Everything Goran Dragic

[SkywalkerAC]

Kyle didn’t want to stay and the team didn’t really want to retain him. So no real loss there.

We’ve got this thing going now called a youth movement - embrace it.

[LJ2]

19 million for nothing is 6+m/yr we cudda used in re-signing lowry to 3 yrs. i know maybe he was intent on mia either way but he did say he wanted to get paid. lowry not fred is the guy we need for 3 yrs with flynn banton and barnes plus who knows if another pg comes out of a draft

Fred's been really good for this team this season. Why would you want Kyle here when he knows the team is rebuilding and wouldn't be invested or playing hard?

[DanH]

19 million for nothing is 6+m/yr we cudda used in re-signing lowry to 3 yrs. i know maybe he was intent on mia either way but he did say he wanted to get paid. lowry not fred is the guy we need for 3 yrs with flynn banton and barnes plus who knows if another pg comes out of a draft

Not how it works... This team was not going into the tax to re-sign Lowry. Heck, both sides seemed to want to move on, Raps wanted to hand the team to Fred and the young'uns, Lowry probably wanted to be somewhere that in theory at least was a little more win-now oriented.

[TheWaterboy]

Not how it works... This team was not going into the tax to re-sign Lowry. Heck, both sides seemed to want to move on, Raps wanted to hand the team to Fred and the young'uns, Lowry probably wanted to be somewhere that in theory at least was a little more win-now oriented.

People seem to really be discounting the possibility that the team may have wanted to operate close to the tax this year, and would have been willing to take on Dragic for those purposes even though Fred was going to be the primary PG. Dragic being available for cap ballast in a trade would make it easier to make trades for a lot of salary without giving up one or even two starters.

It also means that we may become attractive trade partners for another team that is looking to trade salary with term away to get under the luxury tax line, or that is looking to get out from under a bad contract and is willing to throw us something useful for an expiring.

[Yuri Gagarin]

People seem to really be discounting the possibility that the team may have wanted to operate close to the tax this year, and would have been willing to take on Dragic for those purposes even though Fred was going to be the primary PG. Dragic being available for cap ballast in a trade would make it easier to make trades for a lot of salary without giving up one or even two starters.

It also means that we may become attractive trade partners for another team that is looking to trade salary with term away to get under the luxury tax line, or that is looking to get out from under a bad contract and is willing to throw us something useful for an expiring.

The whole get something for an expiring i havent seen much of for several years. Lowry was expiring and we got shit all. Now we’re gonna get something for an expiring Dragic?

[TrueTorontoFan]

The whole get something for an expiring i havent seen much of for several years. Lowry was expiring and we got shit all. Now we’re gonna get something for an expiring Dragic?

we technically got David johnson and dalano banton for matt thomas and TD.... so it does happen it depends on what you are looking for.

[TheWaterboy]

The whole get something for an expiring i havent seen much of for several years. Lowry was expiring and we got shit all. Now we’re gonna get something for an expiring Dragic?

We very well may not (which is no different, really, from getting nothing for Lowry), but we have the options we didn't have before. (Blame the bear market for expiring contracts on the Thunder and their hovering just above the salary floor to hoover up the "here, take a draft pick" bad contracts.) We need to look at the contracts expiring in 2023 to see what those options are, but they exist. (We want salary that expires after next season because our current window, such as it is, it widest open the season after that.

Looking at the big salary that expires then, Kristaps Porzingis is one of the names the Raptors may have been thinking of targeting. Porzingis is probably off the table as trade bait at this point (now that he's not experiencing the fit problems he had under Carlisle), but given the extent of the delay in the sign and trade (to the point no other options were possible) and the amount of smoke about Dallas in the rumor mill at the time, he may have been who the Raptors had in mind originally. (This is a player option... but Porzingis probably would have been a decent, if unspectacular, fit here if he opted in.)

Do the Cavaliers want to build a deal around Dragic and Boucher for Kevin "I-Don't-want-to-be-here" Love and a first rounder? Love might be the second coming of Dragic in terms of attitude (or worse), but if we're willing to give Dragic an excused absence, we could conceivably do the same for Love.

You have to think that the Lakers want to move off of Westbrook. I don't know if there's a two-team deal to be made there - Dragic/Trent/Flynn for Westbrook/Talen Horton-Tucker and a draft pick is the nearest I can come up with, but that probably requires Lebron signing off on Dragic playing point guard instead of sitting out the rest of the season. Given the amount of salary finesse that would likely be needed to trade Westbrook, however, we might brought in to take on an extra year or two of term on somebody else's contract and given something useful for our trouble.

There are other options that season that are in theory worth discussing, but which are more unlikely in practice. And there are really interesting names (and a lot of salary) in play the following year, but that only matters if we're taking the salary we're hold for an extra year and holding it for an extra year more, which starts to intrude on our window significantly.

It's still not especially great in terms of additional return (and it's no sure thing that any of what I suggested, or anything else, happens), but when you're dealing with a depreciating asset, any net positive return is better than nothing.

[Yuri Gagarin]

We very well may not (which is no different, really, from getting nothing for Lowry), but we have the options we didn't have before. (Blame the bear market for expiring contracts on the Thunder and their hovering just above the salary floor to hoover up the "here, take a draft pick" bad contracts.) We need to look at the contracts expiring in 2023 to see what those options are, but they exist. (We want salary that expires after next season because our current window, such as it is, it widest open the season after that.

Looking at the big salary that expires then, Kristaps Porzingis is one of the names the Raptors may have been thinking of targeting. Porzingis is probably off the table as trade bait at this point (now that he's not experiencing the fit problems he had under Carlisle), but given the extent of the delay in the sign and trade (to the point no other options were possible) and the amount of smoke about Dallas in the rumor mill at the time, he may have been who the Raptors had in mind originally. (This is a player option... but Porzingis probably would have been a decent, if unspectacular, fit here if he opted in.)

Do the Cavaliers want to build a deal around Dragic and Boucher for Kevin "I-Don't-want-to-be-here" Love and a first rounder? Love might be the second coming of Dragic in terms of attitude (or worse), but if we're willing to give Dragic an excused absence, we could conceivably do the same for Love.

You have to think that the Lakers want to move off of Westbrook. I don't know if there's a two-team deal to be made there - Dragic/Trent/Flynn for Westbrook/Talen Horton-Tucker and a draft pick is the nearest I can come up with, but that probably requires Lebron signing off on Dragic playing point guard instead of sitting out the rest of the season. Given the amount of salary finesse that would likely be needed to trade Westbrook, however, we might brought in to take on an extra year or two of term on somebody else's contract and given something useful for our trouble.

There are other options that season that are in theory worth discussing, but which are more unlikely in practice. And there are really interesting names (and a lot of salary) in play the following year, but that only matters if we're taking the salary we're hold for an extra year and holding it for an extra year more, which starts to intrude on our window significantly.

It's still not especially great in terms of additional return (and it's no sure thing that any of what I suggested, or anything else, happens), but when you're dealing with a depreciating asset, any net positive return is better than nothing.

Thanks for bringing up some interesting scenarios.

im just wondering if it would have been better to just let him walk and use that money to sign someone. Someone like Olynk for example. He seems like a fair deal for 12m/yr. but regardless this year seems a write off so that money is just delayed one season.

[Kagemusha]

We very well may not (which is no different, really, from getting nothing for Lowry), but we have the options we didn't have before. (Blame the bear market for expiring contracts on the Thunder and their hovering just above the salary floor to hoover up the "here, take a draft pick" bad contracts.) We need to look at the contracts expiring in 2023 to see what those options are, but they exist. (We want salary that expires after next season because our current window, such as it is, it widest open the season after that.

Looking at the big salary that expires then, Kristaps Porzingis is one of the names the Raptors may have been thinking of targeting. Porzingis is probably off the table as trade bait at this point (now that he's not experiencing the fit problems he had under Carlisle), but given the extent of the delay in the sign and trade (to the point no other options were possible) and the amount of smoke about Dallas in the rumor mill at the time, he may have been who the Raptors had in mind originally. (This is a player option... but Porzingis probably would have been a decent, if unspectacular, fit here if he opted in.)

Do the Cavaliers want to build a deal around Dragic and Boucher for Kevin "I-Don't-want-to-be-here" Love and a first rounder? Love might be the second coming of Dragic in terms of attitude (or worse), but if we're willing to give Dragic an excused absence, we could conceivably do the same for Love.

You have to think that the Lakers want to move off of Westbrook. I don't know if there's a two-team deal to be made there - Dragic/Trent/Flynn for Westbrook/Talen Horton-Tucker and a draft pick is the nearest I can come up with, but that probably requires Lebron signing off on Dragic playing point guard instead of sitting out the rest of the season. Given the amount of salary finesse that would likely be needed to trade Westbrook, however, we might brought in to take on an extra year or two of term on somebody else's contract and given something useful for our trouble.

There are other options that season that are in theory worth discussing, but which are more unlikely in practice. And there are really interesting names (and a lot of salary) in play the following year, but that only matters if we're taking the salary we're hold for an extra year and holding it for an extra year more, which starts to intrude on our window significantly.

It's still not especially great in terms of additional return (and it's no sure thing that any of what I suggested, or anything else, happens), but when you're dealing with a depreciating asset, any net positive return is better than nothing.

I wouldn't dare touch Westbrick with a 40 foot sanitized pole.

[Dvdvideo]

I wouldn't dare touch Westbrick with a 40 foot sanitized pole.

Ya there is something wrong there, his numbers are fantastic in some ways but something is not quite right ......

[polarhamsterjudo]

Dragic is the best, i love the guy

[Dvdvideo]

If he had been around earning the salary he is paid maybe we would have lost be 30 instead of 40.
Kind of absurd he's being paid millions of dollars to sit at home when we are so short handed.

[A.I]

If he had been around earning the salary he is paid maybe we would have lost be 30 instead of 40.
Kind of absurd he's being paid millions of dollars to sit at home when we are so short handed.

I'm not complaining because it looks like its a mutual agreement and a team thing as well, not just Dragic wanting to sit out.

If Raptors wanted him to come play, they would have, and if Dragic refused, then fined him until he showed up.

[TheWaterboy]

I wouldn't dare touch Westbrick with a 40 foot sanitized pole.

I get this; it feels like he thinks of himself/his shot first (though not to the extent of, say, Carmelo Anthony), and doesn't fully follow the direction of the coach, though not to the extent of, say, Allen Iverson. He's not even entirely unique in that respect; Kevin Love, and maybe John Wall come to mind, and maybe Kyrie Irving (a little more the former and a little less the latter). Ben Simmons has a similar condition, except with shooting aversion rather than willingness to shoot.

Cleveland won a championship with one, maybe two of the players I've listed, but with a difference-maker (Lebron James) on the roster, so it's not impossible. If you're of the opinion that Kyrie qualifies, and also that James Harden doesn't fully follow the direction of the coach (though I don't even know how you'd tell), the Nets may have a good shot at following suit (again, with a difference maker).

My thinking, which I didn't explicitly state in my previous post, was that the Westbrook part of the trade would be secondary to having a large salary to trade for another year (when the free agent crop is a little better and/or more teams are going to be running into cap crunches) and getting more cost certainty/moving the window slightly forward with THT plus the pick.

That being said, if you're thinking of winning now and also winning later, Westbrook does have the assertiveness that our current offence requires but our current personnel lack somewhat, draws the double teams that open up Pascal to really do his thing, and shores up our rebounding a little. That shores up a few of our weaknesses. If we're thinking in this direction, we might still want to shore up our center position; Khem works for this team's philosophy but we probably eventually want a Tree-Trunk style player with touch within five feet or so in the event Precious is struggling against an Embiid or a Valunciunas who has a size advantage and knows how to use it.

It's entirely possible - maybe even likely - that this team with Westbrook and THT wins a lot of games in the regular season and flames out in the playoffs, but it's an interesting gamble if you're not completely down on Westbrook (which, again, I'd understand if you were).

[Primer]

THT is total dogshit. Please logically explain why we would ever want him? I just do not get the fascination with fat boy who is one of the worst shooters in the entire NBA. His TS% is 0.465!!!!!! He freaking sucks and shouldn't even be in the G League.
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