Discussing Other Teams' Moves Part 3

[FAH1223]

Passing on Chandler may have been a smart thing to do considering how bad he looked in the playoffs.

I think the back injury he had at the end of the season was still bothering him. He did get dominated by Hibbert though.

Dallas should have kept the championship band together and made another run.

[Silvie Lysandra]

Dallas isn't really a good franchise in terms of talent acquisition.

They caught lightning in a bottle with Dirk and Nash to an extent (and he didn't blow up with them) but they've generally drafted horribly, and have often made really bad win-now trades. They managed to get lucky in that all their role players stepped up, but that just wasn't sustainable.

When Dirk leaves, it's going to be UGLY. They might suck for another 10 years unless Cuban really invests in the scouting department.

[stevemcqueen1]

I kind of like Shane Larkin though. He was really kind of a nobody but I could see him ending up being a stud. I could see him being one of the best PGs in the draft.

[deneem4]

Lebron made a song called "flopping so hard **** wan fine me..." lmao

[hands11]

Monta will shine in dallas...they might make the playoffs, if they can get a center

The cavs, kings and pelicans and wolves can also make anlot of noise
If bynum can play anywhere near his los Angeles days...theyre sat for playoffs as long as irving can be healthy and withzeller bynum and thompson and bennet...verajao wont have to play as much...the cavs potential have a better backcourt than the pistons...even better than utah last yr...

Irving/jack
Waiters/sergey/miles
bennett?/Clark/gee
Thompson/bennett?
Bynum/verajo/zeller

If healthy that can be a contending team...especially if irving/bynum can give a full season or Bennett lives up to the hype...the jack signing really helped them...

Jack was an amazing add for that team. He should really help the team gel. But I think there is a lot of gelling to do there. Interesting pieces. But they have a lot of work ahead to learn how to play together and win.

Bynum... Not counting on him giving them anything. Not until I see him on the court for a while. Verajo is similar concern and to some degree so is Bennett and Irving.

But Irving, Jack, Sergey, Thomspon and Zeller is an interesting core. And Waiters has a lot of potential. Waiting to see on Bennett.

But without Bynum and Verajo, Zeller would be their center. There is their problem still.

Bynum was added to help sell tickets. I don't think he will play much.

I could see the wheels falling off of this real easy.

[LyricalRico]

Dallas isn't really a good franchise in terms of talent acquisition.

They caught lightning in a bottle with Dirk and Nash to an extent (and he didn't blow up with them) but they've generally drafted horribly, and have often made really bad win-now trades. They managed to get lucky in that all their role players stepped up, but that just wasn't sustainable.

Yeah, Cuban's "edge" has always been being the guy that's willing to take on everyone else's bad contracts to marginally improve his team. To his credit, he was able to finally parlay that into a championship. But according to this, the cost has been over $150M in luxury tax payments in the last dozen or so years (second only to New York's $205M):

http://www.shamsports.com/2013/07/compl ... ments.html

This past season was the first that Cuban has not payed the tax since the beginning of that list. He will also avoid the tax for the next 2 seasons due to entering this summer and next summer under the cap. Maybe he just needed to regroup financially?

But with $40M in cap space next summer, and Dirk already promising to only take up a relatively small portion of that, they'll be primed to make moves. Even if there aren't star free agents out there, they could return to taking back contracts from teams that don't want to pay the increased tax. And they may even be adding a lottery pick in a strong draft to their team (maybe more picks if they can flip the future seconds they got last month by trading down). He could reload next summer and still not pay the luxury tax for season or two.

[Silvie Lysandra]

Do you think they could tank with Dirk the way Miami tanked with Wade? Tank for a top 5 pick, get a guy like Monroe or Cousins, take back a BYOD contract for a lottery pick, and they could be good again really fast.

[Liverbird]

See that's the interesting thing about the Mavs. By signing Monta and a lesser extent Calderon - they'll still be a decent team. No depth at all though. Perhaps they bring back Beaubois and Wright seems to have agreed to a contract.

The question to me though, are Monta and Calderon really core pieces to build a team? The length of their contracts suggest that - and even with max cap space next year and a resigned Dirk, who can you get outside of Lebron that will make that core a contender?

[stevemcqueen1]

LeBron's not going to leave Miami. He's not unhappy there. He's winning championships.

Carmelo isn't going to leave NYC either. He wanted to play in NYC specifically and forced his way there even though they were never in the same position to contend as a team like Miami. And I doubt he'd give up on trying to win there at this point.

None of the FAs in the Dwight, LeBron, Carmelo, CP3, Durant etc. tier are going to change teams next summer. There will be a lot of good players available most likely, but no elite guys. I don't think a major FA is going to change Dallas's outlook. And even if there was one out there who was available, they lack the young pieces to lure him like Houston did.

They don't have a coherent plan right now. Their best option moving forward is the same as it is for most of the rest of the league. Get younger and start building through the draft and low key, cheap FAs.

[LyricalRico]

None of the FAs in the Dwight, LeBron, Carmelo, CP3, Durant etc. tier are going to change teams next summer. There will be a lot of good players available most likely, but no elite guys. I don't think a major FA is going to change Dallas's outlook. And even if there was one out there who was available, they lack the young pieces to lure him like Houston did.

They could still be players for disgruntled stars, also teams that want to move guys for luxtax reasons, or even teams that spent this summer but realize they aren't as good as they thought they were and want out of recent contracts. And somebody already mentioned BOYD deals to add picks.

All of those types of transactions would seem to be in Cuban's wheelhouse.

[LyricalRico]

In other news, Atlanta matches Teague's offer sheet. Seems like they aren't tanking after all. Assuming both of their rookies come over:

Horford/Nogueira/Muscala
Milsap/FA
Korver/FA
L.Williams/DeBrick
Teague/Schroeder

They're a reserve forward away from being pretty much where they were last year IMO. They could also add a defensive swingman that can move Lou Williams to his more natural 6th man role and relieve Korver from bad matchups.

Elton Brand and Ronnie Brewer?

[stevemcqueen1]

None of the FAs in the Dwight, LeBron, Carmelo, CP3, Durant etc. tier are going to change teams next summer. There will be a lot of good players available most likely, but no elite guys. I don't think a major FA is going to change Dallas's outlook. And even if there was one out there who was available, they lack the young pieces to lure him like Houston did.

They could still be players for disgruntled stars, also teams that want to move guys for luxtax reasons, or even teams that spent this summer but realize they aren't as good as they thought they were and want out of recent contracts. And somebody already mentioned BOYD deals to add picks.

All of those types of transactions would seem to be in Cuban's wheelhouse.

True. I can't think of any disgruntled stars right now though. Maybe LaMarcus Aldridge? Although I read he's a low key guy who isn't the type to make demands of the FO. And he's not really in the top tier that can change a franchise. Kevin Love seems to have been placated by all the moves Minny made. Plus his leverage isn't what it used to be after missing so much time with injury. I guess Rondo has a decent chance of getting dealt.

Maybe one of the young talents like DeMarcus Cousins will be disgruntled by then, but he's not really a star yet. Plus he's an RFA.

Almost everyone seems happy right now. All of the stars from the 03-05 draft classes forced their way to the teams they wanted. The 08 and 09 classes are on fresh extensions. The 2010 class is RFAs. From 07, Durant is happy, Gasol is happy, and Horford has two years left.

I'm thinking that if they want to get a legit star via FA or trade, the only ones who might be even slightly available are LMA, Love, and Rondo. Kive and Aldridge aren't necessarily great fits with Dirk. Gotta be Rondo IMO.

If a lux tax team decides to deal away pieces to cut costs, I don't think you're going to get a lot of quality from it. Miami is really the only one that would have pieces worth trying to steal and build around. But Bosh doesn't seem like the player he used to be and Wade is falling off sharply. Miami would never move LeBron. The Knicks wouldn't move Melo, they'd try and get rid of the bad deals like Amare and Chandler. The Nets seem perfectly content to pay tax and DWill and Lopez are the only big contract players you'd actually want off that team. The Bulls probably wouldn't give up Rose or Noah, more likely they'd pawn off Boozer or Deng. LA will be way under the cap after this season. The Clippers don't have any really bad contracts and are in a good financial situation.

Hmm, Rondo + Deng could be a decent, plausible haul for Dallas. That'd be a good and relevant team. Don't know if it'd be good enough to be in the top tier of the WC though.

[stevemcqueen1]

The Bulls are deep into the lux tax this season, but they get under it after Luol Deng comes off the books.

If Dallas could pry Noah away from Chicago though, that'd be a big get IMO. Especially if they could get Rondo too. Probably a pipe dream.

LaMarcus Aldridge could be a really nice fit with Calderon. The only problem would be that a Dirk/LMA frontcourt would be really bad defensively.

Tough call. I think it's unlikely Dallas gets a fully formed star, despite all the cap space they'll have. I think they're going to have to take some risks on guys who might be unproven. Max out an RFA and force his team to match. Pick up someone coming off an injury or a down year.

[hands11]

So Wes Johnson sign in LA for vet min.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/eye-o ... nimum-deal

He hasn't been very good in the NBA but he was a good college prospect coming out. I hope something will clicks for him in LA. Min and Phx have been a bit of a mess recently. I think he will do better out in LA. He is do. Going into year 4.

That a nice pick up for LA to get him at the vet min which is what they are doing. Lots of players on one year contracts.

So LA is

Nash/S Blake
Kobe/Nick Young/Jodie Meeks
Wes Johnson
Gasol/Ryan Kelly
Chris Kaman/Jordan Hill/Robert Sacre

Jordan Farmar schedule to return also.
Devin Ebanks ??

Actually I like what they are going. Not that they had much choice but they need to tone it down a year. Recover from the whole what to do Bynum that turned into the Howard drama. Kaman is not Howard but he is a low drama hard worker. That should be good for the team. Ryan Kelly will get his shot at S4.

Once Kobe returned, the core of Nash, Kobe and Gasol should be decent. That's still 3 HOF players. When you have that, you always have a chance to be at least decent. And its good for Ryan Kelly and Wes Johnson.

They are really cleaning up their cap situation quickly. And next year, Kobe comes off his 30M a year contract and Gasol off his 19M. So they resign both to something more reasonable, get a draft pick (if they have any), and start to recover.

Question is, who will be the face of the Lakers after Kobe. You think LeBron is up for the challenge ? I would have to think he would have some interest. But the Lakers still have a lot of work a head of them. They don't have much in assets to trade, but they are the LAL and they will have cap space.

[Higga]

I wouldn't resign either Kobe or Gasol. Tank this year, you know Stern will rig it so the Lakers can get the #1 pick for Wiggins. Then make a push for Lebron.

[deneem4]

Stern is gone in feb

[nate33]

I wouldn't resign either Kobe or Gasol. Tank this year, you know Stern will rig it so the Lakers can get the #1 pick for Wiggins. Then make a push for Lebron.

There's no way Lebron joins an LA team with nobody on the roster except a rookie Wiggins.

I agree with the idea that they should trade/dump Kobe and Gasol and try and rebuild, but I doubt there will be such a quick fix. They need to acquire some assets before they can attract top tier free agents.

[verbal8]

I wouldn't resign either Kobe or Gasol. Tank this year, you know Stern will rig it so the Lakers can get the #1 pick for Wiggins. Then make a push for Lebron.

There's no way Lebron joins an LA team with nobody on the roster except a rookie Wiggins.

I agree with the idea that they should trade/dump Kobe and Gasol and try and rebuild, but I doubt there will be such a quick fix. They need to acquire some assets before they can attract top tier free agents.

I think the future for the lakers looks similar to the mavs situation, but worse. Dirk is willing to at play at a discount, but it doesn't seem like Kobe wants anything less than a max contract and to be the face of the franchise.
I think the lakers are really hoping that he Kobe decides to go to Italy, although he could probably dominate their his early 40s.

[fishercob]

Elton Brand signs with the Hawks. Very interesting F/C rotation with Horford, Millsap, Brand, Noguiera, and Muscala. Teams will need to buckle their chin strap to bang with those guys inside. I bet we'll see a good chunk of Nene and Okafor together when we play ATL.

[nuposse04]

With Teague coming back to ATL I think its safe to say the 6 seed might be our ceiling. I really like ATL's roster...I think they're better then the Knicks now. I still think they're treadmill status...so I'm not really quite sure what they are attempting to do here.