RealGM

A thread to talk offseason, free agents and that kind of stuff.

I wonder if there was any way we could sign Tyreke Evans with the full MLE? It starts at 8.8 mil next season and with 4.5% raises we could do 4 years at roughly 37 mil. That might seem a little less than what you'd expect him to get based on the season he had last year, but there are some other big names available in free agency and not a lot of money to go around. His contract year season also was a little bit of an outlier in terms of production relative to his last few seasons, so teams may still be a bit wary about throwing a big contract at him. Offering him a four year deal with a player option in year four and a being the 2nd option on a potential playoff team next season might be enticing.

I haven't been a big fan of Tyreke in the past, but hes always been a good shot creator, hes actually a good shooter now (which is huge for his game), and he fits quite nicely with Kemba. I don't see many other possible single moves we could make that could potentially have a high impact without completely retooling the roster. It wouldn't be overly optimistic to expect 16-18/5/5 on 45/38/78 splits.

It would suck for Lamb next season, but I like Lamb as a 6th man and Tyreke could be the playmaking wing and second option we need to pair with Kemba and although he isn't exactly an all-star, he is capable of putting up near all-star production in the role we need him in and he might actually be available to us without giving up assets or crippling ourselves financially. If he starts to decline as he approaches 30 he'll slide nicely into a 6th man role while Lamb takes over the starting gig.

- buy out Howard assuming we can't trade him
- renounce Graham (maybe sign him for the minimum if possible for depth)
- draft BPA at 11

Kemba/Monk
Tyreke/Lamb
MKG/Batum/Bacon
Marv/Frank
Willy/Cody

Four scorers/creators (Kemab/Tyreke/Lamb/Monk)
Three versatile offensive glue guys (Batum/Frank/Willy)
Two versatile defensive hustle guys, one perimeter and one big (MKG/Cody)
3&D PF (Marv)

Thats plenty to work with in the East for a good coach and there would be enough youth (11/Monk/Willy/Bacon/Frank) to allow plenty of room for internal growth. Only Kemba, Tyreke, and Marv, are over 25.

I am listing players that might be interesting (highly subjective so, far from the full list).

Free agents or RFA


Players option for 2018/19


Expiring in 2019


I did not add any of the Kawhi, PG, etc for obvious reasons. I just added DMC since his injury is a bit of a concern and he might need some time to recover and he might have to pick a one year contract for 2018/19.
There are a lot of 3D's or decent/good wing defenders in this list.

The main interest is with the pg back up since there are a lot of options (especially to complement both Kemba & Monk).

My favorite targets would be Napier/Ennis/Davis for free agency (bench strengthening) who should be available for decent contracts (=affordable).
Curious to see who Kupchak manages to move between the Batum/Howard/Williams or even MKG during this offseason. I still think that the pacers are a good trade partner for the Hornets (without moving Kemba).

I wouldn't bother going for a backup PG unless its someone who can definitely guard SG's. Monk is usually going to need to guard the opposing backup PG, so I would be very weary of adding someone like Bradley, Nelson, Curry, Chalmers, and Napier.

I would totally be on board with signing Exum if possible. He and Tyreke would be my top two choices. I like that Tyreke isn't too old and could be a nice stop gap 2nd option while Monk and Lamb develop. Exum is also a good fit, but in a different way, and he also still has decent upside.

There are a handful of 3&D guys I wouldn't mind going after if they aren't pricey. Ellington, KCP, and Ariza would be fine. I wouldn't be opposed to taking a flyer on Hezonja on a super cheap deal.

Julius Randle would be an interesting S&T target if we were looking to make a big splash, but I don't know if that would even be possible to pull off with our contracts and assets.

I agree that something could be done with Hezonja, but don't expect any cheap contract, he will get many Euroleague offers (from cska, Khimki etc in Russia, Fenerbahce and alike un Turkey, maybe Olympiacos in Greece or even Barcelona for a come back) that would be in the Milion € range without problem or even more. Knowing he is a nobody in this league but he is still a star - or close - in Europe.

Tyreke was in contract year, so honneslty considering the recent history of this team, it would be pretty bad management to overpay for another score 1st guard unless you plan to replace Lamb or trade Monk.
One 3D is not enough imo. At least, if MKG remains here, one is a minimum (to keep lines up respectable), but you also need a pf/sf defender that can deal with big mobile forwards.

G. Robinson is also among the young players this team should target, even though most likely Indy will match all offer sheets (at least all the reasonable ones, not sure Pritchard would overpay though).
Pritchard is the GM who made the moves with Houston to land Batum to Roy's Blazers team. Coached by Mc Millan. i really think something could be done without giving away too much, and in order to restore some flexibility. They have some good contracts (AJ, Young, maybe Robinson but that would require a S&T maybe involving MKG here).

in a perfect Hornets world, you could trade Marvin/Batum for Young (PO picked), AJ (4Mo guaranteed) and Bogdanovic (one year left for 10M).
And if we go planet alignement again, you trade Howard + couple 2nd for G. Hill.

In such case, i would target Troy Brown or Lonnie Walker in the draft if they are available.

2018/19
Kemba - Hill - Monk
Ennis (9/2 years) - Lamb - Monk
Bogdanovic - MKG - Bacon
Young - Kaminsky - Scott (4/2 years)
Zeller - Davis (6/1 year)

Which would provide better balanced lines up, with the purpose of developing both Monk and the future draftee (especially if he is a guard). i would pick Ennis over MKG to start as i think he would be much more impactful from the bench along with Hill and Lamb in the open court.
And hopefully it helps to extend Kemba to a good contract (but not overpaid) which would help to fill the roster with quality FA's knowing the roster would be like this contract wise in 2019/20

Kemba - Monk
Ennis - Walker ?
MKG (PO)
Kaminsky - Scott
Zeller

bravor wrote:Tyreke was in contract year, so honneslty considering the recent history of this team, it would be pretty bad management to overpay for another score 1st guard unless you plan to replace Lamb or trade Monk.
One 3D is not enough imo. At least, if MKG remains here, one is a minimum (to keep lines up respectable), but you also need a pf/sf defender that can deal with big mobile forwards.

We can only offer Tyreke the MLE, so its kind of hard to overpay. He put up 19/5/5/1 on 45/40/78 shooting splits (5.5 3pt attempts per game). He was the 3rd ranked SG in RPM last season and he just turned 28. The issue is whether or not he would have interest in signing here for the MLE.

If Borrego is decent and we still have Kemba next season we are going to be too good to tank for a top pick. I think we are in much bigger need of a secondary scoring option and creator than another 3&D guy if we are trying to win now. Ideally, we need both (I agree one 3&D isn't enough), but we have pretty limited resources to work with. Tyreke had a positive defensive RPM last season and Lamb is becoming pretty competent on defense as well. There are also a lot of 3&D guys available in our range in the draft (SGA, both Bridges, Zhaire Smith, Troy Brown, Josh Okogie). I think I would rather use the MLE on Tyreke rather than a 3&D guy that isn't going to move the needle, if thats even a possibility.

I would sign Hezonja, he did pretty good this season. could be the SF 3pt specialist we haven't had for a few seasons. He would fit in a up-tempo style too.

Hasn't Evans been hurt a lot the past couple seasons? Would probably draft a PG if possible, for a backup and insurance if Kemba leaves. The free agent group looks pretty bad at that position .

The goal is to open the floor and run so I expect to see more pairing of Monk with Kemba. MJ thrived in a brutal grinding league where size and tenacity ruled over space and finesse. That's why MJ stood out. He could operate in limited space and get to the hoop and drain shots with defenders draped all over him. The league is not rewarding paint defense and size. Biyombo and Vonleh might have been better picks in the early 90's.

I pray to God Borrego envisions Monk on the fast track to starting shooting guard. There is no way I would block him or stick him in the backup PG role. Monk can thrive in this league. Even Allen Iverson took over games in a defense dominated league. We'd be amazed to watch him play on Golden State.

I have no problem offering Napier the full MLE.

Who cares if the second unit is not known for its defense?

Kemba
Lamb
Batum
Kaminsky
Zeller

Napier
Monk
MKG
Marvin
Hernangomez

That PG class is trash. I'd go after Bradley just b/c he could probably play with both Kemba and Monk. He's short for SG but he's good on defense and has good length. Obviously the Lillard/McCollum dynamic is making small backcourts look foolish currently but we're the Hornets, we need to walk before we can run.

I'd like to see Hezonja get a chance somewhere b/c Orlando has less idea what they're doing than we do. If we can turn Lamb into a borderline starter-worthy player I think we could do the same with Mario.

People are sleeping on Bacon. I think hes going to surprise people next year and eventually take a lot of MKGs minutes

I wonder what Mitch really thinks about this roster. The talent level is better than what the record shows the last two seasons, but you're deluding yourself if you think this is a 55+ win team.

Does Mitch have the desire to push MJ for a rebuild or is he content to play it safe this year with a slightly better than average team and reevaluate next year even though we risk losing Kemba for nothing?

There has been 0 indications of a rebuild in the near term.

I mean, it could happen, but my personal expectation is that we will see some changes, but not a reset.

Vanderbilt_Grad wrote:There has been 0 indications of a rebuild in the near term.

I mean, it could happen, but my personal expectation is that we will see some changes, but not a reset.

Agree. A rebuild/blow up was practically impossible, given our mass of bad contracts. I suspect we might get one deal done to move a problem player but that’s about all I can envision.

Bassman wrote:

Vanderbilt_Grad wrote:There has been 0 indications of a rebuild in the near term.

I mean, it could happen, but my personal expectation is that we will see some changes, but not a reset.

Agree. A rebuild/blow up was practically impossible, given our mass of bad contracts. I suspect we might get one deal done to move a problem player but that’s about all I can envision.

There has been very little indication which direction we will go period. Every quote has come with a right now or some caveat and we hired a coach who could do either. Right now it looks like they are keeping all options open to me. But my question is how does having bad contracts make a blow up/rebuild impossible? It seems to me like it makes it more likely. Since the contracts are bad and would be hard to move to retool then you move the good pieces for young pieces and picks and let them grow while the bod contracts work their way off the books. I felt like the bad contracts made rebuilding sound a lot more logical.

yosemiteben wrote:

jdm3 wrote:There has been very little indication which direction we will go period. Every quote has come with a right now or some caveat...

Read on Twitter

The quote in the observer from that days press conference was "there is no master plan to blow this team up right now" which leaves a lot of outs if he does do it. There likely isn't a master plan at all at this point since there hasn't been big talk about trading since the lottery hasn't happened yet and they say most teams don't talk until the order is set. So while he said there isn't one he hired a coach than can do either and left lots of ability to wiggle out from that statement. He has been very noncommittal to either direction in reality. Now a lot of people have taken his quote and ignored the english language and made it seem like he promised the other but he didn't.

He was asked point blank whether we are going to go through a rebuild or build with what we have, and he said there was no plan for a rebuild. Both he and Borrego talked at length about how we need to improve through internal development of existing players, and both specifically said a rebuild was not part of the plan.

I don't think it's accurate to say they have given no indication of what they want to do and that there is no plan. Of course we could go a number of directions, but they clearly have thought about what they want to do and they very effectively communicated that in the presser.

I'm more than willing to eat crow if there is a big rebuild, but I'm with Ben on this. No matter how much some folks here seem to want it, a rebuild is not currently in the cards.

What could change that? IMHO it would take Kemba demanding a trade (either behind the scenes or publicly) or him letting the team know that he's not planning on returning.

From bits/pieces of interviews with Kup & Borrega I've caught on WFNZ & W/e the bootleg ESPN channel is called, seeing what Borrega can do/develop with the current roster is definitely A. Blowing it up is definitely Plan B if that doesn't pan out or someone offers to be the Billy King to our Danny Ainge.