Post by eric on Jul 1, 2019 15:45:25 GMT
Philadelphia - Horford and Richardson in, Tobias maxed, Butler and Reddick out.
Next year they'll be paying about $95m to four players who between them make four threes a game (not each, four total) and who can only credibly defend power forwards or larger. For reference, every team that got out of the first round last year made at least ten threes a game in the regular season.
The year after that Ben Simmons is a free agent. A max for him and no other moves puts the Sixers at $130m with five players.
Boy who would have guessed a Colangelo would run this team into the ground, huh?
.
Golden State - Durant and Iguodala out, Russell in.
They had no chance of competing for a title next year anyway, and if Durant turns out to be damaged goods after two season-ending injuries to the same foot then having him on the team would sabotage Curry's post-prime-still-really-good years.
D'Angelo Russell is not a good player. He doesn't draw enough free throws, he takes way too many midrange shots, he is not highly regarded defensively, he plays a surprisingly low amount of minutes - his 30.2 last year (a career high!!!) puts him in the bottom quartile for NBA starting point guards. Granted the Nets in general kept player minutes low due to a deep rotation, but a team that's going to pay Klay Thompson $30m to rehab for a year is desperate for depth, so it would be much less of a concern if Russell had a track record of 36-38 mpg type seasons.
It's very unusual for modern declining dynasties to bring in a highly regarded young FA. Given his career high WS/48 is a below-league-average .097 I feel like they could have invested that money much more intelligently in an array of role players but I guess I'm just light-years behind.
.
Brooklyn - Durant Kyrie and Jordan in, Russell out.
If DeAndre Jordan knows anything it's how to take a team with a star point guard and oft-injured star forward to years of second round flameouts. We all know Durant was already in decline even before his leg fell off, but let's take a peek at ol' DAJ's WS/48:
But at least it's not like Kyrie has become irrecoverably dissatisfied with every team he's been on.
.
Milwaukee - Middleton max, Brook Lopez resigned, Brogdon and Mirotic out
It took an unusually long time for Giannis to reach superstar level - last year was year six for him, whereas LeBron/Durant made All-NBA First Team by year three. This has pushed up the contract timelines for Milwaukee, which is unavoidable, but they also have Eric Bledsoe's terrible contract, which absolutely was. They renegotiated George Hill's deal down from $18m next year to $8m a year for the next three years, but they're still WAY over the cap with Bledsoe - Hill? - Middleton - Giannis - Lopez bench of Leuer Ilyasova Connaughton. That's a fine squad, but manifestly worse than last year's, so they need big growth from one of the Wilson / DiVincenzo / Brown group or a miraculous min signing to really compete with the top teams.
.
And the big one: Mike Muscala to the Thunder.
Who cares?
Well, Muscala was one of the very few players left the Lakers had Birds on, so it makes it that much harder for them to match salary in a big trade. By my count they're down to exactly two full Bird players: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock.
Next year they'll be paying about $95m to four players who between them make four threes a game (not each, four total) and who can only credibly defend power forwards or larger. For reference, every team that got out of the first round last year made at least ten threes a game in the regular season.
The year after that Ben Simmons is a free agent. A max for him and no other moves puts the Sixers at $130m with five players.
Boy who would have guessed a Colangelo would run this team into the ground, huh?
.
Golden State - Durant and Iguodala out, Russell in.
They had no chance of competing for a title next year anyway, and if Durant turns out to be damaged goods after two season-ending injuries to the same foot then having him on the team would sabotage Curry's post-prime-still-really-good years.
D'Angelo Russell is not a good player. He doesn't draw enough free throws, he takes way too many midrange shots, he is not highly regarded defensively, he plays a surprisingly low amount of minutes - his 30.2 last year (a career high!!!) puts him in the bottom quartile for NBA starting point guards. Granted the Nets in general kept player minutes low due to a deep rotation, but a team that's going to pay Klay Thompson $30m to rehab for a year is desperate for depth, so it would be much less of a concern if Russell had a track record of 36-38 mpg type seasons.
It's very unusual for modern declining dynasties to bring in a highly regarded young FA. Given his career high WS/48 is a below-league-average .097 I feel like they could have invested that money much more intelligently in an array of role players but I guess I'm just light-years behind.
.
Brooklyn - Durant Kyrie and Jordan in, Russell out.
If DeAndre Jordan knows anything it's how to take a team with a star point guard and oft-injured star forward to years of second round flameouts. We all know Durant was already in decline even before his leg fell off, but let's take a peek at ol' DAJ's WS/48:
But at least it's not like Kyrie has become irrecoverably dissatisfied with every team he's been on.
.
Milwaukee - Middleton max, Brook Lopez resigned, Brogdon and Mirotic out
It took an unusually long time for Giannis to reach superstar level - last year was year six for him, whereas LeBron/Durant made All-NBA First Team by year three. This has pushed up the contract timelines for Milwaukee, which is unavoidable, but they also have Eric Bledsoe's terrible contract, which absolutely was. They renegotiated George Hill's deal down from $18m next year to $8m a year for the next three years, but they're still WAY over the cap with Bledsoe - Hill? - Middleton - Giannis - Lopez bench of Leuer Ilyasova Connaughton. That's a fine squad, but manifestly worse than last year's, so they need big growth from one of the Wilson / DiVincenzo / Brown group or a miraculous min signing to really compete with the top teams.
.
And the big one: Mike Muscala to the Thunder.
Who cares?
Well, Muscala was one of the very few players left the Lakers had Birds on, so it makes it that much harder for them to match salary in a big trade. By my count they're down to exactly two full Bird players: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock.
