2019 season speculation including trade ideas

[lilfishi22]

Love, still.

James Jones connection, plus Rubio from Minny back in the day. Shores up the rebounding and would be a legit low-post option in the halfcourt

The problem I see with KLove is that he needs to be featured on offense to really get value from him on the court and justify his contract. With Booker and Ayton here it's tough to give him enough touches, plus Oubre likes to call his number and gobble up some more possessions. Someone will get snubbed offensively . And very often teams finish very small in crunch time with only one big on the floor. Do we sit one of Love or Ayton on the bench ? If it's Love it's 30 mil per year not well spent.

And I don't think Love is all that great in the low-post currently. I'd prefer Ayton there anyway. Not too mention low-post iso scoring isn't great offense anyway.

I like Love but not the best fit here.

Love is the best fit if we're not talking Gallo. But his contract is just hard to swallow. Throw in injury concerns and you potentially have a guy that could derail the next 2-3 seasons of what good we have going on right now

[WeekapaugGroove]

From a contract standpoint I like love more than Galo. Sounds odd but with love it's only 3 more years but with Galo the only way it makes sense to give up anything of value for him is if you plan on resigning him and that won't be cheap and will probably be a 4 year deal.

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[Ghost of Kleine]

It hasn't seemed to me that Tyler's a favorite of Coach Monty's. Quick to pull him. Quick to yank him from the rotation. I think we still need his depth at the 2 spot though.

The thing that gets me about this conversation, though, is the fact that Tyler's value in trade consists mostly of cap relief - meaning we'd be taking back someone else's unwanted salary. In general, I think I prefer the flexibility we'd gain this summer by keeping him.

... Still, you're right. You have to wonder.

If we didn't make any moves until the off-season we could be sitting on $86 mil in guaranteed salary for the following players:
Booker, Ayton, Rubio, Oubre, Bridges, Cam, Jerome, Diallo, Okobo, Jecque. I assume if we want cap relief, we decline Frank Kaminsky's team option. This also means we waive the bird rights to Tyler Johnson since his cap hold is $28 mil, Baynes cap hold is $10 mil, and Saric's caphold is $10 mil.

The salary cap for 2020-21 season is projected to be $116 mil so we essentially have around $30 million to play with to improve our roster. Only player I'd be really torn about not keeping around is Baynes, so maybe we have $20 million to use in order to keep Baynes. Which free agents would you mostly be interested in to improve our roster?

Well, IF we were able to keep ( resign Baynes ) from 8-10 million max, and then still had 20 million to use in 2020 free agency, I suppose I'd offer either Joe Harris or Bogdan Bogdanovich around 10 million for 1-2 years.

Then look to offer either Derrick Favors or Serge Ibaka around 10 million as Well. Then with the veterans minimum, I'd fill out the roster with - Noah Vonleh or Harry Giles at ( power forward/ Center) and.............

Either Alec Burks or Furkan Korkmaz in the backcourt. Although I'm not sure of what exceptions we'd have, If we go up to the tax line( apron) But aren't over it?

Or I think I might explore this trade:
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yx72d4n4 .

Both Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn would be the prize for us in this trade. Both are really good perimeter players, and Leonard would give us a big man expiring that is still hitting on close to 40% on his threes. So Saric for Leonard is pretty much a neutral move. But once he expires, We can use the cap space for a quality power forward in free agency perhaps, and we'd still get Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn from the deal.

Post trade lineup:

Rubio/ Nunn/ Okobo.
Booker/ Jerome/ Robinson.
Oubre/ Bridges/ Cam Johnson.
Leonard/ Diallo/ Vonleh or Giles ( Veterans minimum).
Ayton/ Baynes/ Noel ( Veterans minimum).

***** Then once Leonard expires, Pursue Favors or Ibaka in free agency.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Could have kept Anderson last year and had that extra cap space and no Tyler and maybe have someone better. I'd love Markkanen but he's not going anywhere. Isaac either. They are both about as likely to. They are mad about Markkanen like Suns are with Booker. Doesn't mean they all want to trade him. Some may mention it, but some mention trading Booker too.

Would you consider trading Booker ( if he doesn't seem to get past his struggles soon) for Lavine/ Markkanen and a lottery protected first?

Not trying to encite anyone's anger, Just curious as to your perspective to his current value. Taking into consideration his both his current issues and improvements of course?

No.
Lavine is as inconsistent as they come, and lauri's struggles are too offputting to value him much higher than Saric atm. I think rerouting Chicago's core into ours would be a mistake as I think their core is just not enough to compete at a contending level with these two

Definitely makes sense man, personally, I wouldn't trade Booker for anything short of a tier 1 or tier two star and a young prospect and picks. But I was curious as to what others perceived his value range to be currently?

Thanks for the input.

[Saberestar]

Man, Rubio questionable for tomorrow with another injury.

Feels like Baynes and Rubio pick up injuries every other game this season.

Yeah, I am a bit concerned about Baynes durability (lack of).

I think that we need to take that into consideration before offer him a new contract next summer.

His injuries, his age and his constant foul trouble during games are a kind of red flags. I love the guy but it is true that for whatever reason he never plays big time minutes. You can't spend a lot of money on a player like that.

[lilfishi22]

Man, Rubio questionable for tomorrow with another injury.

Feels like Baynes and Rubio pick up injuries every other game this season.

Yeah, I am a bit concerned about Baynes durability (lack of).

I think that we need to take that into consideration before offer him a new contract next summer.

His injuries, his age and his constant foul trouble during games are a kind of red flags. I love the guy but it is true that for whatever reason he never plays big time minutes. You can't spend a lot of money on a player like that.

I only see age is the potential red flag. The guy is playing more minutes per game than he has his entire career. He's a 15mpg player for his career and this season, he's been playing 24mpg. His type of game and durability was never suppose to translate to near starter level minutes which he's had to play this season because of Ayton's stupidity.

Last season he had some injuries that limited him to 51 games but the previous seasons before that he's played on average 76 games a season while playing those 15mpg. I'm not saying he's going to stay healthy but if you monitor his minutes, he's definitely someone that can play a ton of games during the season but you just can't be playing him 24-30mpg because he and his game isn't built for that.

I think we need to be smart with how much we pay him because realistically he's a 15, maybe 20mpg type of player that we're not even sure if we can play him next to Ayton just yet. But the good thing is, we don't have to make that decision right away.

[bwgood77]

Man, Rubio questionable for tomorrow with another injury.

Feels like Baynes and Rubio pick up injuries every other game this season.

Yeah, I am a bit concerned about Baynes durability (lack of).

I think that we need to take that into consideration before offer him a new contract next summer.

His injuries, his age and his constant foul trouble during games are a kind of red flags. I love the guy but it is true that for whatever reason he never plays big time minutes. You can't spend a lot of money on a player like that.

I think it's fine if we have Ayton. Perfect backup for him. He only might get into foul trouble because of minutes, but he's still under 6 fouls per 36 and at around 5 fouls per 36 for his career. But he should only be getting 16-20 minutes while Ayton gets 28-32. Then he'd be fine. He's the perfect fit if he stays.

I think when he plays, even without Ayton, we can beat anyone. Without him, we are lucky to beat bad teams. He is an enormous difference maker. Of course a lot of that has to do with Ayton being out, but Ayton wasn't an enormous difference maker in competing last year. I think he will be this year, but regardless, losing Baynes is a huge loss. Even without Ayton he puts us up there able to compete with anyone. With Ayton and him, we would be very tough. I wouldn't underestimate his impact.

I didn't even think we should have traded for him at the time...I thought we should keep Holmes. I was very wrong.

[lilfishi22]

From a contract standpoint I like love more than Galo. Sounds odd but with love it's only 3 more years but with Galo the only way it makes sense to give up anything of value for him is if you plan on resigning him and that won't be cheap and will probably be a 4 year deal.

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I don't necessarily see a 4 yr deal for him in the market. Also with the market and players these days, I think he's more likely to take a 2, maybe 3 year deal like we've seen over this past off season. With not a ton of teams with cap space this off season, it's likely he'll want to be back in the market in a few short years for another potential pay day while he's still in his early 30's.

With Love, he's guaranteed $30m a year over the next 3. I don't see Gallo getting that even in the open market.

[RiRuHoops]

Yes, Baynes is that secret super power elixir. One shouldn't gulp it everyday. You only need a little amount when it's time to crush your opponent.

[Kerrsed]

Man, Rubio questionable for tomorrow with another injury.

Feels like Baynes and Rubio pick up injuries every other game this season.

Yeah, I am a bit concerned about Baynes durability (lack of).

I think that we need to take that into consideration before offer him a new contract next summer.

His injuries, his age and his constant foul trouble during games are a kind of red flags. I love the guy but it is true that for whatever reason he never plays big time minutes. You can't spend a lot of money on a player like that.

I think it's fine if we have Ayton. Perfect backup for him. He only might get into foul trouble because of minutes, but he's still under 6 fouls per 36 and at around 5 fouls per 36 for his career. But he should only be getting 16-20 minutes while Ayton gets 28-32. Then he'd be fine. He's the perfect fit if he stays.

I think when he plays, even without Ayton, we can beat anyone. Without him, we are lucky to beat bad teams. He is an enormous difference maker. Of course a lot of that has to do with Ayton being out, but Ayton wasn't an enormous difference maker in competing last year. I think he will be this year, but regardless, losing Baynes is a huge loss. Even without Ayton he puts us up there able to compete with anyone. With Ayton and him, we would be very tough. I wouldn't underestimate his impact.

I didn't even think we should have traded for him at the time...I thought we should keep Holmes. I was very wrong.

Exactly. Baynes is a perfect back-up for all the reasons you mentioned. Its also the reason i cringed when people posted about continuing to start him when Ayton gets back. Baynes is great at what he does when he plays limited minutes. He's able to be a little more reckless,try to block more shots, set stronger screens, and stuff like that because he isnt worried about playing 30+ minutes and fouling out. Playing the back-up role actually allows him to go harder. When he started playing the increased minutes, yeah he was GREAT the first couple of games, but from that point on almost every aspect of his game started to suffer as he couldnt do as much and had to limit himself due to picking up fouls.....and the games he didnt do that he ended up having to sit quite a bit more due to that foul trouble. Some players are just like that, better at playing in short spurts for a shorter amount of time per game, and usually its the bigger defensive guys like Baynes.

The issue we have been having lately is mostly due in part to our PF's. With Ayton suspended and Baynes injured, we have been running our PF's out there to cover the C spot, and while some teams have the luxury of being able to do that with some players, we cant and it shows. The reason for this is because im sorry to say our PF's are tissue soft. Frank and Saric arnt those type of PF's. They are the softer i-can-shoot-open-3's type that almost seem to avoid contact at all costs. You just cant expect to throw those guys up against bigger stronger C's that are used to throwing their weight around and bully the paint.

I still think a guy like Love would be perfect. He's old (31), but is still balling at a very high level (17points, 11rebounds, 3assists while shooting 36% from 3). He's doing all that with a sh*tty supporting cast filled with youngsters, imagine what he could do here reunited with Rubio. He's under contract for the next 3 seasons. 3 and a half seasons with Love would boost us much higher in the playoff picture and help us become a team that players would want to sign with or be traded to again (Remember those days?). When his contracts up, cool, let him do what he wants, but that would give us 3 seasons of winning playoff basketball with a crop of FA's looking to take his spot. Hell, maybe Cam Johnson could learn a thing or two from him besides just taking the open 3 shot (Like MOVING WITHOUT THE BALL and BEING A SOLID PASSING BIG THAT CAN ASSIST THE REST OF THE TEAM).

Aldridge is having a HELL of a season (His fantasy rank fluctuates between #12-#17 weekly depending on the games played). While i would love to have him, having him under contract for only 1 full season at the age of 35 scares the hell out of me. Totally the type of player i see ring chasing for cheap after his current contract expires (Hooking up with AD in Lakerland or even joining Irving/KD and his buddy DeAndre Jordan in Brooklyn), while we are left holding our d**ks in our hand after trading for him.

And i dont care what anyone says, i would make a trade for Blake Griffin in a heartbeat.

But for the love of god stay away from Aaron Gordon. He just isnt that good of a player at all. Jack of most trades, master of none. Does a little bit of everything (Minus defense), but really isnt that good at anything.......and is very very inconsistent.

Sure, there might be a few other PF's that are flying under the radar that would be a vast improvement over what we have now and im just forgetting, but these are the big names that are thrown about, somewhat available, and are talked about the most.

[Dual]

My preferences:
Love
Markkanen
Gallinari
Gordon
In that order.
I will not trade for Aldrige.

[TeamTragic]

Alex Kennedy with Hoops Hype has LM Aldridge possibly on the block and mentions the suns blazers nuggets and kings.

So what would be fair as LMA is signed through 2021 (2 yes/50m)

Tyler
Saric or Frank
Culver

Protected Pick

I just am not willing to include Jerome Cam Bridges or Oubre

We should be talking about resigning Saric. Not trading him for a player that doesn't help this team.

[bwgood77]

We need to hold tight and see what our team looks like at full strength with Ayton back, Saric next to him instead of Kaminsky, Kaminsky back to a backup where people were happy with him earlier.

I read people saying not using Tyler's expiring in a trade is bad, or negligence, or something, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't want long term money.

Now Aldridge, for example, I wouldn't totally mind, mostly because he expires in 21 and there are not any worthwhile free agents next summer.

However, I wouldn't trade a 1st round pick for him, protected or not. We will need these cheap contracts. If we decided we didn't want to pay Saric and could trade him and Tyler for Aldridge, it might be a solid deal, and SA might want a guy like Saric. We need more defense and although Blake or Love might be better overall players, their contracts are too huge and too long. We need to be players in FA in 21.

Also, we need our draft picks to get a PG and PF for the future. We are still overall a team with a young core, and the west is still brutally tough. And make no mistake, GS is probably the best team next year with a healthy Klay, Curry, Draymond, possibly Russell and a top 5 pick. Plus the other 6 teams that look locked into playoff spots.

I don't think we should be too desperate to trade for a long term old player who is expensive to maybe get a 7 or 8 seed, possibly slightly higher if other teams have injuries, etc, but are likely still first round fodder, but we may be able to get to the playoffs anyway. It is really unlikely we get to the 2nd round regardless in the next year or two.

But when our players hit their prime it could happen, and if we draft a PG and PF for the future, we hit our peak in 4-5 years maybe. I would like to focus on the mid and long term future while maintaining a team that can still possibly get a taste of the playoffs or just missing that might make them hungrier...either way they get hungrier.

[Dual]

We need to hold tight and see what our team looks like at full strength with Ayton back, Saric next to him instead of Kaminsky, Kaminsky back to a backup where people were happy with him earlier.

I read people saying not using Tyler's expiring in a trade is bad, or negligence, or something, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't want long term money.

Now Aldridge, for example, I wouldn't totally mind, mostly because he expires in 21 and there are not any worthwhile free agents next summer.

However, I wouldn't trade a 1st round pick for him, protected or not. We will need these cheap contracts. If we decided we didn't want to pay Saric and could trade him and Tyler for Aldridge, it might be a solid deal, and SA might want a guy like Saric. We need more defense and although Blake or Love might be better overall players, their contracts are too huge and too long. We need to be players in FA in 21.

Also, we need our draft picks to get a PG and PF for the future. We are still overall a team with a young core, and the west is still brutally tough. And make no mistake, GS is probably the best team next year with a healthy Klay, Curry, Draymond, possibly Russell and a top 5 pick. Plus the other 6 teams that look locked into playoff spots.

I don't think we should be too desperate to trade for a long term old player who is expensive to maybe get a 7 or 8 seed, possibly slightly higher if other teams have injuries, etc, but are likely still first round fodder, but we may be able to get to the playoffs anyway. It is really unlikely we get to the 2nd round regardless in the next year or two.

But when our players hit their prime it could happen, and if we draft a PG and PF for the future, we hit our peak in 4-5 years maybe. I would like to focus on the mid and long term future while maintaining a team that can still possibly get a taste of the playoffs or just missing that might make them hungrier...either way they get hungrier.

Too many ifs right? You can or cant draft your pg and pf of the future, is really difficult and rare to succeed thinking that way I believe.
You have to be very lucky with your picks and if you dont have high picks, again be lucky that they develop.
Once you turn the team into winning culture as Jones is trying to do, Phoenix is a good place for FA to play for.

[lilfishi22]

We need to hold tight and see what our team looks like at full strength with Ayton back, Saric next to him instead of Kaminsky, Kaminsky back to a backup where people were happy with him earlier.

I read people saying not using Tyler's expiring in a trade is bad, or negligence, or something, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't want long term money.

Now Aldridge, for example, I wouldn't totally mind, mostly because he expires in 21 and there are not any worthwhile free agents next summer.

However, I wouldn't trade a 1st round pick for him, protected or not. We will need these cheap contracts. If we decided we didn't want to pay Saric and could trade him and Tyler for Aldridge, it might be a solid deal, and SA might want a guy like Saric. We need more defense and although Blake or Love might be better overall players, their contracts are too huge and too long. We need to be players in FA in 21.

Also, we need our draft picks to get a PG and PF for the future. We are still overall a team with a young core, and the west is still brutally tough. And make no mistake, GS is probably the best team next year with a healthy Klay, Curry, Draymond, possibly Russell and a top 5 pick. Plus the other 6 teams that look locked into playoff spots.

I don't think we should be too desperate to trade for a long term old player who is expensive to maybe get a 7 or 8 seed, possibly slightly higher if other teams have injuries, etc, but are likely still first round fodder, but we may be able to get to the playoffs anyway. It is really unlikely we get to the 2nd round regardless in the next year or two.

But when our players hit their prime it could happen, and if we draft a PG and PF for the future, we hit our peak in 4-5 years maybe. I would like to focus on the mid and long term future while maintaining a team that can still possibly get a taste of the playoffs or just missing that might make them hungrier...either way they get hungrier.

I need some clarification on what your thinking with Tyler Johnson's contract is? You seem OK with us doing nothing with it and just letting his contract expire because you don't want long term money but I'd assume you'd use what cap space we would have to sign other players, likely to long term deals right?

[bwgood77]

We need to hold tight and see what our team looks like at full strength with Ayton back, Saric next to him instead of Kaminsky, Kaminsky back to a backup where people were happy with him earlier.

I read people saying not using Tyler's expiring in a trade is bad, or negligence, or something, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't want long term money.

Now Aldridge, for example, I wouldn't totally mind, mostly because he expires in 21 and there are not any worthwhile free agents next summer.

However, I wouldn't trade a 1st round pick for him, protected or not. We will need these cheap contracts. If we decided we didn't want to pay Saric and could trade him and Tyler for Aldridge, it might be a solid deal, and SA might want a guy like Saric. We need more defense and although Blake or Love might be better overall players, their contracts are too huge and too long. We need to be players in FA in 21.

Also, we need our draft picks to get a PG and PF for the future. We are still overall a team with a young core, and the west is still brutally tough. And make no mistake, GS is probably the best team next year with a healthy Klay, Curry, Draymond, possibly Russell and a top 5 pick. Plus the other 6 teams that look locked into playoff spots.

I don't think we should be too desperate to trade for a long term old player who is expensive to maybe get a 7 or 8 seed, possibly slightly higher if other teams have injuries, etc, but are likely still first round fodder, but we may be able to get to the playoffs anyway. It is really unlikely we get to the 2nd round regardless in the next year or two.

But when our players hit their prime it could happen, and if we draft a PG and PF for the future, we hit our peak in 4-5 years maybe. I would like to focus on the mid and long term future while maintaining a team that can still possibly get a taste of the playoffs or just missing that might make them hungrier...either way they get hungrier.

Too many ifs right? You can or cant draft your pg and pf of the future, is really difficult and rare to succeed thinking that way I believe.
You have to be very lucky with your picks and if you dont have high picks, again be lucky that they develop.
Once you turn the team into winning culture as Jones is trying to do, Phoenix is a good place for FA to play for.

You're right, but there are no good free agents, and the very best teams have been primarily built through the draft, like GS, SA, lately Denver, Toronto, Utah, etc. If you are not a big lucrative market, particularly one on the coast (LA, NY, BOS, MIA) it's tough to get impact free agents. Plus it's always good to keep your draft picks to have the rookie contracts and a chance at hitting a big time impact player. I still think we should draft these guys AND use our money in 21 to add what we can, but it's not all that easy with you bidding against other teams.

[bwgood77]

We need to hold tight and see what our team looks like at full strength with Ayton back, Saric next to him instead of Kaminsky, Kaminsky back to a backup where people were happy with him earlier.

I read people saying not using Tyler's expiring in a trade is bad, or negligence, or something, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't want long term money.

Now Aldridge, for example, I wouldn't totally mind, mostly because he expires in 21 and there are not any worthwhile free agents next summer.

However, I wouldn't trade a 1st round pick for him, protected or not. We will need these cheap contracts. If we decided we didn't want to pay Saric and could trade him and Tyler for Aldridge, it might be a solid deal, and SA might want a guy like Saric. We need more defense and although Blake or Love might be better overall players, their contracts are too huge and too long. We need to be players in FA in 21.

Also, we need our draft picks to get a PG and PF for the future. We are still overall a team with a young core, and the west is still brutally tough. And make no mistake, GS is probably the best team next year with a healthy Klay, Curry, Draymond, possibly Russell and a top 5 pick. Plus the other 6 teams that look locked into playoff spots.

I don't think we should be too desperate to trade for a long term old player who is expensive to maybe get a 7 or 8 seed, possibly slightly higher if other teams have injuries, etc, but are likely still first round fodder, but we may be able to get to the playoffs anyway. It is really unlikely we get to the 2nd round regardless in the next year or two.

But when our players hit their prime it could happen, and if we draft a PG and PF for the future, we hit our peak in 4-5 years maybe. I would like to focus on the mid and long term future while maintaining a team that can still possibly get a taste of the playoffs or just missing that might make them hungrier...either way they get hungrier.

I need some clarification on what your thinking with Tyler Johnson's contract is? You seem OK with us doing nothing with it and just letting his contract expire because you don't want long term money but I'd assume you'd use what cap space we would have to sign other players, likely to long term deals right?

It depends on what is out there. If a team drastically wants to clear cap space, it will be useful. Which teams are those and what do they give us? I have said I feel ok with Aldridge given that he expires, but I don't know what else they would want. I have also said I wouldn't throw 1st round draft picks in. So it depends. I'd prefer saving money than taking a long term bad deal. Even giving Baynes a nice big deal for 2 years. Expiring contracts are not as valuable as they used to be..we should have seen that by now with some of the expiring guys we've had.

[oddity]

Yeah, I am a bit concerned about Baynes durability (lack of).

I think that we need to take that into consideration before offer him a new contract next summer.

His injuries, his age and his constant foul trouble during games are a kind of red flags. I love the guy but it is true that for whatever reason he never plays big time minutes. You can't spend a lot of money on a player like that.

I think it's fine if we have Ayton. Perfect backup for him. He only might get into foul trouble because of minutes, but he's still under 6 fouls per 36 and at around 5 fouls per 36 for his career. But he should only be getting 16-20 minutes while Ayton gets 28-32. Then he'd be fine. He's the perfect fit if he stays.

I think when he plays, even without Ayton, we can beat anyone. Without him, we are lucky to beat bad teams. He is an enormous difference maker. Of course a lot of that has to do with Ayton being out, but Ayton wasn't an enormous difference maker in competing last year. I think he will be this year, but regardless, losing Baynes is a huge loss. Even without Ayton he puts us up there able to compete with anyone. With Ayton and him, we would be very tough. I wouldn't underestimate his impact.

I didn't even think we should have traded for him at the time...I thought we should keep Holmes. I was very wrong.

Exactly. Baynes is a perfect back-up for all the reasons you mentioned. Its also the reason i cringed when people posted about continuing to start him when Ayton gets back. Baynes is great at what he does when he plays limited minutes. He's able to be a little more reckless,try to block more shots, set stronger screens, and stuff like that because he isnt worried about playing 30+ minutes and fouling out. Playing the back-up role actually allows him to go harder. When he started playing the increased minutes, yeah he was GREAT the first couple of games, but from that point on almost every aspect of his game started to suffer as he couldnt do as much and had to limit himself due to picking up fouls.....and the games he didnt do that he ended up having to sit quite a bit more due to that foul trouble. Some players are just like that, better at playing in short spurts for a shorter amount of time per game, and usually its the bigger defensive guys like Baynes.

The issue we have been having lately is mostly due in part to our PF's. With Ayton suspended and Baynes injured, we have been running our PF's out there to cover the C spot, and while some teams have the luxury of being able to do that with some players, we cant and it shows. The reason for this is because im sorry to say our PF's are tissue soft. Frank and Saric arnt those type of PF's. They are the softer i-can-shoot-open-3's type that almost seem to avoid contact at all costs. You just cant expect to throw those guys up against bigger stronger C's that are used to throwing their weight around and bully the paint.

I still think a guy like Love would be perfect. He's old (31), but is still balling at a very high level (17points, 11rebounds, 3assists while shooting 36% from 3). He's doing all that with a sh*tty supporting cast filled with youngsters, imagine what he could do here reunited with Rubio. He's under contract for the next 3 seasons. 3 and a half seasons with Love would boost us much higher in the playoff picture and help us become a team that players would want to sign with or be traded to again (Remember those days?). When his contracts up, cool, let him do what he wants, but that would give us 3 seasons of winning playoff basketball with a crop of FA's looking to take his spot. Hell, maybe Cam Johnson could learn a thing or two from him besides just taking the open 3 shot (Like MOVING WITHOUT THE BALL and BEING A SOLID PASSING BIG THAT CAN ASSIST THE REST OF THE TEAM).

Aldridge is having a HELL of a season (His fantasy rank fluctuates between #12-#17 weekly depending on the games played). While i would love to have him, having him under contract for only 1 full season at the age of 35 scares the hell out of me. Totally the type of player i see ring chasing for cheap after his current contract expires (Hooking up with AD in Lakerland or even joining Irving/KD and his buddy DeAndre Jordan in Brooklyn), while we are left holding our d**ks in our hand after trading for him.

And i dont care what anyone says, i would make a trade for Blake Griffin in a heartbeat.

But for the love of god stay away from Aaron Gordon. He just isnt that good of a player at all. Jack of most trades, master of none. Does a little bit of everything (Minus defense), but really isnt that good at anything.......and is very very inconsistent.

Sure, there might be a few other PF's that are flying under the radar that would be a vast improvement over what we have now and im just forgetting, but these are the big names that are thrown about, somewhat available, and are talked about the most.

But... is Cam a big really? The big thing w Cam is that nobody really knows what direction they want him to go in. Is he a big guard, a normal wing, or a small ball 4?

I've been coming around on the idea of Kevin Love recently, but it may prove to be a bit short sighted if the right free agent comes by in the next few years. Thing is this years free agency class is really bereft of good 4s, so saving cap space would require a lot more patience.

[nevetsov]

Oubre and Tyler for AG and Terrence Ross. Magic save money and get a long term SF to pair with Isaac at PF.

Rubio, Jerome, Carter
Booker, Ross, Okobo
Bridges, Johnson
Gordon, Saric, Kaminsky
Ayton, Baynes, Diallo

Or

Oubre and Tyler for Love and Dellevedova ($9m expiring, can be used later in the season as a trade piece, or in conjunction with Kaminsky's $5m team option to get a backup SG):

Rubio, Jerome, Carter
Booker, Okobo, Dellevedova
Bridges, Johnson
Love, Saric, Kaminsky
Ayton, Baynes, Diallo

[RiRuHoops]

Isn't LMA strictly a center now ? He's old and has got that dad's bod. I guess Ayton could play PF next to him. Also LMA gets only 6 rpg as a full time center, that's lazy.