The Missing Piece

[LoPo]

No thanks to Wiggins. If he asks to leave Minny, it's because he "doesn't like his role". Translated, that means he wants to be the guy with the balls in hands more often than not. We have Mitchell for that.

As for Harris, discounting his value because his teams have struggled is pretty silly. Oladipo has been fantastic after leaving Orlando. Detroit has been a dumpster fire even with multiple all star Blake Griffen added. The Clippers lost Chris Paul and had some injuries. Now I'm not sold that Harris is perfect, but he's definitely more of an asset than Favors. Y'all have to realize that Favors and Gobert simply cannot play at the same time together against Houston or GS. They didn't last year and they didn't much this year. And please don't cite injuries as some lame excuse. The reason is that Favors doesn't provide the floor spacing on offense and we could use more athleticism on smaller guys on the defensive end.

Paul George, Jaylen Brown (at least not anytime soon), and Aaron Gordon are not options.

Keep Exum, sign Hezonja to any deal south of $10 million, keep Favors on a short term deal with team options, and trade the non-guaranteeds for the best deal possible. If it meant getting a better 2019 pick, I would trade #21 and the non-guaranteeds. A healthy current roster with Hezonja is really exciting. Tons of potential as everybody looks to improve.

 

[LoPo]

I still think we should trade with the Wizards. They cant afford to pay everyone and they need to dump some players. They want to dump Gortat and I dont think they can afford to pay Oubre when he becomes a UFA.

Gortat and Oubre for our dumpable contracts. Udoh, Sef and Jerebko.

I would be bummed to lose Sef but Gortat could be our backup center and Oubre is a big upgrade at wing and fits perfect with our defensive identity and age.

Gortat makes a lot of sense for us, but I think we should do it like this:

Jerekbo, Udoh, and a small salary like McCree or Stockton for Gortat and #17. http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y85pbkp5

Why for Washington - if they did this trade before the draft, they avoid the luxury this year. That's massive for a team destined to be in the luxury in the coming years. Being in the luxury sucks. Being a repeat offender for a mediocre team can bring everything down. Sure, it hurts losing #17 a little, but the luxury savings this year and probably next is worth it. Maybe we throw in our 2nd (#52) and a future 2nd to ease the pain.

Why for us - this move might be the end of Favors or it might not. Either way, we know backup C is okay for next season should Favors go elsewhere. We could then concentrate on wing play. #17 is a nice little trade chip to combine with #21, flip for a future 1st or just select best player available.

 

[latin jazz]

What kind of player could that possibly net us? Not someone who’s gonna get us over the hump.

As I said, a starter. Or worst case a very good role player. Maybe someone like Farouq-Aminu or guys like that on a capped out team (Satoransky on the Wizards, Lamb or Kaminsky on Hornets, etc). We also own all of our picks. As much as I would hate it, in the right package even Royce O'Neal could help us get a very good player (any team could use a bargain like him). What about sign & trades? (I can see some teams using it this summer). We could get lucky, buy low and acquire an up-and-coming player from a dumb GM the way the Thunder did with Oladipo.

The thing is, I disagree with the statement that we don't have **** to trade. Yeah, we are not Boston or Philly, who are full of future picks/assets and thus can pursue trades for stars. But we have some non-guaranteed contracts, our own picks and a couple of good players on team friendly deals can help us nab good players (even better than the ones I mentioned). Can't wait for the draft.

 

[jom2003]

I'm fine with Jabari if DL somehow manages to sign him on a KCP type of one year deal + possibly team option for a second year. We simply can't lose in that kind of deal.

 

[Ron Mexico]

Gortat makes a lot of sense for us, but I think we should do it like this:

Jerekbo, Udoh, and a small salary like McCree or Stockton for Gortat and #17. http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y85pbkp5

Why for Washington - if they did this trade before the draft, they avoid the luxury this year. That's massive for a team destined to be in the luxury in the coming years. Being in the luxury sucks. Being a repeat offender for a mediocre team can bring everything down. Sure, it hurts losing #17 a little, but the luxury savings this year and probably next is worth it. Maybe we throw in our 2nd (#52) and a future 2nd to ease the pain.

Why for us - this move might be the end of Favors or it might not. Either way, we know backup C is okay for next season should Favors go elsewhere. We could then concentrate on wing play. #17 is a nice little trade chip to combine with #21, flip for a future 1st or just select best player available.

Yeah, I dont care about their pick at all. So I am only taking Gortat if it nets us a solid player like Oubre. That pick is not worth that much to the current Jazz squad. I would rather keep Favors and pay him what Gortat is making for the next 2 years than trade for Gortat and a non late 1st round pick.

 

[LoPo]

Yeah, I dont care about their pick at all. So I am only taking Gortat if it nets us a solid player like Oubre. That pick is not worth that much to the current Jazz squad. I would rather keep Favors and pay him what Gortat is making for the next 2 years than trade for Gortat and a non late 1st round pick.

If we wanted, we could keep Favors and have Gortat. Pretty much, it would be Jerekbo and Udoh vs Gortat and a 1st. I think #17 has some value.

 

[Ron Mexico]

No thanks to Wiggins. If he asks to leave Minny, it's because he "doesn't like his role". Translated, that means he wants to be the guy with the balls in hands more often than not. We have Mitchell for that.

I understand that take and I would not give up anything of value for him but I still think it well worth the risk if we didnt give up anything of much value for him. Reality is they want something for him and so we cant get him anyways. He has huge potential still and they know that.

but he's definitely more of an asset than Favors.

Thats debatable. He has far less utility and is a much worse defender and rebounder.

Y'all have to realize that Favors and Gobert simply cannot play at the same time together against Houston or GS. They didn't last year and they didn't much this year. And please don't cite injuries as some lame excuse.

Its not a lame excuse its a fact, they were hurt last year. Favors also got hurt this series and didnt play the last 2 games which really hurt our team and is one of the reasons we didnt win those games. In the regular season when Favors and Gobert played together against GS we crushed them.

Besides its a terrible way to build a team to counter 1 or 2 teams. You build to be the best team you can be and you dont worry what 1 specific team is doing. Who knows what happens the next year. Any player could get hurt or be on a different team.

Favors/Rubio were our best 2 man rotations in the playoffs this year. Oh, and the best of any team in the playoffs and they played together plenty. Oh guess who was our 3rd best 2 man rotation? Favors and Gobert. They played together this year in the playoffs 162 minutes and were a plus 10.9. Guess who was 4th combo? Favors and Mitchell. Guess who was 5th? Favors and Ingles.


We really missed our starting PG against Houston that is why we lost. If Rubio played stats say this was a different series. It had nothing to do with Gobert and Favors they played well together like they did all season and like they always have when healthy.

 

[Ron Mexico]

If we wanted, we could keep Favors and have Gortat. Pretty much, it would be Jerekbo and Udoh vs Gortat and a 1st. I think #17 has some value.

That is not worth it for us. Taking that giant dump of a contract for a position we have 0 need for is not worth a late pick.

I think some people are overvaluing a draft pick because of Mitchell and to a lesser extent Gobert. Rookies dont contribute to winning 99% of the time.

 

[Ron Mexico]

FYI according to Net Rating Rubio was our best player in the playoffs and Favors was our 2nd best.

Missing Rubio hurt a lot against Houston. Also Favors ankle injury and being limited on minutes the last 2 games cost us those games. He played very well in his limited minutes those games and was significantly better against Capela than Gobert.

 

[Ron Mexico]

I have convinced myself more Rubio is the 3rd piece and we should keep this team intact unless we can land a big name elite player.

I prefer Favors to Harris.

 

[LoPo]

That is not worth it for us. Taking that giant dump of a contract for a position we have 0 need for is not worth a late pick.

I think some people are overvaluing a draft pick because of Mitchell and to a lesser extent Gobert. Rookies dont contribute to winning 99% of the time.

We can do this dance all day I guess so I'm going to try to put an end to it.

Favors is an excellent lockerroom guy but a liability against a great team like Houston or Golden State. Even if we had Rubio, Favors wouldn't have seen the floor much with Gobert. It's called spacing. Unfortunately, Favors hasn't crafted his game like Al Horford. Instead, he remains a below average offensive player, zero spacing threat, and above average defender. I want to keep him, but some people are absolutely crazy if they think we are going to beat GS, Houston or eventually Boston by lining up Favors next to Gobert for more than a 10 minutes per game.

As for Gortat, I've always liked his game. As opposed to Jerekbo and Udoh, Gortat would actually play meaningful minutes as Gobert's backup. He's agile, defends well and plays with a bulldog mentality. And for one expiring year, he would be good for us without sacrificing the future.

We could keep Favors, keep Exum, keep Neto and add Gortat and be under the luxury unless we overpay heavily to keep Favors or Exum. And if you think the #17 pick is worthless, you're crazy. #21 and #17 could be combined to get into the late lottery. At the very least, we could turn it into a future lottery pick. Some team will like somebody at #17 and offer us a pick that we can protect into a future lottery.

 

[Grimmetal]

If Favors can improve that three, there's no point in talking about anyone else. And Rubio is about as good as we're going to get at the PG position. I know it's been a long week since the season ended, but a lot of you guys are crazy for thinking about Wiggins right now.