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As the resident Clippers fan and more, that trade makes no sense.
Agreed.
As the resident Clippers fan and more, that trade makes no sense.
How did that second unit fare last year again? Not that hot in my memory!
Our 2nd unit is garbage. No one that was part of it last year should be considered safe or having a spot in it going forward with the exception of Troy Daniels. He was the only bright spot throughout the season and since he's on a small contract, paying him about $2.5 million next season, he's the only player who should have a spot in next years rotation. He's also a good shooter and we need shooters. Len is as good as gone, Ulis is most likely on his way out, Williams will be waived because the Suns won't pay $6 million next year, Reed showed very little but is an option to be kept on a Two-Way contract.
I agree with all of this except the Williams comment. According to hoopshype, his $5.5 million for 2018-19 is guaranteed; the team option year isn't until 2019-20. Maybe the Suns will waive him anyway, but that doesn't make much sense, since their salary situation for next year is fine. And, as you point out, the team needs backup big men. Even if Ayton is drafted and Chandler is retained (and healthy), there's room on the roster for someone like Williams.
Speaking of "someone like Williams," I wonder what the market for Kyle O'Quinn will be. He's older (28) and will never be more than a bench player, but he put up great per-minute numbers last season and the Knicks probably can't afford to retain him.
It’s been a lost season for Williams, who’s played in only five games after offseason knee surgery. Williams is a fan favorite and can be a useful big off the bench, but his $5.5 million salary next season is not guaranteed and Phoenix might decide to use that money in free agency.
I'll have to dig it up but his contract for next season is not guaranteed. I posted a Bordow article mentioning that before. Hoopshype is probably the only site that lists it differently because Spotrac has it as non-guaranteed, here is a link to that. It becomes guaranteed July 6th.
http://www.spotrac.com/nba/phoenix-suns/alan-williams-18820/
As much as Williams on the roster would be a feel good story, there is a reason to give up on him. If he would be blocking a roster spot for a mid-career Center backup. Unless that roster spot would be taken by a Forward, leaving only Chandler to back up Ayton. Then there is reason to keep Williams.Hmm. Well, even so, unless his health is an issue, it doesn't make a lot of sense for the Suns to give up on him.
As the resident Clippers fan and more, that trade makes no sense.
I'll have to dig it up but his contract for next season is not guaranteed. I posted a Bordow article mentioning that before. Hoopshype is probably the only site that lists it differently because Spotrac has it as non-guaranteed, here is a link to that. It becomes guaranteed July 6th.
http://www.spotrac.com/nba/phoenix-suns/alan-williams-18820/
I'll look for the Bordow article. It's been mentioned by others though.
Its non-guaranteed, and he also has a minute, weight, and body fat clause that can trigger $1M guaranteed until July 6 2018 and 2019. Not sure the exact details on that, but its something to consider if the Suns dont waive him and keep him on the roster for next season.
Didn't know they had clauses like that in the NBA. I knew the NFL had clauses like that. Got to get Chriss on one of those. Doubt it can be worked into a rookie contract though.
I could see him being waived and brought back on a minimum deal.
They have to pay him if they waive him, so if they plan to have him on the roster, there's no point at all in waiving him first.
As much as Williams on the roster would be a feel good story, there is a reason to give up on him. If he would be blocking a roster spot for a mid-career Center backup. Unless that roster spot would be taken by a Forward, leaving only Chandler to back up Ayton. Then there is reason to keep Williams.
Yeah I’d like to see some more from reed and even peters (can’t believe I typed the latter - but that single late season single game performance piqued my curiosity).If Williams returns to pre-injury form, he's better than Chandler on both ends of the floor, so don't overlook that small point.
Davon Reed looked awful after he came back from injury but he looked very good in the summer league - bringing strong D and decent shooting on 3's. I'm not at all ready to give up on him before we see him after a full summer of work. The same goes for Alec Peters - his 3 was coming around by years and and I love the fact that he rarely turns the ball over. Even though Triano only let him play in very short stints he still came up with overall stats better than Bender or Chriss.
Didn't know they had clauses like that in the NBA. I knew the NFL had clauses like that. Got to get Chriss on one of those. Doubt it can be worked into a rookie contract though.
I could see him being waived and brought back on a minimum deal. Not sure how that would work but since it's the offseason I don't think it would be an issue, especially if he's fine with that. I know players that are traded can't be re-acquired for a year. They may be able to rework the contract but that doesn't happen too often in the NBA either.
It's really their cap holds that will hurt them. Len and Payton will be about $17 million, Len is $10 on his own and will be rescinded quickly to free up that money but they'll only have about $12 million in cap space after letting dropping Len's rights. They can get close to $20 million by not giving Payton a qualifying offer but that's not guaranteed. If they hope to have enough cap space to sign anyone worthwhile they'll need to drop Williams and Ulis in addition to Payton, which should get them about $25 million in cap space. They might even have less than that because of the cap holds for their draft picks. I guess it depends on what their free agency plans are. They do have a little bit of time to decide with Williams and Ulis because their contracts aren't guaranteed until July 6th, which gives them 5 days to negotiate with free agents to see if they'll need that money elsewhere. It won't surprise me to see Williams dropped.
We're not signing anyone to a max deal this summer but if they plan on making a serious run at Aaron Gordon, they'll need to let those guys go or find a taker for Chandler or Dudley, or use the stretch provision on one of them. It's unlikely they stretch Chandler since he'll be a good mentor for Ayton but we'll see. They could have other plans. Hopefully their plans are better than having Mark West work with him like they've done with other bigs. West is great but he was far from a great player.
OK. Let's consider that line up, if Gordon is their target and they dump Len, Payton, Ulis, and Williams.
Knight, Shaq
Booker, Daniels
JJ, TJ
Gordon, Bender, Chriss
Ayton, Chandler
JJ and Gordon are decent defensively. I think Ayton will be OK defensively at the center from the beginning. Shaq can defend at pg. What else would that team need from the draft or trade, because that blows their free agency wad. That team needs more three point shooting. You need either Young or Doncic.
First, one of Bender or Chriss has to go. Just has to. Probably the one with the most present value which would be Bender.
I just don't see it Aaron Gordon is good, but his limitations are significant and his skill set does not fit with Ayton and JJ nearly as well as Bender.
Trade 16, 31 ,59, Chriss, and Ulis for #7. Get Trae Young. We don't have room for four more rookies on this team, but need a young shooter/distributor. We'll have to count on growing them defensively, and using Ayton and Jackson as the primary defenders, and run a high octane offense better than yours to win games. That'll complete the tank and rebuild job entirely. Get a big free agent of some manner, and your team is complete, two deep at every spot with starter quality guys.
I think adding Trae Young would be wildly entertaining. However, it won't win us a championship.
Harden has Paul.
Steph has Klay.
The precedent is that if your star guard is a bad defender, then the other guard must be VERY good at it. With Young I think we'd be a tad better than Portland is with Lillard and McCollum. We'd never be what Houston and GS are.