BRIGGS wrote:callmened wrote:sure why not?!?! ive never been a big fan of craft and his overhyped self. yes he plays nice man to man defense...thats about it in my opinion. in general - im not expecting or hoping for much out of D Leaguers and 2nd rd draft picks. theres a reason why theyre D Leaguers and second rd draft picks. sure id invite them to summer camp and give them a chance. why not? but im not expecting much
The beauty of the d league and 2nd round or UDFA are--you have nothing to lose. We have a limit of cap space and 1st round picks--so the logical avenue is to look at the best D lague players and pick out the best 2nd rounders and UDFA get them on your SL team and see how they do--see if they deserve a chance to go to Westchester or even New York--the cost=nothing. We need players at minimum salary atleast 4 or 5 of them.
Well stated. That's exactly right. That's exactly why you look at these guys -- everything to gain, absolutely nothing to lose.
I've liked Jerrelle Benimon for some time now. He does not belong in the DL, point blank. He deserves an opportunity somewhere in the NBA. Why not here?!? We have nothing in place right now--the whole damn team is in flux!! We couldn't use an extremely versatile 6'8" 245 lb. PF that can do a little of everything and has no big apparent weaknesses to speak of? Of course we could! This guy should 100% be a part of our Vegas SL team. Hopefully preparations to make that happen have been made already. If not, then something's wrong. Should've been called up and been a part of our motley crew NBA team to close out the year in fact. So should a lot of guys out there over what we had...
We can't have max players at every position. We've gotta hit on some of these cost-controlled guys--DL standouts, a 2nd round pick or two we acquire somehow, an opportunistic low-cost signing or two, UDFAs. Those guys have to be part of the rebuild. I agree with that 100%. I mentioned this configuration the other day on the Tristan Thompson thread --- if we can get most of these players, I'd be very happy:
Draft:
Towns 1, Okafor 2, Winslow 3 (I can't help but see the second coming of James Harden here), Kaminsky 4, Mudiay 5 (made it back for the Chinese playoffs and played well).
Frontcourt FA possibilities:
• Alexis Ajinca
• Lavoy Allen
• Thomas Robinson
• Eric Griffin
• Luke Babbitt
• Jerrelle Benimon
• Khem Birch
• Jordan Bachynski (or resign Cole Aldrich)
• Earl Barron
Backcourt FA possibilities:
• Cory Joseph
• Resign Alexey Shved
• Sign Thanasis Antetokounmpo
• Retain Ricky Ledo
• Scotty Hopson
• Kevin Murphy
• Dominique Jones
• Orlando Johnson
Extra bonus moves to keep an eye on and consider if available/feasible:
• Acquire a 2nd rounder somehow--draft PG Joe Young.
• Look into trading for PF Dwight Powell if available. Sign him if Dallas ever cuts him loose.
• Sign JaMychal Green if Memphis cuts him loose.
• Sign Bryce Cotton if Utah cuts him loose.
• Consider signing E'Twaun Moore and/or Cameron Bairstow if Chicago sever ties with either guy.
Again, realistic draft targets 1-5 (and I want the pick -- all of these players, including D'Angelo Russell and several others, should be VERY GOOD NBA players. I don't want to trade the pick -- you can't put a price tag on having a cost-controlled all-star level youngster for the foreseeable future. I'd rather have that in place than trading for some high-priced player or package of players and missing the mark. Take and keep the pick, Phil, even at 5), followed by realistic FA choices (not 1 max FA in the bunch). The most unrealistic idea is signing Cory Joseph I suppose -- he's a RFA that will be difficult to get but we might be able to steal him on an overpay. I might go as high as $10mm/season to get Joseph -- I feel he's young, all-around productive, big enough, not to mention a real PG -- I want a real PG in place should we decide to ever move on from Phil Jackson at some point -- if Phil goes, so does Fisher, all his coaches and the triangle. Should that occur, I would never want to be holding the bag on players that can only function within the triangle concept. Real good players can function in the triangle or any system for that matter--those are the guys I want.. We don't need all of these players--I listed quite a few & some overlap/would be redundant--but this is pretty much my basic pool of talent I feel we should be looking at--these should be the players we fall back on and tell ourselves "we can't/won't do any worse than these players." If we can do better than this, great, but I'd be happy with these enhancements. Trying to keep expectations on the low side and as realistic as possible.
