Everything 2019 Offseason!

[slaw]

If they're losing Kyrie does it make sense to give Al that kind of money?

Boston is in a tough spot. They also have Hayward on a massive contract (though only 2 years left on that). They probably aren't top 4 in the East without Irving unless Tatum takes a massive, gargantuan leap (Tor, MKE, Phila, Indy, Brooklyn(?)) but if they lose Horford then they are really thin all over the board.

LOL. Ah, good times.

[planetmars]

If they're losing Kyrie does it make sense to give Al that kind of money?

They got to game 7 of the ECF without Kyrie.. it's possible they can do that again. Although East is tougher now than it was last year. Maybe they go for one more try without Kyrie and hope Hayward makes a leap? If they lose Rozier they'll need a PG though. And they are tough to find (just ask the Magic or the Suns).

[Demographic Shift]

If they're losing Kyrie does it make sense to give Al that kind of money?

To me.... yes.

Heres todays editorial as to why..

They are going to lose Kyrie Irving for nothing.

Which would normally be a cause for apoplexy but .. for whatever reason ...this doesn't seem to be the case in either the exec suite or with the players. To me its a confirmation that the guys who ride the bus and the plane and share the dressing room with Kyrie are kinda happy hes going. Irving seems to be never happy .. not in Cleveland and now not in Boston. So its AMF to Irving.

The byproduct of that is that Rozier now gets what he wants in that he is now the starting PG on an eastern confrence contender. He is an RFA and no one ever loses RFA's. Tatum and Brown who had to take a back seat to Irving for a year now get more minutes to show how good they are. Hayward should be better as he has had another year to heal up from that gruesome leg injury.

AND

Horford is the glue that holds all these up and comers together. Consumate team guy and a pros pro. A younger Marc Gasol.

[Jclaw]

They can do without Norm. OG is waiting in the wing.

i see what you did there

[golden]

They got to game 7 of the ECF without Kyrie.. it's possible they can do that again. Although East is tougher now than it was last year. Maybe they go for one more try without Kyrie and hope Hayward makes a leap? If they lose Rozier they'll need a PG though. And they are tough to find (just ask the Magic or the Suns).

Not a chance. Bucks, Raps & Sixers each have a legit MVP candidate and good to great depth, while the Celtics would be losing their most talented player.

[slaw]

Not a chance. Bucks, Raps & Sixers each have a legit MVP candidate and good to great depth, while the Celtics would be losing their most talented player.

Yeah, the East has moved on from 2018. Leaving aside the three teams above, Indy will be tough again this year and Brooklyn could be adding a couple of top players. And you never know with the Knicks, though, I imagine they are destined for massive disappointment in free agency once again.

[G__Deane]

If the Raps keep Kawhi and Green stays at 10M, they project to $75M in tax, with a total salary + tax roster cost of $235M. If just Kawhi re-signs and Danny walks (or they re-sign him but shed the equivalent of his salary elsewhere), that total is $190M. $190M is the reasonable expectation for a champion, I think, with this year's number being about $165M. The $235M is nutty.

I don't understand how other teams are able to have/keep 2-3 superstars then.
Reason #1 is Lowry is a star and makes superstar money and
Reason #2 we have a couple "good not great" players making 20+

Lowry is 33.3M, Gasol is 25.5 and Serge is 23.3 next season. The only other guys making any kind of serious money are Danny and Powell @ $10M apiece. Fred makes 9M next year.

McCaw, Lin, Meeks, Loyd and Moreland make squat but I can only see McCaw back next year. That just frees up bench tinkering money, maybe $2M

I believe Masai moves one of Lowry (gasp!), Gasol or Serge. All hard pills to swallow but I think it's a mistake to trot the whole squad out there again and expect similar success. LOVE the guy but if possible, I'd move Gasol for a younger serviceable centre and be able to afford another mid level piece with upside. Or you move Kyle for a young up and coming guard off the bench and roll the dice with FVV as your starter. Save 20M there to go after some more serious talent.

If Kawhi walks (he stay!) I'd blow out each of Lowry, Gasol and Serge and Green and blow it way the hell up lol. Another hard pill since superstars aren't signing anywhere to rebuild. These are just day-after-hot-takes and don't account for any number of "you can't becuase of X cap considerations etc" so relax keyboard warriors.....

When I think about this, re-signing Kawhi is that much more of a huge piece or we go right back to the superstars won't sign/stay here mantra. And if they won't come/stay here after a champipnship, they never will.

[Rudy Bargnani]

I don't understand how other teams are able to have/keep 2-3 superstars then.

I think what we're seeing is those days may be coming to an end. The cap spike of 2016 really really really helped golden state. That and Steph Curry signed for 11 mill a year when he was having ankle problems as his rookie extension. Look what happened with Golden State's depth this year. They aren't going to have room to replace Durant.

The Lakers are going to learn the hard way that having 2 superstars at the max really restricts your ability to form a team. You need to be able to groom talent on rookie scale contracts.

To me, you run this team back and reevaluate in 2020 when everyone comes off the books.

[Demographic Shift]

I don't understand how other teams are able to have/keep 2-3 superstars then.
Reason #1 is Lowry is a star and makes superstar money and
Reason #2 we have a couple "good not great" players making 20+

Lowry is 33.3M, Gasol is 25.5 and Serge is 23.3 next season. The only other guys making any kind of serious money are Danny and Powell @ $10M apiece. Fred makes 9M next year.

McCaw, Lin, Meeks, Loyd and Moreland make squat but I can only see McCaw back next year. That just frees up bench tinkering money, maybe $2M

I believe Masai moves one of Lowry (gasp!), Gasol or Serge. All hard pills to swallow but I think it's a mistake to trot the whole squad out there again and expect similar success. LOVE the guy but if possible, I'd move Gasol for a younger serviceable centre and be able to afford another mid level piece with upside. Or you move Kyle for a young up and coming guard off the bench and roll the dice with FVV as your starter. Save 20M there to go after some more serious talent.

If Kawhi walks (he stay!) I'd blow out each of Lowry, Gasol and Serge and Green and blow it way the hell up lol. Another hard pill since superstars aren't signing anywhere to rebuild. These are just day-after-hot-takes and don't account for any number of "you can't becuase of X cap considerations etc" so relax keyboard warriors.....

When I think about this, re-signing Kawhi is that much more of a huge piece or we go right back to the superstars won't sign/stay here mantra. And if they won't come/stay here after a champipnship, they never will.

Well the Raps won.
You don't win by luck. You have to win four rounds. Each round gets both progressively and exponentially harder as your facing better teams who are wearing the shirts your not. The Raps won big time cuz they got legit players and they had a transcendent player who can put up "those kinda nights."

Can they do it again ?... only if Leonard resigns.

Which he is pretty likely to do. And then it all falls into place in Ujiris succession plan.
I am of the opinion that Leonard signs a 1+1 deal. If he goes longer term then Ujiri and the fan base are super ecstatic.

BUT..

It gets harder for Ujiri if Leonard says yes to the longer term deal. . he gets that never ending job that David Griffin had in Cleveland.... You have to find players and manage the books every year Loenard is here cuz its a reasonable expectation to win it all.

I think Ujiri and the rest of the fan base would love that problem.

[Raptorsss]

Does Toronto go after Barnes or Harris if we lose Leonard? Anunoby is the biggest storyline next season, hopefully he can make a big jump like Siakam.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Does Toronto go after Barnes or Harris if we lose Leonard? Anunoby is the biggest storyline next season, hopefully he can make a big jump like Siakam.

Don’t have room bro

[Demographic Shift]

Does Toronto go after Barnes or Harris if we lose Leonard? Anunoby is the biggest storyline next season, hopefully he can make a big jump like Siakam.

Prolly not... I think if Leonard moves on to another team then Ujiri will over the year ... move players that he has to ... and put the jenga sticks back together for another team based around the very big and real talents of Pascal /Freddy/ OG/ in a couple of years.

Drink this all in.. we won.. Next year comes into focus in 2 or 3 weeks.

[MixxAOR]

Does Toronto go after Barnes or Harris if we lose Leonard? Anunoby is the biggest storyline next season, hopefully he can make a big jump like Siakam.

Anunoby is going to take a big jump but nothing like Siakam. Siakam was playing like this in G-league in his first year. It was a matter of transferring those skills to NBA. OG just doesn't have those skills like Siakam even on Summer League level. So he will need a lot of time, thankfully he's young. But for now he needs to be great at rebounding, defense, corner three and cutting to the basket.

[KeonClark]

Anunoby is going to take a big jump but nothing like Siakam. Siakam was playing like this in G-league in his first year. It was a matter of transferring those skills to NBA. OG just doesn't have those skills like Siakam even on Summer League level. So he will need a lot of time, thankfully he's young. But for now he needs to be great at rebounding, defense, corner three and cutting to the basket.

He needs to get way better rebounding. Board man gets paid. He has the strength. The other parts are angles, technique, and lastly, the desire to want it more than the other guy.

He needs to be strong around the rim, dude is 6'8 240 with a visibly strong core

[Bendit]

I think what we're seeing is those days may be coming to an end. The cap spike of 2016 really really really helped golden state. That and Steph Curry signed for 11 mill a year when he was having ankle problems as his rookie extension. Look what happened with Golden State's depth this year. They aren't going to have room to replace Durant.

The Lakers are going to learn the hard way that having 2 superstars at the max really restricts your ability to form a team. You need to be able to groom talent on rookie scale contracts.

To me, you run this team back and reevaluate in 2020 when everyone comes off the books.

Cliche possibly... but this max. contract team builds are just not sustainable. Teams have to have internal growth (the draft) and the occasional trade. And well managed turnover. This is what Masai has accomplished with the current setup. He also had some "luck" along the way (keeping Lowry). Not easy of course.

The LA situation looks too fragile ... no decent bench/backups in case of injury to the main cogs. What happened in GS and Miami (Bosh) can happen anywhere and gets sour real fast.