Official Speculation Thread ‘19-'20 I: Big decisions on the horizon

[OrlandoNed]

I read a Grizzlies beat writer propse this trade:

Conley for Fournier/Mozgov/16

I'd do that, keep Ross, Vuc, Birch, Martin and use MLE on Jeremy Lamb.

Conley/Augustin/Fultz
Ross/Iwundu/#46
Isaac/Lamb/Frazier
Gordon/Martin
Vuc/Bamba/Birch

I'm not sure why we'd want Conley at this point. Just to snag a 6-8 seed? Just to shed Fournier & Mosgov? Conley doesn't move the needle enough to make noise in the playoffs. I think we can get a solid SG at #16 and deal Fournier for bench depth. Start Ross or whoever we draft at #16 (Langford hopefully!) in place of Fournier. If Fultz is a bust, we're still a 6-8 seed next year. If Fultz is a starter, who knows!

You're not sure why we would want Conley? Really?

How about so we don't have to lean on dreck like Briscoe, MCW and Grant as our backup point guard? How about putting DJ, who went above and beyond expectations as a starter, back on the bench as a top backup PG in the league? How about adding a PG in Conley who will likely be, depending on how free agency pans out across the league, one of the best if not THE BEST PG in the Eastern Conference?

Adding Conley for the price of an average starting SG, a middling 1st round pick in a ho-hum draft and a literal dead weight contract is a freaking steal. Combine that with Nyce_1's hypothetical offseason of adding Jeremy Lamb (likely a better SG than Fournier) and re-signing Ross and Vuc, Orlando will be in position to battle for 1st round homecourt advantage. Oh, and this is all without mentioning Fultz's potential comeback.

[zaymon]

I read a Grizzlies beat writer propse this trade:

Conley for Fournier/Mozgov/16

I'd do that, keep Ross, Vuc, Birch, Martin and use MLE on Jeremy Lamb.

Conley/Augustin/Fultz
Ross/Iwundu/#46
Isaac/Lamb/Frazier
Gordon/Martin
Vuc/Bamba/Birch

I'm not sure why we'd want Conley at this point. Just to snag a 6-8 seed? Just to shed Fournier & Mosgov? Conley doesn't move the needle enough to make noise in the playoffs. I think we can get a solid SG at #16 and deal Fournier for bench depth. Start Ross or whoever we draft at #16 (Langford hopefully!) in place of Fournier. If Fultz is a bust, we're still a 6-8 seed next year. If Fultz is a starter, who knows!

You're not sure why we would want Conley? Really?

How about so we don't have to lean on dreck like Briscoe, MCW and Grant as our backup point guard? How about putting DJ, who went above and beyond expectations as a starter, back on the bench as a top backup PG in the league? How about adding a PG in Conley who will likely be, depending on how free agency pans out across the league, one of the best if not THE BEST PG in the Eastern Conference?

Adding Conley for the price of an average starting SG, a middling 1st round pick in a ho-hum draft and a literal dead weight contract is a freaking steal. Combine that with Nyce_1's hypothetical offseason of adding Jeremy Lamb (likely a better SG than Fournier) and re-signing Ross and Vuc, Orlando will be in position to battle for 1st round homecourt advantage. Oh, and this is all without mentioning Fultz's potential comeback.

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

[VFX]

I'm not sure why we'd want Conley at this point. Just to snag a 6-8 seed? Just to shed Fournier & Mosgov? Conley doesn't move the needle enough to make noise in the playoffs. I think we can get a solid SG at #16 and deal Fournier for bench depth. Start Ross or whoever we draft at #16 (Langford hopefully!) in place of Fournier. If Fultz is a bust, we're still a 6-8 seed next year. If Fultz is a starter, who knows!

You're not sure why we would want Conley? Really?

How about so we don't have to lean on dreck like Briscoe, MCW and Grant as our backup point guard? How about putting DJ, who went above and beyond expectations as a starter, back on the bench as a top backup PG in the league? How about adding a PG in Conley who will likely be, depending on how free agency pans out across the league, one of the best if not THE BEST PG in the Eastern Conference?

Adding Conley for the price of an average starting SG, a middling 1st round pick in a ho-hum draft and a literal dead weight contract is a freaking steal. Combine that with Nyce_1's hypothetical offseason of adding Jeremy Lamb (likely a better SG than Fournier) and re-signing Ross and Vuc, Orlando will be in position to battle for 1st round homecourt advantage. Oh, and this is all without mentioning Fultz's potential comeback.

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

Pretty funny it has to be spelled out like this and people can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal.

[j-ragg]

You're not sure why we would want Conley? Really?

How about so we don't have to lean on dreck like Briscoe, MCW and Grant as our backup point guard? How about putting DJ, who went above and beyond expectations as a starter, back on the bench as a top backup PG in the league? How about adding a PG in Conley who will likely be, depending on how free agency pans out across the league, one of the best if not THE BEST PG in the Eastern Conference?

Adding Conley for the price of an average starting SG, a middling 1st round pick in a ho-hum draft and a literal dead weight contract is a freaking steal. Combine that with Nyce_1's hypothetical offseason of adding Jeremy Lamb (likely a better SG than Fournier) and re-signing Ross and Vuc, Orlando will be in position to battle for 1st round homecourt advantage. Oh, and this is all without mentioning Fultz's potential comeback.

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

Pretty funny it has to be spelled out like this and people can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal.

Count me in the group that can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal. Are we really squirming because we won’t have Fournier as our starting 2 guard next year? Everything else made no sense. Can still retain any free agent we have. We lose one mid-first, not a steep price for a guy who’s a borderline all-star pg (considering our rotation especially).

[VFX]

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

Pretty funny it has to be spelled out like this and people can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal.

Count me in the group that can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal. Are we really squirming because we won’t have Fournier as our starting 2 guard next year? Everything else made no sense. Can still retain any free agent we have. We lose one mid-first, not a steep price for a guy who’s a borderline all-star pg (considering our rotation especially).

I get that Conley is an upgrade over DJ no doubt. I just don’t see the point without a go-to scorer or other options offensively for the future. Orlando should be in talent acquisition mode considering the roster dynamics still don’t make sense. Finding that type of player on offense is more important than being better than 60% of the trash eastern conference. A 31 year old point guard will help make the Magic a more serious team, but that doesn’t solve any of the issues long term.

[OrlandoNed]

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

Pretty funny it has to be spelled out like this and people can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal.

Count me in the group that can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal. Are we really squirming because we won’t have Fournier as our starting 2 guard next year? Everything else made no sense. Can still retain any free agent we have. We lose one mid-first, not a steep price for a guy who’s a borderline all-star pg (considering our rotation especially).

I'm confused where we are supposed to be at this moment according to these Nostradamus's and where we realistically want to be at the end of next season. We can't take a step back and let Vuc and Ross go and start a new youth moment after making the playoffs after 7 years and likely be a lotto team again, but we aren't supposed to move expendable assets to upgrade a sorry PG rotation into an excellent rotation with an all-star level PG because we'll only advance into a competitive 2nd round exit?

So WTF are we supposed to do, just tread water and refuse to take any step forward or back? Are we that petrified to lose an average at best starting SG and freaking Alexander-Walker to push us forward? Are we that terrified to use our cap space?

If we are worried about cap space, trading Fournier and Mozgov's combined 34 million for for Conley's 32 gains us 2 million in space for the 2019/2020 season. With Conley on the books for the final year of his deal in the following season we'd be taking up twice as much space as Fournier would. Yes, money would be tight in 2020 but by structuring Vuc and Ross's new contracts to be smaller this summer we would accomodate the final year of Conley's contract at 34 million in 2020. Plus, Bamba and Isaac would still be on their rookie deals, so Conley's deal is over before we have to pay them.


So what are the future repercussions I'm forgetting now, you snarky know-it-alls?

[OrlandoNed]

Pretty funny it has to be spelled out like this and people can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal.

Count me in the group that can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal. Are we really squirming because we won’t have Fournier as our starting 2 guard next year? Everything else made no sense. Can still retain any free agent we have. We lose one mid-first, not a steep price for a guy who’s a borderline all-star pg (considering our rotation especially).

I get that Conley is an upgrade over DJ no doubt. I just don’t see the point without a go-to scorer or other options offensively for the future. Orlando should be in talent acquisition mode considering the roster dynamics still don’t make sense. Finding that type of player on offense is more important than being better than 60% of the trash eastern conference. A 31 year old point guard will help make the Magic a more serious team, but that doesn’t solve any of the issues long term.

Our offensive issues wouldn't be solved completely, but they would certainly would of been helped with a true floor general to organize the offense instead of leaning on DJ to play beyond his means. I think our offense would be about as good as it could be without a go-to superstar scorer. This is what we'd likely have after a Conley trade:

Conley- floor general who can create for himself and others
Augustin- back up who can score from almost anywhere
Ross- flamethrower off the bench
Gordon- making huge strides as an all-around scorer and playmaker
Vuc- what can I say that isn't already known
Isaac- growing into a capable slasher and finisher in the paint with a comfortable shooter from the 3 point corners
Fultz- total wild card
and a cheap veteran shooter like Ellington, Satoransky, Rivers, Matthews, KCP, Hood etc

[swarlesbarkley]

I read a Grizzlies beat writer propse this trade:

Conley for Fournier/Mozgov/16

I'd do that, keep Ross, Vuc, Birch, Martin and use MLE on Jeremy Lamb.

Conley/Augustin/Fultz
Ross/Iwundu/#46
Isaac/Lamb/Frazier
Gordon/Martin
Vuc/Bamba/Birch

I'm not sure why we'd want Conley at this point. Just to snag a 6-8 seed? Just to shed Fournier & Mosgov? Conley doesn't move the needle enough to make noise in the playoffs. I think we can get a solid SG at #16 and deal Fournier for bench depth. Start Ross or whoever we draft at #16 (Langford hopefully!) in place of Fournier. If Fultz is a bust, we're still a 6-8 seed next year. If Fultz is a starter, who knows!

You're not sure why we would want Conley? Really?

How about so we don't have to lean on dreck like Briscoe, MCW and Grant as our backup point guard? How about putting DJ, who went above and beyond expectations as a starter, back on the bench as a top backup PG in the league? How about adding a PG in Conley who will likely be, depending on how free agency pans out across the league, one of the best if not THE BEST PG in the Eastern Conference?

Adding Conley for the price of an average starting SG, a middling 1st round pick in a ho-hum draft and a literal dead weight contract is a freaking steal. Combine that with Nyce_1's hypothetical offseason of adding Jeremy Lamb (likely a better SG than Fournier) and re-signing Ross and Vuc, Orlando will be in position to battle for 1st round homecourt advantage. Oh, and this is all without mentioning Fultz's potential comeback.

Looks like other people have chimed in but I view #16 as more valuable long-term than Conley. Conley helps short-term but still doesn't get us very far. The only way it makes sense to do this is if WeHam want to evaluate what a top 15 PG can get out of Isaac, Gordon, and Bamba. In that way it could help us long term.

[zaymon]

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

Pretty funny it has to be spelled out like this and people can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal.

Count me in the group that can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal. Are we really squirming because we won’t have Fournier as our starting 2 guard next year? Everything else made no sense. Can still retain any free agent we have. We lose one mid-first, not a steep price for a guy who’s a borderline all-star pg (considering our rotation especially).

If you think we are contenders with Conley/Frazier/Gordon/Isaac/Vucevic starting five its your opinion, you have every right to have it. Right now we dont even know if Vucevic resigns. Lets try to look from different perspective. We have Conley- solid allstar level player, with big injury risk. Our core is mostly 21 years old. Do we trade him for 5 years younger average starter on our position of need + first round pick + salary relief ?

[Blue_and_Whte]

I have a tough time believing WeHam would part with Bamba for a chance on Mike Conley

[tiderulz]

I have a tough time believing WeHam would part with Bamba for a chance on Mike Conley

where was Bamba even mentioned in regards to getting Conley?

[Blue_and_Whte]

I have a tough time believing WeHam would part with Bamba for a chance on Mike Conley

where was Bamba even mentioned in regards to getting Conley?

Wasn’t it a part of that mock trade? Or at least a potential piece?

The deal I heard is Mozgov + DJ + Bamba for Conley and it works in the trade checker:
https://basketball.realgm.com/tradechecker/saved_trade/7198770

[OrlandoNed]

I have a tough time believing WeHam would part with Bamba for a chance on Mike Conley

where was Bamba even mentioned in regards to getting Conley?

Wasn’t it a part of that mock trade? Or at least a potential piece.

Nope, it was Fournier/Mozgov/#16 for Conley.

[Blue_and_Whte]

where was Bamba even mentioned in regards to getting Conley?

Wasn’t it a part of that mock trade? Or at least a potential piece.

Nope, it was Fournier/Mozgov/#16 for Conley.

Oh, yeah then pull the trigger on that.
I guess I didn’t realize there was another trade scenario out there.

[ezzzp]

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

That doesn't mean building with only youth. Having a competitive context maintained with quality veteran starters integrated into player development has been at the center of how they approached both Toronto and Milwaukee.

In Toronto, when Masai and Weltman arrived, many pundits and tankers wanted them to blow it all up. But that's not what they did at all. For that, that FO took a lot of criticism from those people about how they were going to be a treadmill team etc. The same thing in Milwaukee. This FO have been about gradual stable improvement utilizing all three levers: trade, free agency and draft/development. They have utilized quality veteran acquisition to both continue an upward push while maintaining a competitive context for youth development.

1 Conley is not about adding the finishing touches to a contender. It is all about player development context and a continuous push forward. Having a good experienced PG has a tremendous impact on young players who need court organization and someone to absorb attention and create easy opportunities for them. Conley is one of the very best floor generals in the NBA.

2 The notion of timeline isn't real. NBA contract length and player movement makes sure of that. Every team utilizes veterans, especially teams that are transitioning out of the lottery bottom-out stage. The reality is that "young core's" are never kept together.

The best franchises at player development ALWAYS have quality starter level veterans to stabilize and maintain a competitive baseline. For a roster like the Magic, composed of multiple players that have shooting and playmaking issues, having an excellent floor general as vet anchor at the PG spot would be tremendous for Isaac, Fultz, Bamba, Iwundu and Gordon.

3 Financially it is very doable and the Magic can retain both Ross/Vuc.

Spoiler:

4/5 If Fultz is ready, the Magic can also flip DJ asap for a wing. They can also use their MLE ($9.2m) if they choose to. A team with Conley at PG and Vucevic at C will be attractive to wings (including Ross).

6 The Magic will have all their draft picks moving forward. Plus they already have Fultz 20, Bamba 21, Isaac 21, Frazier 23, Iwundu 24 and Gordon 24. Already, 6 of 13 roster spots are filled with players below 24. Adding more youth isn't helping the youth that's there, in fact too much youth is detrimental. Staggering youth influx helps both development AND longterm fiscal viability as it spreads out when rookie scale contracts expand into full fledged NBA deals.

[j-ragg]

Pretty funny it has to be spelled out like this and people can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal.

Count me in the group that can’t see the future repercussions of this kind of deal. Are we really squirming because we won’t have Fournier as our starting 2 guard next year? Everything else made no sense. Can still retain any free agent we have. We lose one mid-first, not a steep price for a guy who’s a borderline all-star pg (considering our rotation especially).

I get that Conley is an upgrade over DJ no doubt. I just don’t see the point without a go-to scorer or other options offensively for the future. Orlando should be in talent acquisition mode considering the roster dynamics still don’t make sense. Finding that type of player on offense is more important than being better than 60% of the trash eastern conference. A 31 year old point guard will help make the Magic a more serious team, but that doesn’t solve any of the issues long term.

I get what you’re saying. In a perfect world we’d be getting go-to guy on offense and supplementing him with pieces. I just feel like we’ve had two summers now with this front office, most likely path is to stay the course and try to make upgrades. I think a Conley trade is even a little too adventurous for them. Just tryin to think of a guard we can trade for who

A) can dribble with his head up and create for the young guys that don’t have the shot creation yet.
B) doesn’t have a lot of trade value (so we don’t mortgage much).
C) isn’t on a terrible long term salary deal.

I think the value we give up in the 16th we’d get back by having a good floor leader for the young guys. But I’ve always been a Conley fan. The 20 or so games he annually misses would hurt though.

[zaymon]

Weltman said many times we dont want to do it fast, we want to do it right.
1. Are we a contender with Conley- not really
2. Does his timeline match with our core- no
3. How does it affect our financial flexibility- we will have no flexibility in 2020,
4. Can we resign Ross, Vucevic and sign Lamb- no
5. Who will start at sg next year if we trade Fournier- Melvin Frazier
6. How does it affect our picks- we lose first rounder this year, we will have worse pick next year.

Why do we this exactly? For a chance of second round exit? If we had Conley you would propably want to trade him...

That doesn't mean building with only youth. Having a competitive context maintained with quality veteran starters integrated into player development has been at the center of how they approached both Toronto and Milwaukee.

In Toronto, when Masai and Weltman arrived, many pundits and tankers wanted them to blow it all up. But that's not what they did at all. For that, that FO took a lot of criticism from those people about how they were going to be a treadmill team etc. The same thing in Milwaukee. This FO have been about gradual stable improvement utilizing all three levers: trade, free agency and draft/development. They have utilized quality veteran acquisition to both continue an upward push while maintaining a competitive context for youth development.

1 Conley is not about adding the finishing touches to a contender. It is all about player development context and a continuous push forward. Having a good experienced PG has a tremendous impact on young players who need court organization and someone to absorb attention and create easy opportunities for them. Conley is one of the very best floor generals in the NBA.

2 The notion of timeline isn't real. NBA contract length and player movement makes sure of that. Every team utilizes veterans, especially teams that are transitioning out of the lottery bottom-out stage. The reality is that "young core's" are never kept together.

The best franchises at player development ALWAYS have quality starter level veterans to stabilize and maintain a competitive baseline. For a roster like the Magic, composed of multiple players that have shooting and playmaking issues, having an excellent floor general as vet anchor at the PG spot would be tremendous for Isaac, Fultz, Bamba, Iwundu and Gordon.

3 Financially it is very doable and the Magic can retain both Ross/Vuc.

Spoiler:

4/5 If Fultz is ready, the Magic can also flip DJ asap for a wing. They can also use their MLE ($9.2m) if they choose to. A team with Conley at PG and Vucevic at C will be attractive to wings (including Ross).

6 The Magic will have all their draft picks moving forward. Plus they already have Fultz 20, Bamba 21, Isaac 21, Frazier 23, Iwundu 24 and Gordon 24. Already, 6 of 13 roster spots are filled with players below 24. Adding more youth isn't helping the youth that's there, in fact too much youth is detrimental. Staggering youth influx helps both development AND longterm fiscal viability as it spreads out when rookie scale contracts expand into full fledged NBA deals.

You have many good points, I just value things different. You say we need more veterans to develop our youth but you swap starting veteran pgs and trade our veteran sg so you just do opposite of what you just wrote. Secondly Conley will be disposable if Fultz is healthy, Fournier not. Timeline is important becouse you need to push your assets at the right time if not you are just losing value. Why push for Conley now? You want to resign him when he is 33, or lose for nothing?. I see many interesting players within our draft range, i think Fournier is good for developing our core, i like financial flexibility in 2020 with Mozgov expiring. I would wait with spending assets until someone who can help us longterm appears.

[ezzzp]

You have many good points, I just value things different. You say we need more veterans to develop our youth but you swap starting veteran pgs and trade our veteran sg so you just do opposite of what you just wrote. Secondly Conley will be disposable if Fultz is healthy, Fournier not. Timeline is important becouse you need to push your assets at the right time if not you are just losing value. Why push for Conley now? You want to resign him when he is 33, or lose for nothing?. I see many interesting players within our draft range, i think Fournier is good for developing our core, i like financial flexibility in 2020 with Mozgov expiring. I would wait with spending assets until someone who can help us longterm appears.

Conley and Fournier aren't the same caliber, and I've been a big supporter of Fournier. They play totally different roles - one is a floor general, the other is not. Conley is a proven leader and a primary ball handler that can control the pace of a game, read and organize the floor and create easy looks for others.

Conley will not be disposable if Fultz is ready. He'd be the best back up PG in the entire NBA, but I doubt Fultz unseats him first year. Plus he is also versatile in that he can play off-ball...so I could easily see two PG lineups like the ones that have been used by Milwaukee and Toronto in past.

What makes you think either Conley or Fournier would be in the long term picture. Its way too early to be planning around that. Fultz is a total unknown right now. There is a good chance that Fultz never recovers and the Magic don't pick up his option next summer.

Timeline does not matter. NBA contracts and player movement make sure of that. Plus, Fournier and Conley's contract expire the same year...so it doesn't make a bit of difference.

How are you arriving at young players value declining when they are years away from entering their peak ascent? One of the most proven methods of building value is by contextualizing players in a winning situation. The most proven way to devalue assets is by playing in losing contexts.

Just like you see interesting players in the draft, there are also many interesting players in FA, all proven in NBA context within the Magic's cap reach. On top of that, this FO has been very good at finding guys playing overseas (Birch/Briscoe), in 2nd round (Brogdon/Siakim/Wright etc) and G-L (VanVleet). Those type of signings come with minimum non-guaranteed salary. The only thing that drafting 16 guarantees, is a fully guaranteed contract and higher salary on the payroll for 2-4 years.

[ezzzp]

The Hoop Collective Podcast

Brian Windhorst and Jackie McMulland talk to Tim McMahon (who covers the NBA for ESPN from Dallas) about Dallas' free agency and they mention Vucevic (starts at 34m mark).

• McMahon is certain that Dallas is keeping Dwight Powell. They speculate that it will be a wink wink renegotiate or more likely he opts out and they resign with MLE in order to clear enough to sign a max player or close to max guy.

• Regarding who that max player is, McMahon says that Kemba Walker has been talked about but there is discussion if he'd be a good fit with Doncic because he needs the ball in his hands. He says that Tobias Harris is certainly a possibility. Jackie asks about Jimmy Butler possibility and TM said he'd be very surprised if they pursued him.

• Windhorst throws out Vucevic's name...

McMahon says that there has been a lot of discussion there and thats because Vuc and Doncic are friends and share an agent (Bill Duffy).

He then says that the question there is fit with Porzingis as KP should play center in NBA.

McMahon says that he has talked directly to KP about that subject and that Porzingis says that he is fine with playing C and recognizes that in today's NBA he's best at C except in very specific matchups.

McMahon then says that this is the reason why Dwight Powell is such a good fit and possibly their starting center next year because he's such a good fit with Porzingis.

Windhorst throws in that along with the teams of other free agents (like Middelton, Harris and Kemba) - Orlando has the option to offer Vucevic a 5 year deal. He adds that Dallas and Brooklyn have interest in Middelton...then transitions the discussion into talking about how Milwaukee keeps their group together.

[MasterGMer]

[url=http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=26814526]Windhorst throws in that along with other free agents like Middelton, Harris and Kemba Orlando have the option to offer a 5 year deal.

So Orlando is interested in Middelton, Harris and Kemba? How can we offer 5 year contract to them? We do not have the bird right?
We also do not have cap for a max contract?

I have been throwing Kemba option for months and I do not think he is interested in a S&T