Roster Improvement: Free Agents Now and Later?

Vasashi17 wrote:Yep, Pietrus to Toronto on 1 year deal for vet. min. So he did take less money...I guess the Lakers really want Raja then...but nothing shocks me anymore..

"We never heard from the Lakers. There was never any interest from them. At the end of the day, Toronto was the place for him and he's happy to be there. He is going to place where he knows he's going to play and help the team and he has a high regard for Bryan Colangelo (Raptors General Manager).

King of Clutch wrote:On troy murphy, other thread is locked...

I immediately thought no thanks. But after really thinking about it, he's a nice rebounder, big body, and DEADEYE 3pt shooter. He may be the PERFECT fit for this system. If we decide to bench pau, which we should, then we'd either have to bring in hill, which would kill our spacing, or antawn, which could effect our rebounding and D. Troy murphy on the other hand doesn't give up size, AND he's a better 3pt shooter than Antawn. So he could start alogside dwight, space the floor, and rebound. And the bench could stay in tact with pau added: Blake, meeks, antawn, hill, and gasol. Plus he's dirt cheap. I hope lakers management gives this some thought...

streamline wrote:

King of Clutch wrote:On troy murphy, other thread is locked...

I immediately thought no thanks. But after really thinking about it, he's a nice rebounder, big body, and DEADEYE 3pt shooter. He may be the PERFECT fit for this system. If we decide to bench pau, which we should, then we'd either have to bring in hill, which would kill our spacing, or antawn, which could effect our rebounding and D. Troy murphy on the other hand doesn't give up size, AND he's a better 3pt shooter than Antawn. So he could start alogside dwight, space the floor, and rebound. And the bench could stay in tact with pau added: Blake, meeks, antawn, hill, and gasol. Plus he's dirt cheap. I hope lakers management gives this some thought...

do you not remember how bad he was last year?

Vasashi17 wrote:^^^Very true that we had to waive someone to even make room...but it does appear that we have shown interest in Raja and his camp has reciprocated. How we're trying to get him (via trade or free agency through buyout) is still a mystery...another thing that is a mystery is that LA chooses to get older while trying to install an uptempo offense: Raja 36 vs Pietrus 30...

Dominic McGuire will be waived by the Raptors to make room on the roster, agent Mark Bartelstein told RealGM.

King of Clutch wrote:On troy murphy, other thread is locked...

I immediately thought no thanks. But after really thinking about it, he's a nice rebounder, big body, and DEADEYE 3pt shooter. He may be the PERFECT fit for this system. If we decide to bench pau, which we should, then we'd either have to bring in hill, which would kill our spacing, or antawn, which could effect our rebounding and D. Troy murphy on the other hand doesn't give up size, AND he's a better 3pt shooter than Antawn. So he could start alogside dwight, space the floor, and rebound. And the bench could stay in tact with pau added: Blake, meeks, antawn, hill, and gasol. Plus he's dirt cheap. I hope lakers management gives this some thought...

Doc Brown wrote:Anderson Varejao...........that is all.

Big Mamma Jamma wrote:After the December 15th deadline we'll see a lot of action in NBA. Hopefully, we see this scenario play out ...

The Lakers trade:

Pau Gasol - $19,000,000
DJO or Sacre (does it matter?) - $473,604

Total $19,473,604

Minny trades:

Derrick Williams $4,809,840
Andrei Kirilenko $9,779,349
Luke Ridnour $4,000,000

Total $18,589,189

This works since a team over the cap such as Minnesota cannot acquire more than 125% plus $100,000 of the salary they trade away. This trade would be in the acceptable range.

Why Minny does this:

They get a legit post presence player who would thrive under Adelman. Adelman's offense would be a perfect fit for Gasol. With Kevin Love manning the PF position, Gasol will have plenty of room to operate. I think Adelman would be salivating at the prospect.

Plus, in Gasol, the T-puppies gets a guy who is great friends with Rubio.

In regards to the salary cap, since Minny is over the cap already it is still a wash for them as they will still be over the cap with a little more salary (about $1MM added to their approximate $8MM overage)

Why Minny wouldn't do this:

Kirilenko is having a great year. The other two in the deal not so much. Gasol is owed $19MM this season (although prorated) and next season. Minny takes on more salary. Is Gasol done or can he help Minny improve this season?

Why LA does this:

Gasol is not really a fit for this offense. Plus, he is 32 and is owed a lot of money. Gasol, as the season progresses, will be relegated to backing up Dwight. Jamison is just such a better fit with Dwight and the starters.

Kirilenko is the type of player who could be a great energy guy off of the bench. He stretches the floor with his shooting (37.5% 3pt percentage) and is a good defender.

Derrick Williams is a young PF who is athletic and helps the Lakers get some young talent. He could blossom into a good player.

Ridnour would give us another PG who would give the Lakers outside shooting. He is two seasons removed from shooting 44% behind the arc. His contract isn't too bad either with 2 years remaining.

Why the Lakers don't do this:

Lakers brass and MDA want to see if the Pau Gasol experiment works.

The Lakers would also have to create a spot on the roster either by flipping someone such as Devin Ebanks - $1,054,389 to some team for a draft pick or by cutting someone such as Sacre or DJO, whichever is not traded. Also, if the Lakers got Ridnour I would suspect they'd try to trade Blake.

The only weakness would be the SG position depth. I guess Ridnour could play there or Morris. MDA could go with a smaller lineup. However, the bench would be all energy!

Proposed Lineup:

PG: Nash, Ridnour, Duhon
SG: Kobe, Morris
SF: MWP, AK47
PF: Jamison, Williams, AK47
C: D12, Hill

tigerjeterkobe wrote:What happened to Meeks? Luke would be great. Blake would likely be the 3rd SG. I like a rotation of Jamison and Williams, but would prefer to dump Sacre for Kenyon just for added big who can play.

The name that keeps coming up for the Lakers is Ryan Anderson, the Hornets’ long-distance shooter who was once a Net and later played for three seasons with Howard in Orlando. He’d be perfect. But first, they want to see if Nash can jump-start Gasol.
And Mike D’Antoni’s offense, on the whole.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baske ... z2DqXPXaKR

Big Mamma Jamma wrote:After the December 15th deadline we'll see a lot of action in NBA. Hopefully, we see this scenario play out ...

The Lakers trade:

Pau Gasol - $19,000,000
DJO or Sacre (does it matter?) - $473,604

Total $19,473,604

Minny trades:

Derrick Williams $4,809,840
Andrei Kirilenko $9,779,349
Luke Ridnour $4,000,000

Total $18,589,189

This works since a team over the cap such as Minnesota cannot acquire more than 125% plus $100,000 of the salary they trade away. This trade would be in the acceptable range.

Why Minny does this:

They get a legit post presence player who would thrive under Adelman. Adelman's offense would be a perfect fit for Gasol. With Kevin Love manning the PF position, Gasol will have plenty of room to operate. I think Adelman would be salivating at the prospect.

Plus, in Gasol, the T-puppies gets a guy who is great friends with Rubio.

In regards to the salary cap, since Minny is over the cap already it is still a wash for them as they will still be over the cap with a little more salary (about $1MM added to their approximate $8MM overage)

Why Minny wouldn't do this:

Kirilenko is having a great year. The other two in the deal not so much. Gasol is owed $19MM this season (although prorated) and next season. Minny takes on more salary. Is Gasol done or can he help Minny improve this season?

Why LA does this:

Gasol is not really a fit for this offense. Plus, he is 32 and is owed a lot of money. Gasol, as the season progresses, will be relegated to backing up Dwight. Jamison is just such a better fit with Dwight and the starters.

Kirilenko is the type of player who could be a great energy guy off of the bench. He stretches the floor with his shooting (37.5% 3pt percentage) and is a good defender.

Derrick Williams is a young PF who is athletic and helps the Lakers get some young talent. He could blossom into a good player.

Ridnour would give us another PG who would give the Lakers outside shooting. He is two seasons removed from shooting 44% behind the arc. His contract isn't too bad either with 2 years remaining.

Why the Lakers don't do this:

Lakers brass and MDA want to see if the Pau Gasol experiment works.

The Lakers would also have to create a spot on the roster either by flipping someone such as Devin Ebanks - $1,054,389 to some team for a draft pick or by cutting someone such as Sacre or DJO, whichever is not traded. Also, if the Lakers got Ridnour I would suspect they'd try to trade Blake.

The only weakness would be the SG position depth. I guess Ridnour could play there or Morris. MDA could go with a smaller lineup. However, the bench would be all energy!

EDIT: tigerjeterkobe just reminded me that I forgot all about Meeks! How could I forget that guy especially after the game he had last night.

Proposed Lineup:

PG: Nash, Ridnour, Duhon
SG: Kobe, Meeks
SF: MWP, AK47
PF: Jamison, Williams, AK47
C: D12, Hill

Rooscooter wrote:Nice write up but you kind of lost me Minny's reasons for doing this.... Do you think anyone in the league that has access to video thinks Pau is still a "legit Post Presence"?

I'm not sure we could get rid of Pau unless we take back a big ugly contract and a decent player and a pick or two at this point.... he's 7 million dollars in value in a 19 million dollar wrapper right now. Next year he will be a lot more valuable but I'm not so sure this year.....

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Timberwolves are trying hard to land Pau Gasol.

If they have to part with the highest draft choice in franchise history after just one season, the Wolves appear ready to do it.

That much became clear leading up to the NBA draft on Thursday, when Minnesota offered Derrick Williams in hope of landing the second pick from the Charlotte Bobcats to help get Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers, two people with knowledge of the discussions told the Associated Press.

The people requested anonymity because the talks were meant to remain private. The deal never came together, and the Bobcats stayed at No. 2 in the draft and took Kentucky forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
The Timberwolves are expected to continue their pursuit of Gasol in hope of putting him with fellow Spaniard Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love on a revamped roster aimed at getting the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

The Wolves' interest in Gasol long has been rumored, with the highly skilled big man considered an ideal fit for coach Rick Adelman's corner offense and the kind of playoff-tested veteran needed on one of the youngest rosters in the NBA. He's close friends with Rubio, the Wolves' superb young point guard who is recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and hopes to be ready early next season.

Gasol has teamed with Kobe Bryant to win two titles in Los Angeles but always seemed to catch the brunt of the criticism when things went wrong.

That happened again this year when he averaged just 12.5 points and 9.5 rebounds during the playoffs and the Lakers were eliminated in the second round by the younger, quicker Oklahoma City Thunder. Gasol often appeared to get lost in the shuffle while Bryant and Andrew Bynum got most of the touches on offense.

Gasol was the subject of trade rumors all season, starting before it began when NBA Commissioner David Stern, operating as owner of the New Orleans Hornets, nixed a deal that would have sent Gasol to Houston as part of a package that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers.

"It has been a crazy year and a lot to deal with. … Unfortunately, we had tough losses and things didn't really go our way for the most part," Gasol, a four-time All-Star, said at the end of the season. "You just have to regroup and digest this loss and this season, and learn from it and move on."

Gasol is due to make more than $38 million over the next two seasons, an enormous sum the salary cap-strapped Lakers might have difficulty footing under the harsher luxury tax penalties scheduled to kick in in 2013.

Love's contract extension kicks in next season, making him the only Timberwolves player expected to be on the roster next season making more than $4.6 million. If the Wolves buy out Martell Webster and decline to tender qualifying offers to Michael Beasley and Anthony Randolph, as expected, they should have plenty of cap room for Gasol.

But if they want to bring him in to play alongside Love in the frontcourt, it probably would come at a hefty price. Offering Williams, the second overall pick in last year's draft who showed promise and inconsistency in his rookie year, means the Wolves would be giving up on him after just one season. The 21-year-old Williams has potential to grow into the star many projected he'd be when he entered the draft after his sophomore season at Arizona.

Gasol will turn 32 next week and has played nearly 39,000 minutes in his career, raising the question whether he has enough gas in the tank to help turn the Timberwolves into legitimate contenders.
Williams knows the Wolves tried to deal him, but it's unclear how he will respond if he's still on the team at the start of training camp.

He averaged 8.8 points and 4.7 rebounds and was the only Timberwolves player to play in all 66 games last season. Williams had several big games during an inconsistent season that included participating in the slam-dunk contest during All-Star weekend. He scored 27 points in 27 minutes in a win over the Clippers in Los Angeles on Feb. 28 and had 27 points and eight boards in a loss at Denver on April 11.

But the 66-year-old Adelman has been pushing for the franchise to add more veterans, and he grew impatient with Williams at times last season.

Williams did most of his damage while playing power forward, which is the same position played by Love, who last season blossomed into an MVP contender. With Love playing so many minutes at power forward, the Timberwolves were hoping Williams could drop some weight this summer to help him become quick enough to play at small forward the majority of the time.

This week, Timberwolves president David Kahn said Williams already was down to 233 pounds, with a personal goal of 225.

"I think the most important fact about Derrick to me is that he turned 21 last month. He's still very, very young," Kahn said Wednesday. "This is a very important summer for him to demonstrate if he's serious about his craft, his occupation, that he's serious about himself. This is the offseason. I challenged him in his exit interview, and I'm eager to see the results of this summer."

Kahn declined to list Williams with Rubio and Love as "untouchable" players when the team considers trades this summer.

"We have two untouchables," Kahn said. "That doesn't mean everyone else will be traded this summer. We just don't know."