Trade Targets, Part Deux

[Ronito]

Whatever interest the Wizards had in Smith has disappeared, and Washington is not willing to give up any of the players Atlanta seeks for Smith, a person familiar with talks between the two teams told USA TODAY Sports

Kupchak said he has gotten calls from GMs even this morning on Dwight Howard but he will not be trading Howard.

[PetroNet]

Yes, he's an upgrade offensively and while I wouldn't say it's massive upgrade, it is a key upgrade. Any PF that can shoot long 2s and 3s provides something that we have absolutely zero of right now. I wouldn't call that a small upgrade especially when PnR/PnP is one of the most simple, efficient, and effective ways to get points on the board.

We do have that guy, his name is Mirza Teletovic, and he wouldnt cost us the last of our assets or ability to land a 10+ million dollar player, cause he is already on the team. He would make a minor impact to this team. would he be a big upgrade offensively over evans? yes. would he make us a much improved offense? no. would he take us from pretender to contender? no.

This is true.

The one thing I do wonder though is would Josh Smith actually change the defensive culture of this team. I thought we'd be at least average on defense with having JJ and Wallace on the team, especially given the fact that Lopez has improved shotblocking. Unfortunately, the defense is just epically bad, and I'm wondering whether additional personnel can fix that.

I can't see how it wouldnt, as Smith isnt just a good defensive player, but he excells in the areas we lack. He is very good against the pick and roll. he anticipates and rotates extremely well. he doesnt give gound in the paint and can contest shots jumping off 2 legs from a stand still.

Lopez is a good shot blocker, and has improved. but other then being a rim protector and decent man post defender, he doesnt do much else well. he is REALLY slow in pick and roll situations, and when he is switched on a small player, he does a poor job(most bigs do, as this is a mismatch - but brook really gets killed)

smith is good enough to stay with gaurds and wings if he is forced to switch, and he can really bother great offensive players. something im not sure you can count on wallace or ilyasova to do.

If we don't change our coach, then I don't know how much of a defensive change we can expect. And if Josh's defense is negated due to the coaching staff, we'd have a guy who's pretty inefficient on offense and can't be effective on defense with a near-max/max contract on the books. I'm hoping a change at the helm will fix that potential problem though.

i dont see what defensive changes schematically we need to make. we have tried basically everything against the pick and roll. hard traps, shows, switch-rotations, straight swithces. the failure always seems to be that our points gaurds and bigs cant execute consistently. smith i think changes that.

Agreed, but see above for my concern. JJ and Wallace are good individual defenders and Lopez is an improved defender, but our team defense is horrific. That almost undoubtedly means that the coaching staff just doesn't have a clue what they're doing on the defensive end.

If PJ is re-hired, the impact of Smith goes way down and value of him on a near-max/max contract goes down as well.

well, first, PJ wont be back, unless this team does significantly better, in which case obviously PJ-Smith has worked out.

Second, team defense wise you are only as strong as your weakest links. and right now our entire front court is a weak link. I think Lopez is passable if you put an elite 4 next to him. i think hump/evans are passible with an elite 5 next to them. we need one of those things to change

[PetroNet]

How are you going to tell me that Ilyasova, who has a significantly higher TS% than Josh Smith, isn't a major upgrade offensively for us? Especially when we have major spacing issues and he is a stretch 4? You're talking about Ilyasova taking long 2s and 3s. Well, Josh Smith does the same except he doesn't make them You're also very misguided if you think Ilyasova's game is strictly perimeter. He is excellent at crashing the glass for tip ins and easy buckets. He is having a down year in rebounding, but that is possibly down to playing next to different players.

Basketball doesnt work that way. Just because Ilyasova is much better offensively then reggie evans doesnt mean the nets offense is much better with Ilyasova. Spacing is an issue, but it isnt the main reaosn we have offensive lapses. the real issue is that our gaurds cant get by their defenders one on one. which is why evne when mirza is in or we go small and have spacing, our offense still stalls. dwill and JJ needed to back down and take 8 dribbles to get in the paint causes us to really stall when defense rotate well. we also dont have anyone who consistently gets to the FT line and we dont get easy buckets in early offense or in transition... so when our shots arent falling, we go in droughts. we get plenty of open shots, and plenty of open lanes, even with reggie on the floor.

plus, we already have a stretch 4 in mirza. why give up our last assets when we have mirza who we havent explored yet as a stretch 4?

While Josh Smith is certainly elite defensively, he is not always elite and can be inconsistent. He's not some flawless, DPOY esque defender that you're making him out to be. I agree that his main value in coming to Brooklyn would be his defense, but let's not overrate the hell out of it.

its not overrating or overstating it. the guy is an all-nba type defender. and its not so much that as the fit defensively. he plasy the pick and roll so well, can gaurd wings and post players both exceptonally well and defends in the open court well. its a perfect match.

defense is by far our biggest need. he'd make a major impact there. ilyasova would not.

Either way, Ilyasova would be a MAJOR (not minor) improvement on what we have. He's a legit stretch 4 who isn't bad defensively, and can be a hard working rebounder/garbage man, which makes him a unique player.

so he is basically humphries with a jump shot. that isnt make a big impact, sorry. especially when, as mentioned we already have a stretch 4 and its a myth that spacing is the reason our offense has lapses. if you rewatch the games, specifically when our offense goes in the tank, you would notice it rarely has to do with spacing, and has everything to do with JJ/dwill/brook going into stretches where they dont beat their defender 1 on 1 or turn it over when passing out of hard double teams(especially dwill and lopez this year)

There's no doubt that Josh Smith would be even better (much better), but you have to consider the cost. You can't just stupidly say things like "give them 4 1st round picks", give him the "5 year $94 mill max", we need him! Because that severely hurts our flexibility in the future and Josh Smith is NOT a superstar. I don't care if he hasn't made the all star game (he is an all star caliber player easily at his best), but he is NOT a superstar. You don't give up that much for someone who is not a superstar. It's not even just the assets, it's about losing the chance to get someone like Lebron, Durant, Bosh, Wade etc. when its 2016.

the picks are staggered with a year in between them. and project to be mid to late 20's. im not sweating giving up the next brooks or jordan crawford or marcus williams or whatever. Smiths deal would only have an impact on our cap the last 2 years. '16-'17 and '17-18.

in 17-18 he would be extremely easy to move as a large expiring. so basically, the only year it would hurt us is '16-'17. where, as mentioned, all he costs us is the ability to sign a player worth 12 million dollars(as dwill, lopez, and cap holds would be roughly 44-46 million).

[Petrofor3]

Nets are not getting Josh Smith common people lets get real here. In fact I don't think any big trades are going to happen in the NBA.

[PetroNet]

Nets are not getting Josh Smith common people lets get real here. In fact I don't think any big trades are going to happen in the NBA.

agree we arent getting josh. i think only move we make is for gordon.

i disagree no big trades will happen. i think 100% smith is dealt.

[624]

Nets are not getting Josh Smith common people lets get real here. In fact I don't think any big trades are going to happen in the NBA.

Well we better just lock this thread up mods, Petrofor3 has spoken.

[PetroNet]

nets should have signed hump to 1 year 18 million instead of 2/24. we'd be all set then!

[Jersey Generals]

1/18 is above his max. Plus, the Nets wouldn't be able to trade him unless he okayed it.

[Petrofor3]

Nets are not getting Josh Smith common people lets get real here. In fact I don't think any big trades are going to happen in the NBA.

agree we arent getting josh. i think only move we make is for gordon.

i disagree no big trades will happen. i think 100% smith is dealt.

I don't think Smith will be dealt but will see. I do have a feeling the Nets are going to end up with Ben Gordon.

[Petrofor3]

Bogdanovic is not really much of an asset. He will be a descent player off the bench in the NBA nothing more.

[Ronito]

The Nets are currently unwilling to include a second 1st-round pick in their offer for Josh Smith, per USA Today.

[N Ireland Nets]

Bogdanovic is not really much of an asset. He will be a descent player off the bench in the NBA nothing more.

Not much of an asset?

How did you work that one out?

[N Ireland Nets]

The Nets are currently unwilling to include a second 1st-round pick in their offer for Josh Smith, per USA Today.

I'm glad King is playing at least some hard ball here. I still fully expect him to throw Bogs along with the 1st rounder but at least he isn't willing to throw 4 1st's at the situation....

[Paradise]

Bogdanovic is not really much of an asset. He will be a descent player off the bench in the NBA nothing more.

Not much of an asset?

How did you work that one out?

Unless he's Ricky Rubio, nobody is going to be going wild at the change to get his rights. HOWEVER, he is an asset a minor one.

Might as well trade him. He'll ride the bench next year anyhow just like Mirza.

[Ronito]

He'd be a lotto pick in this year's draft. How isn't that an asset?

[N Ireland Nets]

If true Billy King should be fire....

hoopscritic: As the chances of getting Josh Smith dwindle, a source tells me the Nets have turned their attention to Paul Pierce....deja vu....

[Ronito]

If true Billy King should be fire....

hoopscritic: As the chances of getting Josh Smith dwindle, a source tells me the Nets have turned their attention to Paul Pierce....deja vu....

Why? Gerald Wallace for Paul Pierce, please.

Also, I don't believe anything that isn't from a major outlet right now. Everyone is fiending for hits.

[N Ireland Nets]

If true Billy King should be fire....

hoopscritic: As the chances of getting Josh Smith dwindle, a source tells me the Nets have turned their attention to Paul Pierce....deja vu....

Why? Gerald Wallace for Paul Pierce, please.

Also, I don't believe anything that isn't from a major outlet right now. Everyone is fiending for hits.

Celtics wouldn't take Wallace's $40m contract for Pierce.

[PetroNet]

The Nets are currently unwilling to include a second 1st-round pick in their offer for Josh Smith, per USA Today.

im glad that the 24th pick in the 2015 draft might stand in the way of us and josh smith.

cause lord knows the second coming of josh boone or sean williams isnt worth sacrificing.

we can give a top 6 lottery pick for a soon to be free agent gerald wallace but not a late first in 2015 for josh smith who we wouldnt be able to sign as a free agent

brilliant

[N Ireland Nets]

Utah looking to bring in Love's future replacement..

Chris_Broussard: One of the teams Utah has talked to about Paul Millsap is Minnesota. The name of the very available Derrick Williams came up.