Seattle Supersonics 2021 Expansion draft - GMs sign up/protection lists

[Texas Chuck]

Unprotect KP friends!!

You seem to have nailed the 2nd most important decision (protecting Luka duh) so why don't you take it? Other Mavs fans can weigh in if we want to suggest protecting someone else, but we have confidence in you.

[gswhoops]

I’ll take the Warriors

Protect: Steph, Draymond, Klay, Wiggins, Wiseman, Looney, Poole, JTA

Open: Paschall, Lee, Mulder, Smailagic, GP2

[K_chile22]

I'll do the rockets:

They'd probably protect:
KPJ
KJ Martin
Wood
Jae'Sean Tate
Danuel House
Khyri Thomas
Edit: RFA Armoni Brooks


Do I have to pick eight? Lol
All that's left is Wall, Gordon and Augustine and anyone who wants them can have them

If I had to pick eight I guess I would just do Lamb as a RFA with a two way QO so I don't have to protect one of those other guys

[daoneandonly]

Unprotect KP friends!!

You seem to have nailed the 2nd most important decision (protecting Luka duh) so why don't you take it? Other Mavs fans can weigh in if we want to suggest protecting someone else, but we have confidence in you.

Sure, if no one objects, I can take the Mavs

[Texas Chuck]

Open: Wiggins,

I'm guessing this is because with the reduced salary cap that an expansion team starts with, that there is no chance they would actually draft him right?

Because despite him still being negative value imo, it would be a disaster for GSW to lose him as a player or their big salary matching option for another impact player.

I think you are correct that its safe, but I'd actually be so worried about that 5% chance they take him that I'd leave Looney unprotected instead.

[gswhoops]

Open: Wiggins,

I'm guessing this is because with the reduced salary cap that an expansion team starts with, that there is no chance they would actually draft him right?

Because despite him still being negative value imo, it would be a disaster for GSW to lose him as a player or their big salary matching option for another impact player.

I think you are correct that its safe, but I'd actually be so worried about that 5% chance they take him that I'd leave Looney unprotected instead.

Yeah I think there’s a virtually non-existent chance that an expansion team ties up 40-50% of their first year cap on Wiggins vs. a relatively high chance they take someone like Paschall or JTA.

If they do take him, it wouldn’t be ideal, but I don’t know that I’d say it was a disaster. We could re-sign Oubre as an adequate replacement at 1/2 the cost and we’d still be able to match a good player with Wiseman/Looney/draft pick salaries if the right deal came along. I don’t harbor any illusions that a superstar will become available that we’d need Wiggins to match.

[daoneandonly]

Wasn't sure how to handle guys with player options (J-Rich) or team options (WCS), but here's my go for Dallas. Let me know if I missed the options explanation or how that impacts anything:

Protected:
Luka Doncic
Dorian Finney-Smith
Maxi Kleber
Jalen Brunson
Josh Green
Tyrell Terry
Willie Cauley Stein (team option)
Josh Richardson (player option - if he opts in)

Available:
Kristpas Porzingis
Dwight Powell
Trey Burke

[gswhoops]

I'll do the rockets:

They'd probably protect:
KPJ
KJ Martin
Wood
Jae'Sean Tate
Danuel House
Khyri Thomas
Edit: RFA Armoni Brooks


Do I have to pick eight? Lol
All that's left is Wall, Gordon and Augustine and anyone who wants them can have them

If I had to pick eight I guess I would just do Lamb as a RFA with a two way QO so I don't have to protect one of those other guys

I don't think you have to protect anyone if you don't want to lol. IIRC the only rules are that you can protect up to 8 and you have to leave at least 2 unprotected

[shrink]

[quote="Wolveswin"] I will do the Wolves:

Protected:
Towns
Edwards
Russell (Towns’s buddy, can’t make him available) ... [/quote]

Is it strange that I go back and forth on this?

Financially, I think it would be a win to turn Russell into payroll relief, and as Texas Chuck noted with Wiggins, at two years $30 mil per, it might be unlikely an expansion team has room for the salary. But he is young, and he will score, and an expansion team could market him. Also, if he’s not protected, and Seattle didn’t take him, what kind of social damage does this do? Is he upset he wasn’t protected? Is Towns? Does Rosas say, “no, you really are our future...?”

You could certainly be right here, and the next player they’d likely protect is Jaylen Nowell, who has been great in almost every opportunity he’s gotten in the crowded guard position for the Wolves. But I’m curious if others have an opinion on this?

[K_chile22]

I'll do the rockets:

They'd probably protect:
KPJ
KJ Martin
Wood
Jae'Sean Tate
Danuel House
Khyri Thomas
Edit: RFA Armoni Brooks


Do I have to pick eight? Lol
All that's left is Wall, Gordon and Augustine and anyone who wants them can have them

If I had to pick eight I guess I would just do Lamb as a RFA with a two way QO so I don't have to protect one of those other guys

I don't think you have to protect anyone if you don't want to lol. IIRC the only rules are that you can protect up to 8 and you have to leave at least 2 unprotected

Ah, well in that case consider Mr. Lamb's QO revoked lol

[Texas Chuck]

Wasn't sure how to handle guys with player options (J-Rich) or team options (WCS), but here's my go for Dallas. Let me know if I missed the options explanation or how that impacts anything:

Agree with your list fwiw. As to this. If Richardson opts in I think Dallas should protect him because I believe they could flip him. Small argument of course that he's only opting in because he can't get paid which makes him negative value by default and Dallas should just take the cap space. I'd still protect him.

And with Willie, I'd assume that if Dallas picks up his option that means they want him and since they can protect him, they should protect him. Assuming that Richardson isn't being protected. Not sure what they are doing with his option. I would have been sure they are declining it but if the plan is THJ then might as well keep him and use the MLE for a 2nd signing as he had his usages and he'd be an expiring to use for potential matching.

[HartfordWhalers]

I think an expansion franchise would absolutely take Porzingas (or even Russell), and have one of them as the new franchise face.

Gerald Wallace wasn't cheap for Charlotte back then, and wasn't sellable as much as a *young* all star. Wiggins, I dunno. I would be worried he wouldn't try at all; but maybe the team might.

[Texas Chuck]

Financially, I think it would be a win to turn Russell into payroll relief, and as Texas Chuck noted with Wiggins, at two years $30 mil per, it might be unlikely an expansion team has room for the salary. But he is young, and he will score, and an expansion team could market him. Also, if he’s not protected, and Seattle didn’t take him, what kind of social damage does this do? Is he upset he wasn’t protected? Is Towns? Does Rosas say, “no, you really are our future...?”

You could certainly be right here, and the next player they’d likely protect is Jaylen Nowell, who has been great in almost every opportunity he’s gotten in the crowded guard position for the Wolves. But I’m curious if others have an opinion on this?

I'd rather protect Nowell who I think would be a real candidate to be selected. But I agree with all your concerns about Russell. I think with some players you can go to him and his agent and say look the Sonics would love to have your talent but can't afford your contract and so we are exposing you merely as a mechanism to also keep this young player we really like. But with Russell, and by extension Towns, that's probably a risk not worth taking. And if they Sonics were to target Nowell, rules allow you to offer them incentive to not. So you could send them a future 2nd and a $1M or something to keep him if you wanted.

But these are my favorite protection questions. These big contracts not worth their money but that you don't necessarily want to lose. I'm only okay with leaving KP unprotected because if he got taken Dallas gains pure cap space equal to his salary and even without a star to sign I'm confident they could make good use. If Dallas was well over the cap, I'd protect him.

[loserX]

Wasn't sure how to handle guys with player options (J-Rich) or team options (WCS), but here's my go for Dallas. Let me know if I missed the options explanation or how that impacts anything:

I think in general, team options are the easy ones. If it's someone you want to protect, you value them and would be picking up the team option anyway. If it's someone you don't want to protect, you probably don't like them and would decline the team option anyway

The only exception I can think of would be if:
- you have 8 guys you want to protect
- you have 1 more guy with a team option
- everyone else is a UFA so you can't protect them
Since you *must* leave one player unprotected, in this case you could pick up the TO just so you can put *someone* on the unprotected list that isn't one of your 8, and the risk of being stuck with him is better than the risk of losing one of your 8. But that would be a pretty rare situation.

[Dr Positivity]

I think an expansion franchise would absolutely take Porzingas (or even Russell), and have one of them as the new franchise face.

Gerald Wallace wasn't cheap for Charlotte back then, and wasn't sellable as much as a *young* all star. Wiggins, I dunno. I would be worried he wouldn't try at all; but maybe the team might.

Huh? Wallace was basically a scrub when Charlotte drafted him. Edit: Actually I just found a Chad Ford article that claimed Wallace was "the biggest name" in it. It looks like people kind of knew Wallace had potential from his high school days.

I think BJ Armstrong contract was reasonably well paid by 95 standards. He made more than Pippen!

A lot of the bigger names the Bobcats turned down were older, Eddie Jones, Antonio Davis, Allan Houston, Brian Grant, Derrick Coleman, etc. Seems like a different time in terms of guys in their mid 20s like Wiggins, Porzingis and Russell being available.

[Texas Chuck]

I think an expansion franchise would absolutely take Porzingas (or even Russell), and have one of them as the new franchise face.

Ideal scenario for Dallas. They are different from Minnesota in that their star player would be happy to see him go and they would gain $30M in cap space. And I agree. I think he could easily be the first pick in the draft before they start picking up cheap young guys. Unless of course they go the way some past expansion teams did where they take on contracts from teams incentivizing them with draft picks.

[gswhoops]

I think an expansion franchise would absolutely take Porzingas (or even Russell), and have one of them as the new franchise face.

Ideal scenario for Dallas. They are different from Minnesota in that their star player would be happy to see him go and they would gain $30M in cap space. And I agree. I think he could easily be the first pick in the draft before they start picking up cheap young guys. Unless of course they go the way some past expansion teams did where they take on contracts from teams incentivizing them with draft picks.

Yeah honestly KP getting picked would be a win-win-win. Dallas gets immediate cap space that they can actually use, KP gets his wish to be “the man,” and the Sonics get a guy they can market as the face of the franchise

[babyjax13]

Utah:

Protect:
Donovan Mitchell
Rudy Gobert
Bojan Bogdanovic
Joe Ingles
Jordan Clarkson
Royce O'neale
Derrick Favors
Udoka Azubuike

Unprotected:
Elijah Hughes
Miye Oni
Matt Thomas

UFA: Mike Conley, Georges Niang, Ersan Ilyasova, Jarell Brantley, Trent Forrest, Juwan Morgan

[gswhoops]

I think an expansion franchise would absolutely take Porzingas (or even Russell), and have one of them as the new franchise face.

Gerald Wallace wasn't cheap for Charlotte back then, and wasn't sellable as much as a *young* all star. Wiggins, I dunno. I would be worried he wouldn't try at all; but maybe the team might.

I’m pretty confident Wiggins wouldn’t be picked. He’s by far the least marketable of these three (the only one who’s never been an All-Star and the farthest away from being a high draft pick) and his skill set is least adaptable to being a #1 option.

[loserX]

I think it would be very Morey-esque actually to have it be Paul, and offer a 2nd rounder to Seattle to not select George Hill.

If I were Seattle I'd demand more than that. I'd probably tell Philly if you leave Hill unprotected, I'm taking him and immediately putting him on the trade block, and I bet I can get more than a single 2nd from someone. So Philly can either protect him or they can be the high bidder.

Then I could see the protect Reed and offer a 2nd to keep Hill. And I think that will morph into a trade Hill and a 1st for someone picked off another team.

My previous comment may be entirely moot depending on what this proposal looks like