Growing from within

[Natebishop3]

Parsons would help

Eh, I'm afraid of his injuries now. This latest one was the last straw.

 

[KingSpeed]

We don't have much scoring in our front court.

Harkless and Aminu are improving as scorers. Vonleh has an offseason to improve. And then there's Meyers.

 

[Natebishop3]

Harkless and Aminu are improving as scorers. Vonleh has an offseason to improve. And then there's Meyers.

That's fine. I'd still like to get a proven scorer at the four.

 

[KingSpeed]

That's fine. I'd still like to get a proven scorer at the four.

I'm fine with someone like Horford. He wouldn't disrupt chemistry, but who else? Meyers Leonard can score and needs another chance.

 

[ripcityboy]

There's an easy way to figure out if we need more players. Baseball has system called WAR. It's a measure of a players value per year against the average of every other player at his position. Every championship team has a very high combined WAR. Like the Royals last year won it all and were ranked 5th in the final combined statistics.

I'm am sure basketball has a equivalent statistic..... (PERS I think.) I would think that you can a four or five year projection of all our players at their highest projected equivalent future WAR-type stat. How would the collected data match up against the say the last 10 NBA champions..... if the data isn't comperable then we need more players.

I am sure their are some Sabermetric Jonah Hill moneyball types out there. I'm not sorry. I'm just a lazy old Gen Xer who collects vinyl.

 

[Natebishop3]

I'm fine with someone like Horford. He wouldn't disrupt chemistry, but who else? Meyers Leonard can score and needs another chance.

Meyers needs to GTFO.

 

[BonesJones]

Neil has to spend the money. This is his one chance. After this summer it's gone. Dame will be super maxed. CJ will get his extension. We won't be anywhere near the cap.

Dames super max kicks in for this offsets on so that's not a change, and CJs qualifying offer won't be too much.

 

[Draco]

Three guys that would fit our system pretty well:

Harrison Barnes
Nic Batum
Evan Turner

Max player
Max player
22% 3 point shooter; not sure I'd say he fits Stotts system.

 

[Draco]

Now if we can get a quality max player go for it; if not I like Neil's strategy of acquiring undervalued diamond in the rough players on reasonable contracts. If we can keep Harkless, Crabbe, Hendo on reasonable contracts do it. Ultimately I think DameCJ and Ed Davis are the core components of this team and everyone else is just a role player.

Harkless has done more in 8 games than Meyers has done in 4 years; and he's younger. I think he should clearly be a higher priority. I can't fathom how some fans think Meyers is worth keeping on a $10+ million per year contract. The guy hasn't proven to be a productive backup nor does he have starter upside. He bet on himself and lost; not the teams job to pay bad gambling debts.

 

[Tunchi]

What ya think of Zbo? Bring him back. Memphis is gonna rebuild soon. Get Zbo as a stop gap while Vonleh still develops and he can teach him

 

[KingSpeed]

What ya think of Zbo? Bring him back. Memphis is gonna rebuild soon. Get Zbo as a stop gap while Vonleh still develops and he can teach him

maybe in the Kaman role?

 

[3RA1N1AC]

Id rather have Frye back.

 

[KingSpeed]

Id rather have Frye back.

Good call

 

[Tunchi]

maybe in the Kaman role?

I'll have him start. Harkless at the 3 and Zbo at the 4.

Then Aminu can be the speciality player he naturally is that excels in defense who can hit the occasional, respectable corner 3. Instead he won't have to do too much that he annoying shit he tries to do now.

This of course would be a 1 year or 2 year situation because Zbo is getting older, although still VERY useful. While in the meantime vonleh is groomed to take over the 4 spot since everybody is so high on him. That way his development isn't rushed while at the same time Zbo is keeping us in the hunt for the now..

 

[3RA1N1AC]

Honestly, how about dodging two MAX bullets last offseason? Monroe and Kanter have proven themselves ineffectual to winning basketball games.

Maybe a max salary 3rd tier player isn't the solution.

 

[BonesJones]

I think the one obvious move would be to trade Aminu for a 1st round pick. Clears up capspace and we could look to draft Denzel Valentine, Taurean Prince, or even that Thon Maker kid if he's eligible. Then we'd have, by my estimations $40M (counting Harkless and Crabbes holds) to pursue one or two of the following


SG Gerald Henderson
SG/SF DeMar Derozen
SF/SG Nic Batum
SF Chandler Parsons
SF Luol Deng
PF/C Pau Gasol
PF/C Jared Sullinger
C/PF AL Horford
C Ian Mahinmi

I think that we could buuild a top 3 bench in the league, while keeping the guys that are growing the most:

Heres 3 examples:
Chandler Parsons ($15M)
Luol Deng ($10M)
Jared Sullinger ($14M)

Lillard (35)
McCollum (35) / Crabbe (26)
Parsons (26) / Deng (20)
Harkless (24) / Sullinger (22) / Vonleh (8)
Plumlee (20) / Davis (22) /
---------------------------------------------
2.) Batum ($18M)
Gasol ($15M)
Henderson ($8M)

Lillard (35)
McCollum (35) / Henderson (24)
Batum (28) / Crabbe (22)
Harkless (24) / Davis (22)
Gasol (32) / Plumlee (18)

---------------------------------------
3.) Derozen ($20M)
Horford ($20M)

Lillard (35)
McCollum (35) / Crabbe (22)
Derozen (34) / (Harkless)
Harkless (25) / Davis (22) / Vonleh (15)
Horford (32) / Plumlee (20)

All of those teams would be for sure 50+ win teams. Any combination of those guys taking up the $40M would make us a 50 win team. If we strike out, we can look elsewhere or sign Evan Turner as an Aminu replacement and bring back everyone.

In essence we gotta shoot for the moon in free agency, because even if we miss then we'll land amongst the stars (By keeping this bunch together). It's a no lose situation.

 

[BonesJones]

Honestly, how about dodging two MAX bullets last offseason? Monroe and Kanter have proven themselves ineffectual to winning basketball games.

Maybe a max salary 3rd tier player isn't the solution.

They've just proven that you gotta have defensive bigs. Offense is more important for guards, defense is more important for bigs. Swingmen should be able to do both.

 

[BonesJones]

What ya think of Zbo? Bring him back. Memphis is gonna rebuild soon. Get Zbo as a stop gap while Vonleh still develops and he can teach him

Not a bad idea.

 

[AquaXI]

Do we have a first round?( forgive my novice fandom ) we should grab a Center cause Meyers ain't worth anywhere near max.

 

[ripcityboy]

Z-Bo would be a great bench addition. If we can at a decent price and that domestic violence incident clears up.

 

[Rhal]

Do we have a first round?( forgive my novice fandom ) we should grab a Center cause Meyers ain't worth anywhere near max.

If we make the playoffs our first goes to Denver.

 

[AquaXI]

If we make the playoffs our first goes to Denver.

Thank you. Well that sucks. Maybe we can get lucky with the next pick.

 

[ripcityboy]

I remember Michael Eisner in an interview talking about being president of Paramount in the late 70's and early 80's. He said, not quoting him directly but paraphrasing, "What you should realize is that we had no money. So what I did was create a businees model where I hired hungry talented people, directors From TV, actors nobody knows about. And you keep the whole thing going as long as you can.... and then you blow it up! And start it all over again."

Funny that Neil Olshey is a former actor.... he kind of operates the same way. He's limited in the amount of methods he can acquire players. So he spends takes chance on underappreciated talent using late round draft picks. And he keeps the whole group together as long as possible.... and then he blows it up! Quite effective really. So I don't sweat not having the occasional draft picks.