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

[Bensational]

Putting Dwight on the court would ruin all chance of getting a decent draft pick. We have no chance of winning a ring with or without him next year. Best option would be to put Dwight on medical leave or something. Too bad this isn't baseball.

2 weeks ago i would have felt that we could position ourselves to make a few key changes and make enough noise to let people (Dwight) know that we're still in the race to be a contender. changing the PG for someone younger and with better vision (Dragic/Lin/Sessions), moving some contracts (Hedo/JRich for Harris), bringing in some mid-late rookies with potential to be steals (White/PJ3/etc), as well as signing a coach who would bring a new system to the team.

but now, having re-signed Jameer, and watched all other options go, i don't think we've got any real chance to make any significant changes to this squad. so we would more or less see the same team on the court. for starters, i don't think that's possible given how strained relationships between players reportedly became. and secondly, we already know how bad last year's team was - why go through that again?

[pogiro]

Give me Bynum & Ebanks for Dwight and lets move on. If Harden becomes FA, do everything you can to pair him up with Bynum next summer.

Harden
Ebanks
One of our 50 talented PFs
Bynum

Just find an upgrade over Jameer and let's roll.

You're ok giving a max salary for the next 5 years to a player who's had 1 healthy season in 7 years?

[SolidSnake008]

I believe the Lakers would only give us Bynum and some trash like MWP.....they will not take back any bad contracts imo.....why do that deal?

[trebone]

Why does everyone think lopez is going to get only 10mil per? Freaking look at the deals omer asik got 8 per! Hibbert gets the max Jordan got 10, if people keep thinking lopez is going to get 10 are delusional. He will get 12-14 easily no matter how one dimensional he is.

[T-Rob]

Give me Bynum & Ebanks for Dwight and lets move on. If Harden becomes FA, do everything you can to pair him up with Bynum next summer.

Harden
Ebanks
One of our 50 talented PFs
Bynum

Just find an upgrade over Jameer and let's roll.

You're ok giving a max salary for the next 5 years to a player who's had 1 healthy season in 7 years?

+1, Keep Bynum away unless he brings Pau with him to flip for other assets.

[G-Heel]

i would rather keep Dwight, make him play out this season and face a free agency where his best options are a rebuilding Dallas and Atlanta, rather than trade him to the market he and his agents want him to go to. heck, i'd be happy if the Magic made him sit on the bench while we suck our way into a lottery pick, so at least when he goes to sign with another team he's looking back at his former team with a potential superstar - Tmac style. and whilst that might sound like a spiteful move, it's not. i actually just don't want to see the Magic taking back Lopez, or any other piece of garbage from the Nets. i don't even want to do a Bynum deal because i'm fairly confident his knees will give up again soon and we'll be stuck with Grant Hill 2.0.

i think Dwight is well within his rights to demand changes on this team, i think he's well within his rights to advise us that he's unhappy and doesn't plan to re-sign with us once his deal is up, but he's got no rights to dictate where we trade him if we want to trade him. i'm sick of players bullying teams into getting to play where they want.

no offense but speak for yourself....Dwight is going to walk anyway.....if i have a shot of getting out of the contract hell Otis put us in then i'm all for the big picture.....Ben you sound like you're letting your feelings talk for you....but it's your opinion so i can respect that....but me personally i would love to keep Howard if he wanted to be here....but he doesn't....so in that case i want to be in the best position i can when 2013 rolls around....

What bad contracts we have that we can't get rid of next summer, when cap space matters? Yea, we might get rid of JRich and Duhon, but is it worth it if we have to take back a max Lopez? Not trading Dwight give us a chance to resign him when he realized he can't go to the Nets.

[Nyce_1]

Give me Bynum & Ebanks for Dwight and lets move on. If Harden becomes FA, do everything you can to pair him up with Bynum next summer.

Harden
Ebanks
One of our 50 talented PFs
Bynum

Just find an upgrade over Jameer and let's roll.

You're ok giving a max salary for the next 5 years to a player who's had 1 healthy season in 7 years?

I'm not a lawyer or a good negotiator, but I'd extend him and try to get a team option thrown in.

[pogiro]

What bad contracts we have that we can't get rid of next summer, when cap space matters? Yea, we might get rid of JRich and Duhon, but is it worth it if we have to take back a max Lopez? Not trading Dwight give us a chance to resign him when he realized he can't go to the Nets.

Yup. People have given up on keeping Dwight, and it's understandable. But a lot can happen in a year. A lot can happen even before the trade deadline. How bout we at least hire a coach and have him talk to Dwight before taking one of these garbage trades that some of you guys want?

[pogiro]

Give me Bynum & Ebanks for Dwight and lets move on. If Harden becomes FA, do everything you can to pair him up with Bynum next summer.

Harden
Ebanks
One of our 50 talented PFs
Bynum

Just find an upgrade over Jameer and let's roll.

You're ok giving a max salary for the next 5 years to a player who's had 1 healthy season in 7 years?

I'm not a lawyer or a good negotiator, but I'd extend him and try to get a team option thrown in.

Good luck with that. Pretty sure Bynum is aware of his injury history, too.

[Bensational]

Yup. People have given up on keeping Dwight, and it's understandable. But a lot can happen in a year. A lot can happen even before the trade deadline. How bout we at least hire a coach and have him talk to Dwight before taking one of these garbage trades that some of you guys want?

yeah, i used to try to stick up for Dwight when people wanted him gone, but now he's made that impossible. if someone wants Dwight gone then i think they're 100% justified. i agree with you, though, that a lot can happen in a year, Dwight's already shown he's a big flip flopper, and we still haven't even hired a new coach yet. perhaps Brian Shaw can get in his ear and soothe the beast?

also, one thing that i noticed in that Hennigan presser after he met with Dwight (where he confirmed the trade request), was that nobody asked if Dwight sounded receptive to Hennigan's vision. i would have liked to have known if Howard at least said "yeah, Rob, that sounds good and all... but i wanna go to Brooklyn".

[SolidSnake008]

i would rather keep Dwight, make him play out this season and face a free agency where his best options are a rebuilding Dallas and Atlanta, rather than trade him to the market he and his agents want him to go to. heck, i'd be happy if the Magic made him sit on the bench while we suck our way into a lottery pick, so at least when he goes to sign with another team he's looking back at his former team with a potential superstar - Tmac style. and whilst that might sound like a spiteful move, it's not. i actually just don't want to see the Magic taking back Lopez, or any other piece of garbage from the Nets. i don't even want to do a Bynum deal because i'm fairly confident his knees will give up again soon and we'll be stuck with Grant Hill 2.0.

i think Dwight is well within his rights to demand changes on this team, i think he's well within his rights to advise us that he's unhappy and doesn't plan to re-sign with us once his deal is up, but he's got no rights to dictate where we trade him if we want to trade him. i'm sick of players bullying teams into getting to play where they want.

no offense but speak for yourself....Dwight is going to walk anyway.....if i have a shot of getting out of the contract hell Otis put us in then i'm all for the big picture.....Ben you sound like you're letting your feelings talk for you....but it's your opinion so i can respect that....but me personally i would love to keep Howard if he wanted to be here....but he doesn't....so in that case i want to be in the best position i can when 2013 rolls around....

What bad contracts we have that we can't get rid of next summer, when cap space matters? Yea, we might get rid of JRich and Duhon, but is it worth it if we have to take back a max Lopez? Not trading Dwight give us a chance to resign him when he realized he can't go to the Nets.

come on man....Dwight's gone....accept it....I would love it if he wanted to be here but he's burned that bridge.....but i'll play....why would Dwight resign if we can't improve the roster....if we have the same duds on the team? Dwight says he wants to go somewhere where he can win and repair his image....i believe he feels that place isn't here....if he already has 1 foot out the door why cling to false hope? he's not going to resign here bottom line......

[Cammo101]

If the options are Bynum, Brooklyn's leftovers, or let Dwight walk...I choose let Dwight walk.

[TDJacksonville]

If the options are Bynum, Brooklyn's leftovers, or let Dwight walk...I choose let Dwight walk.

id go bynum and see how his health goes for the year and resign him. hed be foolish to pass on tax free extra money.

[Cammo101]

If the options are Bynum, Brooklyn's leftovers, or let Dwight walk...I choose let Dwight walk.

id go bynum and see how his health goes for the year and resign him. hed be foolish to pass on tax free extra money.

And what if he is healthy this year, gets a big extension, and turns into Grant Hill 2.0?

[T-Rob]

If the options are Bynum, Brooklyn's leftovers, or let Dwight walk...I choose let Dwight walk.

Im with you on this. Id take all of the above options if somehow those players were all traded for something different but thats likely not going to happen.

[SolidSnake008]

You know what i need to see how it would work though if we did do the Nets trade...but what i'm hearing is we would get lopez...humpries....Brooks...plus we would unload some of our bad contracts....so if that's right then on paper.....

Nelson/Westbrook
Brooks/Redick
????/Harper/Liggins
Humpries/Nicholson
Lopez/O'Quinn

Ok i left Humpries in because i like him a bit better than Big Baby to be quite honest but Baby could still be in that spot though......like i said before that would probably be how it would look for this upcoming season...imho that's not a bad team to roll into the 2013-14 off-season with......our weakest position would be Small Forward....isn't there a big time small forward that could be had in that Free Agent class.....Add said player and we would be imo a team with solid players at every position with a talented bench......

I can understand the apprehension but face it we're not going to get nothing but allstars in return for Dwight....might as well get the MOST value....sorry but Bynum by himself isn't the MOST value you can get for Dwight.....if we made that deal the Lakers would feel like they got away with robbery....but hey i could be wrong....i wonder if the numbers work out though?

[TDJacksonville]

If the options are Bynum, Brooklyn's leftovers, or let Dwight walk...I choose let Dwight walk.

id go bynum and see how his health goes for the year and resign him. hed be foolish to pass on tax free extra money.

And what if he is healthy this year, gets a big extension, and turns into Grant Hill 2.0?

worse case is we be in the lottery more often than not. signing any Player is a calculated risk. with Bynum i need to see if them knees are fine. idk how good Dwights back is especially if LAs doctors are a bit freaked out by it.

i would rather have the guy with the Bad Knees than the guy with the Bad Back. worse case someone will probably want to sign and trade for Bynum.

[arsenal6106]

I don't know what I want anymore. Is that fair?

[cvMagic]

Besides those of you who are just plain refusing to deal with the Nets, for the others, would you deal with them if they could get Orlando an expiring contract, Brooks, and Lopez for 10 mil a year?

Summer of 2013 would be a net gain of 5 million on our capspace and we'd have just 25 million invested into Meer, BBD, Lopez, and Brooks. We could hit FA hard and get a SF, PG/SG. Remember, Lopez would be a 18/8 guy.

exactly my train of thought.....i believe we're both looking at the big picture....people seem to be letting their anger and frustration do the talking....people need to remember that this is a business....if the deal makes sense then it would be stupid for a business not to at least consider it as one of the options....Rob to me seems like a big picture type of guy....

Guys...
18/8 on a crappy team is VERY different than 18/8 on a good team that is actually winning games.

[TDJacksonville]

Besides those of you who are just plain refusing to deal with the Nets, for the others, would you deal with them if they could get Orlando an expiring contract, Brooks, and Lopez for 10 mil a year?

Summer of 2013 would be a net gain of 5 million on our capspace and we'd have just 25 million invested into Meer, BBD, Lopez, and Brooks. We could hit FA hard and get a SF, PG/SG. Remember, Lopez would be a 18/8 guy.

exactly my train of thought.....i believe we're both looking at the big picture....people seem to be letting their anger and frustration do the talking....people need to remember that this is a business....if the deal makes sense then it would be stupid for a business not to at least consider it as one of the options....Rob to me seems like a big picture type of guy....

Guys...
18/8 on a crappy team is VERY different than 18/8 on a good team that is actually winning games.

let me start by saying Brook Lopez will be Paid more than 10 million bucks giving how the Market is acting. 2ndly Brook Lopez is Just as Injury Prone as Bynum is if not more plus Hes not as good of a rebounder and Bynums a better defender.