Yahoo: Raps sign Linas Kleiza to 4 year 18.8M offer sheet

[elmer_yuck]

Another mediocre player.
We have no above average players.

[SDM]

Saying "it's not your money, why should you care how it's spent?" is akin to saying "you didn't actually play, so why do you care if they lose?"

Because people are arguing its too much money.

It doesn't matter how much money the player earns if it doesn't restrict the team from signing more players later on. If the team doesn't use its MLE, it goes away, and you end up with NO ONE

I don't think anyone is arguing that Kleiza isn't worth $20M. It's that $20M was spent in the first place when it didn't really need to that's the bone of contention. Just because something is available to you, doesn't mean you have to use it.

[whysoserious]

Not only will this team be terrible and has zero all-star talent, it has no financial flexibility going forward.
BC's really working on the "Worst GM in the league" award. Loving it. The sooner he's gone the better.

That's the worst part. BC will never rebuild in his life, and that is exactly what we need at the moment. This means two things:

1. His job isn't secure at all and he is swinging for the fences.

2. His job is secure, and the organization has plan to keep this team always "in it" meaning the playoffs (6-8th seed) so the fans would still go to the games.

You think Kleiza is swinging for the fences? Really?

Let's wait and see what happens as follow ups to this signing. If there's one thing I've seen from BC is he has the ability to move any contract so he can get flexibility pretty quickly.

But there is no doubt we are in the midst of a rebuild with Derozan, Davis, Alabi and Bargs playing major roles and the Kleiza signing has done nothing to change that.

People need to realize the last few year was about building a winning team with Bosh, you can't just turn that off and go into rebuild by stopping to sign guys. This is a reasonable contract signing for a good role player.

Because we've changed course in the span of one off-season, BC's target is to move Jose and Turk out, Kleiza makes signing a contract like this doesn't change that. Not signing him vs. signing him makes no difference.

[Brinbe]

How do you know there isn't a plan to do that?

There may well be, but how do you know there is a plan to do that? I'm just going by BC's actions as is. Once those deals are made, I'll react accordingly.

[Hoopstarr]

I'm happy about this because all the kids will be pitchfork angry about another Euro.

You just love popping in every now and then to make this same post, don't you?

Anyway, good signing IF it means Hedo is gone. Otherwise this is just another example of a guy BC just HAD to have and "always wanted".

[Landomar]

Kleiza is an interesting fit. I think that he is being brought in to be a 3/4 off the bench, and that we will be sending out another offense first small ballish kind of team this season. There could still be major changes coming, but right now, we have something like:

C: Bargnani Evans (Alabi / Dorsey)
Johnson
PF: Davis
Kleiza
SF: Turkoglu
Weems
SG: DeRozan Belinelli
Jack
PG: Calderon Banks

[jrsmith]

Looked better on the nuggets then he is. On the raptors, he will turn into a 3 point chucker. Awesome for the evolution of the game though.

[D-Wins-RingsIMO]

If we trade Turk we need someone to start at the 3

A 25 year old who can put up 15/6 playing 30 minutes a game and who is tough/gritty for 5 Mill. will work just fine

lmao.

1st he's not getting 30 mpg unless Hedo is dealt first.

2nd how the **** do you end up at 15/6? His career high is 11/4 in 24 mpg playing on a super high octane Denver team. We won't play at the same pace they did that year.

Stretching him out to be a 15/6 player for us is a huge reach man ..... that's borderline 6th man of the year territory ----- and we all know how last years pre-season annointed front runner for that award Bellinelli ended up doing.

I like Kleiza cause he's a bit of a dink and would probably love to be in a brawl if the situation arose. However I don't see why we put him on an offer sheet ahead of either a legit perimeter defender like Brewer or a legit 3pt shooting wing.

He's actually not that good of a 3pt shooter.

So he was way down on my list of guys, but I still like him more than Gomes at least.

[cark]

[MikeM]

Kleiza's actually good.

[Raps_Swingman]

How are we upset about this? This board has gone completely insane. Everyone talks about how soft this team is. BC goes out and tries to add a guy that can shoot the 3, which we lacked last year, and play some D at positions of weakness for us. 20 mill over 4 years is a great deal. I think this heat is getting to people.

[jojo152433]

Unless BC has a way to get rid of Hedo, won't think affect the playing time of Weems?

Not at all. I expect Bellinelli to be part of the Bosh S&T because he is a pretty decent player and is dirt cheap (something Miami needs). It would also mean that the returning parts (to Toronto) would be more favorable.

If Bellinelli is traded, Weems would be in exactly the same position on the depth chart. Maybe even higher once you consider that we don't seem to have any interest in keeping Wright.

[SaveTheHens]

i like the move. You can't just expect to tank every year and have your young assets develop tremendously without a good coach to begin with. Kleiza is a player we should of gotten much earlier when winning would of been, lets say easier. At the end of the day though this guy's toughness/grit will hopefully brush off on some guys like Demar, Amir, Davis and they can grow off that.

To add to that who says we can't be successful this year? A bit of development from Demar, Davis, Bargs and a couple deals (maybe bringing in a real C), and this team can strive for the playoffs. Not likely but not highly improbable either.

[Shevy]

Moving Hedo is (Please Use More Appropriate Word). He will get absolutely nothing back for him right now. HIs trade value is awful. What you have to do with Hedo is play him next season and if his performance improves mid way through the season you try to trade him. His numbers should go a up a little with Bosh gone.

But BC obviously as always wants a quick fckin fix. He never lets things "brew" for a bit. He makes a team one year and the completely destroys it the next. He's a horrible GM. We need cap space. We can't risk 5/year on a somebody like Kleiza. We have to tank.

[dagger]

What? That's a stupid argument. I can criticize wastes of money as I see fit. This isn't the MLB where you can spend to your heart's content. Moves like this, however small, do add up! Especially if the new CBA is as stringent as people think.

Exactly why it is good to sign a rotation player for a reasonable price.

When you haven't gotten rid of the other bloat already present?

Who cares? This fixation with flexibility is fuçking bogus. BOGUS! We are not going to attract Tier 1 free agents. You can have an $80 million payroll and still rebuild so long as you draft well (or get lucky) and favor the young players with minutes. If you have a bunch of value contracts like Jack, Kleiza and Amir, you can deal them. You can package two of them.

It's not only about wins and losses.

In case you haven't noticed, there is a talent shift occuring that will make the East stronger. Amare is moving to NYK, Boozer to Chicago, Gooden and Maggette to Milwaukee. The East has some of the best young point guards now, and they all will get better. The most signings like Amir or Kleiza or Jack will do is keep us in games longer, making losing more respectable. Nothing says We have to lose every game by 30 points to improve our lottery position. Nothing says we have to be a league-wide joke to get a top 3 pick - it's still a lottery, and Chicago got Rose and Noah with the seventh and ninth worst records. Nothing says we can't accumulate assets that can be great trade assets while we go about winning 25 games. Hopefully, we get lots of hustle, close games... Being competitive in games is a whole lot better than getting humiliated by opponents. Being competitive is character building while getting whipped time and again is confidence-destroying for young players.

[Air-Canada]

BC wanted him for the longest time..

[jojo152433]

Looked better on the nuggets then he is. On the raptors, he will turn into a 3 point chucker. Awesome for the evolution of the game though.

I guess he also looked better in the Euroleague and at Mizzou than he really is too.

[Raps_Swingman]

BC wanted him for the longest time..

The award for the most homo-erotic statement of the day goes to....

[MrBojangelz71]

Kleiza is an interesting fit. I think that he is being brought in to be a 3/4 off the bench, and that we will be sending out another offense first small ballish kind of team this season. There could still be major changes coming, but right now, we have something like:

C: Bargnani Evans (Alabi / Dorsey)
Johnson
PF: Davis
Kleiza
SF: Turkoglu
Weems
SG: DeRozan Belinelli
Jack
PG: Calderon Banks

Kleiza is a 3, not a 4. He can spot up there depending on the matchup. We aren't small either.

Right now we are looking like this

Bargs / Reggie Evans / Alabi
Amir / Reggie Evans / Davis
Hedo / Kleiza / Derozan
Derozan / Weems / Belli
Jose / Jack / Banks

I would like to see Jose moved for a young center, allow Banks to assume backup PG duties to raise his value before the trade deadline. Nice expiring and he is a solid defender with some offensive flare.

Move Hedo but I get the feeling that won't happen till the trade deadline as well. We need to raise his value 1st. Moving Jose gives Hedo a chance to run the offense more and show he can still play.

Reggie is movable to, might need to package him with Jose to make a team bite.

[HomieOmey]

I don't mind Kleiza, I'm just tired of BC tying so much money up on role players and 6th men. Hopefully he has a deal for Hedo or Calderon.