Rumors, Random Thoughts, and Non-threadworthy Posts The 19th Hole

[ReggiesKnicks]

I have the Hawks as an early winner this offseason. The Rockets were right there before the Capela signing.

Nothing wrong with signing a backup when your backup is Adams, he can't play a lot. Not a good allocation of their last bit of space below the first apron tho. Don't think it nearly outweighs trading their training weight of a starting SG for Kevin Durant lol

Yeah Adams is there for vibes/leadership/some help on the court on occasion. Capela is the backup center and a version of center they don't currently have which gives the coach more options which is always good.

But also a relatively insignificant move. Not sure how that moves one from off-season winner to loser lol.

It is simply someone over-indexing on one move in the moment and being a bit irrational in their assessment.

[Richard4444]

Stein/Fischer reporting Pelicans among the teams interested in Kuminga. Fit doesn't make sense, so of course it will happen, lol.

Apparently the financials work with Herb to GSW, Hawkins/Alvarado to 3rd team, Kuminga S&T to Pels. Dumars/Weaver intent to put their stamp on a reshape of the roster, so not too surprising they would make Herb available. Go for the 'upside' of Kuminga. I know it would be dumb, but I'll probably try to get excited about the 'star potential' of Kuminga in a new situation. They'll sign Payton II to complete the old GSW players plan.

Missi/ Looney/ Matkovic
Zion/ Queen
Kuminga/ Bey/ Peavy
Murphy/ Payton II/ Reeves
Poole/ Fears/ (Murray)

They dont think spacing is important.

[spearsy23]

I laughed...

HBAP? Trades and Transactions is so back baby!

[SkyHook]

Maybe, but those Indy teams made some large moves over the years to greatly shift the lineup and direction. Schrempf shipped out for McKey, trading for Mark Jackson (then trading him away…then trading for him again!), swaps for Jalen Rose and Chris Mullin, etc. continuity can work. It can also kill a team. Change can help. It can also kill a team.

Continuity for continuity's sake can be stifling, stagnating, but in this case it's a good thing imo. It took a while for the post-KAT Wolves to come together, going from 22-19 in the first half of the season to 27-14 in the second. Worth staying the course, would have been good to keep NAW.

Just pointing out that there's no one clear way to build, or not build a team. What has worked for many, has killed others. Etc.

And I was agreeing with you.

[Richard4444]

The Nets have roughly $17mil left in cap space assuming they retain Thomas. Whose the last team willing to give up a pick to shed salary?

But Thomas cap hold is only 12M, no?

[SkyHook]

Can some other team please please please sign Dante Exum and save Dallas from themselves? Tired of seeing Frank Ntlikinna's twin brother for 34 games a year

Counterpoint: He's been the best reason to watch the Mavs.

[Richard4444]

So the Jazz and Nets are the early tank teams. I wonder if Miami would pivot and join them by exploring deals for Bam and Herro.

Jazz have 4, 7footers in; Lauri/Kessler/Nurkic/Filipowski ... Surely a trade is coming soon

Nurkic is bench fodder expiring, Lauri is a 4/3. That doesn't really seem like an issue.

They also have 6'9 Collins and Hendricks

[K_chile22]

I have the Hawks as an early winner this offseason. The Rockets were right there before the Capela signing.

Nothing wrong with signing a backup when your backup is Adams, he can't play a lot. Not a good allocation of their last bit of space below the first apron tho. Don't think it nearly outweighs trading their training weight of a starting SG for Kevin Durant lol

Yeah Adams is there for vibes/leadership/some help on the court on occasion. Capela is the backup center and a version of center they don't currently have which gives the coach more options which is always good.

But also a relatively insignificant move. Not sure how that moves one from off-season winner to loser lol.

I think Adams is going to be above Capela but gonna be heavily rested, he's better when he plays imo but as we saw in the GSW series he burns out rather quickly. I think they could have gotten someone cheaper but maybe they want to really lean into the double big stuff that worked so well for them since Clint is also a great offensive rebounder, in which case they did need another big. Just wish we got someone who could dribble but it seems they're done with Cam, maybe they can get like an Eric Gordon on the minimum

[Texas Chuck]

Can some other team please please please sign Dante Exum and save Dallas from themselves? Tired of seeing Frank Ntlikinna's twin brother for 34 games a year

Counterpoint: He's been the best reason to watch the Mavs.

He's absolutely fine as a minimum guy replacing Hardy or Prosper. The only downside is he's always hurt. But he's got size, handles the ball, and plays faster than anyone else on the team. Not sure they will be able to clear the roster spot, but the team is better off if they do.

[jbk1234]

I have the Hawks as an early winner this offseason. The Rockets were right there before the Capela signing.

Nothing wrong with signing a backup when your backup is Adams, he can't play a lot. Not a good allocation of their last bit of space below the first apron tho. Don't think it nearly outweighs trading their training weight of a starting SG for Kevin Durant lol

Yeah Adams is there for vibes/leadership/some help on the court on occasion. Capela is the backup center and a version of center they don't currently have which gives the coach more options which is always good.

But also a relatively insignificant move. Not sure how that moves one from off-season winner to loser lol.

I didn't love the DFS sigbing either tbh. They were more than covered at the wing. If Adams is there for vibes/leadership, and he gave them good minutes in the playoffs, then they paid him too much. I think that salary slot gets spent on Capela or Adams, but not both.

They spent approximately $23M on redundancy and their backcourt is really thin. Now, maybe they can fix that via trade, but I don't like putting yourself in a position where it's foreseeable that you'll have to do that.

[gswhoops]

Nothing wrong with signing a backup when your backup is Adams, he can't play a lot. Not a good allocation of their last bit of space below the first apron tho. Don't think it nearly outweighs trading their training weight of a starting SG for Kevin Durant lol

Yeah Adams is there for vibes/leadership/some help on the court on occasion. Capela is the backup center and a version of center they don't currently have which gives the coach more options which is always good.

But also a relatively insignificant move. Not sure how that moves one from off-season winner to loser lol.

I didn't love the DFS sigbing either tbh. They were more than covered at the wing. If Adams is there for vibes/leadership, and he gave them good minutes in the playoffs, then they paid him too much. I think that salary slot gets spent on Capela or Adams, but not both.

They spent approximately $23M on redundancy and their backcourt is really thin. Now, maybe they can fix that via trade, but I don't like putting yourself in a position where it's foreseeable that you'll have to do that.

Yeah paying a guy $13 million a year to fill the Udonis Haslem role is a luxury that you can't really afford when you have to extend multiple core guys and ideally add another reliable backcourt option.

They've got enough talent that maybe it doesn't matter in the end, but that doesn't mean it's good process.

[K_chile22]

Yeah paying a guy $13 million a year to fill the Udonis Haslem role

that's just an extreme exaggeration, surely you saw how awesome he was against your team in 6/7 games. They paid Adams as a backup big, then overpaid for a third big, even if the value is fine for Capela in a vacuum

[moss_is_1]

Stein/Fischer reporting Pelicans among the teams interested in Kuminga. Fit doesn't make sense, so of course it will happen, lol.

Apparently the financials work with Herb to GSW, Hawkins/Alvarado to 3rd team, Kuminga S&T to Pels. Dumars/Weaver intent to put their stamp on a reshape of the roster, so not too surprising they would make Herb available. Go for the 'upside' of Kuminga. I know it would be dumb, but I'll probably try to get excited about the 'star potential' of Kuminga in a new situation. They'll sign Payton II to complete the old GSW players plan.

Missi/ Looney/ Matkovic
Zion/ Queen
Kuminga/ Bey/ Peavy
Murphy/ Payton II/ Reeves
Poole/ Fears/ (Murray)

Curious if the Wolves would be interested in using TPE to take Hawkins or Alvarado. They make about the perfect amount that the Wolves have below the 2nd apron.

[gswhoops]

Yeah paying a guy $13 million a year to fill the Udonis Haslem role

that's just an extreme exaggeration, surely you saw how awesome he was against your team in 6/7 games

He's still a good player for sure but I was responding to TC's point that he's there for vibes and occasionally contributing on court.

Idk how Houston splits the backup minutes between Adams and Capela, but however they do it having both of them is a luxury and I think it's fair to question whether that's the best way to spend their money given their upcoming financial strain

[K_chile22]

Yeah paying a guy $13 million a year to fill the Udonis Haslem role

that's just an extreme exaggeration, surely you saw how awesome he was against your team in 6/7 games

He's still a good player for sure but I was responding to TC's point that he's there for vibes and occasionally contributing on court.

Idk how Houston splits the backup minutes between Adams and Capela, but however they do it having both of them is a luxury and I think it's fair to question whether that's the best way to spend their money given their upcoming financial strain

sure, that's fair, they're essentially paying like $20M for guaranteed awesome backup C play, which seems rich unless Amen takes a step and Reed is playable. If that happens between fred/Reed/Amen/KD/Sengun they have enough creation, but not sure i want to make a bet on Reed when we have KD, as good as I think he is

[gswhoops]

that's just an extreme exaggeration, surely you saw how awesome he was against your team in 6/7 games

He's still a good player for sure but I was responding to TC's point that he's there for vibes and occasionally contributing on court.

Idk how Houston splits the backup minutes between Adams and Capela, but however they do it having both of them is a luxury and I think it's fair to question whether that's the best way to spend their money given their upcoming financial strain

sure, that's fair, they're essentially paying like $20M for guaranteed awesome backup C play, which seems rich unless Amen takes a step and Reed is playable. If that happens between fred/Reed/Amen/KD/Sengun they have enough creation, but not sure i want to make a bet on Reed when we have KD, as good as I think he is

Yeah agreed. This is a big bet on Amen continuing to develop as a playmaker/lead ballhandler (reasonable) and Reed taking major step forward to being a playoff caliber rotation player in year 2 (maybe less reasonable).

Worst case scenario it's not like it's going to be hard to move any of Adams/Capela/DFS on these deals, so it's not the end of the world. But spending that Capela money on, like, Ty Jerome might have been a better plan.

[K_chile22]

He's still a good player for sure but I was responding to TC's point that he's there for vibes and occasionally contributing on court.

Idk how Houston splits the backup minutes between Adams and Capela, but however they do it having both of them is a luxury and I think it's fair to question whether that's the best way to spend their money given their upcoming financial strain

sure, that's fair, they're essentially paying like $20M for guaranteed awesome backup C play, which seems rich unless Amen takes a step and Reed is playable. If that happens between fred/Reed/Amen/KD/Sengun they have enough creation, but not sure i want to make a bet on Reed when we have KD, as good as I think he is

Yeah agreed. This is a big bet on Amen continuing to develop as a playmaker/lead ballhandler (reasonable) and Reed taking major step forward to being a playoff caliber rotation player in year 2 (maybe less reasonable).

Worst case scenario it's not like it's going to be hard to move any of Adams/Capela/DFS on these deals, so it's not the end of the world. But spending that Capela money on, like, Ty Jerome might have been a better plan.

I think they had concerns about Jerome in the playoffs and also weren't promising a role like Memphis was because if Reed hits they obviously are playing him more. They view the guards as FVV/Reed/Amen/KD (offensively, not going to guard either guard spot obviously) as the rotation guards and Holiday as a depth piece and I think with Sengun's creation they didn't think guard was that big of a need. My issue with that is besides amen and Sengun (but in a different way) none of those guys get to the rim

[parsnips33]

Stein/Fischer reporting Pelicans among the teams interested in Kuminga. Fit doesn't make sense, so of course it will happen, lol.

Apparently the financials work with Herb to GSW, Hawkins/Alvarado to 3rd team, Kuminga S&T to Pels. Dumars/Weaver intent to put their stamp on a reshape of the roster, so not too surprising they would make Herb available. Go for the 'upside' of Kuminga. I know it would be dumb, but I'll probably try to get excited about the 'star potential' of Kuminga in a new situation. They'll sign Payton II to complete the old GSW players plan.

Missi/ Looney/ Matkovic
Zion/ Queen
Kuminga/ Bey/ Peavy
Murphy/ Payton II/ Reeves
Poole/ Fears/ (Murray)

Imagine the size of the stamp they could put if they sent us Trey Murphy too

[parsnips33]

I have the Hawks as an early winner this offseason. The Rockets were right there before the Capela signing.

Nothing wrong with signing a backup when your backup is Adams, he can't play a lot. Not a good allocation of their last bit of space below the first apron tho. Don't think it nearly outweighs trading their training weight of a starting SG for Kevin Durant lol

Yeah Adams is there for vibes/leadership/some help on the court on occasion. Capela is the backup center and a version of center they don't currently have which gives the coach more options which is always good.

But also a relatively insignificant move. Not sure how that moves one from off-season winner to loser lol.

You're not wrong, but it's funny considering he was giving them a hell of a lot more than vibes against us in the playoffs. Definitely matchup dependent, but he was somebody the coaching staff definitely had to worry about

[Klomp]

The team better than you is also staying with continuity.

Right, and I'm honestly fine with that. The "blow it up" mindset is crazy to me. I just keep thinking about teams like the Miller Pacers, what if they blew things up multiple times because they kept losing to Jordan? How different would history be? What if Krause blew up the Bulls because Pippen couldn't win it all by himself?!

Which teams are blowing it up? Nuggets?

This was probably the right time for Denver to make a change. They had gone for roughly 5 years with basically the same team. And with new management coming in, they felt they could make a difference.

I'm mostly referring to Houston and Memphis, as both young teams that could have just stayed the course. But maybe they felt this was their Rudy Gobert moment? Still, they made pretty significant changes to their young core that aren't guaranteed to work. Just ask Phoenix.

I'm also referring to the Timberwolves fans, because many people have cried for significant changes. But this front office seems to value continuity and development, and I would point to how they ran it back two summers ago (after "the punch") as evidence that this organization has had success with this philosophy.