The 2016 Offseason thread

[mjt20mik]

I keep seeing people thinking we lost this summer. I think they're wrong.

We locked up Terrence Ross for 1/3 of the cost of Harrison Barnes.
JV is getting Mozgov money.

We won this offseason, we just signed the contracts early.

This. The only contract that got us was Demar. And even his isn't too bad.

[Sinbad]

I'm not 'comfortable with just making the playoffs', I just don't see the immediate path to championship contention. In the meantime, we have a young roster with a lot of solid talent. We can keep our window open long-term if we just don't make panic moves, keep the young guys, and keep our window open. Develop JV, he might be able to take the mantle as centerpiece of the organization as Lowry ages.

It's not a perfect plan, but it might be the best one we have.

I can get on board with this. Developing JV should be at the forefront. The Raptors are in a precarious position. They have a win-now roster, but Masai has been straddling the fence on whether to really go for it or let things play out. With LeBron in the East and Durant in Golden State, he has to know that minus a superstar, the Raptors aren't winning a title anytime soon. They don't have a championship window. They have a conference finals window, but the East is getting better too. Does he make moves to maximize Lowry's next 2-3 years? Does he move on from him altogether next summer? He's evasive whenever he's pressed on it publicly, and falls back on "we're going to build" and "we're going to compete" in his pressers.

[c-troop]

Yeah thats not what you said at all. What was all that stuff about biyombo vs lebron? And how you want to see raps play cavs without biyombo and use that as measuring tool?

If you go back a couple pages, I've been really pushing for a trade for future growth. And you're right, all I stated above was I wanna see if Biyombo being gone makes a difference. Cause whatever direction we are heading, Cleveland is the benchmark. And Biyombo was on the team that won 2 games in the ECF.

[thead]

I was so stunned by the KD thing that I just realized how absolutely terrible it was for OKC. Not that they lost a generational talent, but that they got NOTHING for him.

Makes me think that if Westbrook doesn't renegotiate his contract he could be traded before they get nothing for him

[3inthekeon]

By almost any measure, Lowry is superior to CoJo. Scoring, playmaking, defending. Cory is a great defender, but keep in mind Lowry, although less effective in one-on-one defence, is a big driver of team defence.

People who don't break down game film (in other words all of us) really can't fully appreciate Lowry's defense. He's smart. I remember posting a couple of examples from Zach Lowe and Vantage last year.

One in particular stands out in my memory where Nene in the high post made a nifty pass to Gortat cutting along the baseline. Lowry sniffed it out and had stepped in front of Gortat, forcing him to kick out the ball. A shot went up from the perimeter, and there was Lowry boxing out Gortat - we ended up getting the rebound.

[c-troop]

I keep seeing people thinking we lost this summer. I think they're wrong.

We locked up Terrence Ross for 1/3 of the cost of Harrison Barnes.
JV is getting Mozgov money.

We won this offseason, we just signed the contracts early.

So by that logic , if we made all of this years moves last year, shouldn't we be making all of next years moves this year?
lol yeah we won early alright.

[DanH]

I was so stunned by the KD thing that I just realized how absolutely terrible it was for OKC. Not that they lost a generational talent, but that they got NOTHING for him.

Makes me think that if Westbrook doesn't renegotiate his contract he could be traded before they get nothing for him

Rumour is that Westbrook has no interest in renegotiation/extension.

But what can they get for him? If everyone knows he might bolt, and no one knows where to, who gives up real value for him?

[DanH]

So by that logic , if we made all of this years moves last year, shouldn't we be making all of next years moves this year?
lol yeah we won early alright.

Ideally, yes, we would be making next year's FA moves right now, locking up Lowry and PP long term. Sadly, the rules are not as helpful with veterans as they are with rookie extensions, so we'll have to do that work next summer.

[thead]

So by that logic , if we made all of this years moves last year, shouldn't we be making all of next years moves this year?
lol yeah we won early alright.

unless that move was to have Patterson's and Lowry's bird rights when they cap takes another 20m dollar jump... i.e.

we have a max free agent slot in a year where both the FA class is considered better and two picks in the 2017 draft that is being pretty hyped up.

Although I desperately wanted moves, the teams suffering next year are going to be the ones that overspent this year.

[c-troop]

Rumour is that Westbrook has no interest in renegotiation/extension.

But what can they get for him? If everyone knows he might bolt, and no one knows where to, who gives up real value for him?

I think he owns property in California. If the Lakers traded for him he might stay.

[mjt20mik]

I think he owns property in California. If the Lakers traded for him he might stay.

I would just go after him in free agency. Why even bother. He won't stay in OKC.

[thead]

I think he owns property in California. If the Lakers traded for him he might stay.

Westbrooks agent would likely feel out teams that he would be interested in resigning with hand that list to Presti and go from there

[Letter N]

Rumour is that Westbrook has no interest in renegotiation/extension.

But what can they get for him? If everyone knows he might bolt, and no one knows where to, who gives up real value for him?

Thunder just need to get lucky and have a couple of teams get in a bidding war, teams like Celtics and Lakers for example. That's how Masai was able to luck out with Carmelo. If Prokhorov hadn't bought the team the Knicks could've fleeced the Nuggets but the Nets showed up and kept matching Knicks' offer.

[Miekenstien]

[slaw]

Makes me think that if Westbrook doesn't renegotiate his contract he could be traded before they get nothing for him

It's a tough situation. I get the 'not wanting to lose him for nothing' mentality but you're never getting anything close to equal value back for Westbrook, so, even if you get a great haul (like MU did for Melo) the franchise is still set back years. I think there's a decent argument to be made for hanging on to him, making the playoffs one last time, and then tearing it all down and rebuilding. All you really lose is one mediocre year of re-tooling, maybe a late first round pick and a 2-3 of complimentary players who are probably going to end up being overpaid anyway.

I guess the third option would be to just blow it all up straightaway but that really only buys you a year on the rebuild and in the grand scheme of things may not be worth it from an organizational perspective.

Really tough spot for ownership and management - not that I fell sorry for any of them.