Free Agency Thread - 2018
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I'm all aboard the Parker train if it's at least somewhat feasible. He's a true 3/4 flex and just because he'd start at the 3, doesn't mean he'd play all his minutes there. There's some super enticing small-ball LU's with him at PF and Bagley at C that would be an absolute terror to try and stop on offense. Super elite spacing/athleticism and scoring with Fox-Buddy-Bogdan-Parker-Bagley.
And if you're Milwaukee you got to make the decision if Middleton/Giannis/Parker is actually good enough to be competitive or else they risk becoming the Wizards; good team, but not good enough to ever really be taken seriously. And Middleton is going to get significantly more expensive next summer (at least 20mil/season, probably more) and I don't think there's any question he's their second best player. Bledsoe is up next summer too, so if you sign Parker now, you're almost guaranteed to lose Bledsoe next summer.
Add in the fact here we can ship them WCS in a S&T and I think there should be enough here from Milwaukees perspective to get something done. They don't have to take the risk on Parker and don't lose him for nothing.
And if you're Milwaukee you got to make the decision if Middleton/Giannis/Parker is actually good enough to be competitive or else they risk becoming the Wizards; good team, but not good enough to ever really be taken seriously. And Middleton is going to get significantly more expensive next summer (at least 20mil/season, probably more) and I don't think there's any question he's their second best player. Bledsoe is up next summer too, so if you sign Parker now, you're almost guaranteed to lose Bledsoe next summer.
Add in the fact here we can ship them WCS in a S&T and I think there should be enough here from Milwaukees perspective to get something done. They don't have to take the risk on Parker and don't lose him for nothing.
I'm not a fan of Parker, especially in the Kings case where he would be playing the majority of minutes at SF. '
He's a year away from ACL surgery and a year away from averaging 20ppg. The thing I don't like is that while scoring 20ppg, his VORP was only 1.0. To put it in perspective, he was 116th in the league in VORP which is obviously not good considering he was only one of 33 players to average 20ppg. Now to give him some credit, he would have been a bit higher if he played in every game, probably around a 1.3 VORP or so but that's still not very good. The only players that averaged 20ppg with a lower VORP were Carmelo, Booker and Wiggins. As with everything, VORP isn't a be all end all stat.
If you use ESPN's RPM stat, he was 188th in the league during his breakout year as well.
Considering his breakout year was pre ACL tear and his breakout year was more than likely full of empty stats, I don't see the point in giving this guy the contract he will more than likely demand. He's a bad defender and we would have him defending a position he's not well suited for. His offense is fine but he's not a real positive player as far as winning basketball goes. I see him sort of in the same vain as Wiggins. He will score but he will give up the same amount or more on most nights.
He's a year away from ACL surgery and a year away from averaging 20ppg. The thing I don't like is that while scoring 20ppg, his VORP was only 1.0. To put it in perspective, he was 116th in the league in VORP which is obviously not good considering he was only one of 33 players to average 20ppg. Now to give him some credit, he would have been a bit higher if he played in every game, probably around a 1.3 VORP or so but that's still not very good. The only players that averaged 20ppg with a lower VORP were Carmelo, Booker and Wiggins. As with everything, VORP isn't a be all end all stat.
If you use ESPN's RPM stat, he was 188th in the league during his breakout year as well.
Considering his breakout year was pre ACL tear and his breakout year was more than likely full of empty stats, I don't see the point in giving this guy the contract he will more than likely demand. He's a bad defender and we would have him defending a position he's not well suited for. His offense is fine but he's not a real positive player as far as winning basketball goes. I see him sort of in the same vain as Wiggins. He will score but he will give up the same amount or more on most nights.
I don't know why people have Buddy cemented as a bench player. People didn't really talk about it until he started a few games at the beginning of last year and struggled. Now it seems like most think he's a 6th man at best. Here are his splits from his career. Scroll down half the page and you'll see his stats are slightly better off the bench but the numbers are very even. Buddy is our best wing right now and should be getting the majority of the minutes until another player proves otherwise.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hieldbu01/splits/
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hieldbu01/splits/
Pretty much every advanced stat I've come across has Buddy as the superior player. I can't tell you what will happen 2-3 years down the line but right now he's better.
He's a bench player on GS or HOU but he's certainly not a bench player here. Can you imagine how much more competitive Cleveland would have been in the playoffs if they had Hield splashing down shots instead of JR Smith putting up brick after brick? I'm not saying Buddy is the second coming or anything but this guy is going to be better than a lot of people think.
He's a bench player on GS or HOU but he's certainly not a bench player here. Can you imagine how much more competitive Cleveland would have been in the playoffs if they had Hield splashing down shots instead of JR Smith putting up brick after brick? I'm not saying Buddy is the second coming or anything but this guy is going to be better than a lot of people think.
TJ McBride @TJMcBrideNBA
Earlier today, @Tim Bontempsreported that the #Nuggets and #Lakers discussed a trade that would clear one of Darrell Arthur, Kenneth Faried, or Wilson ,Chandler so long as Denver also sent a future first-round pick. My story is live on @MileHighSports:milehighsports.com/report-nuggets…
Why arent we picking up chandler AND getting a pick for our troubles?
Earlier today, @Tim Bontempsreported that the #Nuggets and #Lakers discussed a trade that would clear one of Darrell Arthur, Kenneth Faried, or Wilson ,Chandler so long as Denver also sent a future first-round pick. My story is live on @MileHighSports:milehighsports.com/report-nuggets…
Why arent we picking up chandler AND getting a pick for our troubles?
Does the advance stat tell you one guy is going against the best of the best while the other guy is going against bench players and that one of them struggled badly when we were in the playoff race (playing in meaningful games) but as soon as we were out of it he started to blow up near mid season?
For me to beleive in Buddy he's got to do it in somewhat meaningful games not play poorly in both his first two seasons in high intensity games over the first 30-50 and that blow up at the end of the season.
For me to beleive in Buddy he's got to do it in somewhat meaningful games not play poorly in both his first two seasons in high intensity games over the first 30-50 and that blow up at the end of the season.
http://www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/2990984/buddy-hield
You can see his month by month progression. He blew up in November, not just mid season. He had a bad start to the year and seemed to get jerked around by Joerger for a while. It hurt his offensive game but his defensive intensity picked up later in the year so maybe it was for the better?
I'll give you the fact that Bogdan played against better players the majority of the time but the advanced stats have Buddy out in front by quite a bit. It would definitely close the gap but I don't think it would be enough to say that Bogdan was better than Buddy last year. I didn't see anyone saying Buddy was a 6th man the year he got traded to us and looked like an entirely different player than the one that was in New Orleans. Yet after a poor 7 game start to the season, people had him branded as a bench player for life. Those 7 games didn't negate the 20 or whatever from the previous season. Too small of a sample size.
Bogdan said he was dead tired last year and could never recover due to the strenuous NBA schedule so it wouldn't surprise me at all if he wound up being the superior player after this season. He doesn't even have to do much to improve. Just shoot the wide open shot when it's there instead of insisting on always running a set play. He's such a good shooter that him shooting an open shot with 18 seconds left on the shot clock is more efficient than running a pick and roll. Honestly I really don't care who becomes better in the end but it just irks me that Buddy is labeled a bench player because of a poor week and a half to start the season.
You can see his month by month progression. He blew up in November, not just mid season. He had a bad start to the year and seemed to get jerked around by Joerger for a while. It hurt his offensive game but his defensive intensity picked up later in the year so maybe it was for the better?
I'll give you the fact that Bogdan played against better players the majority of the time but the advanced stats have Buddy out in front by quite a bit. It would definitely close the gap but I don't think it would be enough to say that Bogdan was better than Buddy last year. I didn't see anyone saying Buddy was a 6th man the year he got traded to us and looked like an entirely different player than the one that was in New Orleans. Yet after a poor 7 game start to the season, people had him branded as a bench player for life. Those 7 games didn't negate the 20 or whatever from the previous season. Too small of a sample size.
Bogdan said he was dead tired last year and could never recover due to the strenuous NBA schedule so it wouldn't surprise me at all if he wound up being the superior player after this season. He doesn't even have to do much to improve. Just shoot the wide open shot when it's there instead of insisting on always running a set play. He's such a good shooter that him shooting an open shot with 18 seconds left on the shot clock is more efficient than running a pick and roll. Honestly I really don't care who becomes better in the end but it just irks me that Buddy is labeled a bench player because of a poor week and a half to start the season.
Rumors are that Indiana is interested in Gordon (Orlando one) and Thad Young has opted in, I wonder if that in any way makes Sabonis expendable (unless the Pacers trade young), I would offer a very decent package for a near elite role man who would be our starting C (he was a beast at C for a good chunk when Turner was injured) who is physical inside scorer/rebounder and has improving range and above average IQ. Turner and Sabonis rarely played together as well so.......
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...review-lebron-james-paul-george-kawhi-leonard
• The legacy of the 2016 cap spike and resulting spending orgy: Only a half-dozen or so teams have pathways to meaningful cap space, and three of them -- Atlanta, Chicago and Sacramento -- are signaling they plan to use it to take on bad salary and extract draft picks as the price, sources say. (That is a particularly interesting, and smart, decision for the Kings, considering they don't own their 2019 pick and as a result have some incentive to compete. But they have zero chance of being good and should look at the lost pick as a sunk cost. If they hunt players instead of dead money, I'd expect them to chase younger free agents -- including restricted guys such as Aaron Gordon, Jabari Parker and perhaps Zach LaVine.)
• The legacy of the 2016 cap spike and resulting spending orgy: Only a half-dozen or so teams have pathways to meaningful cap space, and three of them -- Atlanta, Chicago and Sacramento -- are signaling they plan to use it to take on bad salary and extract draft picks as the price, sources say. (That is a particularly interesting, and smart, decision for the Kings, considering they don't own their 2019 pick and as a result have some incentive to compete. But they have zero chance of being good and should look at the lost pick as a sunk cost. If they hunt players instead of dead money, I'd expect them to chase younger free agents -- including restricted guys such as Aaron Gordon, Jabari Parker and perhaps Zach LaVine.)
That is probably a smart approach. Taking on a bad contract to get a pick next year and then maybe adding a young FA like Hezonja or someone who still might have some upside but hasn't shown much yet seems a wise course of action. Can we take on Wilson Chandler? He might actually help the team and still be an expiring vet SF.