??? Taj is a great bench piece and Teague is a decent starting pg. Rubio had to go so getting a first round pick for him is nice. There's no question that this is a playoff team.
NBA: ***Official NBA Draft and Offseason Thread***
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Taj has no offensive game outside of the lane. He's the type of player who kills your spacing on offense, and the Wolves already are going to struggle with that. They also have a much bigger need for wing depth than frontcourt depth. Teague is a decent starting pg, nothing more, nothing less and at 28 he is what he is, no real upside there. A slight upgrade over Rubio offensively, and a downgrade defensively. I think there were better pg options out there and the Wolves should have aimed higher. This was their last offseason where they are going to have plenty of cap room before they start locking in Wiggins and KAT.
Who, Lowry? yes he's an upgrade but you would have to overpay him and he's 31 years old. George Hill? He can't stay healthy and is like 31. Teague was the second best option. I don't think the twolves are done yet.
Taj is still a pretty solid defender and rebounder.
I like both Lowry and Hill better even with them being older, I think Patty Mills would have been better too. Or keep Rubio and look to spend at the 2 guard spot instead, give Redick something like 2/$35-40M. Or take a shot on a young guy with a lot of upside like Tim Hardaway Jr. And then adding Gibson, who can't shoot, can't guard any small ball 4's, which means you can't play him with either KAT or Dieng doesn't make much sense to me. Plus Thibs supposed interest in Rose and Mike Dunleavy too, very Doc Rivers-esque in just wanting to go after guys you know and are comfortable with.
The T'Wolves are now pretty much locked into this core group which yeah it's a playoff team, but I don't think it's much more than that unless Wiggins makes a huge jump in the next year or two.
I would like to see the final number on Hill and Lowery (heard 27 for 3 is the Raptors offer). Hill turned down 20 for 3 from the Jszz gotta think that is still his asking price.
I don't want to totally say it was a bad offseason for Thibs though he did just get 3 new starters in Butler, Teague, and Gibson. Let's see if they can get one or two outside shooters to help the spacing and it could work. In the end if the Town, Wiggins and Butler play to their talent and are all stars that will determine the teams ceiling. Who ever the PG and C won't be the cause or wins and losses.
Second biggest NBA contract ever to a guy in a walking boot that likely won't play until like December. Such a Clippers move. They're going to return to the dumpster here shortly.
Agree. Speaking of which, what did you think about KD leaving money on the table? I get that it's a selfless move within the framework of just Golden State, but I can't imagine the player's union reps are too thrilled with him. If he takes less doesn't that possibly affect other guys around the league coming up for a free agency payday?
With Jerry West taking control of the front office from Doc, I think they will be ok. They got a great haul for CP3 who was leaving anyway. Blake is definitely an injury risk but he should keep them competitive when he's on the court.
It's a bad contract, but in the short term it'll help them sell tickets and keep the franchise somewhat relevant. And if he comes back healthy and productive they could always try to move him and accelerate the rebuild. I like their long term prospects with Jerry West advising. Give it a couple years.
KD is befriending so many rich Silicon Valley CEOs while at Golden State he'll end up making more money just from non-basketball investments.
Read: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/style/kevin-durant-silicon-valley-golden-state-warriors.html
Right, but on the surface it looks like he's sacrificing to keep the team together. It's a PR win for him, and as you pointed out staying in Silicon Valley is worth more to him than what he would have made if he had pushed for the max deal.
My point was that as one of the elite guys in the league, doesn't he have a responsibility to the other players around the league to leverage his skills to get fair market value? If he takes less, it means that others could be expected to take less. Or is it a nonfactor in the NBA because there is a maximum amount you can pay a player, unlike in the NFL where salaries keep going up?
I was surprised by how much he left on the table. Durant is one of the handful of guys who make significantly more in endorsements than salary so it makes sense for him, but I'm sure guys like Chris Paul and LeBron aren't really happy about it. I saw LeBron made some comment about why is there a max contract talking about Curry's new deal, and how Curry is worth even more than that.
LeBron took less than the max when he went to Miami, but I think he really got tired of the owners driving the narrative that it was up to the players to take less if they want to have a "super team". Miami dumping Mike Miller to avoid the luxury tax while going for a three-peat was a great of example of this, owners saying the players should take less but not being willing to sacrifice profits themselves. It's probably a little easier for Durant in this case since Lacob is willing to pay a gigantic tax bill and it's not like the money Durant left on the table is going right back into Lacob's pockets.
The west is going to be very interesting next year. The warriors are still better than anyone else but I wouldn't be surprised if they got upset in the playoffs. Reaching the finals 4 years in a row is incredible hard.
I would be shocked. I think there's still a huge gap between the Warriors and everyone else. They ran through the playoffs while still having tricks up their sleeve that they didn't even need to pull out, they didn't even have to max out their team this year. The Durant-Curry pick and role is basically unstoppable and the Warriors only occasionally used that this year.
The rest of the West is going to be really fun though. Houston, San Antonio, Denver and Minnesota will be much improved, Utah and the Clips will probably take a step back but still be decent. Portland has talent, even the bad teams like the Suns, Kings and Lakers have exciting young cores.
