Who would you like to sign jtm?

(Not trying to be sarcastic here, I haven't researched it much)

Batum is almost surely going to get a max deal.

For Wolves, Barnes >> Batum >>>>>>>> Deng. Do not want Deng at all. He might be better to maximize ring equity next year vs Barnes, but the Towns/Wiggins window is the next 7 years. No need to chase it now on an old man who will be out of the league when the stars are hitting their primes.

Nobody really.

I don't really get that. Last year's team is potentially only a couple pieces from being a winning team, but it isn't a winning team as is. You'd rather they not sign anybody, sit on the cap room, and play with who they have?

Well, i'd sign Al Horford if possible. But saving cap space for next year >>> way overpaying for someone who sucks or is on the edge of crippling oldness.

That's why they should really look at one year contracts imo. Unless they can get someone who fits with their timeline and in that case I think they can slightly overpay.

Yeah no reason why we have to sign a guy to a huge contract that would hurt our chances of retaining our young studs when it's time to lock them up.

While a pure shooter and defensive minded forward would help our starting lineup, our entire bench could use a ton of help. There will be plenty of role players available for cheap contracts that can help us in that regard.

Everybody is gonna get way, way overpaid this summer. Every team will have tons of cap space and the free agent class sucks. There's no reason for Luol Deng to sign a 1 year deal when some team will offer him a lol 4-year deal.

I'm not a huge fan of Murray to be honest. He's young, but his measurables and athleticism aren't that great. He's fine as a point guard, but kind of small as a shooting guard. He's obviously a good shooter and can finish around the rim well, but a guard lacking separation concerns me. I am a little wary of Dunn as well, especially considering who we have starting there right now, but I am more comfortable with Dunn's long term upside compared to Murray's.

That's a great quote btw, I hadn't read that. i'll be honest, I'm mostly in love with his measurables for a wing(jaylen), and his ability to get downhill. We have a really good head coach and there's a lot there to work with from an athletic standpoint. It's concerning for sure and something I'm going to have to check out.

I like biyombo, but he's pretty specialized and would not want him on this team. The only real "big" free agents I would want to see the Wolves pursue are Horford/Durant/Whiteside. I don't really want barnes to be honest although he's worthy of a max, think the money can be spent better elsewhere.

We actually do have to spend some money though don't we? Don't we have to spend like 90% of the cap or something?

No, the penalty is that you evenly spread the difference between the floor and your salary total among your players. So functionally you don't need to.

this

If you can get a superstar ldo get him but otherwise save the space. Next offseason we should have much more buzz so we might actually be able to get a big difference maker.

Would not hate Batum for max but it's a lot of money and it sends Lavine to the bench. I'd rather spend another year seeing if Zach is a superstar or not.

yeah agree. have no problem with a potential batum signing. he's young enough to where he could play with our young core in their primes and be decent down the road.

I don't really want barnes because as you said JTM that's where two of our potential superstars are already at. That move would push one of them to the bench when we should really be figuring out if they can be a cornerstone of the franchise.

Harrison Barnes played 55% of his minutes last year at PF and 44% at SF.

He would be a good piece to allow the staggering of Lavine/Wiggins...play half at the 4 (with Rubio/Lavine/Wiggins/KAT) and half at the 3 (with Rubio/either Wiggins or Lavine (whoever needs rest)/Dieng/KAT)

That is some serious lineup flexibility.

Good post and good point. Barnes is a tough one to figure out because he's going to command a max contract, but he's at best the 4th most valuable player on the warriors right now. He's in a great situation where he is put in a lot of good spots on the court. I could easily be discounting him because he benefits a lot from the greatness of steph, but he was obviously also a plus contributor on the team.

It made me want to do a quick bref between batum and barnes just for a last season comparison

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...3=&p4=&p5=&p6=

batum is 4 years older than barnes, but he's also a 6'8 do it all wing guy that has played some small ball power forward as well. He's obviously in the prime of his career as well and will command starters minutes on most rosters.


Between the two they look very comparable. Batum has a much larger skillset, but he also turns the ball over quite a bit more as well as creates more. He has a better reputation as a defender and some of the defensive metrics show that. I value what Batum has done as a more primary player over Barnes, even though most of his games were played in the LOLEAST.

You could argue that his skillset as a distributor and secondary ball handler would not be needed in Minnesota with Rubio/Wiggins/Lavine understandably needing most of the touches. Barnes is 4 years younger, shot 3s at a higher rate(albeit on less attempts per game). Barnes has already proven that he can be a really good off the ball support player on a championship caliber team, which would be his role in MN. The other difference is Barnes has steadily improved in GS whereas Batum looked like a lock stud wing a few years back and then got banged up in 2014 and sucked.

Don't think you could go wrong with either, it would probably just come down to how much you'd have to pay them. Barnes' prime coincides with the wolves' core players' primes nicely, but it's not like a batum in 4 years at 31-32 would be much of a slouch either. If both were given maxes I'd take Batum over Barnes as it currently stands, but I think it's pretty close. As you said Fargo, the lineup flexibility with Batum would be awesome, and he's talented enough to be a primary ball handler/distributor for stretches of games and a good enough 3 point shooter to keep defenses honest when he plays off the ball. Between him and Wiggins either one of them have the size and length to play stretches as a small ball power forward as well.

I guess that means I should be ok with a barnes contract as well since there's reportedly a few teams out there willing to max batum. Before my research today I though Batum was going to command less than what's being reported.

cliffs: Went to write a pro Batum post and then found out that both players are probably going to command maxes and are very comparable.

My biggest problem with Barnes is that he sucks and i can't wait to lol at whoever signs him. Would be sad to miss that opportunity if it was us.

I'm not that concerned about our wing play in general. I do think the Wolves biggest problem is big man production so most of the things I write about the draft or free agency will be more centered around that need. We can always find a fill in backup pg like an aaron brooks and that spot will be fine. Between BAZZ, Lavine and Wiggins I'm not too worried about wing rotation, even if Bazz is super streaky I'd like to see what his defense is like under Thibs system before pursuing another wing for depth.

I do not want to see any rudez/payne level big man minutes next season though.

The Wolves biggest problem last year from the starters was clearly wing play because neither Wiggins nor LaVine were very good overall players , ( and Bazz was terrible ).

For some reason Wolves fans seem to project all of the failings of the wings onto Dieng, wanting a stretch 4 to balance the line up because Wiggins can't shoot or a dominant defensive 4 because Wiggins and LaVine suck at defense or a great rebounding 4 because Wiggins can't rebound.

Wiggins and Lavine were 20

Sure so you hope they will develop into good players but I'm not depending on that if the best player available is a wing , they aren't good enough to be considered irreplaceable

I disagree. They're both irreplaceable imo.

They sucked last year under a ****ty coach in a ****ty scheme when they were 20. Not worried about their long term upside and not looking to fill in a player to take away minutes from their development

We need more good players on the team, but we dont need to give out max contracts to role players.