Discussing Other Teams' Moves - Part 6

[Illmatic12]

Wall and Beal have attracted ZERO free agent talent to this team.

It’s clearly time we split this underachieving duo up in my opinion.

I find posts like this to be hilarious.

Jangles86, since Wall & Beal are the problem, who are the notable free agents who used to come to the Wizards before we drafted Wall & Beal? When were the Wizards a free agent destination under Ernie Grunfeld (or ever)?

[I_Like_Dirt]

I really don't think Cousins will help Golden State all that much in the postseason. Any lineup with him on the floor is certainly worse than their death lineup with the Big Four and Iggy. Cousins can't fit their switching system defensively, and offensively he's a a ball-stopper. He's also lazy as hell in defensive transition.

I think Cousins is going to prove that he isn't nearly as bad defensively as he's been made out to be, provided he can eventually get healthy and play at a reasonable level at some point. That said, I'm a bit of two minds on this one. I actually think Cousins will help in the playoffs, again, health permitting. I think a lot of Cousins' issues come from him trying to do too much because he cares too much, if that makes sense. If he can't trust the Warriors players to do a lot of things better than he can, he gets cut and that's the end of that, but if he can trust them, and I suspect he will, then he should help, but regular season and playoffs. The death lineup can't play 48 minutes every game. Somebody else needs to play, and Iggy, while still crucial to their success, is clearly declining.

The catch is that the Warriors don't really need him in the regular season or in the playoffs, and the only possible exceptions where they might need him are cases where he won't be as useful. I don't expect Cousins is going to be all that productive against the Rockets, as the main example, and really, what other teams are going to challenge them? If the Lakers do get Kawhi and run Kawhi and Lebron alongside a bunch of attacking guards and shooting forwards, I'm not sure Cousins helps there much, either. Basically, any team that can realistically challenge the Warriors is a team that Cousins isn't going to be very effective against.

The way I see it is that, so long as the Warriors don't care about the tax, this doesn't hurt them, and what it does do is prevent the off-chance of Cousins coming back strong for some other team that builds a contender. If the Lakers get Kawhi, again as an example, and Cousins goes there, Lebron, Kawhi and Cousins suddenly becomes a team that might challenge them. Without Cousins as the wildcard, they have far less to worry about there. Now, they get the first look and get to find out if he really can buy into a lesser role; if they cut him, they'll know for sure he isn't going anywhere else and suddenly changing his ways. The Warriors were/are going to win with or without Cousins.

[Dat2U]

Wall and Beal have attracted ZERO free agent talent to this team.

It’s clearly time we split this underachieving duo up in my opinion.

I find posts like this to be hilarious.

Jangles86, since Wall & Beal are the problem, who are the notable free agents who used to come to the Wizards before we drafted Wall & Beal? When were the Wizards a free agent destination under Ernie Grunfeld (or ever)?

Eric Maynor, Ian Mahinmi, Jason Smith.... man y'all better put some respeck on they name!

[Kanyewest]

Webster, James Singleton, Mike Scott are really good free agency signings. Anyways, the way to build a team is through draft and trades unless you are LA. Ernie is doing a great job given the circumstances. (insert Millie slogan here).

[dckingsfan]

Yeah - the Warriors aren't going to let Cousins play until he is good and ready. Even then they will bring him back slowly so that they can have him play 20 or so meaningful minutes during the playoffs. McGee, West and Pachulia played 24 mpg during the playoffs. Cousins only needs to play those minutes to be a success. Those 3 were very productive in their minutes this year.

I really don't think Cousins will help Golden State all that much in the postseason. Any lineup with him on the floor is certainly worse than their death lineup with the Big Four and Iggy. Cousins can't fit their switching system defensively, and offensively he's a a ball-stopper. He's also lazy as hell in defensive transition.

Where Cousins is going to help is in February, March and April. Golden State can rest some of their stars and they can instead try to run more offense through Cousins. Simple Curry/Cousins pick-and-pops are going to be effective against most bad and mediocre teams. Running the offense through Cousins makes Golden State a 50-win team instead of a 60-win team, but playing like a 50-win team is good enough to beat most bad teams. And if they can do that while resting Curry, Klay, Durant and Green down the stretch, it'll allow them to be fresh in the playoffs. Golden State's #1 enemy right now is accumulated fatigue - mental and physical. Cousins should help them a lot in that regard.

Agreed on his defense. But it is a lot easier to play harder when you are doing 4 minute stretches on the court - and there is a lot more motivation when your butt comes off the court when you don't give effort.

And I don't think that Cousins will be a ball stopper or ever the focus on offense. I think he is going to get lots of easy opportunities on the offensive end of the court.

You point on giving the regulars rest during the regular season is a good one.

[nate33]

I'm a little surprised at how much Avery Bradley got from the Clippers (2 years, $25M). It seems like nobody has anything more than the MLE at this point. Why pay him more? He's a good player, but injury prone.

I would have liked to see him sign with the Lakers instead of Rondo. Bradley is the perfect guy to play "point guard" alongside a ball-dominant point forward like Lebron (or Giannis, or Simmons). Bradley can guard opposing PG's as good as anyone, while being a 3-point option on offense.

[I_Like_Dirt]

I'm thinking the Lakers were probably a part of the issue. I mean, yeah, the signings were announced in a certain order, but that doesn't mean the agents weren't still trying to play each team against each other and teams don't normally back down from things they've already offered within a day or two once those things are offered. The Lakers were probably looking at Bradley on a big one year deal, and I suspect the Suns were at least considering him in place of Ariza, too. The two year deal makes him a potentially more flexible trade piece for the Clippers as well. A little higher than I was expecting, but not an outrageous deal overall. It's in line with the likes of guys like Will Barton, Norman Powell, Fred Van Vleet, etc. Not a fantastic contract, but not terrible, either.

Personally, I'm most interested to see where the ex-Lakers go. Isaiah Thomas and Brooke Lopez go. Their value isn't all that hot, but really, there aren't a lot of legitimately good players left in free agency, which also probably plays in to the Clippers paying Bradley. Good players are getting paid. The only players left that might change teams and actually be good players have serious question marks, like the Lakers duo I mentioned, or have serious question marks and are RFAs, like Marcus Smart and Jabari Parker, another pair I'm curious to see where they land.

[nate33]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

[Illmatic12]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

That Evans signing is bad news for the Wiz. He can really play and will give teams hell next to Oladipo

[lebron stopper]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

Evans is a combo guard who just happens to be huge for a guard. Can't really play him at SF full time like Sacramento thought they could.

Great pickup for Indiana and an amazing replacement for Lance Stephenson. And Indiana already has McDermott as a backup wing.

PG Collison / Joseph / Holiday
SG Oladipo / Evans
SF Bogdanovic / McDermott / Poythress
PF Young / Leaf
C Turner / Sabonis / Anigbogu

[nate33]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

Evans is a combo guard who just happens to be huge for a guard. Can't really play him at SF full time like Sacramento thought they could.

Great pickup for Indiana and an amazing replacement for Lance Stephenson. And Indiana already has McDermott as a backup wing.

PG Collison / Joseph / Holiday
SG Oladipo / Evans
SF Bogdanovic / McDermott / Poythress
PF Young / Leaf
C Turner / Sabonis / Anigbogu

Why can't he play SF? It's an easier position offensively than SG. And he certainly has the size to match up with SF's in this league.

[nuposse04]

Yeah - the Warriors aren't going to let Cousins play until he is good and ready. Even then they will bring him back slowly so that they can have him play 20 or so meaningful minutes during the playoffs. McGee, West and Pachulia played 24 mpg during the playoffs. Cousins only needs to play those minutes to be a success. Those 3 were very productive in their minutes this year.

I really don't think Cousins will help Golden State all that much in the postseason. Any lineup with him on the floor is certainly worse than their death lineup with the Big Four and Iggy. Cousins can't fit their switching system defensively, and offensively he's a a ball-stopper. He's also lazy as hell in defensive transition.

Where Cousins is going to help is in February, March and April. Golden State can rest some of their stars and they can instead try to run more offense through Cousins. Simple Curry/Cousins pick-and-pops are going to be effective against most bad and mediocre teams. Running the offense through Cousins makes Golden State a 50-win team instead of a 60-win team, but playing like a 50-win team is good enough to beat most bad teams. And if they can do that while resting Curry, Klay, Durant and Green down the stretch, it'll allow them to be fresh in the playoffs. Golden State's #1 enemy right now is accumulated fatigue - mental and physical. Cousins should help them a lot in that regard.

Agreed on his defense. But it is a lot easier to play harder when you are doing 4 minute stretches on the court - and there is a lot more motivation when your butt comes off the court when you don't give effort.

And I don't think that Cousins will be a ball stopper or ever the focus on offense. I think he is going to get lots of easy opportunities on the offensive end of the court.

You point on giving the regulars rest during the regular season is a good one.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23733634/

if there is any dividends to be paid by the move, its this year... maybe. He's going to decline fast. He's built more like Mehmet Okur then Rudy Gay. Take a look at how precipitous that decline for Okur was.

His offseason workout video propaganda aside...what logical reason is there to believe he won't have at least 20-30% drop in production. Then look at how Javale produced for them in the playoffs and plz explain how he is going to outperform those numbers..

It wouldn't quite be a medical miracle... but Boogie is ****. Sucks for him.

[gambitx777]

it's not wall and beals fault that we don't have a good cap situation.

[closg00]

Can’t believe Looney signed for the minimum, no other offers?

[WizarDynasty]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

Evans is a combo guard who just happens to be huge for a guard. Can't really play him at SF full time like Sacramento thought they could.

Great pickup for Indiana and an amazing replacement for Lance Stephenson. And Indiana already has McDermott as a backup wing.

PG Collison / Joseph / Holiday
SG Oladipo / Evans
SF Bogdanovic / McDermott / Poythress
PF Young / Leaf
C Turner / Sabonis / Anigbogu

Evan inability to shoot threes is a fatal flaw. If you can't play above the rim, and you can't draw fouls effortlessly, then you better be able to hit threes above average, offensively as a guard. Evan's doesn't fit any of these criteria.

[nate33]

Evan inability to shoot threes is a fatal flaw. If you can't play above the rim, and you can't draw fouls effortlessly, then you better be able to hit threes above average, offensively as a guard. Evan's doesn't fit any of these criteria.

Evans shot .399 from 3-point range last year on 5.5 attempts per game. He shot .423 the year before on 3.4 attempts per game. Percentage wise, Evans is a better 3-point shooter than Beal. (To be fair, Beal gets up more attempts and it's harder to maintain a high percentage as each marginally additional attempt is better defended.)

[I_Like_Dirt]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

Indy is a good team and should be right there as a middle of the pack playoff team in the east this season again. Evans should help, but I think he's being a bit overrated here. I don't think this is going to work out too much better for them than when they signed Monta Ellis and everyone thought it was both brilliant and a bargain and then it didn't work out wonderfully. Evans can't stay healthy and didn't last season, either, and he only upped his production on a team that lost it's only real guard with any sense of offensive talent of note, and when they lost Conley, they tanked a lot. I get that he was more efficient, but the last time he played anything like that people were calling him a future superstar on a go-nowhere Kings team as a rookie. On a team with more structure, he just isn't as good.

But the fact that the Pacers do have structure also means I don't think he will play a big role there. Oladipo, Joseph and Collison should handle most of the guard minutes and Bogdanovic and McDermott are there at SF, too. I think Evans is going to get maybe 25 mpg on the Pacers or so, which should be about right. They should be a very good regular season team given their depth. Evans is best suited as a do-everything guy on a bad team. As soon as you try to get him to play a more tailored role, he starts having problems.

[dangermouse]

Bjelica would have been a good pickup if we had money. Especially if we moved Kieff.

He gives 6ers another shootier and a tweener you can plug into either forward slot. They are looking dangerous

[payitforward]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

The only question I have is why they signed him only for 1 year. I would have a hard time paying someone $12m w/o no sense that I was adding him to my core or that I'd have some control over him.

Now... the Pacers overall salary total is so low that it's no kind of problem to pay him that much. & if he plays the way he did last year, & so does Collison, they've improved -- a lot. They look likely to win 50+ games.

[dckingsfan]

Wow. Indy is so smart. They quietly grabbed Tyreke Evans (who should have been an All Star last year) for 12M. They can play him at SF with Bogdanovic moving to a backup wing where he is more suited.

That's a real good 8-man rotation they have:

PG Collison/Joseph
SG Oladipo/Bodganovic
SF Evans/Bogdanovic
PF Thad Young/Turner
C Turner/Sabonis

The only question I have is why they signed him only for 1 year. I would have a hard time paying someone $12m w/o no sense that I was adding him to my core or that I'd have some control over him.

Now... the Pacers overall salary total is so low that it's no kind of problem to pay him that much. & if he plays the way he did last year, & so does Collison, they've improved -- a lot. They look likely to win 50+ games.

So, do you think Indy wins more games than we do?