Summer 2012 Free Agents Thread - Part II

[payitforward]

Well, my free agent target, Fields, signed for more than I'd be willing to pay. At this point I'd just continue to be patient and see who's left when the dust settles. We're not in a desparate situation and there's no wings out there worth getting desparate for.

Of the moves that other teams have made since we did our trade, I would likely have preferred getting Marvin Williams or BG + the pick to what we did, though neither is ideal. If I were GM, I'd probably not have made any moves yet.

I'm with you. But didn't we have a deadline to buy out Lewis -- or trade him, obviously? NO has bought him out, but the deadline may not have come yet; don't know. Still, it was a forcing situation of some kind.

I'd like to acquire Brandon Rush or Danny Green. It just might be possible to trade Jordan C. and Booker to GS for Rush -- probably complicated CBA-wise -- and of course you'd want Rush signed, not on his qualifying salary.

[payitforward]

Batum sees Rubio, Kevin Love, JJ Barea, Nikola Pekovic, Derrick Williams, Chase Buddinger, Wesley Johnson, Michael Beasley. They have too many forwards and need to make a deal but Batum would solidify the backcourt.

They didn't make a qualifying offer to Beasley, so he's gone -- anywhere but here, I hope.

Hmmm, I wonder if David Kahn would take Jordan Crawford for Chase Budinger??

[nate33]

Batum sees Rubio, Kevin Love, JJ Barea, Nikola Pekovic, Derrick Williams, Chase Buddinger, Wesley Johnson, Michael Beasley. They have too many forwards and need to make a deal but Batum would solidify the backcourt.

They didn't make a qualifying offer to Beasley, so he's gone -- anywhere but here, I hope.

Hmmm, I wonder if David Kahn would take Jordan Crawford for Chase Budinger??

That's a good thought. If Kahn lands Batum, he'll need a SG more than another SF. We can sell him on the fact that Crawford has one extra year on his rookie deal.

[theboomking]

We should have paid to buy out Lewis and spent that money on Batum. I hope Portland refuses to trade him and he signs the qualifying offer. Wall, Batum and Beal would be a very good backcourt.

If OKC is hell bent on retaining Harden, how about a sign and trade for Ibaka next year, using our expirings?

[Upper Decker]

Crawdad for Buddinger is unlikely as Sota just spent the 18th pick on Bud, however, Crawdad for Wes Johnson seems plausible. Wes Johnson would essentially be the 3rd string SF for the Wolves and he's been pretty turrrbul. Although he may be worth a look as a reclamation project.

Wow, after look at the stats he's really bad actually. PER was 8.0, TS% .477. Just out of curiosity I ran a query of all Forwards with games started >30 and MPG > 20. Filtered by TS% and Wes Johnson was 3rd from the bottom. He's in good company as our very own Chris Singleton is dead freakin last on that list.

Speaking of which, I remember a certain poster, cough cough *hands*, was a huge proponent of trading down from 1 to 3 and taking Johnson in 2010. Thankfully we're just 'RealGMer's' cause we dodged a bullet on that one.

[verbal8]

Hmmm, I wonder if David Kahn would take Jordan Crawford for Chase Budinger??

That's a good thought. If Kahn lands Batum, he'll need a SG more than another SF. We can sell him on the fact that Crawford has one extra year on his rookie deal.

Kahn just gave up a 1st round pick to get Budinger, he would want quite a bit more than Crawford in return.

[verbal8]

We should have paid to buy out Lewis and spent that money on Batum. I hope Portland refuses to trade him and he signs the qualifying offer. Wall, Batum and Beal would be a very good backcourt.

Portland can either match the offer sheet he signed with Minnesota or let him go to Minnesota. Once a player signs an offer sheet, the qualifying offer is no longer in play.

What happened with Nick Young was he did not get an offer he wanted from another team. At that point his options were playing for the Qualifying offer or signing a longer deal with the Wizards. The sides were too far apart, so he ended up playing for the Qualifying offer.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Seeing what's taken place so far in free agency, I feel a bit better about the Okafor/Ariza trade.

New Orleans opened all that cap room, and still lost Gordon. I think they may be in for a reality check when they find out landing a #1 pick doesn't instantly make you a FA destination, as we found out with Wall.

[dobrojim]

+1 Super

[nate33]

Seeing what's taken place so far in free agency, I feel a bit better about the Okafor/Ariza trade.

New Orleans opened all that cap room, and still lost Gordon. I think they may be in for a reality check when they find out landing a #1 pick doesn't instantly make you a FA destination, as we found out with Wall.

New Orleans hasn't lost Gordon. Gordon signed the Phoenix contract. New Orleans can now match if they want.

But to your greater point, I have to agree. The madness that has taken place in free agency this year (and that is likely to take place next year because there will be more under-the-cap teams) definitely tilts my opinion of the trade more towards the positive. If nothing else, Ariza and Okafor will definitely be movable. Their contracts now look fairly reasonable.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Seeing what's taken place so far in free agency, I feel a bit better about the Okafor/Ariza trade.

New Orleans opened all that cap room, and still lost Gordon. I think they may be in for a reality check when they find out landing a #1 pick doesn't instantly make you a FA destination, as we found out with Wall.

I do, too.

[nuposse04]

I wouldn't be surprised if someone offered seraphin 12mil or more when his time comes...****...

[closg00]

I wouldn't be surprised if someone offered seraphin 12mil or more when his time comes...****...

OTOH, Spencer Hawes re-signed for two-years $13 mil with Philly, not everyone is getting over paid.

[Dat2U]

Seeing what's taken place so far in free agency, I feel a bit better about the Okafor/Ariza trade.

Free agency wasn't the only way to utilize cap room and the Okafor/Ariza trade wasn't the only possible deal out there. I still dislike the deal and the opportunity lost with it.

You can dress up a pig all you want and it's still just a pig in lipstick and dress.

[Dat2U]

I also don't understand the pursuit of Courtney Lee. Is he an upgrade over Jordan Crawford? Sure, but I'm not into paying serious money to do so. I there really a need to invest $ into the SG position considering we just drafted Beal?

I'd prefer a 1 or a 1/2 anyway as a Crawford upgrade. A true 3rd guard. A guy that can play alongside Wall but also sub for Wall at times.

Or a legit 3 that can move Ariza to the bench and/or Chris Singleton out of the rotation.

[truwizfan4evr]

I would love Courtney lee he can play the shooting guard or the small forward position wizards is getting really good with these pieces if we do add him. He's a solid defender and he can knock down shots If we would get him i be pretty excited for us.

[Floater]

I don't really want to go after Lee but if we used the MLE on him and signed a cheap vet back up PG who is smart and can shoot a bit, we'd be pretty deep.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

I think I'd like Lee on a two year deal:

wall/chuck
Lee/Beal
Ariza/singleton/Martin
Booker/jsingleton/ves
nene/seraphin/okafor

hmmm, looking at that set of lineups, maybe not.

Problem is and has always been, Wall needs three shooters on the floor with him, which means we lack a consistent three ball from the three and a stretch 4.

We have intriguing talent and a bunch of guys that will get at it on D.

But our offense is an unbalanced trainwreck

[tontoz]

...Crawford's scoring rate went up by 2.3 pts per 40 minutes and his TS% went up by 3.2% compared to his rookie year, in spite of the lockout.

An average 2 guard in the NBA -- not a good one, an average one -- posts a TS% of 53.4%. Jordan Crawford's improved TS% in his 2d year was 48.8%. Hence the rise in his "scoring rate" is a bad thing not a good thing.

Slightly more than 80 SGs averaged 20 minutes or more in the games they played. Of those, exactly 10 had a worse eFG% than Jordan Crawford. It was at that 11th worst rate of 80+ that his scoring rate rose.

Of course, maybe he contributed in a strong way in some other activity -- maybe he's a good rebounder for a guard.... Well, no, he's in the bottom 35% of that same list.

How about turnovers; is he good at avoiding those? No. Only 12 guys on that same list are worse than he in turnovers.

How about steals -- he gets .08 more steals per 40 minutes than the average for a 2 guard. Awright!

You want to get to 14-40? Play Jordan Crawford a lot of minutes; that'll give you the flying start you need to get there.

...we still have 2 years left on his cheap rookie deal. There is no urgency to make the final call on him now.

Unless roster spots are precious, and we are trying to get the best players we can on our team. In that case, what are we waiting for -- a miracle?

Jamal Crawford's 4th year TS% was 48.6% and he has had a long career due to his ability to score. He has scored 50 points for 3 different teams and is the NBAs all time leader in 4 point plays by far. He has had 4 years with a TS% of 54% or better.

I guess his career has been a miracle.

[tontoz]

I also don't understand the pursuit of Courtney Lee. Is he an upgrade over Jordan Crawford? Sure, but I'm not into paying serious money to do so. I there really a need to invest $ into the SG position considering we just drafted Beal?

No. Spending more than the vet min on a 2 makes no sense at this point. It would make much more sense to spend on a backup pg or a 3 who can shoot.