You're the GM this offseason. What do you do?

[infection]

It's nice to add guys that can be part of the core for 3,4,5 years but guys that can give you great value the next 2-3 shouldn't be ignored either. Rudy ain't got forever... Hayward grew impatient... How long is DM going to wait?

I think the “be patient” people fail to recognize this. This isn’t your grandfather’s NBA. Gone are the days of 7 year max contracts. Bringing up “we didn’t make the finals until 12 year into Stockton and Malone” isn’t a great comparison because there’s absolutely nothing about the fluidity of the league that’s similar, at all. Windows are now much smaller. If we had Donovan and Rudy on seven year deals, it’d be one thing. But we don’t.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I think the “be patient” people fail to recognize this. This isn’t your grandfather’s NBA. Gone are the days of 7 year max contracts. Bringing up “we didn’t make the finals until 12 year into Stockton and Malone” isn’t a great comparison because there’s absolutely nothing about the fluidity of the league that’s similar, at all. Windows are now much smaller. If we had Donovan and Rudy on seven year deals, it’d be one thing. But we don’t.

You can still keep 2 key pieces together long-term, but the stuff around them has to rotate... we aren't saying trade Stock or Malone... we are saying the other pieces need to move around. Roster continuity is really your top 2-3 guys but keeping everyone together 4-5 years doesn't work. San Antonio needed Duncan, Manu, and Tony Parker to each take a little less and sacrifice to stay together.

Having burned assets to acquire Hill and Ricky sucks, but should not factor into our future thinking... those are sunk costs. Conley is much better than those guys... I don't think he is a band aid or stop gap but would have a shorter shelf life than I would have hoped with our third piece. Have to hit a home run in a draft or have guys coming up behind Conley/Ingles or be able to pivot as they decline.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

One thing to keep in mind with Favors. He is non-guaranteed... it isn't a team option. So to clear his space he would need to be waived. To sign him long term to a smaller deal he would have to clear waivers... so a team may very well pick up that option before we could sign him. This is per Dan Clayton on twitter.

 

[NUMBERICA]

By the way.

At some point, we are going to have to get serious about figuring out how to replace what Joe brings to the table because he is and has been the third most-important player of this era. It's no mystery that the Jazz looked like **** when the Rockets keyed in hard on him, the only mystery is why no one else had figured out how important he was to making everything work.

Joe's obvious mortality is a reason to make win-now moves.

 

[infection]

You can still keep 2 key pieces together long-term, but the stuff around them has to rotate... we aren't saying trade Stock or Malone... we are saying the other pieces need to move around. Roster continuity is really your top 2-3 guys but keeping everyone together 4-5 years doesn't work. San Antonio needed Duncan, Manu, and Tony Parker to each take a little less and sacrifice to stay together.

Having burned assets to acquire Hill and Ricky sucks, but should not factor into our future thinking... those are sunk costs. Conley is much better than those guys... I don't think he is a band aid or stop gap but would have a shorter shelf life than I would have hoped with our third piece. Have to hit a home run in a draft or have guys coming up behind Conley/Ingles or be able to pivot as they decline.

I think Conley catapults you into a different level where it makes it more feasible to continue with talent. For instance, if two years of Conley keeps you at 1-3 in the west, it's pretty easy to get people to buy-in and fill in around that, or even sign larger guys, when we're making trips to the WCF. As we will see this summer, it's kinda hard to do that when you get bounced speedily in the first round. So even though he may have a short shelf-life, it pays other dividends that people don't recognize. (Not to beat a dead horse but this is one reason I've said we needed to cash in those first rounders for someone like Niko -- we'd have won more regular season games, positioned ourselves better for the post-season, and have been more attractive).

 

[Jingled]

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

So here is my offseason plan...

Get Conley using Exum a 1st and Favs (and Bradley for cap fodder if needed) or cap space.
Still leaves around 10-15M (depending on Kyle) to make a 4/50 offer for Niko.
Use the room exception on a quality backup center unless there is a wing that misses big money and is a good value... Ideally I think Taj Gibson on a 1 year 4.5M deal would work... other candidates Noah Vonleh, Kyle O Quinn, Dedmon (may not have Jazz DNA doe), Koufus, Lopez... could also move Jae for a backup center and use this exception on something else.
Buy a good second round pick to add a prospect to the pipeline.

 

[Jingled]

So here is my offseason plan...

Get Conley using Exum a 1st and Favs (and Bradley for cap fodder if needed) or cap space.
Still leaves around 10-15M (depending on Kyle) to make a 4/50 offer for Niko.
Use the room exception on a quality backup center unless there is a wing that misses big money and is a good value... Ideally I think Taj Gibson on a 1 year 4.5M deal would work... other candidates Noah Vonleh, Kyle O Quinn, Dedmon (may not have Jazz DNA doe), Koufus, Lopez... could also move Jae for a backup center and use this exception on something else.
Buy a good second round pick to add a prospect to the pipeline.

This is really good. I'd be very pleased with this type of an offseason.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I think Conley catapults you into a different level where it makes it more feasible to continue with talent. For instance, if two years of Conley keeps you at 1-3 in the west, it's pretty easy to get people to buy-in and fill in around that, or even sign larger guys, when we're making trips to the WCF. As we will see this summer, it's kinda hard to do that when you get bounced speedily in the first round. So even though he may have a short shelf-life, it pays other dividends that people don't recognize. (Not to beat a dead horse but this is one reason I've said we needed to cash in those first rounders for someone like Niko -- we'd have won more regular season games, positioned ourselves better for the post-season, and have been more attractive).

He also doesn't need to play 70+ games... just give us 55+ games and be healthy in the playoffs and our playoff ceiling goes way up. We can stitch together pg for 20+ games with DM, Neto, Ingles, and other minimum vet additions.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

TJ is taking a lot of Kemba to Utah questions... that is one I just can't see... I think Hornets will pony up megamax which is like $50M more than we could offer. Kemba has made good money but he hasn't made so much that he can walk from that dough imo… unless he makes it up in marketing dollars or elsewhere. His big contract was 4/48M.

Tobias has a better chance of happening because I doubt Philly offers the 5 year max... they also have the Jimmy Butler factor they are weighing. Even that is slim because there will be 2/3 teams willing to go full max to him imo.

 

[infection]

So here is my offseason plan...

Get Conley using Exum a 1st and Favs (and Bradley for cap fodder if needed) or cap space.
Still leaves around 10-15M (depending on Kyle) to make a 4/50 offer for Niko.
Use the room exception on a quality backup center unless there is a wing that misses big money and is a good value... Ideally I think Taj Gibson on a 1 year 4.5M deal would work... other candidates Noah Vonleh, Kyle O Quinn, Dedmon (may not have Jazz DNA doe), Koufus, Lopez... could also move Jae for a backup center and use this exception on something else.
Buy a good second round pick to add a prospect to the pipeline.

What am I missing on Dedmon not having Jazz DNA? I really like him.

 

[NUMBERICA]

TJ is taking a lot of Kemba to Utah questions... that is one I just can't see... I think Hornets will pony up megamax which is like $50M more than we could offer. Kemba has made good money but he hasn't made so much that he can walk from that dough imo… unless he makes it up in marketing dollars or elsewhere. His big contract was 4/48M.

Tobias has a better chance of happening because I doubt Philly offers the 5 year max... they also have the Jimmy Butler factor they are weighing. Even that is slim because there will be 2/3 teams willing to go full max to him imo.

Can Kemba sign a Megamax? Wouldn't he have to be All NBA?