The 4 Big Questions

[Curns13]

There are 4 big questions facing our front office leading into this offseason. I didn’t want to hijack any of the other threads, so I thought I’d start this one and see what everyone else thinks.

[Curns13]

1. Who’s a keeper?
This is the most important question for me. Before they can decide how to move forward, the front office has to decide what they think of the roster they currently have. What do we do with Brook? Does Sean think RHJ is the future at the 4? Are Dinwiddie and Whitehead good enough to be the backups at the 1 and 2? Is Goodwin too good to be a third stringer playing 10 minutes every second night? Do we keep KJ or Harris or both? Are Hamilton or Nicholson gone?

Unless Brook can get us a pick in the early teens, I say keep him. We already have two shots at prospects in this loaded draft so what good is adding the 18th pick? Our defense has been solid the past 2 months with above average defenders surrounding him and his offense and leadership means he is a vital presence on this young team. If things don’t work out next season than we move him at the deadline for a 1st round pick in the 20s (like we did with Bogs), very little lost. Personally, I think RHJ could be the future at the 4 spot. Will he ever be an All-Star? No, but you can’t have All-Stars at every spot. RHJ has a PER of 17 since the break and hasn’t played more than 50 games at the position or had a single offseason to develop power forward skills. If his play continued like that over the course of a whole season he’d be the 16th best power forward in the league by that measure. I think he has earned a season to show what he can do. I believe Dinwiddie may be the backup we need especially if we can acquire a ball handling wing (or LeVert can continue to improve this area of his game) or if we can attract a Foye type of player to be the 3rd string pg for one last season. All these situations would alleviate some of the pressure on Dinwiddie if Lin was to be injured again. I like Whitehead but I don’t think he’s done enough to guarantee a place in the 2nd unit. Goodwin has been good, but with Whitehead, KJ, Harris, Skill, LeVert and possibly a draft pick and free agent, I just don’t see room for him. And yes, I would keep both KJ and Harris for now. Hamilton, gone. Nicholson makes twice as much money, keep him around to wave towels (someone has to be the DNP – CD big man every game and it doesn’t make sense to stretch him only to spend another $2M on Scola 2.0).

[Curns13]

2. Who do we chase?
After lucking out last offseason, who will we attempt to bring in? Unrestricted FA like Hill and Millsap have been mentioned. Restricteds like Porter and KCP and a series of Euros have come up recently.

What would I do, you ask? Well I would offer Porter the max. He has one exceptional skill (3pt shooting), is a very good defender and with time and development should be able to round out his game. I wouldn’t offer KCP the max, he just doesn’t move the needle enough. I may offer Hill the max. While this year has been his best, it isn’t a complete outlier. He has been producing consistently for years and hasn’t showed any signs that he is on the decline. That decision is a really tough one. But I wouldn’t max out Millsap. He’s a year older than Hill and had his worst season, according to the advanced stats, in years. Lowest PER since 2010, lowest TS% of his career (although not a huge drop off), lowest TRB% of his career and lowest ST% and BLK% in more than 5 years. Is he on the slide? I don’t want to pay him $30M a year for the next 4 years to find out.

If none of those work out, I’d offer Patty Mills the starting spot at the 2 (instantly adding more ball handling and instant offense) and a significant pay rise to come over. If Whitehead or KJ or our draft pick work out great, then he goes to the bench and covers both guard spots. Someone like Joe Ingles could work really well next to CLV. He is basically an Otto Porter light with lights out 3pt% and good defense. He has no upside, but could be a good stop gap option until we can restock some picks and become a more coveted free agent location.

[Curns13]

3. Who do we draft?
Marks has already said that he doesn’t see the value in trading multiple picks to move up slightly in the draft, so let’s assume we are going to be drafting at 22 and 27. I think this is the easiest question. Draft the best available big man to work with/eventually replace Brook (plus Acy is a pf and Hamilton sucks) and take a shot at a wing to compete with Whitehead/KJ/Harris/Skill for backup minutes.

4. What moves can we make?
We have no picks in next year’s draft at all, so I think we should look to move some assets to get into the draft. Firstly, I would move Booker. If RHJ is going to start and Brook is going to be backed up by our rookie than Acy can slide over to his natural position. Booker then becomes more valuable for what he can bring back to our team, than what he can produce for our team. If Bogs is worth the 22nd pick than so is Booker so I’d jump on that. I’d also look to see what Skill could bring in the way of a future 2nd rounder or perhaps package him with the 57th pick for a pick in the 30s to stash overseas. Just like with Booker, we have enough guys on the roster that can do 80% of what he does, that he is worth more to another team than to us.

[Curns13]

So what does that all mean? Well for me, in an ideal world, we would look like this:
1. Lin/Dinwiddie/Vet FA
2. LeVert/Whitehead/27th pick
3. Porter/KJ/Harris
4. RHJ/Acy/Nicholson
5. Brook/22nd Pick
That team should be a 35 win team with room to grow from the 2 rooks, LeVert, Porter and RHJ. If we miss out on Porter then we should kick the tyres with Hill or Mills or Ingles or a Euro. Whatever happens, I can’t wait for it all to begin.

[DeRoma]

why can't you write in one post dude

[Curns13]

why can't you write in one post dude

Thought it might make it easier seeing as it is a bit of a novel.

[DeRoma]

1. Who do we keep?
2017 Off-season:
Expiring Contract:
Brook Lopez
Trevor Booker
Justin Hamilton

Team Option:
Sean Kilpatrick
KJ McDaniel
Spencer Dinwiddie

Unguaranteed:
Archie Goodwin
Quincy Acy
Joe Harris

Rookie Contract:
Isaiah Whitehead
Caris LeVert
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
2017 First Round pick
2017 First Round pick

Multi-Year Contracts:
Jeremy Lin
Andrew Nicholson

So this is pretty much what's in contract for next season. We will have 16 players in roster minus an FA signing. So i'm guessing we get rid atleast 2 players in order for us to have flexibility to sign a player in FA.

The first obvious priority to take out of roster is Andrew Nicholson which IMO is untradable unless we plug our draft picks and/or positive assets. We can also waive him to create space. However, given that Deron William's contract is still within our payroll, I'm not sure if Sean Marks will be willing to take a cap hit until 2020. Also i'm not sure how much Nicholson's contract will affect our payroll. I'm guessing an additional 2.5 mill until 2020.

The second tier of players we look to get rid of IMO is our expiring (i.e. Booker or Hamilton). IMO they are somewhat neutral to positive assets depending on what teams are looking for. I can see us try and shop Booker this off-season to take on an overpaid multi-year contract while plugging in Andrew Nicholson and a draft pick. Like maybe for Allen Crabbe (maybe too much). Hamilton is also a contract that's cheap enough to be an easy to plug in to a trade.

The third tier of players I see taking off is weakest link of our young assets (i.e. Joe Harris, Archie Goodwin, Quincy Acy, KJ McDaniel). This is probably the most realistic front-office transaction we are going to do and the easiest way to solve the depth problem. I'm guessing Joe Harris, and KJ McDaniel go first.

The fourth tier is Brook Lopez. Brook can be as good as gone if Sean Marks falls in-love with a player who can replace him. We can him for an early teens for a player like Justin Patton which is to keep in mind in this coming off-season

[DeRoma]

2. Who do we chase?
Free Agency Targets:
RFA:
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Otto Porter
Jonathan Simmons
Jamychal Green
Nikola Mirotic

UFA:
Paul Millsap
Mike Muscala
George Hill
JJ. Reddick

Others:
Overseas Star

First priority IMO is Paul Milsap and if that fails it will all depends on what we do in draft night. IMO I think going after KCP and Otto Porter is media smoke screen given the fact we actually helped WAS to clear space and KCP is just too much money for Marks to even consider. I think we go after Jonathan Simmons. He is definitely has a good resume for Sean Marks considering how much Popovich loves that kid. I also like Prokhorov's idea of signing JJ as we need a pure shooter. Mike Muscala is also an option for depth at the 4 as he is an athletic player whose a good finisher around the basket, stretch the floor, and runs in the transition. KA also coached him back in ATL. We also have a great scouting department overseas that we already have rumors of looking at Nicolo Melli and Milos Teodosic.

[DeRoma]

3. Who do we draft?
This is by far the hardest question to answer considering how little information Sean gives out to the media. However, IMO the Nets are definitely looking to sign either a wing or center. Guards have enough youth to develop with Whitehead and LeVert to even consider prioritizing. I like this year's option on bigs. So from what I'm guessing we look to move up with the 2 picks we have.

4. What moves can we make?
I've answered this question throughout my post so you can just reread . As for picks for next season? I think first priority is to skyrocket the value of the roster on the upcoming season as much as possible. Then we can worry about looking for a draft pick when it comes about. I really think we need to show potential in the NBA by winning a good amount of games in order to show other NBA teams that this team has a good amount of assets.

[jbeachboy]

millsap wants to come to a last place team?

[Curns13]

2. Who do we chase?
Free Agency Targets:
RFA:
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Otto Porter
Jonathan Simmons
Jamychal Green
Nikola Mirotic

UFA:
Paul Millsap
Mike Muscala
George Hill
JJ. Reddick

Others:
Overseas Star

First priority IMO is Paul Milsap and if that fails it will all depends on what we do in draft night. IMO I think going after KCP and Otto Porter is media smoke screen given the fact we actually helped WAS to clear space and KCP is just too much money for Marks to even consider. I think we go after Jonathan Simmons. He is definitely has a good resume for Sean Marks considering how much Popovich loves that kid. I also like Prokhorov's idea of signing JJ as we need a pure shooter. Mike Muscala is also an option for depth at the 4 as he is an athletic player whose a good finisher around the basket, stretch the floor, and runs in the transition. KA also coached him back in ATL. We also have a great scouting department overseas that we already have rumors of looking at Nicolo Melli and Milos Teodosic.

Chasing Millsap scares the hell outta me. That contract could get awfully messy very quickly.

[vincecarter4pres]

Figuring as the NBA is ass backwards and has the draft before free agency, you have to think direction for free agency will be impacted by what happens in late June.

If we somehow move up and draft a Dennis Smith Jr. or Ntilikina do we then really sink all those dollars and minutes into Hill?

If we somehow trade for a guy like Favors, do we then chase Millsap?

I think you get where I'm going with this.

[PG13]

If we get George Hill, he needs to take a "discount" to show that he really wants to play for us and not because we're the only team desperate enough to offer him the maximum.

[Paradise]

It's pretty clear we will pursue Teodosic, KCP, Hill, Porter. So, primarily guards. That says Foye, Kilpatrick are likely goners.

I do think we will make a pitch to a Millsap but only a due diligence move and the only prospects I'd imagine us trading up for is Patton, Anunoby, Z. Collins. Seems like if we keep our picks they are interested in Kurucs, Lydon, Mitchell. Basically, playmaking and skilled shooters.


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[jbeachboy]

its going to be intereseting who the odd men out will be when we go after guys in free agency and after draft picks .

[vincecarter4pres]

It's pretty clear we will pursue Teodosic, KCP, Hill, Porter. So, primarily guards. That says Foye, Kilpatrick are likely goners.

I do think we will make a pitch to a Millsap but only a due diligence move and the only prospects I'd imagine us trading up for is Patton, Anunoby, Z. Collins. Seems like if we keep our picks they are interested in Kurucs, Lydon, Mitchell. Basically, playmaking and skilled shooters.


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Earlier reports suggested Ntilikina was a guy Marks was pretty high on, I don't think that has changed or will, but he may move up too high to be attainable.

[kamaze]

“We need to be better at defending the rim, we need to be better shooters, be better passers, and a lot of that falls on me…but it doesn’t necessarily mean we need to go out and get all these different things,” he said.

“Will we be going to try to improve the roster? Yeah I’m sure that’s what every single team is doing, but I think we understand that it can come from within, we can create that ourselves. If you work at it, you can get a lot better at these things.”

-Jeremy Lin at his exit meeting

[kamaze]

Foye was a big part of the chemistry he's the vet that the young guys needed and the coach likes him.

[vincecarter4pres]

If we get George Hill, he needs to take a "discount" to show that he really wants to play for us and not because we're the only team desperate enough to offer him the maximum.

He's not coming here on a discount. If we get him cheaper than max it's because his market was cheaper than max and he loves the idea of Brooklyn.