likes Duhon. He isn't marketable at all. Just an idea though.

I do think we will let Ryan go. His award and stats were gonna draw offers and we don't need to overpay. I wonder why we have not heard those offers reported though. That's strange.

if duhon started for us, stern might actually feel bad for the fans and gift us the 1st overall pick

[jadewbj]

I am not a fan of meer's that much but he is solid especially if we can move him to a 6th man role and bring in a fresh PG in FA, Trade or Draft in future. Plus meer becomes pretty tradeable next year with only one year left on his contract if it is a team option. A team can take him and buy him out or keep him for the year at a respectable 6 mil.

How does that hurt us in long run?

[mattyBoi]

The Nelson deal makes sense because we didn't have a PG. Plain and simple. It makes more sense if Rob can move JRich, Duhon and Hedo in the coming months for expirings or picks back, clearing 14 million off the roster for the summer of 2013.

Fantasy. We could have gotten a PG and not hampered our cap space by 6 million dollars.

[mattyBoi]

Someone on 1 or 2 year deal with an option. Not 3 years and not for 6 million per year. Love Jameer and love the loyalty but we are only hurting ourselves in the long run.

Someone...who is out there even close to meer's talent that would take a deal like that?

It doesn't matter if they have his talent or not, we are not winning a championship next year.

[NEM]

I am not a fan of meer's that much but he is solid especially if we can move him to a 6th man role and bring in a fresh PG in FA, Trade or Draft in future. Plus meer becomes pretty tradeable next year with only one year left on his contract if it is a team option. A team can take him and buy him out or keep him for the year at a respectable 6 mil.

How does that hurt us in long run?

if it s a TO, it really doesnt... people jumping off bridges when they dont even know all of the specs of the deal

[jadewbj]

Someone on 1 or 2 year deal with an option. Not 3 years and not for 6 million per year. Love Jameer and love the loyalty but we are only hurting ourselves in the long run.

Someone...who is out there even close to meer's talent that would take a deal like that?

It doesn't matter if they have his talent or not, we are not winning a championship next year.

So you want to go full tank mode? That always works 80% of the time 100% of the time!

[mattyBoi]

We clear cap space next summer, and Jameer was just signed beyond that summer regardless if he has a team option or not. We just took away 6 million dollar of potential cap space.

If it is a player option or no option at all then the deal gets really bad.

[OMPunk]

I notice everyone is saying Jameer has a "pretty good" contract. You all know it wasn't a great move.

Calling it great would be insane...it's Jameer Nelson, not Russell Westbrook/DRose/CP3. Considering the options available there was no 'great move' out there. We needed a PG who can continue building the culture that Hennigan is establishing in the organization.

His contract is on par with what the other PG's in his tier are getting. So we are then looking at trying to sign a PG with the mid level (about 5 million). Our options become Ray Felton/maybe Sessions/who else?

At a time that we need a leader and a starting PG going into next season, this was the best move Rob could have made (barring a slightly better PG we could potentially get in a Dwight trade).

Jameer is better then people want to give him credit for, he may not be the type of PG of that you personally want for the team, but he's the best available to the team at this time.

One final note, it's a moot point if it's a team option, he essentially is on a two year deal then and becomes a solid trade chip next season.

I like the move and I like bringing back Jameer. We were not going to get anything better imo.

[glennathan]

The Nelson deal makes sense because we didn't have a PG. Plain and simple. It makes more sense if Rob can move JRich, Duhon and Hedo in the coming months for expirings or picks back, clearing 14 million off the roster for the summer of 2013.

Fantasy. We could have gotten a PG and not hampered our cap space by 6 million dollars.

Or it could be that Rob wants to get Jameer to help develop a young PG that we pick up from Free agency like Westbrook or Wayns. I am just glad we got Jameer back in pinstripes and would be glad if he stays his whole career

[mattyBoi]

So you want to go full tank mode? That always works 80% of the time 100% of the time!

Of course.

[woosah]

The Nelson deal makes sense because we didn't have a PG. Plain and simple. It makes more sense if Rob can move JRich, Duhon and Hedo in the coming months for expirings or picks back, clearing 14 million off the roster for the summer of 2013.

Fantasy. We could have gotten a PG and not hampered our cap space by 6 million dollars.

Do tell. We had no money to throw at FA like Sessions or RFA Brooks, so we would need s&t. We have no idea who the other team would want in a s&t, and if they even wanted any of our assets. We had Meer's rights, and was willing to sign. So tell me your plan.

[mattyBoi]

The Nelson deal makes sense because we didn't have a PG. Plain and simple. It makes more sense if Rob can move JRich, Duhon and Hedo in the coming months for expirings or picks back, clearing 14 million off the roster for the summer of 2013.

Fantasy. We could have gotten a PG and not hampered our cap space by 6 million dollars.

Do tell. We had no money to throw at FA like Sessions or RFA Brooks, so we would need s&t. We have no idea who the other team would want in a s&t, and if they even wanted any of our assets. We had Meer's rights, and was willing to sign. So tell me your plan.

I would take anyone who could run a team better than Duhon. They don't have to be an amazing player or better than Jameer, the goal isn't to be good.

And just for the record I love Jameer, I want his jersey retired here, but I'm thinking long term.

[Idunkonyou2]

For those not understanding the cap situation we are in for the summer of 2013:

Nelson - 6M
Davis - 6M
JRich - 6M
Hedo - 12M (will be waived if not traded so he will only count 6M towards the cap)
Duhon - 4M (will be waived if not traded so he will only count 1.5M towards the cap)
QRich - 3M (will probably take his player out)
Nicholson - 1M
Quinn - 1M

Overall - 28M cap for 2013

So that leaves us 32 million in cap space for 2013 even if we don't rid ourselves of Duhon, JRich and Hedo, which will be easier to do at the trade deadline or before the 2013 draft. If we can do that, we save ourselves around 14 million in cap space, moving that 28 million number down to 14 million, giving us 46 million in cap space. That means we could sign 3 max players if we want and it so happens 2013 is going to be a big year for FAs (Ellis, Iggy, Smith, Howard, Bynum, Paul, etc).

Again knowing this, it baffles my mind why Howard wants to just up and leave. He could be playing with Paul/Iggy or Ellis/Iggy so on and so forth in 2013-2014 if he waits.

[dariusl7]

I notice everyone is saying Jameer has a "pretty good" contract. You all know it wasn't a great move.

I'm a bit surprised too but I'll judge this move after I see the whole picture.

[cedric76]

David Baumann ‏@DavidBaumann33

RT @ArashMarkazi: Steve Nash on Dwight Howard: He's a special player & a special talent, I can see why the Lakers would want to recruit him.


NASH is recruiting D12, GO steve, help us up the antes

[rcklsscognition]

lol at everyone bitching about Jameer's contract. Stop crying that we didn't get Chris Paul. Take a moment to look at the other PGs, their age, contract figures, and then the FAs still left. Jameer is 30 years old and is on the decline? The only reason this guy doesn't put up 18/10 is SVG. Jameer's pass-to-assist numbers are great, but you don't see them on the stat sheet.

[jadewbj]

I would take anyone who could run a team better than Duhon. They don't have to be an amazing player or better than Jameer, the goal isn't to be good.

And just for the record I love Jameer, I want his jersey retired here, but I'm thinking long term.

If your plan is to not be good than stay with Duhon at the point.

[rcklsscognition]

David Baumann ‏@DavidBaumann33

RT @ArashMarkazi: Steve Nash on Dwight Howard: He's a special player & a special talent, I can see why the Lakers would want to recruit him.


NASH is recruiting D12, GO steve, help us up the antes

This comes on the heels of "Lakers looking to keep core intact, don't want to move Gasol/Bynum."

[RickB-Orlando]

The Nelson deal makes sense because we didn't have a PG. Plain and simple. It makes more sense if Rob can move JRich, Duhon and Hedo in the coming months for expirings or picks back, clearing 14 million off the roster for the summer of 2013.

Fantasy. We could have gotten a PG and not hampered our cap space by 6 million dollars.

Who would that have been?

Wait, I know. We should have signed Nash. He would have taken a one year plus team option for the second year from us just for the chance to play with Dwight. Probably for less money than Jameer. If only we had made this offer right way, we could have done a sign and trade with PHX for Duhon and JRich and we'd have been all set. pHX would without question have gifted us Nash despite other offers since Otis was buds on the deal two years ago, so they owe us one.

I can only guess that's what you're thinking, right?