T&T Expansion Draft Project

[gswhoops]

Golden State Warriors

Protected: Curry, Thompson, Livingston, Iguodala, Barnes, Bogut, Ezeli, Green

Unprotected: Lee, Barbosa, Craft, Holiday, Kapono, Kuzmic, McAdoo, Nedovic, Rush, Speights, Watt

The toughest decision was whether to leave Lee unprotected, but I'm guessing with a cap of only $45M, the expansion team isn't going to want to commit a third of their cap space to a 31 year old complimentary player. And if they do, we'll take the cap space thank you very much.

[HartfordWhalers]

Pistons protect:
Andre Drummond
Greg Monroe
Josh Smith
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Spencer Dinwiddie
DJ Augustin
Jodie Meeks
Kyle Singler

Unprotected:
Cartier Martin
Brandon Jennings
Aaron Gray
Jonas Jerebko
Caron Butler
Luigi Datome
Will Bynum

Why protect Smith? If someone wants to take him straight off our hands with no salary back, great.

My guess would be he knows the expansion team is never taking Smith, doesn't really care about any of the guys he left unprotected, and doesn't want to have to deal with Smith's feelings being hurt that he was left unprotected.

I would take Smith as an expansion team. Easily.

[Smitty731]

Why protect Smith? If someone wants to take him straight off our hands with no salary back, great.

My guess would be he knows the expansion team is never taking Smith, doesn't really care about any of the guys he left unprotected, and doesn't want to have to deal with Smith's feelings being hurt that he was left unprotected.

I would take Smith as an expansion team. Easily.

No doubt about that.

[Texas Chuck]

I would take Smith as an expansion team. Easily.

Explanation please?

edit: Wait Smitty too? and bondom?

Am I the crazy one? I just think that's the last guy I'd want to bring in to the be the veteran leader/highest paid guy on a new team I'm building. I get he's going to be among the most talented guys, but....


Be interesting to see if the consensus is he gets protected or not and if not then to see who does and does not pick him.

[bondom34]

Why protect Smith? If someone wants to take him straight off our hands with no salary back, great.

My guess would be he knows the expansion team is never taking Smith, doesn't really care about any of the guys he left unprotected, and doesn't want to have to deal with Smith's feelings being hurt that he was left unprotected.

I would take Smith as an expansion team. Easily.

I'd agree. I'd also say Smith is clearly better than anyone left unprotected. I can see Smith going to a few teams in a trade where he'd be seen as a positive, the only unprotected guy I'd say the same for is (maybe?) Bynum if a team really needs a guard off the bench.

[gswhoops]

I mean, even the worst team needs SOME talent to put butts in seats, and Smith is entertaining if nothing else.

[HartfordWhalers]

I would take Smith as an expansion team. Easily.

Explanation please?

edit: Wait Smitty too? and bondom?

Am I the crazy one? I just think that's the last guy I'd want to bring in to the be the veteran leader/highest paid guy on a new team I'm building. I get he's going to be among the most talented guys, but....


Be interesting to see if the consensus is he gets protected or not and if not then to see who does and does not pick him.

In 2013 Smith was 13th in the entire league in DRAPM. In 2012, he was 9th. It depends where you look, but the guy is absolutely elite.

His game has flaws, and last year played to all of them. But he is more complete and more talented of a player than Al Jefferson for instance, and look at how Charlotte worked out for him.

Josh Smith is a guy who if everything is going right for, looks like a 30th best guy in the league, and even when everything is going wrong for, might still be around 100. He doesn't have a terrible reputation, and if you put him front and center and fill in around him with a strong coach, I think for 13.5m you will be wishing you had hi for 4 more years, not 3. If it goes bad, its a big contract. But less than the rookie max, flat, and livable.

Look at what Gerald Wallace did for Charlotte. Josh Smith does that and more for my expansion franchise, and we don't screw up our drafting.

[bondom34]

I would take Smith as an expansion team. Easily.

Explanation please?

edit: Wait Smitty too? and bondom?

Am I the crazy one? I just think that's the last guy I'd want to bring in to the be the veteran leader/highest paid guy on a new team I'm building. I get he's going to be among the most talented guys, but....


Be interesting to see if the consensus is he gets protected or not and if not then to see who does and does not pick him.

Yeah, I think its different if you're an expansion team vs. a rebuilding team. A rebuild doesn't touch him, an expansion team to me just flat out wants talent. If you would do this for 30 teams and Smith is unprotected, I'd bet a fair amount he's gonna be the most talented guy who was left on the board bar none. Most teams are leaving guys on minimum and non guaranteed deals out there, if an expansion team is looking for someone to at least attempt to start with, he's likely the best available.

[Texas Chuck]

Sorry for the Josh Smith sidetrack of my own thread--carry on.

You guys make good points.

edit: Smitty, I had conceded--no need to pile on

[Smitty731]

Sorry for the Josh Smith sidetrack of my own thread--carry on.

You guys make good points.

Sorry not to sidetrack more, but I agree with Bondom and HW. I think if he is a PF where he belongs, he's one of the more versatile and better players in the league. He's a borderline All Star when playing PF. You put him at SF and he's a mess. And like Bondom said, he can be the best guy on an Expansion team easy. Expansion teams are made up a mish-mosh of overpaid guys, older vets, and young players who are still a question mark. At least Josh Smith is a known quantity. And he's not really that crazily paid when you consider the rising Cap. Just keep him at PF for the love of God!

[Timmaytime]

Pistons protect:
Andre Drummond
Greg Monroe
Josh Smith
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Spencer Dinwiddie
DJ Augustin
Jodie Meeks
Kyle Singler

Unprotected:
Cartier Martin
Brandon Jennings
Aaron Gray
Jonas Jerebko
Caron Butler
Luigi Datome
Will Bynum

Why protect Smith? If someone wants to take him straight off our hands with no salary back, great.

If SVG is smart and only plays 2 of the bigs at a time then Smith is extremely valuable. Plus when Monroe leaves Smith will have to carry the load

[Smitty731]

Sorry for the Josh Smith sidetrack of my own thread--carry on.

You guys make good points.

edit: Smitty, I had conceded--no need to pile on

Hahaha!

[iMoreland]

Not gonna play but I'll give a list of my team

Nuggets

Protected: Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, Danilo Gallinari, Arron Afflalo, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, Gary Harris, Jusuf Nurkic

Unprotected: JaVale McGee, JJ Hickson, Nate Robinson, Randy Foye, Quincy Miller, Erick Green, Darrell Arthur, Alonzo Gee

[Scoot McGroot]

Pacers Protect - George, Hibbert, West, George Hill, Solomon Hill, CJ Miles, Mahinimi, Stuckey

Unprotected: Scola, Allen, Sloan, Whittington, Copeland, Watson, Rudez

A little tougher to choose than I thought actually. I could see the team taking Watson, which would suck because I don't want Stuckey or Sloan to be the backup point guard. I wouldn't want to lose Rudez either since we have no idea what he will do and he's cheap but I can't justify putting him over Stuckey (I'd assume he'd get picked due to his talent and minimum salary).

I'd probably leave George Hill and CJ Miles unprotected and essentially dare an expansion team to eat their long-term deals. I'd probably protect Watson and one of Cope/Lavoy/Rudez/Shayne, depending on who looks best, long-term.

[Scoot McGroot]

Why protect Smith? If someone wants to take him straight off our hands with no salary back, great.

My guess would be he knows the expansion team is never taking Smith, doesn't really care about any of the guys he left unprotected, and doesn't want to have to deal with Smith's feelings being hurt that he was left unprotected.

I would take Smith as an expansion team. Easily.

If they're limited to something like 75% of the cap, I wouldn't touch him. It's harder to eat Josh Smith's deal if he takes up, say, 35% of your cap instead of just 20% of your cap.

[NashtyNas]

Suns will protect: G.Dragic, Bledsoe, Plumlee, Morris twins (2), I. Thomas, T.J. Warren
Unprotected: Ennis, Goodwin, Green, Tucker, Len, Tolliver, Z. Dragic, S. Randolph

[sterncohen]

With these unprotected guys to choose from, the new franchise might as well take up hockey. They've got an ugly few years ahead.

[skywalker33]

Tough for the Nuggets, depth won't be our friend here

KEEPER: Ty Lawson, Gary Harris, Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried, Jusuf Nurkic, Timofey Mozgov, Quincy Miller, Arron Afflalo

OPEN: Randy Foye, Nate Robinson, Wilson Chandler, J.J Hickson, Darrell Arthur, JaVale McGee, Alonzo Gee/Erick Green

[loserX]

Suns will protect: G.Dragic, Bledsoe, Plumlee, Morris twins (2), I. Thomas, T.J. Warren
Unprotected: Ennis, Goodwin, Green, Tucker, Len, Tolliver, Z. Dragic, S. Randolph

You've only protected 7! You can claim back one more...I assume Goodwin or Len? (Either way, good chance the other one gets claimed.)

[NashtyNas]

Suns will protect: G.Dragic, Bledsoe, Plumlee, Morris twins (2), I. Thomas, T.J. Warren
Unprotected: Ennis, Goodwin, Green, Tucker, Len, Tolliver, Z. Dragic, S. Randolph

You've only protected 7! You can claim back one more...I assume Goodwin or Len? (Either way, good chance the other one gets claimed.)

I would protect Len over Goodwin or Tucker and I certainly think the other guy would get picked.