I doubt Dallas tries to sign DAJ in free agency after last go around. The organization was embarrassed by the negotiating **** show.

Maybe I missed some news about this, but I’m also not sure why we’re assuming DAJ is opting out of his last year either. Prob requests a trade in private instead.

From Dallas perspective, spending on Capela could make sense given the ages of their would be new core 4 (Luka, Capela, DSJr, Barnes). They’d need all of Luka, Clint, and DSJr to hit their upper projections to ever really matter (we know what Barnes is).

Do you think it's a basketball iq thing with him where he is just destined to suck or is he just stubborn & clashed heads with Carlile? Off of physical gifts he should be better than Clint Capela at being Clint Capela, hate when players waste their talent.

Dallas should obv offer Capella the max and Houston would obv match. You guys overrate cap space so much lol. If I was them I'd have a decent crack at Randle too. They've got their guy already just need to surround him with any sorta talent

Agreed though that they shouldn't want any part of DAJ or probably DMC either, want to line up the ages better for sure

I meant what will the Lakers do if SAS stays clammed up, being forced to try to recruit LBJ/PG with nothing going wrong before February (or even summer 2019) to get Kawhi. SAS still has leverage because of this even if Kawhi will not play a single 2018-19 game for any other team.

Dunc'd On podcast released their mock offseason episode today. It is a great listen if you are a big NBA nerd.

Its impossible to overrate cap space with regards to centers this year.

Kanter would be dumb to opt out.

Hawks and Bulls really dont have reasons to sign centers. They are both rebuilding and have a ton of guys that can play center.

The center market is basically Dallas, who even has Dirk playing there solely and having some issues with getting warmed up. Seems very likely they go for one of the big guys on the market tho.
Lakers resigning Randle if they strike out, and maybe 1 other center on a 1 year deal.
Spurs could go after a center with the MLE
Pels possibly resigning Boogie, but there are cap issues there, or using their MLE
The Wizards have a big need, but are over the tax. Could dump Gortat somewhere though and use the MLE.
Clippers are complicated and have quite a lot of money tied up even if DAJ leaves.
Blazers in tax hell and will be targetting their own dudes.
Jazz and Favors prob come to an agreement after Favors looks at the market. If Favors leaves, the center market gets a lot worse for everyone else.
Sixers giving away an Amir 2.0 contract to a backup center if they strike out with LeBron/Kawhi/PG
Knicks need a cheapish backup to replace OQuinn
Nets could have around 10 million in space and only have 1 center on the roster. Will be probably looking to take a Gortat or some ****.
Celitcs are getting close to the tax, but will probably bring back Baynes.

Using cap space to pay real money to guys who aren't all-star level seems to be counter-productive. I get it if you've got your team established and you're using Bird to go over the cap (say for Ariza, Iggy, some of Cleveland's guys), but I just don't see a guy like Randle or DAJ moving the needle. Those $15-20 M contracts for solid players are so limiting for the team.

Take a guy like Gary Harris - perfectly solid young player, reasonable contract (16 M now, rising to 20 over 4 years). Does that contract/player combo help you get to the conference finals level? I'm not so sure. And that's not an egregious example. Pick anybody in that range - Marvin Williams, Evan Fournier, James Johnson, Gallo, Otto Porter. I get it for these teams. It's hard to let a Gary Harris walk. But I just don't think you're winning with $12-$20 M players as foundational pieces.

Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are these "$12-$20 M players" when they last signed. At that stage Klay was a one time all star and Draymond hadn't been an All-Star yet.

These mid range players are important to a team's success.

They're obviously not as important as the Steph/Durant/LeBrons of the world, but that's why they make a third of what the other guys make.

My understanding from reading TZ threads is Gary Harris is a super stud.

A lot of the mid level contracts of teams resigning their RFAs turn out pretty well. Curry/Conley/Kemba/DeRozan types.

Is that sarcasm? Conley (max) and ddr has bad contacts and their respective teams are likely are stuck because of them. Like it sucks when you have to pay Conley and ddr near max when lebron and 10 other players also get max but are worth double to triple their contracts.

Wrong contract capone.

Maybe calm down on accusing others of making sarcastic and dumb posts.

I think this is really unlikely, and SAS will wind up trading him wherever they want. He was able to sit last year despite being cleared medically by SAS because Pop et al wanted to play nice and keep him happy long term.

If a player has been medically cleared to play and refuses, the team can apply way more pressure on him than SAS did last year.

Jokic signing for 5/146 according to Shams

Not unexpected.

If Lakers get PG/Bron then Kawhi probably can't do much since Lakers won't be able to sign him next summer. But if Lakers don't get Bron, then Kawhi can just play the year with SA and go there after the year.

So Nuggets had their 3 best players on a rookie contract and didn't manage to create caproom ?

That's terrible GMing

They signed the second most-coveted free agent last year in Millsap, and will be back into max territory next year and the year after depending on if they extend Murray.

They spent it all on Millsap--lol at him making 30M. Faried and Plumlee also get 14M and 13M and Darrell Arthur some how gets 7.5M. Let's be honest, big time FAs aren't coming to Denver so it makes sense to lock their guys up--the issue is they locked some crappy players up or traded for them.

What’s the reasoning for 2nd rounders becoming unrestricted free agents after their 4 year even after only 1 contract?

Like the tiered max contracts it seems like a leak.

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/06/21...ers-this-year/

Pretty sure the issue is first round picks have pretty set contracts--getting 120% of the tier with everyone getting the same contract length and details while 2nd round picks can sign a range of contracts with a lot of flexibility in contract length, size, etc. It's a pretty weird system IMO.

Whoops on my earlier comment, totally forgot Conley took a deal after his rookie that most people scoffed at when he got it but by the end of his deal it was a bargin before he signed his awful max deal.

Boogie was a starting all star this year. Not a bad ceiling for a non-max guy. I think he's worth a gamble at 3/60.

Boogie is getting way more than 3/60.

Boogie's biggest issue is he only played 65 games (out of 164) the last 2 seasons If a team wants him to be the #1 guy on a playoff team, I doubt it'll end well but if he can stay with NOP or be the 2nd option I think the team has a chance to be good but not amazing like he already has for NOP. Boogie should get max or near it especially if Houston matches whatever is offered Capela and the Mavs decide to either max Boogie or have NOP match it.

He's played 120 games in the last two season fwiw.

Having said that... he's coming off one of the worst injuries a bball player can have.

Also, having said that.... 25/13/5 guys don't grow on trees.

There will be a team out there willing to take a risk and give him max (or close to max).