Discussing Other Teams' Moves Part 5

[verbal8]

With the Lakers getting Williams, they have a somewhat respectable team coming together. Hibbert will slow them down though.

PG - Clarkson
SG - Williams
SF - Kobe
PF - ?
C - Hibbert

I think the Lou Williams signing was pretty good considering the options that are available. They got him for an identical contract to the one given to Stuckey.

[hands11]

Marc J. Spears ‏@SpearsNBAYahoo 60m60 minutes ago

Sources: Free agent forward Brandon Bass leaving Celtics for rival Lakers. http://yhoo.it/1ffaGXN

Check another one off the books.

Lakers putting some work in. They landed Lou Williams $21 million, three years and Brandon Bass.

What. That's it ?

Well they did get D'Angelo Russell. And Julius Randle will be returning.

Guess the Laker have to take one more year.

[nuposse04]

Reggie Jackson now has the same contract as Wall...wow...

[hands11]

Wall needs to average atleast 20
Beal needs to be in playoff mode all season
And porter has to become a borderline allstar

Because the east has toughened up

Wizards
Cavs
Bulls
Pacers
Hawks
Heat
Toronto
Bucks

The Knicks can easily become a competitor if they get d.lee
The nets are old but if healthy can make the playoffs again
The celtics made it last year and didn't really lose anyone
The Pistons can be scary now that Drummond has a stretch 4 next to him
The magic has gotten better,
Even philly can make noise if embiid is healthy and lives up to half of his expectations

We have to get a big that can make an offensive impact because things has jus gotten pretty tough in the east

Actually, the timing is good for the Wizard to remain a top East team. While I believe the East is rising, I think its still a year away from getting really competitive again. And by then, we should have KD.

Though..

Restricted free agent guard Reggie Jackson has agreed to a five-year, $80M extension with the Detroit Pistons, league sources tell Yahoo.

[FAH1223]

Marc J. Spears ‏@SpearsNBAYahoo 60m60 minutes ago

Sources: Free agent forward Brandon Bass leaving Celtics for rival Lakers. http://yhoo.it/1ffaGXN

Check another one off the books.

Lakers putting some work in. They landed Lou Williams $21 million, three years and Brandon Bass.

What. That's it ?

Well they did get D'Angelo Russell. And Julius Randle will be returning.

Guess the Laker have to take one more year.

Lakers are severely lacking at the SF spot

Reggie Jackson now has the same contract as Wall...wow...

5 years $80 million.

Pistons bidding against themselves? Jackson turned down 4 years $48M from OKC in October too.

[verbal8]

Reggie Jackson now has the same contract as Wall...wow...

It seems like a big risk. The timing makes very little sense, it uses up most if not all of their cap space. I can't think of a team that was in a position to make him a max offer, that the Pistons would have had to match.

[stevemcqueen1]

So I just did some quick calculations for Cleveland's luxury tax bill and... I think it's pretty clear they won't be keeping Delly or JR Smith, trading Haywood and Varejao for Joe Johnson, or signing David West for the taxpayer MLE.

Assuming they cut Haywood and sign LeBron for a max deal starting around 23 million in year one and then sign four min contracts, then their payroll is gooing to be about 106 million and the tax bill is going to be about 60 million.

If they were to trade for Joe Johnson and sign West for the taxpayer MLE, then their tax bill would jump about 158 million. Total payroll plus luxury tax would be 280 million by my calculation.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

With the Lakers getting Williams, they have a somewhat respectable team coming together. Hibbert will slow them down though.

PG - Clarkson
SG - Williams
SF - Kobe
PF - ?
C - Hibbert

I think it'll look more like this:

PG - Clarkson/Williams
SG - Russell/Williams
SF - Kobe/N.Young
PF - Randall/Kelly
C - Hibbert

If they play the 2 rookies heavy minutes, I don't see them having all that much success, but at least they're developing a nice core.

Russell will be tremendous. Randall is not really a rookie. Kelly was injured. Like Randall he will be good. Hibbert is now a Laker big man.

LAL will be a much - improved team.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

With the Lakers getting Williams, they have a somewhat respectable team coming together. Hibbert will slow them down though.

PG - Clarkson
SG - Williams
SF - Kobe
PF - ?
C - Hibbert

Clarkson is arguably as good or better than Beal.

D'Angelo Russell has superstar potential.

Julius Randle reminds me of a left-handed, young, David West.

Hibbert will be able to greatly improve rim protection.

Kobe will become a facilitator/scorer.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

And Brandon Bass? Playoffs...

[truwizfan4evr]

Cory Joseph and the Toronto Raptors have agreed upon a four-year, $30 million deal. Joseph has a player option for Year 4.

Joseph was a first round pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 2011 out of Texas.

The Spurs rescinded their qualifying offer to Joseph to create cap space for LaMarcus Aldridge.

Joseph is a native of Canada.

[truwizfan4evr]

That's pretty pricey for a backup pg.

[stevemcqueen1]

I still can't get over the fact that Cleveland is about to spend at least 160 million dollars for a six man roster. How can a team's cap situation be so terrible? They were just in the lottery for four years. How can they have no bargain deals?

LeBron hasn't signed yet either. He's got them over a barrel, making sure they pay Thompson and just exploding the tax bill.

They are probably going to go into the season with min contracts at back up PG and SG. They'd be screwed by Kyrie's annual season ending injury. As is, even with good health in their six rotation worthy players, I'm not sure they can beat SA or GS.

I can see them trading Love at the deadline if he isn't healthy or under performs. They'd do it to fill out the roster with multiple rotation caliber players.

[FAH1223]

I still can't get over the fact that Cleveland is about to spend at least 160 million dollars for a six man roster. How can a team's cap situation be so terrible? They were just in the lottery for four years. How can they have no bargain deals?

LeBron hasn't signed yet either. He's got them over a barrel, making sure they pay Thompson and just exploding the tax bill.

They are probably going to go into the season with min contracts at back up PG and SG. They'd be screwed by Kyrie's annual season ending injury. As is, even with good health in their six rotation worthy players, I'm not sure they can beat SA or GS.

I can see them trading Love at the deadline if he isn't healthy or under performs. They'd do it to fill out the roster with multiple rotation caliber players.

Signing LeBron is a deal with the devil.

They wanted to give Thompson 4 years $52M but now they're looking at $80M possibly.

They re-signed Sideshow Bob to 3 years $30M.

Then you have Kyrie and Love max deals.

They had flexibility with all those guys on rookie contracts but they got rid of 3 of them just in the last year.

[Sluggerface]

Can't believe Casspi just signed 2 for 6 while Derrick Williams gets 4 million more. Unbelievable.

[nate33]

Clarkson is arguably as good or better than Beal.

My friend, that's going to end up on someone's signature at some point.

Clarkson is decent scorer and an embarrassingly bad defender who made his awful team 3 points worse when he was on the floor. He benefited from jacking up shots in perpetual garbage time against teams who didn't even bother to scout him. He shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as Bradley Beal who put up James Harden like numbers in two playoff series while absolutely swallowing DeRozan and Korver on defense.

[nate33]

Cory Joseph and the Toronto Raptors have agreed upon a four-year, $30 million deal. Joseph has a player option for Year 4.

Joseph was a first round pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 2011 out of Texas.

The Spurs rescinded their qualifying offer to Joseph to create cap space for LaMarcus Aldridge.

Joseph is a native of Canada.

That's pretty pricey for a backup PG

Indeed. I thought Joseph would be a good target as a low-cost under-the-radar signing by someone. I guess not. I'm not sure what to think of Toronto's offseason. I loved the Vasquez trade and the Biyombo signing, but I think they've way overpaid for Carroll and Joseph.

[nate33]

I still can't get over the fact that Cleveland is about to spend at least 160 million dollars for a six man roster. How can a team's cap situation be so terrible? They were just in the lottery for four years. How can they have no bargain deals?

LeBron hasn't signed yet either. He's got them over a barrel, making sure they pay Thompson and just exploding the tax bill.

They are probably going to go into the season with min contracts at back up PG and SG. They'd be screwed by Kyrie's annual season ending injury. As is, even with good health in their six rotation worthy players, I'm not sure they can beat SA or GS.

I can see them trading Love at the deadline if he isn't healthy or under performs. They'd do it to fill out the roster with multiple rotation caliber players.

It's not worth it. I'd go ahead and sign Thompson to his real market value (say, 4 years, $40M). What's Lebron going to do? Leave? Who's still got cap room? Sacramento? Philly? Think of how hated he would be.

Lebron had real issues with Miami pinching pennies on guys like Mike Miller and James Jones while in Miami (I think Miami declined a team option for Miller to save a few luxtax dollars). He has let Dan Gilbert know that he doesn't expect that to happen in Cleveland. But there's a difference between pinching pennies and signing crazy, overpriced contracts. Any sane owner would sign Thompson to a market value deal, and then look to move Varajeo for cap savings.

[fishercob]

Cory Joseph and the Toronto Raptors have agreed upon a four-year, $30 million deal. Joseph has a player option for Year 4.

Joseph was a first round pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 2011 out of Texas.

The Spurs rescinded their qualifying offer to Joseph to create cap space for LaMarcus Aldridge.

Joseph is a native of Canada.

That's pretty pricey for a backup PG

Indeed. I thought Joseph would be a good target as a low-cost under-the-radar signing by someone. I guess not. I'm not sure what to think of Toronto's offseason. I loved the Vasquez trade and the Biyombo signing, but I think they've way overpaid for Carroll and Joseph.

I like Joseph a lot. I think this andcthe Biyombo moves show that Ujiri is -- as usual -- a step ahead.

[jimij]

[quote="nate33] I'd go ahead and sign Thompson to his real market value (say, 4 years, $40M). What's Lebron going to do? Leave? Who's still got cap room? Sacramento? Philly? Think of how hated he would be.
[/quote]

Given the type of contracts that have been handed out in the past week its hard to argue that Thompson's worth is only 10M per year in the current market. He's going to get overpaid regardless but I don't think 4/40 is realistic at this point. I think the Varejao lifetime achievement award contract and what they end up paying Delly and JR are going to hurt them worse than what they pay Thompson who could be easily moved no matter what they sign him to after his finals performance. They really should just let Haywood's contract expire and save the dough but LeBron seems to be playing GM so I don't think that will happen.