BRIGGS wrote:I'd say a for 34 b for 51 amd f for 57
Agree with your assessment. Like the Early pick -- the kid's skilled and whatever weaknesses he might have can easily get cleaned up. Looks to be a lot already there with him skill-wise, a lot to already go on...Not sure about the Thanasis Antetokounmpo pick. I saw you mentioned Gerald Wilkins on another thread. Could be -- 6'6", athletic, known for his defense (stopper potential), outside shot (and overall offensive game in general) looks to be a work in progress. He's OK, I just have to question if we couldn't have just gotten the same type of player or better cheaply in FA with a guy like DeQuan Jones for example. Or a better talent like 6'6" Terrence Williams.. I kinda feel like if we really liked Antetokounmpo, maybe the wiser move would've been to just wait on him and see if he slipped all the way through OR if someone did take him, we execute the same strategy we did with pick 57 and just tried to buy him from another team anywhere after 51...And yeah, I don't get this Labeyrie pickup at all really. Looks very raw -- doesn't look to be anywhere near NBA-ready from the little I've seen/read. Why spend the cash on this guy (and how much did we spend btw)? I think there were better players to chose from as far as buying a late pick after 51... Strange -- he wasn't even our pick -- we actually went out of our way to spend money and trade for him. Why? For what purpose? Just to stash him?? Makes no sense.. Keeping the full cash allotment ($3mm?) available for any potential upcoming trades may have been the more prudent move. I hope I'm wrong and this kid pans out down the line but as of right now, I don't get the pickup. I'll wait for Phil's explanation -- hopefully he'll shed some light on the motivation..
My thing now is, where do we go from here? No doubt things will get sorted out in the coming weeks but I have some big questions:
(1) Is Melo staying or going? I'm sick of the suspense -- what's the deal already? If he leaves, what can we get for him? Out of everything we've heard I'm now thinking the Houston scenario involving James Harden might be our best play here. Harden's about 5 years younger, practically as good a scorer, gets to the line a ton (more than Melo), makes very good decisions with the ball in his hand (very underrated passer) and at $15-17mm per over the next few years, is flat out much better value than Melo at over $20mm+ per.. He'd be a fantastic 2nd or 3rd option to another bonafide star or 2...Excellent value for what he's getting paid.. And if we could squeeze Houston for an extra asset or two (Terrence Jones, Montiejunas, Parsons, Beverley, Canaan, Robert Covington -- Clint Capela, Nick Johnson??), all the better. How bad do you want him, Morey? I just feel it might be time to turn the page from Melo -- a monster contract at this stage of his career with all the wear & tear on that body (think about his shoulders problems the past 2 years) scares the piss outta me.
(2) Who do we target with the mini MLE or full MLE (if we can clear out some more cap room)? And how much more cap room do we need to clear out to utilize the full MLE?
Right now I like Cole Aldrich (much easier to bring back if we can evoke the full MLE) and maybe Jerryd Bayless (think I like him better than Collison or Mills, if we're even in the market for this type of player anymore now that we have Calderon & Larkin on board -- love Bayless' upside, even though he hasn't done much in the NBA up to this point -- my thinking here is to steal a bigger/younger, even higher upside guard over Collison/Mills at an even better price, if even possible). Have to think about this some more though. Would love to hear some other ideas for either the mini or full MLE.
(3) We need Bigs. Period. A lot of questions here: who will be our starting C? The backup C? The starting 4? Who takes over the K-Mart 4-man off the pine role?
I want Aldrich back. He can play. The dude could be a real rock inside for us at a good price -- rebounding, rim protection, cleaning up around the rim, etc.. Now that we added Larkin (who I feel good about), Aldrich should become the top tier 1 priority in FA for us imo (on our limited budget anyway). After that I like Daniel Orton to replace Tyler and backup Aldrich. I see a younger version of Kendrick Perkins here. Better upside than Tyler imho.
(4) Who do we bring in for summer league? As always, I'd love to see a STACKED SL roster. Say the same thing every year -- don't even waste time with anyone who won't make the team (scrubs and their agents calling in favors, etc). Incorperate Early & Antetokounmpo (no need to even bring over this kid Labeyrie--let him continue to develop in Europe) and focus on best/most skilled low-salary options out there to round out the roster. The following guys immediately come to mind:
6'10" 260+ C Daniel Orton
7' 255 C Marcus Cousin
6'8" 250 PF Rich Howell
6'8" SF Devin Ebanks
6'8" SG/SF DeQuan Jones
6'6" SG/SF Terrence Williams
6'3" PG/SG Seth Curry
6/27/2014 11:36 AM
