What free agents should we retain?

[bigfoot]

Who should we keep assuming CP3 opts out?

[saintEscaton]

Payne, Nader, Craig was my vote

[Jarlaxle0204]

Payne, Nader, Craig was my vote

No CP3? Are you looking to start Payne?

[saintEscaton]

Payne, Nader, Craig was my vote

No CP3? Are you looking to start Payne?

I voted for CP3 but then saw the disclaimer assuming that CP3 opts out so I excluded him in my list. No I want CP3 back or look to acquire Ben SImmons, Dame or John Wall

[Slim Charless]

Payne, Nader, Craig was my vote

No CP3? Are you looking to start Payne?

I voted for CP3 but then saw the disclaimer assuming that CP3 opts out so I excluded him in my list. No I want CP3 back or look to acquire Ben SImmons, Dame or John Wall

John Wall? Are the Rockets giving us the #2 in order to take him, cause if not I have no interest in that.

[saintEscaton]

No CP3? Are you looking to start Payne?

I voted for CP3 but then saw the disclaimer assuming that CP3 opts out so I excluded him in my list. No I want CP3 back or look to acquire Ben SImmons, Dame or John Wall

John Wall? Are the Rockets giving us the #2 in order to take him, cause if not I have no interest in that.

What about Russ then? Come on now John isn't that bad at all he's still an above-replacement point guard and is looking damn near his pre-injury self after being sidelined for two consecutive seasons. John Wall was a Top 15 Player the last time he was fully healthy. I don't get the hate, I would love to have him if we don't give up much for his services. He is playing on a porous team and would do so much better in the Valley

[cberry78]

Everything about our offseason hinges upon what CP3 decides to do, but regardless CamP is a no-brainer. Short of the Suns being heavily outbid for him, I see no reason for him not wanting to come back. Craig and Nader are both fairly interchangeable in their skillset and abilities, and bringing them both back would both be great options as that 3rd/4th wing/big off the bench. Kaminsky I would be more than OK with bringing back, for the right price - he plays serviceable minutes more often than not, is by all accounts a great locker room presence, knows and understands his role and the system.

[BobbieL]

No CP3? Are you looking to start Payne?

I voted for CP3 but then saw the disclaimer assuming that CP3 opts out so I excluded him in my list. No I want CP3 back or look to acquire Ben SImmons, Dame or John Wall

John Wall? Are the Rockets giving us the #2 in order to take him, cause if not I have no interest in that.

John Wall has been hurt for what - two years now
Is owed 91m for the next two years

I will keep with Chris Paul

[bwgood77]

I doubt he opts out unless he gets word he can get a significant deal.

but assuming he does, I would offer him 2/$65 or 3/$75 if he would sign elsewhere without the 3rd year. Now if we had to bid against NY or something where thy were offering a ton, I think he'd want us to match and would likely even rather play with us for less, so then it gets tougher.

3/$100 as talked about here really isn't far off on a yearly basis from 2/$65, but that 3rd year is tough...because it is extremely rare that a player plays at that age. The only guy that was that age or older this full past season was Haslem who hasn't played in forever (in fact, I don't know if Miami just plans on re-signing him every year until he dies or what, but he has gotten 1 year contracts for years).

After that, Iguodala will turn 38 mid season this next year. CP3 would be 38 the full season in a 3rd year. Melo and Redick just turned 37. So Igoudala who was 37 last year and will be the first couple months next year and Melo and Redick, both 37 next season, are already reserves who don't play much. Will they even be around the following season?

Then you have LeBron and Gasol who will turn 37 mid next season, so won't be 38 until mid the following season. Gasol is a shell of former self obviously.

Then you have Milsap, Taj Gibson and Paul, who will basically turn 37 next offseason (or playoffs).

So a full year at 36 next year I feel good with. A full year at 37 should be ok, but I think it could start to decline then. 38 is a very big question mark.

Out of ALL who can into the NBA in those 2004-2005 years or around there, there are only a handful left, and most are 37 or under but already on their last legs.

[MrMiyagi]

I doubt he opts out unless he gets word he can get a significant deal.

but assuming he does, I would offer him 2/$65 or 3/$75 if he would sign elsewhere without the 3rd year. Now if we had to bid against NY or something where thy were offering a ton, I think he'd want us to match and would likely even rather play with us for less, so then it gets tougher.

3/$100 as talked about here really isn't far off on a yearly basis from 2/$65, but that 3rd year is tough...because it is extremely rare that a player plays at that age. The only guy that was that age or older this full past season was Haslem who hasn't played in forever (in fact, I don't know if Miami just plans on re-signing him every year until he dies or what, but he has gotten 1 year contracts for years).

After that, Iguodala will turn 38 mid season this next year. CP3 would be 38 the full season in a 3rd year. Melo and Redick just turned 37. So Igoudala who was 37 last year and will be the first couple months next year and Melo and Redick, both 37 next season, are already reserves who don't play much. Will they even be around the following season?

Then you have LeBron and Gasol who will turn 37 mid next season, so won't be 38 until mid the following season. Gasol is a shell of former self obviously.

Then you have Milsap, Taj Gibson and Paul, who will basically turn 37 next offseason (or playoffs).

So a full year at 36 next year I feel good with. A full year at 37 should be ok, but I think it could start to decline then. 38 is a very big question mark.

Out of ALL who can into the NBA in those 2004-2005 years or around there, there are only a handful left, and most are 37 or under but already on their last legs.

I'm willing to give him 3 years. 3 years gives us the ability to have a lot of Cap flexibility in the 2023 offseason given it'll be when Book's latest deal expires. We could sign a big name and resign Book over the cap if needed, a la Golden State.

[bwgood77]

Sarver would get crucified if he let CP3 walk over money though (except by some of the twitter idiots) because we would regress terribly and it would make him look cheap.

Paul brings much more to the team than his play as well...a lot of fans don't seem to realize this...the team though does. Those intangibles may make him worth more.

Ultimately I would probably cave if I had to for the rumored deal, only because I think we would not be in the tax for more than 2 years if we can stay out of it this year (which we should make sure we do if we give him a 3 year deal).

We should be ok regarding the tax I think if his salary goes down and we re-sign Payne.

We have $11.77 in under tax cap space right now WITH Paul's $44 cap hold. So if that went down to $33, our cap space under tax goes up to $22.77. Lets say Cam Payne gets $10 million a year. He already has a cap hold of a little under $1.7 so that would reduce our under tax cap space by $8.33, leaving us $14.44.

So we could use the entire MLE and still be under the tax. I am not sure how long of a MLE deal would do though..I'd have to think of tax ramifications going forward.

But if we stay under the tax this next year (and it looks like we can even if Paul got $33, Payne got $10 and we used the full MLE), then I don't think the next year matters too much. We will hit the tax with new contracts but be one year in the tax after two successful years, the latter with the arena likely being full every night.

Then after two years, Crowder and Saric expire...so even if we had Paul we might dip under the tax (also depending on if we used our MLE and how long that contract was). Cam will get a new contract at that point though.

Ideally we find a nice future PG, and I think Cam Payne has a shot there, and Paul is here for 2 years and when we have to re-up CamJo, Paul is off the books and we are not stuck in tax territory for more than a year.

[cberry78]

What's a 3/$100m with declining salary look like for CP3? 35/30/25, something like that? How does that affect our salary cap outlook?

[bwgood77]

Anyway, I picked Paul, Payne and Alexander. I may try and keep Alexander on a 2 way depending on where he was at. I think we really like him based on what I've heard.

But either a 2 way or a minimum spot. I'd rather have a developing improving 23 year old there than a 33 year old.

I like Craig and I like Nader. Not enough for more than the minimum though. Moore and Galloway. I like both. They seemed to trust Moore a little more thought it seems Galloway played the best of either at the beginning of the season.

Ultimately we could lose both though. If we can bring one back at the minimum and have as spot, fine.

Kaminsky. He's fine for me as a backup big if he is making the minimum. He is not that good, but we often played well with him and had a long winning streak with him starting. He could be the case of a guy finally settling into his groove in Phx. I think he'd probably be happy with the minimum too. I think the players like him so he's likely good to have in the locker room.

But we really have a lot of spots to work with. We have 10 guys if you include Payne and then if we keep our pick, make it 11. That leaves 4 spots.

I would probably get one wing, one big, one guard, and then a wildcard...for our "one" big I wouldn't want Frank, so if he was the wildcard, I'd want a physical big, a solid backup combo guard and maybe one of Craig or Nader at the minimum. Keep Ty-Shon on a two way unless he is good enough for that guard or wildcard spot.

It also depends on what we draft. If we draft a guard and keep Ty-Shon, Wildcard is a 2nd big or wing. If we draft a big and sign another big, , wildcard is a guard/wing.

[bwgood77]

What's a 3/$100m with declining salary look like for CP3? 35/30/25, something like that? How does that affect our salary cap outlook?

I figured it out once before...but it's not that much...you can only decrease by 8% per year (that''s why it's funny when people say frontload which can only be done with those undrafted FA weird scenario deals if they are great after 2 years and make a lot of money like FVV).

So 10% of 33.3 is 3.3....so 8% is like $2.7. And remember, average would be 33.3. So it would be something like $37/$33.3/$30.7

If we do give him $100 million, it should definitely be declining as much as possible, just like that.

As you saw in my earlier post, I think I calculated even signing Payne, if CP3 goes down from $44 to $33 we have like $14.4 for the MLE. Since the MLE is only $10 or so, Paul making $37 instead of $33.3, still lets us use the full MLE and stay under the cap. Just probably not the BAE. But we can always split the MLE as well.

[bwgood77]

I doubt he opts out unless he gets word he can get a significant deal.

but assuming he does, I would offer him 2/$65 or 3/$75 if he would sign elsewhere without the 3rd year. Now if we had to bid against NY or something where thy were offering a ton, I think he'd want us to match and would likely even rather play with us for less, so then it gets tougher.

3/$100 as talked about here really isn't far off on a yearly basis from 2/$65, but that 3rd year is tough...because it is extremely rare that a player plays at that age. The only guy that was that age or older this full past season was Haslem who hasn't played in forever (in fact, I don't know if Miami just plans on re-signing him every year until he dies or what, but he has gotten 1 year contracts for years).

After that, Iguodala will turn 38 mid season this next year. CP3 would be 38 the full season in a 3rd year. Melo and Redick just turned 37. So Igoudala who was 37 last year and will be the first couple months next year and Melo and Redick, both 37 next season, are already reserves who don't play much. Will they even be around the following season?

Then you have LeBron and Gasol who will turn 37 mid next season, so won't be 38 until mid the following season. Gasol is a shell of former self obviously.

Then you have Milsap, Taj Gibson and Paul, who will basically turn 37 next offseason (or playoffs).

So a full year at 36 next year I feel good with. A full year at 37 should be ok, but I think it could start to decline then. 38 is a very big question mark.

Out of ALL who can into the NBA in those 2004-2005 years or around there, there are only a handful left, and most are 37 or under but already on their last legs.

I'm willing to give him 3 years. 3 years gives us the ability to have a lot of Cap flexibility in the 2023 offseason given it'll be when Book's latest deal expires. We could sign a big name and resign Book over the cap if needed, a la Golden State.

I take it you mean 2024.

Book will have an enormous cap hold eating into cap space though..so I don't know that it makes much difference. Signing a big name the year before his FA might seem like it would be more helpful to keep him here.

If Paul has declined badly that year and we are not that good, and Book is a FA, that could be scary. Though Lillard does have a player option on 2024. It's for $48.7 million though, so we'd definitely have to make it worth his while.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I wouldn't really object to any specific player coming back but I do favor making a few moves around the edges of the rotation. I'm a firm believer you need to bring in new guys to keep things fresh especially after long grueling postseason like this. 21/22 has to feel like a new year for the guys who come back. Having some different personalities in the locker room help that.

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[Calvin Klein]

Keep CP. Everybody else is replaceable.

[TASTIC]

Keep Cp3. Keep Craig.

Look at Theis as the backup big.

Aim for a guy like Dinwiddie on a 1+1 year make good deal.

Payne will be priced out now I suspect

[darealjuice]

CP3 is the obvious option. A declining $100M/3 years contract with a team option on the 3rd year would be great. It'll be interesting to see how much he tests the market though.

Bringing back Cam Payne feels like it should happen. He rejuvenated his career here, fans love him, and we have his Early Bird. It'd let us explore the forward market with the MLE instead of needing a new backup point guard too. I don't think he'll get more than we can offer, but more power to him if he does with his journey.

Bring back Craig, maybe Nader on a minimum. I don't think you use the BAE until late in the free agency game to entice the top of the remaining free agents. Ideally Jalen Smith and/or our MLE are taking more of the PF minutes anyways.

I'm fine either way with the rest. Fresh faces would be a good thing. More size, shooting, and defense.

[cberry78]

Can you combine the BAE with an injury exception (Saric)? We're not going to know about Saric's real availability until the trade deadline at the earliest I bet...ikf we do hold on to the BAE, could use both if needed?