Who's going to be our big free agent pickup this year?

[ClipperEric]

I thought about Duhon too, but he's in the doghouse now. I don't know enough about him, is he consistently a problem or is this a new thing? He also makes over $3m, kind of high for a backup PG fopr Sterling. If we're going to actually spend some money, then maybe Carlos Arroyo from Orlando.

[PlinkingPanda]

I don't follow him too much, but this is the first I've heard of problems with him. Can you blame him though? He was a good backup to Hinrich, and then they traded and got Hughes. He went from a productive backup to a 3rd option getting no minutes. Brevin is making 2M per year so I don't see how it could be a bad thing to pay him 3M. He's still very young, and can improve if he gets some playing time. Hoopshype seems to talk good about him in his player profile.

Edit - Actually I went to the Bulls board to check it out, and it seems he's done similar things in the past. Changing environments can usually help with "troubled" players though. His antics aren't even that bad. Just missing practice from what I've read.

[bulldogcharly]

first of all hughes has been playing more sg in chicago than he did in cleveland. the only reason duhon hasnt been getting minutes was because he went to the duke/unc game and the bulls got mad at him which i think is crap. hes definitely not a bad guy and doesnt have known attitude problems. the bulls organization has been known to be full of asses lately. players getting suspended for wearing a headband during a game, players getting suspended for going to a college game.

id love to keep livingston as our starter and have knight and duhon split the rest of the minutes. i wouldnt really have livingston get starter minutes either because he still needs to get back into nba form.

[deNIEd]

How much do you think a guy like Monta Ellis or Kevin Martin is going to command as a Free Agent? Ellis currently makes $770k and Martin only $1.8m. I know they are getting huge raises but how huge? And what do you think Maggette is going to get?

I'm glad somebody brought up the trade for Mobley, and I'm throwing in Thomas. I like Mobley but $9m is too much for what he does. And Thomas is just difficult to watch. We need to get rid of at least one of those guys.

I'd love to see some kind of deal to bring in Mike Miller. Then add Diop and pick up a PG in the draft. We'll be in pretty good shape.

Like already said, K.Mart is not a free agent and he is already locked up by the kings. (as with most fa nowadays making the market pretty much useless).

From what I hear, Memphis is looking at both Monta and Biedrins, but, GSW will match whatever if offered to either one. Monta I am guessing will be making at around the 10-12 range, and Bied making around th 12-14 range.

Beno will not leave the Kings, unless the Kings pull a S&T in order to bring something back that helps us more, if not, the starting job for the Kings will be Beno's.

[likwitdesi]

Wiz fan here. With the success of the Wiz without Arenas so far this season, I think it is possible we might try to get a true PG, which Rose is. To get Arenas to you, it will have to be a S+T with Arenas's deal starting around 15 mil. How do you feel about Arenas, Blatche, and Etan Thomas for Kaman, Rose, and Mobley (who will most likely be bought out)?

I think this trade is definitely fair for both sides. Wiz get the type of low post presence they need in Kaman and the type of guard they need in Rose. Clips get a top 20 player in Arenas and a very good complement to Brand in Blatche.

Wizards can go with:

Rose/Daniels
Stevenson/Young
Butler/McGuire
Jamison/Pecherov
Kaman/Haywood

[mattyBoi]

Hey guys not trying to "troll" or anything...But there are alot of rumors floating around Orlando that Maggette will sign with the MLE with us...Any insight or knowledge of this?

[ClipperEric]

Isn't the MLE only 5.5mil per year? Maggette has already said he's turning down the $8mil+ to opt out. The guy is averaging 22ppg and in the last month he's really turned it up a notch. I expect him to get around $10mil/year. Mobley is making $9+, and Maggette is head and shoulders above him.

Orlando has huge contracts in Howard and Rashard, and Turkoglu is going to get a raise in a couple of years. I just don't see them making a move on Maggette.

[loflin3hree5ive]

Maggette is not taking a pay cut. That is as unrealistic as it gets.

[CelicaLuva]

How do you feel about Arenas, Blatche, and Etan Thomas for Kaman, Rose, and Mobley (who will most likely be bought out)?

I understand that obviously the Wiz won't let Arenas go for nothing and there's simply no reason for u to take on Maggette so let's just discuss the proposal itself: While at first glance most would scoff at this trade since u're asking us to give up the best point of the draft (who we're not a favorite to be in a position to draft, more on this later), this is actually not a bad trade if, like u guys, we're playing in the East. Arenas + Brand would bring the attention => money and bragging rights to our team that DTS salivates over. Blatche and Etan Thomas (if healthy) would add much-needed depth and hustle to our frontcourt, and I can definitely see how Blatche can complement Brand well. The acquisition of Arenas in that manner would also make Maggette completely expendable (as much as a lot of emotional fans in Clipperdom would hate to see), allowing for a S&T for a pure shooter such as Mike Miller.

The problem, however, is that we're playing in the West, where the big men play is a much bigger part of the game. You definitely can't undermine this aspect considering how the Suns traded Marion for Shaq, and the Lakers traded for Pau (albeit they essentially gave up nothing). The Kaman situation is actually quite a dilemma for us: It's yet to be seen how well he can cope with the return of a superstar whom he shares quite a few of duties with - how will his offensive efficacy be affected? Can Kaman still bring the same level of focus and understanding of the game when the frontcourt playbook is bounded to get more complicated? At the same time, if Kaman leaves we will have absolutely no one to guard the Tim Duncans, Bynums, and Oden of the world.

I would much rather have Brand + Kaman considering the above, at least it will give us frontcourt strength that few teams in the league could match. That said, if we can indeed spend some of the MLE on someone such as Diop, we would definitely have to seriously consider the proposal. I used the phrase "seriously consider" because if you haven't noticed, we probably need a pure point guard as much as anybody if not more. This will be contingent on Livingston's progress as well, which I discussed in an earlier post. In addition, our management was never known for efficiency and having the balls to pull high-risk, high-reward trades off.

[CelicaLuva]

No one is going to take Mobley or Thomas in a trade, unless its for equally bad contracts. Neither of them is an expiring next year IIRC.

Agreed, and this is a big part of general trade etiquette people have to consider before fantasizing on a perfect trade. If our goal is to offload a bad contract, the only direction we can look towards are rebuilding franchises. But even then, most of the time their primary requirement with taking bad contracts is that its remaining term is as short as possible. In addition, they probably wouldn't want a player whom they have to give decent minutes to in order to keep happy, since they would much rather use that time earned from sacrificing their season hopes to let younger players with more potential play. Therefore, Mobley and Thomas are probably less enticing targets for a rebuilding franchise to take on than, say, Shareef Abdur-Rahim (correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know he's at least 33, had a season-ending surgery and essentially heading towards retirement).

However, it's not completely hopeless if like u mentioned we can trade our bad contracts for other bad contracts that better serves our purpose. While we are not quite in a position to be a rebuilding team, I still would not want my non-accretive bad contracts to get in the way of my core that I'm looking to keep and build for years to come. With the limited amount of teams that have cap space to sign a FA outright, I think this offseason offers a good opportunity for us to do so through a bundled trade, even if it means getting slightly lesser value in return with a S&Ted Maggette.

[madmaxmedia]

Yeah, exactly!

Bad contracts CAN become trade assets in their last year, as we witnessed with the Lakers. But until then, who the heck wants Tim Thomas for $6 million a year? (I think he was 4 year/24 mil.)

The other option as you say is to try to package them with real trade assets. But neither TT or especially Mobley is that bad. Besides, its not like we're trying to save up money to bag LeBron. I don't think we can free up money to give anyone a max contract, although I am saying that assuming Brand comes back next year.

I would probably just keep Mobley, pawn off TT if possible. But otherwise just try to get best possible value for a Maggette S&T, since we're not holding the cards here. I think Maggette can land somewhere in between the MLE and say $9 million a year, it just depends on if there's a team that particularly needs scoring. If not, I could easily see him going to a playoff team for the MLE.

[SportsFan215]

I would try to create cap space this offseason and sign Monta Ellis to the max. (5yrs/75mil I think.) He will be worth, even if he isn't already. The Warriors would have a hard time matching that offer without going into the luxury tax.