RealGM

My target list is mostly C2 and PG2. These are unrestricted free agents sourced from Spotrac (age in parenthesis):

Precious Achiuwa (25.2)
Lonzo Ball (27.2)
Nickeil Alexander Walker (26.3)
Tyus Jones (28.7)
Gary Trent Jr. (25.9)
Mo Bamba (26.7)
Charles Bassey (24.2)
Paul Reed (25.6)

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/free-agents/_/year/2025

Is it time to follow the Detroit Pistons and add more veterans?

Who are your targets?

When I was looking through the free agents the other day I thought Nickeil Alexander Walker was pretty much the only realistic target from this class that I was all that interested in (besides Lonzo). Some of those other guys would be fine too, but there weren't any big splash moves I liked from this class.

edit: at the time they still had Richards and I wasn't paying attention to backup center options.

Braggins wrote:When I was looking through the free agents the other day I thought Nickeil Alexander Walker was pretty much the only realistic target from this class that I was all that interested in (besides Lonzo). Some of those other guys would be fine too, but there weren't any big splash moves I liked from this class.

edit: at the time they still had Richards and I wasn't paying attention to backup center options.

We currently sit at 8.6 below the cap. Wow. It would be hard for us to go above cap for the MLE.

We do have some expiring contracts so we should have some money to spend if we were to let Okogie, Micić, Jeffries, Taj, Curry, Cody expire.

MasterIchiro wrote:We do have some expiring contracts so we should have some money to spend if we were to let Okogie, Micić, Jeffries, Taj, Curry, Cody expire.

We'd have 22 million cap before raises plus our lottery pick which will eat a huge chunk of that.

But with the lottery pick, Moussa, pick 32 and 33 all on contract we'd meet the minimum 13 required roster spots. Could just bring back Okogie and Cody. And we won't have the MLE.

Man, it just feels like we won't have the money to make a play for any of these guys.

If we bring back Cody and Okogie we can be within striking distance (5.7) of going over cap with our lottery pick. Salaün at pick 6 makes 7.4 million.

So we will have the MLE for this free agent list.

1-LaMelo
2-Green
3-Miller
4-Miles
5-Mark
6-Mann
7-Martin
8-Okogie
9-Salaün
10-Grant
11-Moussa
12-NSJ
13-lottery pick
14-consolidate 32 & 33
15-MLE to _____

If we have only one roster spot for the MLE, I'd most want Achiuwa.

We can't go in thin at C. And we definitely would bolster depth at PG depth with our lottery pick if we get Harper or Jaku.

Braggins wrote:edit: at the time they still had Richards and I wasn't paying attention to backup center options.

Been looking at Yabusele, 4/5 who does the same things Grant does. 29 y.o. UFA so maybe won't mind coming off the bench.

I don't see Okogie coming back

wilson115 wrote:Been looking at Yabusele, 4/5 who does the same things Grant does. 29 y.o. UFA so maybe won't mind coming off the bench.

I thought he looked good in the Olympics.

MasterIchiro wrote:If we bring back Cody and Okogie we can be within striking distance (5.7) of going over cap with our lottery pick. Salaün at pick 6 makes 7.4 million.

So we will have the MLE for this free agent list.

1-LaMelo
2-Green
3-Miller
4-Miles
5-Mark
6-Mann
7-Martin
8-Okogie
9-Salaün
10-Grant
11-Moussa
12-NSJ
13-lottery pick
14-consolidate 32 & 33
15-MLE to _____

If we have only one roster spot for the MLE, I'd most want Achiuwa.

We can't go in thin at C. And we definitely would bolster depth at PG depth with our lottery pick if we get Harper or Jaku.

I was under the impression that their cap situation was better. They might want to get off Green's contract.

luciano-davidwesley wrote:I don't see Okogie coming back

Might need to keep him to stay over cap, opening the MLE. If we cut him, we might not have space below below the cap equivalent to the MLE, plus be down one player.

For example (haven't done the math) but we could fall 12 million below cap if we cut Okogie, lose the MLE which is more space than 12 million.

We typically operate over the cap.

But we also don't use the full non-tax player MLE. I don’t think we've ever signed a free agent into that slot.

This time could be different with the MLE because we need a C2. We didn't take Nurkic while we dumped Richards.

Diabaté will audition for C2 but he may turn out to provide depth, or else we will be thin at C with Mark still somewhat of a wild card.

And we need someone who can pop, not just roll. Achiuwa makes the most sense. He shouldn't really take many threes, but he does pull his man away from the rim, and he can play up tempo. He rebounds well.

Braggins wrote:

MasterIchiro wrote:If we bring back Cody and Okogie we can be within striking distance (5.7) of going over cap with our lottery pick. Salaün at pick 6 makes 7.4 million.

So we will have the MLE for this free agent list.

1-LaMelo
2-Green
3-Miller
4-Miles
5-Mark
6-Mann
7-Martin
8-Okogie
9-Salaün
10-Grant
11-Moussa
12-NSJ
13-lottery pick
14-consolidate 32 & 33
15-MLE to _____

If we have only one roster spot for the MLE, I'd most want Achiuwa.

We can't go in thin at C. And we definitely would bolster depth at PG depth with our lottery pick if we get Harper or Jaku.

I was under the impression that their cap situation was better. They might want to get off Green's contract.

Might be counterproductive because some team is going to charge us if we are getting an expiring contract for Josh. I don’t see enough in this free agent class to compel me to pay a surcharge in draft capital for the cap space to play this class.

I think we will move the opposite direction and exchange non-core short contracts for players making more money and have a contract through next season, moving us further above the cap, not below. We seem to be selling cap space right now, not buying it.

Okogie, Martin, Green are redundant. So, I think one of them goes. And I don't think we pay to sell Green. He's still young and we probably believe in him. I don't. So, I continue to believe, Martin is the odd man out.

It leaked that the Suns coveted Martin in that deal. So teams are calling on him. He impacts the game level with Green but he's so much cheaper. And that has value to teams with tight budgets looking for players like Richards who can fill C2 at 5 million.

Brace yourself, hombre.

I think we waive Okogie before his guarantee kicks in unless he surprisingly balls out for us. Then a team trying to get under an apron or luxury tax will pay us draft picks to take on some short term bad money.

luciano-davidwesley wrote:I think we waive Okogie before his guarantee kicks in unless he surprisingly balls out for us. Then a team trying to get under an apron or luxury tax will pay us draft picks to take on some short term bad money.

Seems last minute, whereas negotiations between Peterson and teams interested in Cody have a leg up in advance time.

MasterIchiro wrote:Might be counterproductive because some team is going to charge us if we are getting an expiring contract for Josh. I don’t see enough in this free agent class to compel me to pay a surcharge in draft capital for the cap space to play this class.

I think we will move the opposite direction and exchange non-core short contracts for players making more money and have a contract through next season, moving us further above the cap, not below. We seem to be selling cap space right now, not buying it.

Yeah, I could see it going either way. I believe that if they got an expiring or non-guaranteed contract for Green and cut Okogie, they could get to around 15-20 mil cap space range with LaMelo, Mann (cap hold), Bridges, Grant, Miller, Salaun, Martin, and Mark (126,117,950 + cap holds for 1st round pick and empty roster spots). Theyd also have the mini mid-level.

It might make more sense just to keep the contracts of Green and Okogie and operate over the cap. Their contracts would put them at 147,534,617. I think that could get them over the cap with the rest of the cap holds that will be applied.

I would lean towards just keeping Martin either way. Im thinking what they do with Okogie will depend on what they do with Green. I think if they trade Green for an expiring they will probably just cut Okogie, but if they keep Green I could see them also keeping Okogie and operating over the cap.

Braggins wrote:

MasterIchiro wrote:Might be counterproductive because some team is going to charge us if we are getting an expiring contract for Josh. I don’t see enough in this free agent class to compel me to pay a surcharge in draft capital for the cap space to play this class.

I think we will move the opposite direction and exchange non-core short contracts for players making more money and have a contract through next season, moving us further above the cap, not below. We seem to be selling cap space right now, not buying it.

Yeah, I could see it going either way. I believe that if they got an expiring or non-guaranteed contract for Green and cut Okogie, they could get to around 15-20 mil cap space range with LaMelo, Mann (cap hold), Bridges, Grant, Miller, Salaun, Martin, and Mark (126,117,950 + cap holds for 1st round pick and empty roster spots). Theyd also have the mini mid-level.

It might make more sense just to keep the contracts of Green and Okogie and operate over the cap. Their contracts would put them at 147,534,617. I think that could get them over the cap with the rest of the cap holds that will be applied.

I would lean towards just keeping Martin either way. Im thinking what they do with Okogie will depend on what they do with Green. I think if they trade Green for an expiring they will probably just cut Okogie, but if they keep Green I could see them also keeping Okogie and operating over the cap.

I think they lean towards keeping Green (instead of paying to move him) and Okogie (who Peterson praised recently post-trade) and exchanging Martin plus cap relief to a team providing draft capital.

If they keep all 3 they don't have a roster spot for both 32 and 33. Forces a trade up. And they'd only have a spot for only one free agent.

If they can get an expiring for Martin plus draft capital, they can open 2 roster spots for free agents providing they find a consolidation deal for 32 & 33. But they wouldn't have to find a consolidation deal to move up in the draft, if they only want to target one free agent.

I believe given the redundancies between Green, Okogie, and Martin, they will look for paths of diversification.

And we already know the Suns coveted Cody in the Richards deal that was supposed to be Nurkic over Okogie. We basically nabbed Martin's replacement, avoided bad money, and still got the draft capital we wanted.

His market has matured.

I 'm surprised you did not mention Portis, MI. I am not a fan though but he could make sense

Also, i would add Saric among the interesting profiles as long as he's cheap enough. Brogdon could be another option among veteran players, even with the injury risk.

I feel like our shopping list is the same as it's always been.

1- A backup PG. Specifically one that can play with Melo.
2- A backup C. Diabate has been good, but he's too limited offensively to platoon with Mark (or start when Mark gets hurt.)
3- A starting PF that is actually PF sized.
4- As many 3&D players as possible.

NAW and LaRavia