What's new

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

Hornets are screwed no matter what. That sucks for them. I wouldn't offer the super max if I were them.

If we fail in free agency, the Hornets are the type team we should be looking to deal with. Favors is much better than Biyombo, MKG, and Marvin for that team. If they re-sign Kemba, that means they are going all in on the now. If we could send out Favors and bring back bad expiring contracts and some picks, that would be wise for both sides. Something like...

Favors
for
MKG, Biyombo, 2020 1st and a 2021 option to swap 1st round picks

Hornets get to stay under the luxury and get a much better fit at C for them. We get two expirings and a pick to use at the deadline.
 
I's hard to see Kemba turning down the supermax and losing all that money. If the Hornets are willing to pay him that much then I think he stays in Charlotte for sure.



If the Hornets give Kemba the supermax, you can write off basketball in that town for the life of that contract. You "supermax" to lock in a competitor. Think of the disaster if we had been able to supermax Hayward. Although Kemba is better than Hayward, the Hornets have zero of anything else and are likely to get nothing more with that kind of contract eating cap space.
 
If we fail in free agency, the Hornets are the type team we should be looking to deal with. Favors is much better than Biyombo, MKG, and Marvin for that team. If they re-sign Kemba, that means they are going all in on the now. If we could send out Favors and bring back bad expiring contracts and some picks, that would be wise for both sides. Something like...

Favors
for
MKG, Biyombo, 2020 1st and a 2021 option to swap 1st round picks

Hornets get to stay under the luxury and get a much better fit at C for them. We get two expirings and a pick to use at the deadline.

If Hornets supermax Kemba, they will not be giving up draft picks. They will need every single one of those to survive. They will be looking to acquire picks rather than giving them away.
 
If Hornets supermax Kemba, they will not be giving up draft picks. They will need every single one of those to survive. They will be looking to acquire picks rather than giving them away.

I disagree because I think they convince Kemba to stay by saying they will go get guys who can help them right now. They have been striking out on mediocre draft picks for years. If they can shed some money to get under the luxury AND get a center upgrade with Favors over Biyombo, I think they would definitely forfeit a pick.
 
I disagree because I think they convince Kemba to stay by saying they will go get guys who can help them right now. They have been striking out on mediocre draft picks for years. If they can shed some money to get under the luxury AND get a center upgrade with Favors over Biyombo, I think they would definitely forfeit a pick.

The only thing they have to do to convince Kemba to stay is offer him the supermax.
 
Can't win with Kemba- not efficient enough offensively to make up for his lack of size and how he would targeted on switches and killed defensively in the playoffs. Especially on the jazz where it would leave them with two small guards and you can't win with two small guards in today's league- unless they are 60%+ TS type guys- which Kemba and Donovan aren't close to.
 
The only thing they have to do to convince Kemba to stay is offer him the supermax.

Well that does help. Once they give him the supermax, they have to scramble to avoid the luxury. I think they value missing the luxury more than another 1st rounder in the early teens. They just aren't the luxury paying type team.
 
Well that does help. Once they give him the supermax, they have to scramble to avoid the luxury. I think they value missing the luxury more than another 1st rounder in the early teens. They just aren't the luxury paying type team.

They need to shed salary in the worst way... if they bring Kemba back... that supermax will become toxic and they may end up having to move him.

They will need to dump salary and get better which is really tough to do. If he signs those picks get traded... they likely don’t retain Lamb. I’d sign it if I was Kemba and then ask out in a year or two if they can’t figure it out... $80m more is just bonkers... his great great grandkids will thank him.
 
Well that does help. Once they give him the supermax, they have to scramble to avoid the luxury. I think they value missing the luxury more than another 1st rounder in the early teens. They just aren't the luxury paying type team.

Honestly they will be in the tax it’s a matter of doing a little tax or going OKC... no way in hell they do megatax but I could see them going in the tax a little.

Ooooffff.... I’d probably just begrudgingly rebuild... MJ hasn’t had the stomach for it.
 
I disagree because I think they convince Kemba to stay by saying they will go get guys who can help them right now. They have been striking out on mediocre draft picks for years. If they can shed some money to get under the luxury AND get a center upgrade with Favors over Biyombo, I think they would definitely forfeit a pick.

If they convince Kemba to stay it will 100% have to do with the money. There is no "here's how we are going to compete" magic that they can pull which ANYONE will believe.
 
Can't win with Kemba- not efficient enough offensively to make up for his lack of size and how he would targeted on switches and killed defensively in the playoffs. Especially on the jazz where it would leave them with two small guards and you can't win with two small guards in today's league- unless they are 60%+ TS type guys- which Kemba and Donovan aren't close to.
I'm of the impression that Kemba can be a much more efficient player than he already is if he doesn't have to rely on Jeremy Lamb or 85 year old Nic Batum to be his 2nd options, and he actually gets to play in a lineup with more than one or two shooters on the floor.

There's a fair concern around him and how he goes surviving a 4 year max at his age and size but efficiency is one of the last things I'd knock Kemba for given the dog **** rosters MJ puts around him year after year which he can borderline drag to the playoffs year in and year out, even with all of his defensive deficiencies.
 
If we fail in free agency, the Hornets are the type team we should be looking to deal with. Favors is much better than Biyombo, MKG, and Marvin for that team. If they re-sign Kemba, that means they are going all in on the now. If we could send out Favors and bring back bad expiring contracts and some picks, that would be wise for both sides. Something like...

Favors
for
MKG, Biyombo, 2020 1st and a 2021 option to swap 1st round picks

Hornets get to stay under the luxury and get a much better fit at C for them. We get two expirings and a pick to use at the deadline.

Just using their pick and signing Kemba to supermax they will be paying about 19M in tax. Total payroll of 160M+. The lose Lamb and Parker in this scenario and fill out the rest of the roster with minimums... so they end up worse. So...

How about this. We send Jae and Kyle to Charlotte during the draft... they send MKG, Marvin, or worst case Zeller... with the #12. The salary matches even though Kyle's number isn't the full 7.5M. they can waive and stretch Kyle so now instead of those guys at 13M, 15M, or 14.4M they have Jae at about $9M... between the pick salary and the salary difference they save like $20M... still have their future picks, so a rebuild is still on the table if they need to trade Kemba and pivot.

We'd obviously prefer Marvin... but all of those guys are rotation players... Zeller can be the 3rd big, but he has an extra year... in the trade we might snake one more asset if we did take Zeller. They could argue that Jae is an upgrade... maybe not over Marvin, but its close... so it isn't like they are just dumping money. I can't see us taking back dead salary like Biyombo, but I could see us taking rotation players that are expensive if it gave us some assets.

Creates a little issue for us getting all the way to max money if Tobias said yes, but still close enough to figure it out.
 
Not sure it is worth moving up... but another version of a deal could be:

MKG, #12, #36 for Jae, Kyle, #23

Allows us to still get to max FA money pretty easily. I wonder if #12 would be helpful in a Conley deal... maybe there is someone we really like and we do a Conley deal with 2020 pick... still saves Charlotte a ton but if Kemba still says no they at least kept a first.
 
Not sure it is worth moving up... but another version of a deal could be:

MKG, #12, #36 for Jae, Kyle, #23

Allows us to still get to max FA money pretty easily. I wonder if #12 would be helpful in a Conley deal... maybe there is someone we really like and we do a Conley deal with 2020 pick... still saves Charlotte a ton but if Kemba still says no they at least kept a first.

Nobody is going to like this idea, but what's new.

If we wanted to get the most realistic, strong assets in a deal, we would trade for Batum. If we agreed to take Batum's contract, Charlotte would give us a **** ton of assets. I'm talking 2019 pick, 2021 pick and maybe even Bridges.

Batum has 2 years and $52 million left on his contract. It sucks. However, if we get premiere draft capital in return, isn't that better than bringing back Favors and signing a couple guys the some people hate like Rozier, Lamb, etc.? And if we do this trade during the draft, we would have the full MLE at our disposal which might end up being a good player.
 
Nobody is going to like this idea, but what's new.

If we wanted to get the most realistic, strong assets in a deal, we would trade for Batum. If we agreed to take Batum's contract, Charlotte would give us a **** ton of assets. I'm talking 2019 pick, 2021 pick and maybe even Bridges.

Batum has 2 years and $52 million left on his contract. It sucks. However, if we get premiere draft capital in return, isn't that better than bringing back Favors and signing a couple guys the some people hate like Rozier, Lamb, etc.? And if we do this trade during the draft, we would have the full MLE at our disposal which might end up being a good player.

Depending on how free agency goes I actually might not hate it. Batum is still an okay player... I think his decline is more about motivation than age... either is worrisome I suppose.

I would rather have Batum on his deal than Love. I would absolutely want Bridges and at least one unprotected pick. I don't think there is anyway DL could or would do a deal like that. It is not ideal at all, but I view something like that as realizing we have to make a change and then hoping they get lucky in the draft. Batum is a solid reclamation project imo. If you figure Love would cost expirings plus some minor asset... getting premium assets for Batum ain't too bad I guess.

I think Cleveland is going to regret taking as much salary as they did this year... the stuff they could have received this summer will be so much better than what they ended up getting.
 
Depending on how free agency goes I actually might not hate it. Batum is still an okay player... I think his decline is more about motivation than age... either is worrisome I suppose.

I would rather have Batum on his deal than Love. I would absolutely want Bridges and at least one unprotected pick. I don't think there is anyway DL could or would do a deal like that. It is not ideal at all, but I view something like that as realizing we have to make a change and then hoping they get lucky in the draft. Batum is a solid reclamation project imo. If you figure Love would cost expirings plus some minor asset... getting premium assets for Batum ain't too bad I guess.

Good post. I agree.

If we knew during the draft that Kemba was staying, Harris was staying, Brogdon was likely staying and Russell was likely staying, what about...

Favors and Grayson for Batum and #12 and at least one future pick swap
Burks' Trade Exception for Bridges

Charlotte probably pays the luxury for next season, but they save $7+ million in contracts with this deal. In luxury dollars, that's $11+. They would have Biyombo, Favors, MKG and Marvin coming off the books after next year which is $75 million in expirings. Grayson is a local product and he could fit next to Kemba long term. At least he puts butts in the seats.

Bridges becomes a core piece for us going forward. Batum is a solid rotation player that I hope Gobert could motivate.
 
If the Hornets give Kemba the supermax, you can write off basketball in that town for the life of that contract. You "supermax" to lock in a competitor. Think of the disaster if we had been able to supermax Hayward. Although Kemba is better than Hayward, the Hornets have zero of anything else and are likely to get nothing more with that kind of contract eating cap space.

Yeah that extra 6 million a year really a game changer....
 
Good post. I agree.

If we knew during the draft that Kemba was staying, Harris was staying, Brogdon was likely staying and Russell was likely staying, what about...

Favors and Grayson for Batum and #12 and at least one future pick swap
Burks' Trade Exception for Bridges

Charlotte probably pays the luxury for next season, but they save $7+ million in contracts with this deal. In luxury dollars, that's $11+. They would have Biyombo, Favors, MKG and Marvin coming off the books after next year which is $75 million in expirings. Grayson is a local product and he could fit next to Kemba long term. At least he puts butts in the seats.

Bridges becomes a core piece for us going forward. Batum is a solid rotation player that I hope Gobert could motivate.

I think it would have to be after they had Kemba signed and we missed out in FA. I don't think they give up premium assets before that. I also think they would want the money saving rather than players so Crowder and space for Batum, 2021 pick (this is the draft HS players may come... the perceived value of this pick could be huge if we wanted to flip it), and Bridges. I don't love this year's draft so #12 is pretty meh... I would want a future pick.

I would have to have Miles... I like him a lot and think he could be just a wonderful fit on and off the court.

I think Batum can bounce back... I think the coaching change hurt him a bit... he also played with Kemba and Lamb a lot... not sure if he wasn't involved in the offense by choice or by design. Funky year for him.
 
Yeah that extra 6 million a year really a game changer....

Could be, but you are paying you point guard 40 million dollars, about a third of your cap, and you really have nothing else that can be parlayed to anything of value. In fact, you have a pot full of negative assets. Additionally, you will just be good enough to come in at the hind end of the lottery, but never good enough to actually make the playoffs, even in the east.

A rebuild done the right way can take 3 or 4 years, if you are lucky. Charlotte would be years away from even starting the process.

Now imagine being in this situation with no draft picks. . .
 
I don't see/understand why the Jazz would want to trade for anything on the Charlotte roster not named Jeremy Lamb or Miles Bridges. Their roster is doo doo, and I'd absolutely take Love and his contract over Batum and his contract as at least with Love I know that if I can get him healthy at the right time then he's a game changing player offensively for the Jazz whereas Batum has been washed for years now.
 
Top