Who Would Come After Thomas?

#31
I'm an IT guy and if there is anything I agree with grant on is that if the kid continues on this trajectory he can be a franchise pg. I've seen a lot of improvement in the defensive intensity over the last month and obviously he is still learning the game in his offense quarterback role. Better point guards don't really grow on trees. Smart/exam have question marks and I don't see a better candidate who will come as financially reasonable as IT or can be traded for for what we deem as expendable.
But really depends on IT development. We need to give him more time to demonstrate if his flaws are correctable or not. Kid has improved leaps and bounds from last year and is still young but it seems like he has a shorter leash than any young king I can remember
He's 25. With 3 full years of managing team in college and 2.5 years of NBA experience. You're right, that it would've been great, if there was more time to evaluate, but there's not, so big decision at the deadline and then in the offseason.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#33
I'm an IT guy and if there is anything I agree with grant on is that if the kid continues on this trajectory he can be a franchise pg. I've seen a lot of improvement in the defensive intensity over the last month and obviously he is still learning the game in his offense quarterback role. Better point guards don't really grow on trees. Smart/exam have question marks and I don't see a better candidate who will come as financially reasonable as IT or can be traded for for what we deem as expendable.
But really depends on IT development. We need to give him more time to demonstrate if his flaws are correctable or not. Kid has improved leaps and bounds from last year and is still young but it seems like he has a shorter leash than any young king I can remember
I'm sort of amazed that you've seen improvement in his defense. Conley just absolutely abused him, and just about any quick PG with decent size can pretty much do what he wants on offense. I'm not saying he's not trying, I'm just saying that he will always be a liability on defense despite his efforts. You say that the Kings need to give him more time, when actually, time is the one thing they've run out of without having to pay for it.
 
#35
I'm an IT guy and if there is anything I agree with grant on is that if the kid continues on this trajectory he can be a franchise pg. I've seen a lot of improvement in the defensive intensity over the last month and obviously he is still learning the game in his offense quarterback role. Better point guards don't really grow on trees. Smart/exam have question marks and I don't see a better candidate who will come as financially reasonable as IT or can be traded for for what we deem as expendable.
But really depends on IT development. We need to give him more time to demonstrate if his flaws are correctable or not. Kid has improved leaps and bounds from last year and is still young but it seems like he has a shorter leash than any young king I can remember
I think it's kinda natural to think that your guy has a shorter leash than others, but this is definitely not true with IT. He might get a hard time for his mistakes, but his leash is longer than anybody's on the team right now.
 
#36
Excellent point. Right now the Bucks would love to unload Sanders contract, but that's going to be extremely hard to do at 11 mil a year for 4 yr's. They have Henson, who putting up better numbers than Sanders. They have too many PF's and can't find enough minutes for all of them. They need a good PG. So what do the Kings do if they come knocking and offer Henson straight up for IT?
Personally, I take it. In fact you might be able to get a bit more than just Henson out of them.

I raised a similar question here a while ago. Would people trade IT for Henson and it was mostly a yes!
 
#37
Excellent point. Right now the Bucks would love to unload Sanders contract, but that's going to be extremely hard to do at 11 mil a year for 4 yr's. They have Henson, who putting up better numbers than Sanders. They have too many PF's and can't find enough minutes for all of them. They need a good PG. So what do the Kings do if they come knocking and offer Henson straight up for IT?
I hope they would offer Henson for IT and Neal for MT.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#39
John Henson could be a handy rotation player here, but unless somebody has a pretty good PG in mind as well, John Henson is not an impact guy at OTs level at this point.

Besides they like Henson. Just no reason at all for a team who likes a guy to suddenly get rid of him. We might be able to get an unbalanced trade for Sanders if they just want out of that contract. They don't want out of anything with Henson.
 
#41
It would be awesome if we somehow could draft Marcus Smart as our longterm solution at PG and keep Thomas as our sixth man. Smart's defensive ability is exactly what's missing in our backcourt right now. Not sure if Thomas would be down for that though.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#43
It would be awesome if we somehow could draft Marcus Smart as our longterm solution at PG and keep Thomas as our sixth man. Smart's defensive ability is exactly what's missing in our backcourt right now. Not sure if Thomas would be down for that though.
I guess I'm missing something. I simply don't get the fascination with Smart. The kid can't shoot a lick from the outside, and he's still learning how to play the PG position. Are you aware that Smart was a SG in highschool, and the PG on his highschool team was Phillp Forte, who is also one of his current teammates. In short, Smart is learning how to play the PG position. I can't prove it, but I suspect that the conversion came because of his inability to shoot from the outside. He's a basketball player that's built like a fullback, and to some degree, plays like on. If we were interested in having a PG like Smart, we could have kept Evans, who I would take ten times out of ten over Smart. I'm not saying Smart won't end up being a good player. What I'm saying is that number one, there are other players I would take before him, and number two, I have some questions about how well he'll adapt to the NBA where he can't just overpower people. He's not crafty at getting to the basket like Tyreke or even IT is. That was exposed when he went up against Embiid and got his shot blocked again and again. Right now, if you can keep Smart from scoring at the basket, he brings you nothing offensively.

Hey, I had serious questions about Michael Carter Williams as well, and so far, he's doing well. So take my thoughts for what you paid for them.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#44
Of course. It allows a team to sign their own free agents even if they are over the cap.
This is true, but there have been some serious changes to that rule in the new CBA. I won't go into them right now, but its worth a read. There are now limits on that rule depending on whether your over the luxury tax or not, and how many Bird extensions you can have at one time on your team. Some of the rules have to do with trading for a player that comes with a Bird exception etc.
 
#45
This is true, but there have been some serious changes to that rule in the new CBA. I won't go into them right now, but its worth a read. There are now limits on that rule depending on whether your over the luxury tax or not, and how many Bird extensions you can have at one time on your team. Some of the rules have to do with trading for a player that comes with a Bird exception etc.
Sorry, I saw this claim before from you. Do you have a link for it, cause I can't find anything in Coon's CBA FAQ?

BTW MCW is doing exactly, what he was doing in college: get steals, get in the lane and create for his teammates, if defense shifts, but struggle to finish, if it doesn't. The offense struggle greatly, if opponents put the hammer down on D, and that's with another playmaker (Evan Turner) in the starting lineup, and they can't defend anyone.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#46
Sorry, I saw this claim before from you. Do you have a link for it, cause I can't find anything in Coon's CBA FAQ?

BTW MCW is doing exactly, what he was doing in college: get steals, get in the lane and create for his teammates, if defense shifts, but struggle to finish, if it doesn't. The offense struggle greatly, if opponents put the hammer down on D, and that's with another playmaker (Evan Turner) in the starting lineup, and they can't defend anyone.
Arrrrgh! OK, I'll go and see if I can find the language. Reading the CBA gives me a headache. As far as Carter-Williams goes, I was trying to be nice. Your right, he struggles with some of the same things he struggled with in college. However, he did answer my question on whether he could play defense in the NBA. You never know when a player plays at Syracuse because they always play that zone. One of my biggest problems in college was his suspect shot, and its still a problem. He's shooting under 30% from the three, and is barely at 40% overall. That said, he's still a favorite to win ROY along with Oladipo
 
#47
Any trade with IT needs to bring back a starting caliber PG, starting Jimmer or McCallum will be a disaster. I'm also not keen on taking on experiments like Smart or Exum, especially since Cousins and Gay are ready to compete for the playoffs now. Drafting one of those guys means a 2 to 3 year learning process, at which point Gay is probably gone and Cousins is halfway out the door.

Lowry is the only guy I see out there that would fit, but he is playing good on a contract year, he has had off locker room problems and injury/ conditioning issues in the past. In IT we know we have a true pro that will bring it every night. If you go the trade for picks and young player route than Gay is out the door, and Cousins is primed to follow. It's very much a Kevin Love situation where Cousins is loyal to the franchise that drafted him, but if he sees that the FO is not putting a playoff caliber team out, he could leave for a bigger market. The Gay trade proves that the FO is not looking to go young.

I think our best route is to try and find that facilitating defensive PG(or hope McCallum develops over the summer, which is possible). The problem right now is that we don't have any other player on the roster than the coach trusts to play PG for anymore than 3 or 4 minute stretches other than IT.

In the same way JT has become very important, he's the only PF we have that does the hard work down low and play defense that we need from that position(Landry qualifies but he's better coming off the bench due to size). JT is everything we need from the PF spot sans shot blocking, so imo he's a keeper unless you get a rim protector out of him.

The guys i'm shopping right now are Thornton, McLemore, Jimmer. Only shop IT or JT if you are getting a home run roster fix across the board.
 
#48
Any trade with IT needs to bring back a starting caliber PG, starting Jimmer or McCallum will be a disaster. I'm also not keen on taking on experiments like Smart or Exum, especially since Cousins and Gay are ready to compete for the playoffs now. Drafting one of those guys means a 2 to 3 year learning process, at which point Gay is probably gone and Cousins is halfway out the door.

Lowry is the only guy I see out there that would fit, but he is playing good on a contract year, he has had off locker room problems and injury/ conditioning issues in the past. In IT we know we have a true pro that will bring it every night. If you go the trade for picks and young player route than Gay is out the door, and Cousins is primed to follow. It's very much a Kevin Love situation where Cousins is loyal to the franchise that drafted him, but if he sees that the FO is not putting a playoff caliber team out, he could leave for a bigger market. The Gay trade proves that the FO is not looking to go young.

I think our best route is to try and find that facilitating defensive PG(or hope McCallum develops over the summer, which is possible). The problem right now is that we don't have any other player on the roster than the coach trusts to play PG for anymore than 3 or 4 minute stretches other than IT.

In the same way JT has become very important, he's the only PF we have that does the hard work down low and play defense that we need from that position(Landry qualifies but he's better coming off the bench due to size). JT is everything we need from the PF spot sans shot blocking, so imo he's a keeper unless you get a rim protector out of him.

The guys i'm shopping right now are Thornton, McLemore, Jimmer. Only shop IT or JT if you are getting a home run roster fix across the board.
It is quite possible that your interpretation of the Gay trade is correct. It could also simply be improvement (big one at that) in talent level. It could also be both and/or more. I suspect the players their willing to move are more than the three you would be shopping.
 
#49
It is quite possible that your interpretation of the Gay trade is correct. It could also simply be improvement (big one at that) in talent level. It could also be both and/or more. I suspect the players their willing to move are more than the three you would be shopping.
I would throw Williams in there too, but outside of that guys like Acy, Gray, Outlaw, McCallum, I would put Jimmer here too actually are nothing but trade fillers.
This is how I see it

Not Tradeable

Cousins
Gay

Only tradeable if getting the right pieces back

IT
Landry
JT
McLemore
Williams

On the trade block

Thornton

Trade fodder

Gray
Acy
Jimmer
Outlaw

No classification

McCallum
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
#50
This is true, but there have been some serious changes to that rule in the new CBA. I won't go into them right now, but its worth a read. There are now limits on that rule depending on whether your over the luxury tax or not, and how many Bird extensions you can have at one time on your team. Some of the rules have to do with trading for a player that comes with a Bird exception etc.
Baja, I think you mixed up the "designated player" extension with Bird Rights. I don't see any limit to the number of "Bird" free agents that a team can have, but they can designate only one player at a time for the designated extension (5 years), they can't use the designated extension again until that contract is over, and they can trade for at most one other player with a designated extension. But signing free agents using Bird rights seems to be unlimited.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#51
Baja, I think you mixed up the "designated player" extension with Bird Rights. I don't see any limit to the number of "Bird" free agents that a team can have, but they can designate only one player at a time for the designated extension (5 years), they can't use the designated extension again until that contract is over, and they can trade for at most one other player with a designated extension. But signing free agents using Bird rights seems to be unlimited.
Your right, that's part of what I was thinking of. The other part is in reference to teams that are 4 mil or more over the luxury tax, as that is considered a hard cap. For instance, a team that's 5 or 6 mil over the luxury tax, can't receive a player by means of a sign and trade unless when completed it leaves them at less than 4 mil over the luxury tax. So for instance the Lakers couldn't lets say, take four players on their roster, some with ending salaries, whose combined salaries add up to 16 million dollars and then trade them for a resigned Rudy Gay whose salaries average 16 mil a year, because they would still be more than 4 mil over the luxury tax limit. Plus, any player they resign, Bird exception or otherwise can't exceed 3 years, and would be at a 4.5% increase per year as opposed to the normal 7.5%, where that same player could get a 4 year deal at the same rate with another team.