Ballin' on a Budget: The Rest of the Nets' Offseason

[ecuhus1981]

OK, so Plans A through K haven't gone very well. Our lone FA haul, Travis Outlaw, is a combo forward who could not lock down a starting role in both Portland and with the Clippers. We offered him a flat $7mil per year for 5 years, which even for a 25yo with tantalizing physical gifts, is overpaying.

But we needn't follow this pattern with our spending habits. Here are my suggestions on how to maximize the rest of this offseason:

1) Sign a Backup PG
My first choice among our options would be Jordan Farmar. He has decent size and is a good shooter with championship experience. Raymond Felton was a pie-in-the-sky hope for our FO, and he is garnering major interest from the Knicks, who could use his services in a starting role. Other upper-tier RFA PGs like Nate Robinson, Will Bynum and Kyle Lowry all figure to be retained by their current teams, whereas Jordan is an UFA. My expectations for value contracts have been downgraded by this offseason, so I'd be happy with anything under the MLE (say, 3 years, $14mil) for the former Bruin.

2) Sign a Utility Guard
Ronnie Brewer, another UFA (are you sensing a theme yet?), is a young versatile defensive SG/SF with excellent size, good playmaking ability and surprising athleticism. He started over 3/4 of his career with the Jazz, and is known as a Kobe-stopper. Sure, we already have Terrence Williams, who is similarly skilled. But we could use another swingman for our rotation, and in hindsight, Ronnie could be a real value acquisition. He hasn't received much FA interest due to his recent hamstring injury, but he should be back to normal well before training camp. Utah, the team that drafted him in 2006 and traded him this spring, has shown interest, but I think a 4-year, $18mil would be fair.

3) Sign a Cheap Veteran Bigman
Position, age and to an extent, even a high talent level are not necessary. After all, it's not as though we're counting on a past-prime guy for major minutes. This veteran needs to be a vocal leader, a defensive presence and a guy with a reputation for success. I'll just rattle off a few names: Joe Smith, Juwan Howard, Etan Thomas, and once he is traded from the Mavericks and subsequently waived, Erick Dampier (Avery's BFF). Veteran's minimum.

4) TPE Trade for Youth Assets
I know, I know, people around here are against the idea of a Brand/Turner acquisition, or really anything like it. Most Nets fans aren't interested in absorbing long-term commitment from a veteran who won't dramatically change our team's short-term outlook, even with substantial sweetener attached. I say, if we were planning on tossing 8 figures at guys like Tyrus Thomas, a contract we'd regret just like Brand's, we might as well get a promising prospect for taking someone else's mistake off of their hands. BUT ANYWAY, short of a deal like that, we can acquire solid youth assets for relatively small and short financial outlay, similar to the Kurt Thomas deal (which incidentally yielded Serge Ibaka and Quincy Pondexter). I think now would be a good time to inquire about former Net Kenyon Martin. The Nuggets are over the luxury tax, and seem to have soured on K-Mart; they may even be willing to chip in Tywon Lawson to remove his 1-year, $16.5mil deal. A deal such as this could also serve as a substitute or eliminate the need for Steps 1) and 3).

What do you think?

[Natebizzy127]

We Need One Guard...Maybe Farmar..After That We Need to focus on another PF/C....we have enuogh guards........maybe we can trade for Kevin Love

[NewJerseyNet]

Farmar, and Haslem in a typical Free Agent class would be nice additions to a team, but in this one, you have to think "what type of draft pick are we giving up?" Signing a compitant big/pg would doom us to no mans land if Favors, James, Lee, and Twitt don't amount to anything more then role players, and at least one of them doesn't emerge into an offensive go to guy.

As far as the original plan, I just don't know. I don't see good drafts in our future either way, so my gut says sign players who can contend, just don't over pay for them.

[bkzmanny93]

farmar is good very much on board with that. dont u think we need a good PF to start in front of Favors until he develops. we cant leave that to favors and then get some bumb big man. and we have ZOUBEK to back up B Lo i think he will be alright in those spot minutes rebounding and defensively.

[ecuhus1981]

farmar is good very much on board with that. dont u think we need a good PF to start in front of Favors until he develops. we cant leave that to favors and then get some bumb big man. and we have ZOUBEK to back up B Lo i think he will be alright in those spot minutes rebounding and defensively.

I understand what you're saying about a starting PF, but that's one reason I feel a TPE trade should be an appealing option for us. Guys like Scola, Haslem and Harrington will be looking for long-term deals, since this may be their last big contract. They'll receive offers in the $8-10mil per year range, for either four or five years. Favors may not be ready now, but he'll surely be ready well before the end of that kind of deal, which could hover over our payroll unnecessarily. K-Mart would be a good mentor to Favors in terms of keeping a non-stop "motor" on the court and developing a skill game. He's also still good for 11/8/2/1/1 production, and could be the veteran leadership we need to make some noise. The upshot for taking on his contract would be Lawson, a great young backup PG.

[ecuhus1981]

Morrow is more like Lee than Williams, but I'm glad we nabbed another quality swingman.

[jerseyjac]

farmar is good very much on board with that. dont u think we need a good PF to start in front of Favors until he develops. we cant leave that to favors and then get some bumb big man. and we have ZOUBEK to back up B Lo i think he will be alright in those spot minutes rebounding and defensively.

I understand what you're saying about a starting PF, but that's one reason I feel a TPE trade should be an appealing option for us. Guys like Scola, Haslem and Harrington will be looking for long-term deals, since this may be their last big contract. They'll receive offers in the $8-10mil per year range, for either four or five years. Favors may not be ready now, but he'll surely be ready well before the end of that kind of deal, which could hover over our payroll unnecessarily. K-Mart would be a good mentor to Favors in terms of keeping a non-stop "motor" on the court and developing a skill game. He's also still good for 11/8/2/1/1 production, and could be the veteran leadership we need to make some noise. The upshot for taking on his contract would be Lawson, a great young backup PG.

you dont think Al would settle for a 3yr deal with options?...I just dont see teams going long term with him...

[SpeedyG]

I would absolutely LOVE Kenyon Martin back on this team. I just don't know that Denver is desperate enough to dump him for salary reasons (expiring one at that) when they are too trying to appease their soon-to-be-free agent star in Melo.

[ecuhus1981]

I would absolutely LOVE Kenyon Martin back on this team. I just don't know that Denver is desperate enough to dump him for salary reasons (expiring one at that) when they are too trying to appease their soon-to-be-free agent star in Melo.

I do not think that Melo would be affected negatively by the Nuggets salary dumping K-Mart as much as he might have been in past seasons. It's pretty well known in Denver that Kenyon won't be fully healthy to start the season, and may not be able to handle starter's minutes at all. They get a HUGE TPE from this deal, with which they can do for the next year. If in February Melo still hasn't re-upped with the Nuggets, Denver could make a splashy pre-deadline deal to help convince him to stay. They could even bring in Minnesota as a 3rd team to this deal, taking Al Jefferson and, say, Ramon Sessions. I think Anthony would appreciate his organization's willingness to spend on younger assets, and want to re-sign.