Which of these scenarios would you prefer?

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That's around 9 Mil in space freed

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Where are you getting this cap space from? Here are our numbers for next year if we don't move Gordon and cut just about everyone cuttable

Gordon $14,898,958
Evans $11,265,416
Holiday $10,404,495
Anderson $8,491,500
Davis $5,607,240
Rivers $2,439,840
Hold1 $507,336
Hold2 $507,336
Hold3 $507,336
Hold4 $507,336
Hold5 $507,336

Total $55,644,129

Salary cap is being projected at $63 million which means you get about $7.5 million in cap space. And every guy you keep like Withey, Smith and Roberts eat into that cap space, so I still think we end up with the MLE as our main FA tool.

However, $7.5 million may be enough to get you a Gortat or Hawes, so it is an interesting option. Let's say you can get a decent center, then you only have the $2.7 million Cap Room Exception and minimum contracts to get a SF and fill the roster. That probably means choosing between Morrow and a lower priced SF and saying goodbye to Smith and Aminu, including as S&T options. I think you could probably get all of your current scrubs to agree to come back on minimum deals. The real question is what kind of C can you get for $7.5 million, and what kind of SF can you get for $2.7 million.

Holiday/Roberts/Jackson
Gordon/Rivers
Evans/(Jordan Hamilton?/PJ Tucker?/CJ Miles?)/Babbit
Davis/Anderson
Gortat/Ajinca/Withey

Keep in mind that the cap was projected to go up to about $61 million last year and it ended up only going to $58.5. What the cap increases to will play a big role in whether we have the money to pursue a decent starter or we need to stick to the MLE market.

As far as which scenario I choose, I'm currently assuming we're stuck with using the MLE the next 2 years until Gordon is gone, so if the cap increases enough to give you the opportunity to sign better than MLE talent, you have to take that opportunity, even if it thins out your bench a little next season. Gortat at $7.5 per would be perfect for this team. Low foul rate/decent rebounder/competent enough scorer, and he wants to make fighting legal like in Hockey. He has the kind of toughness this finesse front court needs.

oops i forgot about the roster holds

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Salary cap is being projected at $63 million which means you get about $7.5 million in cap space. And every guy you keep like Withey, Smith and Roberts eat into that cap space, so I still think we end up with the MLE as our main FA tool.

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If roberts keeps starting his QO goes up to 3Mil(which i don't think we keep him if we have PJ in the wings) Smith i don't think so either.

A guy like hamilton/tucker would be swell

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However, $7.5 million may be enough to get you a Gortat or Hawes, so it is an interesting option. Let's say you can get a decent center, then you only have the $2.7 million Cap Room Exception and minimum contracts to get a SF and fill the roster. That probably means choosing between Morrow and a lower priced SF and saying goodbye to Smith and Aminu, including as S&T options. I think you could probably get all of your current scrubs to agree to come back on minimum deals. The real question is what kind of C can you get for $7.5 million, and what kind of SF can you get for $2.7 million.

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I think Hawes/Sefolosha would be attainable but i wouldn't be opposed to a guy like koufos either(if memphis decides to move on)

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As far as which scenario I choose, I'm currently assuming we're stuck with using the MLE the next 2 years until Gordon is gone, so if the cap increases enough to give you the opportunity to sign better than MLE talent, you have to take that opportunity, even if it thins out your bench a little next season

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Our guys are versatile enough to prevent the bench from being too thin(thankfully)

Dell is also good at finding stopgaps(ajinca/babbitt/roberts)

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If Jrue and Evans are such great, impactful players, why wouldn't we have a much worse record if we didn't get them? If we didn't pick anyone else up we should be 4-5 spots worst (if not more). So picking around 6th or 7th.

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Not with the way AD is playing(who could've forseen this?)

You also have to remember that everyone else is tanking(which i doubt we would've anyway)

At best we'd be 8th

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Also, Jrue and Evans make over 20M combined. So we would have a max contract we could have offered someone this summer (if we didn't blow it on some other players). We'd also still have Lopez as trade bait (plus Vasquez and Anderson).

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Jrue+Tyreke are better than anyone in free agency not counting lbj/melo/etc(especially with the way tyreke has played)


Ryno's injury basically screwed his trade value this year. I don't think they would've traded him anyway(unless it's a godfather scenario)

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If we drafted Smart, had Noel start alongside Davis, we could have went after a couple of mini-max level guys (like Hayward). We could have had a line-up of..

Smart/Vasquez
Gordon/Rivers
Hayward/Babbit
Davis/Anderson
Noel/Lopez

I'd take that line-up.. if we are playing hypotheticals..

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We'd have no shot at smart if we're drafting 8th-9th

I would like hayward but he's staying in UTA most likely

The only mini max guys out there i'd like(if we're following this scenario) are monroe/stephenson/lowry

I don't care for turner either

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Smart/Vasquez Gordon/Rivers Hayward/Babbit Davis/Anderson Noel/Lopez I'd take that line-up.. if we are playing hypotheticals..

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The Twig Towers would never have worked.

Nerlens Noel downvoted my thread

I respect him for sticking to his guns

Jesus, I keep forgetting about Jackson.

At least in my opinion, I still don't see any of these lineups truly improving our defensive play outside of Jrue, AD, and arguably Rivers. Adding Gortat will help but dropping AFA (the only player on our team who can defend elite 3's) probably wont make anything better. At the same time Aminu needs to go.

Matt Moore with an end of season (playoff hopes) recap.

LINK

Just a taste of the Davis porn

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Davis erupted into not only the Pelcians best player, but a legitimate top-15-to-top-10 player in the entire NBA. He is a force of nature. He is a mechanized dinosaur that shoots lasers from his eyes. He is a tree person that swats shots into neighboring kingdoms. He is the thing under the bed that the things under the bed are afraid of.

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Along with a wrap up

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Can Jrue Holiday-Eric Gordon- Tyreke Evans work as a three-headed monster in the backcourt? Don't know, too many injuries. Is Al Farouq-Aminu good enough to start for a playoff team with his hustle and defense, despite his inconsistency and offensive struggles? Don't know, too many injuries. Do the Pelicans need a real five next to Davis? Don't know, too many injuries. That's the worst part of this season for New Orleans. Not only was it a monster disappointment in terms of wins, but you don't know whether they're inherently flawed or not.

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And stuff on Monty

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I like Monty Williams a lot. I think he's a good man and a good coach that works hard. He's also about as hard on his players as any coach I have ever seen covering this league. Every compliment laced with criticism, every encouragement sounds more like a beratement. I don't think he lost the locker room, the team hung together. But there's just no way their defense should be this bad given his reputation.

I don't think it's necessarily Williams' process, but instead just tweaks and his inflexibility. If he's retained this summer, a different approach is advisable going into next system, schematically or otherwise.

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Interesting stuff in there about Davis as a 5 and the choices in front of Benson this summer.