Reported FA Target: Kent Bazemore

[theatlfan]

Apparently we were the 1st to contact Bazemore at midnight.

[Rip2137]

I wasn't terribly impressed with him. His D'antoni induced highpoints are probably fools gold to me. But he is young and I wouldn't be opposed to taking a chance on him

[ATLHawksfan21]

If anything else, we would have a great cheerleader on the bench. The GIFs of his celebrations from the bench while at GSW are hilarious.

[atlantabbq99]

A young guy who is a system player, who seems to be grateful for getting an NBA paycheck and who is coach-able .

Has a good outside shot, seems to have a better offensive game than Carroll. Not an elite defender, but he is athletic enough that he is not a liability.

He made the most of his time in a bad situation in LA and got good minutes and numbers with one year with the Lakers. He out played higher draft picks like Wesley Johnson, MarShon Brooks, Manny Harris, and Xavier Henry

[azuresou1]

I like Baze - he could be a really cheap rotation guy. I'd be surprised if we make him an offer though until we've held court with LeBron.... Melo seems less and less likely

[atlantabbq99]

^ ya, i think they called Bazemore's agent and said, hey we like your guy, but we are going to go after some big time free agents first, but after that we would like a meeting and make an offer towards the end of free agency.

[ATLHawksfan21]

I like Baze - he could be a really cheap rotation guy. I'd be surprised if we make him an offer though until we've held court with LeBron.... Melo seems less and less likely

I think Melo seems more likely with the Bulls drafting McDermott along with Mirotic finally coming to the Bulls this season. Assuming the big 3 stay in Miami, name a better option for Melo in the Eastern conference than us.

Lebron on a max is just too much. Good luck winning a title when you have one guy making 25 million and the guy has a tendency to not be aggressive at the biggest moments.

[dms269]

I like Baze - he could be a really cheap rotation guy. I'd be surprised if we make him an offer though until we've held court with LeBron.... Melo seems less and less likely

I think Melo seems more likely with the Bulls drafting McDermott along with Mirotic finally coming to the Bulls this season. Assuming the big 3 stay in Miami, name a better option for Melo in the Eastern conference than us.

Lebron on a max is just too much. Good luck winning a title when you have one guy making 25 million and the guy has a tendency to not be aggressive at the biggest moments.

You give the max to the best player in the league, no questions asked.

[ATLHawksfan21]

I like Baze - he could be a really cheap rotation guy. I'd be surprised if we make him an offer though until we've held court with LeBron.... Melo seems less and less likely

I think Melo seems more likely with the Bulls drafting McDermott along with Mirotic finally coming to the Bulls this season. Assuming the big 3 stay in Miami, name a better option for Melo in the Eastern conference than us.

Lebron on a max is just too much. Good luck winning a title when you have one guy making 25 million and the guy has a tendency to not be aggressive at the biggest moments.

You give the max to the best player in the league, no questions asked.

I don't if it means giving him 25 million. Good luck with that.

[azuresou1]

LeBron is worth like $50M in production. Max contracts are a bargain in his case.

[ATLHawksfan21]

LeBron is worth like $50M in production. Max contracts are a bargain in his case.

Not if he's going to perform like he did in the Finals. I'm not keen on giving a guy 25 million when he is only aggressive for one quarter each game in the FINALS. Outside of game 2, Lebron was aggressive in one quarter each game. He went beast mode in one quarter and then disappeared for the other 3.

Not too mention he left game 1 with cramps, was having stomach cramps in game 3 and had to go back and forth between the locker room, quit on his team with 7 minutes left in game 5 while being down like 13. He only attempted 1 shot outside of the paint in the second half of game 4 I believe it was.

I'm sorry but you need a never say die attitude if I am going to give up over 1/3 of my cap and Lebron just doesn't seem to have it. He is a front runner and he is the best player in the league when he is front running but I have seen him struggle way too many times when the going gets tough.

The story would have been how Lebron choked hard if Ray Allen didn't save him with that corner 3 in game 6 two years ago. In the last 2 minutes of that game, Lebron had 2 unforced turnovers and he shot a 3 that barely hit anything. He dominated the beginning of the Fourth and shrunk when the game was on the line.

[PandaKidd]

LeBron is worth like $50M in production. Max contracts are a bargain in his case.

Let me rephrase.

You dont give a MAX DEAL to a player if you want to build a team around him.

WHo make the MOSt in the nBA

1. Kobe Bryant $23,500,000
2. Amare Stoudemire $23,410,988
3. Joe Johnson $23,180,790
4. Dwight Howard $21,436,271
5. Chris Paul $20,068,563
6. Kevin Durant $19,997,513
7. Deron Williams $19,754,465
8. Rudy Gay $19,317,326
9. Derrick Rose $18,862,876
10. Blake Griffin $17,632,688

Outside of Durant, that list is pretty telling.

[ATLHawksfan21]

LeBron is worth like $50M in production. Max contracts are a bargain in his case.

Let me rephrase.

You dont give a MAX DEAL to a player if you want to build a team around him.

WHo make the MOSt in the nBA

1. Kobe Bryant $23,500,000
2. Amare Stoudemire $23,410,988
3. Joe Johnson $23,180,790
4. Dwight Howard $21,436,271
5. Chris Paul $20,068,563
6. Kevin Durant $19,997,513
7. Deron Williams $19,754,465
8. Rudy Gay $19,317,326
9. Derrick Rose $18,862,876
10. Blake Griffin $17,632,688

Outside of Durant, that list is pretty telling.

Yup. I don't care to pay any player more than 20 million and I would only be willing to give more than 15 to a proven stud.

[PandaKidd]

LeBron is worth like $50M in production. Max contracts are a bargain in his case.

Let me rephrase.

You dont give a MAX DEAL to a player if you want to build a team around him.

WHo make the MOSt in the nBA

1. Kobe Bryant $23,500,000
2. Amare Stoudemire $23,410,988
3. Joe Johnson $23,180,790
4. Dwight Howard $21,436,271
5. Chris Paul $20,068,563
6. Kevin Durant $19,997,513
7. Deron Williams $19,754,465
8. Rudy Gay $19,317,326
9. Derrick Rose $18,862,876
10. Blake Griffin $17,632,688

Outside of Durant, that list is pretty telling.

Yup. I don't care to pay any player more than 20 million and I would only be willing to give more than 15 to a proven stud.

I believe , like the NFL, someone is going to have to break the cycle. You cant keep committing that kind of money to 1 player when its like 20-25% of the overall cap (in the NBA its more like 30+%).

The only way you can do it is if you hit absolute HOME RUNS on all your draft picks and filler players.

At some point a team like the SAS and Seattle Seahawks prove that you can win without "max" players

[azuresou1]

I think it's a copout to blame LeBron for this last series when he averaged 28/8/4 with 2 steals on .679 TS% and the rest of his team was garbage.

Dwyane Wade - 15/4/3, .504 TS%, zero defense
Mario Chalmers - 4/1/3, .441 TS%
Chris Andersen - 3/6, .396 TS%

Heck, Chris Bosh averaged only 5 rebounds and I can't even call him out because he was the only other person on Miami who showed up at all. He was the only one helping LeBron, which is ridiculous.

[Geaux_Hawks]

I think it's a copout to blame LeBron for this last series when he averaged 28/8/4 with 2 steals on .679 TS% and the rest of his team was garbage.

Dwyane Wade - 15/4/3, .504 TS%, zero defense
Mario Chalmers - 4/1/3, .441 TS%
Chris Andersen - 3/6, .396 TS%

Heck, Chris Bosh averaged only 5 rebounds and I can't even call him out because he was the only other person on Miami who showed up at all. He was the only one helping LeBron, which is ridiculous.

Here's my thing on it. You're willing to give hime 25 million correct? Well keep in mind that you now have to sign 4 more starters, at least 2-3 decent bench guys, and fill out the roster. More than likely, you will end up with the same kind of production that those guys put up unless your coach has a system that allows lesser players to be effective. Lebron's just a stat padder anyway in my eyes so his 28-8-4 on 68 TS% isn't that impressive to me.

[ATLHawksfan21]

I think it's a copout to blame LeBron for this last series when he averaged 28/8/4 with 2 steals on .679 TS% and the rest of his team was garbage.

Dwyane Wade - 15/4/3, .504 TS%, zero defense
Mario Chalmers - 4/1/3, .441 TS%
Chris Andersen - 3/6, .396 TS%

Heck, Chris Bosh averaged only 5 rebounds and I can't even call him out because he was the only other person on Miami who showed up at all. He was the only one helping LeBron, which is ridiculous.

Did you really just quote Chris Anderson's shooting stats? I mean seriously, Chris Anderson's shooting stats? Those stats help prove my point anyway. You give a guy 25 million and you are stuck surrounding him with Chris Anderson and Mario Chalmers. The big 3 have no one to blame but themselves for the quality of the players around them.

Lebron beasted for one quarter per game. I will go pull the stats and post them here for proof some time this week.

A max player at 25 million has to be aggressive and dominate an entire game. Not put up 15 in one quarter and 10 through the other 3 quarters when his team is obviously struggling in those quarters.

Bosh's rebounds will always be low as long as the Heat keep the same schemes on offense and defense. How is this not obvious to any one who watches bball? How do you expect Bosh to grab boards when he is camped out on the 3 pt line so Lebron can have an open lane on offense. On defense, the Heat trap pick and rolls which leaves Bosh constantly guarding guys on the perimeter.

Fun fact. Lebron sat 3 games this season and Bosh had double digit boards in every game. He also straight dominated on offense in two of those games.

[ATLHawksfan21]

I think it's a copout to blame LeBron for this last series when he averaged 28/8/4 with 2 steals on .679 TS% and the rest of his team was garbage.

Dwyane Wade - 15/4/3, .504 TS%, zero defense
Mario Chalmers - 4/1/3, .441 TS%
Chris Andersen - 3/6, .396 TS%

Heck, Chris Bosh averaged only 5 rebounds and I can't even call him out because he was the only other person on Miami who showed up at all. He was the only one helping LeBron, which is ridiculous.

Here's my thing on it. You're willing to give hime 25 million correct? Well keep in mind that you now have to sign 4 more starters, at least 2-3 decent bench guys, and fill out the roster. More than likely, you will end up with the same kind of production that those guys put up unless your coach has a system that allows lesser players to be effective. Lebron's just a stat padder anyway in my eyes so his 28-8-4 on 68 TS% isn't that impressive to me.

Exactly. Every one wants to quote Lebron's shooting percentages but its a downfall in his game in my opinion. He cherry picks his shots in an effort to keep his shooting percentage high. Of course he is going to shoot a high percentage when he only takes 1 shot outside of the paint for a whole half in a Finals game.

If he is the best player in the world, he needs to act like it. He needs to force the issue and take more shots. He constantly passes up wide open looks in exchange for equal or worse looks for his inferior teammates. You will respond with "Oh, he's trying to get his teammates involved". Well, when it's obvious that your teammates are failing, you need to do something about it and Lebron doesn't. He just lets the ship sink.

[ATL Boy]

He deserves the max, not only because he's the best player in the world, but also because he's marketable. Look at the Lakers, they have Kobe all that money because they know he'll pay for himself because he's so marketable (ticket sales ect). Lebron's getting the max no matter what, and if we can be the team to sign him to that deal, then that would be great.


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[ATLHawksfan21]

Game 5 is a perfect example. Lebron goes for 17 in the first quarter and puts Miami up 7 at the end of 1. 2nd quarter he goes 1/5 for 3 points which leads to SAS being up by 7 at the half. Now what would you expect your leader and 25 million player to do at the beginning of the 3rd after your team struggled in the 2nd. I would expect him to come out and really force the issue and try to get his team back on track. What does Lebron do?

He attempts 2 shots in the first 7 minutes of the 3rd quarter and the Spurs are up by 21 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd.