BRIGGS wrote:knickscity--Ill keep this brief and to the point re usage. Middleton's usage went up the last 20 games to 34 minutes a game from earlier in the season where his months splits were 22 24 and 30.

In his last 20 games at an average of 34 minutes hes avg 18 points 6.5 rebounds 3 assists 2 steals and 47.5% shooting.

In the first 3 games of March while sitting at those 34 minutes--his usage production went up getting 16 FGA instead of 3 his numbers 21.3 7 reb 3 assist 2 steals 45% efg over 60.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/6609/khris-middleton Its pretty clear that Middleton is and could be a 18-22 points 7 rebound 3-4 assists 45%++ with a 50% efg given the usage and minutes with good defense. So what is that worth on the open market----maximum contract.

He has also been splitting time at SF and PF. The Bucks are doing anything to get him on the court.

BRIGGS wrote:Our top draft pick 4.5 and waived jose Wed have around 20 mm to spend if we can vet rid of Hathaway for a 2016 2 nd rounder.

Something like
Middleton 4 years 64 mm Sg
Mo Williams 2 years 13 mm Pg
Bargs 1 year 4 mm C
Anjica 4 years 16 mm C
Derrick Williams 2 years 4 mm Pf
Towns Pf

Holy mother of god Briggs - you laughed at me suggesting we get Middleton starting at $7m per and you're going to give him $16m blanking $ and on top of that waste cash on garbage like mo and Derrick Williams. You need to stick to over-reacting and over-rating every college player you see and stop spending the farm on Middleton and trash.

LivingLegend wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Our top draft pick 4.5 and waived jose Wed have around 20 mm to spend if we can vet rid of Hathaway for a 2016 2 nd rounder.

Something like
Middleton 4 years 64 mm Sg
Mo Williams 2 years 13 mm Pg
Bargs 1 year 4 mm C
Anjica 4 years 16 mm C
Derrick Williams 2 years 4 mm Pf
Towns Pf

Holy mother of god Briggs - you laughed at me suggesting we get Middleton starting at $7m per and you're going to give him $16m blanking $ and on top of that waste cash on garbage like mo and Derrick Williams. You need to stick to over-reacting and over-rating every college player you see and stop spending the farm on Middleton and trash.

I've never said anything like that I said its a waste of time to offer him 7 or8 mm. His agent would never do it. Trust me he will get north of 13mm EASY we can spend a little more and go for it aggressively or let someone else do it at the bottom line I expect the bucks will match any offer. He's the only player worth the max outside of the really big name guys. Again were talking 23 years old 6-8 225 athletic and you see the shooting %

Finestrg wrote:You know, a couple of cheaper alternatives for Middleton/Brandon Knight: Gerald Green and Cory Joseph. Green's an UFA; Joseph's restricted. What would it take to get both guys? Anyone have any idea? Tell ya what man -- Green/Joseph wouldn't be terrible. I might even be willing to compensate SA for Joseph if they'd be willing to do a S&T -- maybe we offer up Hardaway Jr./Galloway, etc...I'd love to get Brandon Knight but that may not be possible. Just trying to stay as realistic as possible -- say we did sign Mo Williams for 2 years like Briggs is suggesting, then pulled off a S&T to get Joseph from SA (might be better than losing him outright--we do have the money to offer him something substantial if we chose to. They may have some interest in THJ esp. if they lose Danny Green who's an UFA) and finally went out and added a Bryce Cotton (what's Utah's plan here? They just signed Cotton to a 2nd 10-day contract -- will they commit to him for next year? He's barely playing) or a Tim Frazier for additional depth. Mo Williams/Joseph/Cotton -- that wouldn't be terrible. I could deal with that.

After that, what would the next FA PG tier be? Nick Calathes (RFA), Jeremy Lin (UFA), Aaron Brooks (UFA)? How much would those guys cost--$5mm/yr, give or take?? Do these guys make any sense?

Fine my bet at the end of the day Middleton and Joseph are either signed by their own teams or their own teams match any offer. Its possible if some team went above 8mm for Joseph that the Spurs would pause on that one but I dont see that happening. Green will end up as an "in play" candidate for the Knicks at SG as a secondary FA.

If there were some way to bring those 3 on board --- you'd at least have a solid young nucleus of 4 players in Towns/Monroe/Knight/Middleton.

Obviously many don't agree on these players and we probably don't have near the cap space but this would be the way I'd go about things.

I'd basically be building around Towns and not Melo.

His size/length/ability to spread the floor has allowed him to be a LEGIT SG, with the ability to defend/play SF and a stretch PF
Kidd has really improved the Bucks much on DEFENSE, who is one of the better defenses in the league, and Middleton is a great FIT, can be viewed as a poor mans Durant who has stepped up his game even more since Parker's season ending surgery/injury

They traded away Brandon Knight for MCW so they wouldn't be forced in to a position to pay BIG money in order to keep both players as both will be RFA's this summer

Maybe a poison pill for Middleton and Draymond Green, constructed like Asik/Lin, would have been a great step moving forward this summer had the Buck's not traded Knight
While such a move allows us to have cap space both in this summer and in 2017 to acquire talents to build a contender in NYK's, it would have been money well spent that allows us to collect talent in the first 2years of the contracts before the final year of the poison pills kick in while putting the teams in a position to possiblity decline in fear of being repeat tax offenders

But this dream has sinked since the trade for MCW, at least for Middleton, while I am not even sure if that would be enough to steal Draymon Green from GS to begin with
2 poison pills roughtly start at 5m per year for the first 2 seasons, leaving us much money to acquire other talents and fill needs/depth in other positions, while putting ourselves in position to still colect talents such as Alex Anjinca and other younger talents, or a MAX player such as LA/Marc Gasol and our TOP draft pick to attract talents coming over this summer

IF we win such bids on poison pills,
We can sign cap friendly deals, with team options, and possibly sign 2 TOP TIER TALENTS in Durant/WHiteside/Noah/Lebron/Pau Gasol/Horford/and many more, with CA here, and if we are able to trade CA this summer, we can possibly have the cap space to persue 3 TOP TIER TALENTS and another 2nd tier/3rd tier player as well as our own draft picks/cap friendly deals with their development such as

Thanasis
Galloway

Early/Tim Hardaway JR *as his trade value has dropped signifigantly since his rookie sesaon*

Orlando Sanchez and our own D leaguer's, other D Leagers, undrafted FA's, continued development talents such as Anijcia, Wesley Johnson, Ed Davis, Serephin, Stuckey, and combination of veterans like our own DeMaRRe Carroll/James Johnson, Bayless/DJ Augistine, Koufus/MoSgoV type players/contracts

In addition to our current TOP 4 pick, that could potentially be OK4, Towns, Russell, or ????