re: Offseason Trade Possibility

I mentioned the playoff starting 5's not as evidence of how much we should pay Asik, but as evidence that you can't get fillers at the 5 spot and expect to compete. Hopefully the money that Gasol, LMA, and Jordan get will drive the price for Asik down not up.

As for Asik's offense, honestly, it depends on how you want to define his offensive game. If we are talking about pure scoring ability, he is admittedly probably only better than a handful of starting fives like Nerlens Noel or Steven Adams. If we consider that he sets great screens, gets offensive boards, doesn't take bad shots, and isn't careless with his passes then he is better then starters like Jordan Hill, Baynes, Tyler Zeller, and Alex Len just off the top of my head. This isnt a who's who of starting 5's, I absolutely agree with you on that.

It's these little things though that he does that allows him to hide some of his offensive liabilities and still be a net positive on the offensive end. Look at Atl's post comparing Asik and Tyreke with Steamer and Tyreke for more proof. In fact, if we look at Asik's post-ASB OffRtg of 105, he actually looks like a decent option. It's because he does the little things.

Just for fun, let's compare this OffRtg to the other guys you mentioned replacing Asik with who are more competent offensive players:
Aaron Banes: 104.4
Kevin Seraphin: 98.6
Jason Smith: 97.7
Bismack Biyombo: 97.5
Others
Jordan Hill: 98.6
Steven Adams: 103.1
Brandon Wright (who I like): 103.7

The only one with a higher OffRtg is Speights with an absurd 109.2, but there is no way we can get him for only 3 mill once he declines his player option this year.

Unfortunately, this makes minimum centers not a realistic or viable option. I think we can all agree that when you are looking for a starting caliber center, especially when you have a 4 like AD who can help carry the load on the offensive end, rebounding and defense are more important attributes to covet than scoring ability. If we can get Asik back on a 3/33 deal, I think we just have to take it and look to build in other ways

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I think those heat teams and the Spurs (though I think Splitter is underrated) convinced people that you don't need a great 5 to win anymore. Look at the teams left in the playoffs still. That Heat team was the exception, not the rule.

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Right. The trick is what makes a good 5 is different than even a decade ago. The new 5s: Bosh, Ibaka, old Duncan, Noah, Gasol. They aren't offensive, post up hubs. They aren't lumbering behemoths; they are skilled, mobile, versatile.

Although the playoffs are typicallt played small, you still need good rim protectors and rebounders.

We've got $56 million tied up for next year in 7 players
AD
Jrue
Reke
EG
Ryno
Qpon
Cole

I absolutely want Cunningham back

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You just throw out a lot ideas that seem unreasonable and beg to be refuted or given context.

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Cap is going to be what, 67 million?
WHy can't we sign Speights to $5 million, Jason Smith to $3? Or any center for around $8 million?

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Additionaly I have proposed multiple non long term Asik solutions which I think are more reasonable than trying to corner the market on cheap backup centers.

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I'd rather the right cheap backup centers. The odds of that aren't good. all else fails, i'm not upset if we sign Asik, just not at something over his value, which compared to other players with his skill set, is less than $10 million.

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Just because we dismiss many of your proposed remedies doesn't mean we're hell bent on destroying the future of the team.

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I think having a year of crappy center play with money to spend next year isn't as destroying as signing Asik to a multi year deal worth $13+million/yr.

I'm fine with keeping him. I really am. Just at the right price, and i'm not willing to give him more than he's worth just b/c there's no other better option this year.
To me he's worth $9 million/year, tops.


The only reason i've been so retarded is b/c some on here think he's worth signing for $13+, and that's just stupid if you ask me, and i've yet to hear a reason as to why he deserves that much money. The only reason is b/c what else is there to do? That's a dumb way to look at it. That's how we got 4yr/$58million EG. I think everyone would agree they would like to have that signing back.

The playoff rotation or the regular season rotation? He would be in the regular season rotation for a lot of playoff teams. He's a pretty useful player.

Playoff rotation, yeah I guess. Depending on matchups and whatnot.

But he is a useful player.

Dude I'm on bored with you conclusion. If Asik wants 13 Million the Pelicans *should show him the door.

Your argument for getting there is super dumb though. Asik is worth somewhere between 8-10 million dollars. Saying you would rather two 3 million dollar guys over Asik is just

Saying you wouldn't give Asik 10 million dollar contract is also

Just accept that if Asik walks this team will be worse next season unless it gets super lucky with whoever it brings in to replace him.

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Now Asik for 2/20 would be a great solution.

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I'd take Asik for 2/$20, but for clarification the scenario I was talking about was 3/$30 and meaning in the 2016 off season he has 2/$20 left and we need to clear cap space to go after a FA (KD of course). What happens with Splitter could tell us how good or bad an idea giving Asik a 3rd year is.

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He should not be in the rotation of a playoff team.

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I agree, he's the player I want to upgrade the most with an $8+ million FA, but I'd still like to keep him around as the 3rd 3/4.

ATL
is there a way to resign Gordon, meaning he opts out, but we are somehow able to give him close to his $15 million salary this year, without the salary cap hit of $15? I don't know the specifics to Asik's contract, or Lin's, but something on those lines where the cap hit is significantly lower than what they get paid?

Wouldn't he be interested in resigning now, assuming he gets to make his $15 million next year still. Is this possible?

I'm not opposed to resining him if he continues to shoot 40% from 3 and stays healthy. I like that EG.

Lol

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Convince Portland to swap Gordon for Batum, and sign Gerald Green with the MLE to replace Gordon's shooting.

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This is one of the best ideas I've heard. If Matthews and LMA leave this summer I think they would do that to replace Matthews' shooting and help give them cap space in 2016 to go after the star they'll need to put next to Lillard.