Evaluating our roster for 2015/16. What we have, what we need. What we can afford!

[DOMINION]

UNDER CONTRACT
PG - JRUE/REKE
SG - GORDON/
SF - PONDEXTER/
PF - AD/ANDERSON

BIRD RIGHTS
ASIK, AJINCA, BABBITT, WITHEY

RESTRICTED FA
COLE

X FACTOR
I COULD SEE US BRINGING BACK CUNNINGHAM.

ABOVE REPRESENTS THE 12 PLAYERS I SEE US STARTING THE SEASON WITH
LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME I WANTED GORDON GONE SO BAD, NOW I LOVE HIS CATCH AND SHOOT. I DO NOT THINK HE IS WORTH $15, BUT I WOULD NOT TRADE HIM YET. I WOULD TRADE HIM FOR SOMETHING IF WE FELT WE WOULD NOT RESIGN HIM FOR 7-9 MILLION

CONTINUITY HAS BEEN MENTIONED OFTEN LATELY. I AGREE WITH THIS. THAT IS HOW WE GET BETTER. IF WE WERE GOING TO CHANGE SOMETHING I WOULD WANT US TO BE LONGER AT THE 2 AND 3 SPOTS.

[Rafa Brazil]

Please, trade Gordon, don't let him fool you.

[N.O.Bronco]

Please, trade Gordon, don't let him fool you.

For what? Realistically what are you trading him for and what are you getting in return?

[DOMINION]

SINCE THE SALARY CAP IS GOING UP AFTER NEXT YEAR WE MIGHT GET ALL 15 MILLION TO SPEND ON SOMEONE ELSE IF WE JUST LET IT EXPIRE.

[Rafa Brazil]

anything, just a matter of time before he gets injuried again, gives us shooting, but nothing else IMO. Continuity is important, but we can get the same production from, say Budinger, Afflalo, Lee, Dudley in FA for a fraction of the price, and improve our bench more.

[N.O.Bronco]

anything, just a matter of time before he gets injuried again, gives us shooting, but nothing else IMO. Continuity is important, but we can get the same production from, say Budinger, Afflalo, Lee, Dudley in FA for a fraction of the price, and improve our bench more.

None of those guys is the shooter Grodon is. Dudley has his own injury issues so you are trading one for the same in another. I would take Afflalo or Matthews but Budinger? Are you freaking serious lol.

Gordon can at least defend decently when he isn't being asked to play the other teams best offensive player thanks to Evans ineptitude in that area. Gordon is also a very high IQ player that has been a good facilitator and decision maker for us. You need guys like that.

Gordon is also in a contract year. We are likely to get the best version of Gordon we will have seen since he got here.

Unless you can guarantee me some way that unloading Gordon without giving anything up will directly lead to signing Matthews or something, I have to disagree with this notion of "just get rid of him." If we are trying to win, subtracting a key role player like Gordon for nothing is taking a step backwards.

[Rafa Brazil]

Your opinion, I respect it but disagree. When he gets injuried and leaves for nothing in FA, we will wish to have traded him for a protected 2nd round pick and signed someone that could be a rotation player for the upcoming seasons. That's my opinion.

[UptownFuz504]

It's amazing that people want to trade one of the best IQ players on the team. This team has one of the lowest IQ's in basketball yet we are willing to get rid of a smart player that restructured his game to be useful for himself and the team. In the playoffs, without EG, those losses may have been worse. EG and AD showed up consistently when others didn't. I'm not against trading him, mainly because I feel that AD is our only core piece, but to trade him for the sake of getting rid of him because he is not well liked is crazy talk. On top of that, we want him traded so that we can have cap space for all these guys that are knocking our door down to play here (sarcasm). SMH

[N.O.Bronco]

Your opinion, I respect it but disagree. When he gets injuried and leaves for nothing in FA, we will wish to have traded him for a protected 2nd round pick and signed someone that could be a rotation player for the upcoming seasons. That's my opinion.

At this point our biggest injury concern is Jrue. The difference between Gordon and Davis in terms of injury over the last two seasons is 10 games.

Like i said. If we have a clear path to get a long term upgrade, and a way to dump Gordon to achieve that process without giving anything up, by all means, I would welcome it.

I just am against this notion that still permeates some fans minds that we need to dump Gordon at all costs.

[GuardianAngel25]

Your opinion, I respect it but disagree. When he gets injuried and leaves for nothing in FA, we will wish to have traded him for a protected 2nd round pick and signed someone that could be a rotation player for the upcoming seasons. That's my opinion.

Trade him for a 2nd round pick when we are just as likely to hit on that player even making the roster as you are winning the lottery. Come on man that is just ridiculous. Gordon mite not be worth his $ but to deny the guy played great this year is just being completely bias. Yea he could possibly get hurt but he showed this year he is making strides in the other direction. We will not find a rotation player better than Gordon. We are better off just keeping him and letting him expire while trying to get him on a very good deal or go after someone else. I would be happy to get someone like Mathews or others if that's what we could get by losing Gordon but unless we are getting a clear better player it just makes no sense. Give me options on who and how we would get them instead of just mouthing to get rid of him.

[GuardianAngel25]

At this point our biggest injury concern is Jrue. The difference between Gordon and Davis in terms of injury over the last two seasons is 10 games.

Like i said. If we have a clear path to get a long term upgrade, and a way to dump Gordon to achieve that process without giving anything up, by all means, I would welcome it.

I just am against this notion that still permeates some fans minds that we need to dump Gordon at all costs.

Yea if we could get a clear upgrade and a young piece ready to make an impact now as a starter I'm all for it. Gordon is still young and getting by the injury bug his game could go to another level next season. Only guy that is really possible I would like if we could somehow get rid of Gordon is Mathews. I think he is a perfect fit next to Holiday and for this team but besides that not many options I would rather have than a young SG who tore it up in the playoffs and played very well all season. Being able to work on his game this offseason instead of just trying to put weight on a leg rehabbing could be huge for us progression. Mite shoot near 50% from 3 next year while being a better defender and improving his driving with a better floater. I think Mathews and Batum replacing Gordon and Tyreke is exactly why this team needs. Those 2 guys with our roster staying relatively healthy would be a championship contending team if you ask me.

[Rafa Brazil]

Give me options on who and how we would get them instead of just mouthing to get rid of him.

just did that in my last post.

like I said, is your opinion and I respect it, even though I disagree with you, now, to say that Gordon might hit 50% or close of his 3pt shots is dream big to say the least. Korver, who's one of the best shooters in the league if not the best had ONE season in which he shot above 50% and 3 in which he shot above 45%. And that 50+% season he only took 110 3 pointers. Was Gordon healthy this season? Yes, but I personally don't believe he will be, and if the best way to predict the future is to look at the past, I believe he will be injuried again and miss precious time again. Trade him while you can get something for him, even minor as a protected late pick, because if not we might have 15M sitting in street clothes just waiting FA. If he gets injuried again, we might need to package something else to take him out of our hands, or just wait for his contract to be over (what makes all the sense, Dell would never give up assets to get rid of an expiring contract). It's not trading for the sake of making trades, or because I dislike him.

As for the super bball IQ he has, just look at him on the fast break. (I know you didn't say that, responding to the sarcastic UptownFuz504)

[Rafa Brazil]

Let's not forget that he's playing throught a shoulder injury.

[Hornets2013]

Jrue/Cole
Gordon/Reke
Pondexter/Cunningham
AD/Ryno
Asik/Ajinca

The truth is, this is a fairly solid lineup on its own, and with continuity, chemistry and improvement, we may be looking at home court advantage in the first round next year. What pieces do we really have at our disposable to make an improvement? If I were to pursue any players over the offseason, they would be Tobias Harris (SF) or Robin Lopez (C), both of whom will probably be looking for good money.

[AD23forMVP]

I think I'm just at the point where I want some two way players. I don't know how we get that, but I'm tired of saying "well if you play Asik, yeah he'll give us good defense but he's going to hurt us offensively." Or of course "Ryno is great offensively, but man does he kill us defensively." Lets get some guys in here that aren't liabilities on one side of the ball.

[tdcreator]

I'm ok with moving gordon. Hopefully his stock is high enough to get something for him. I think Qpon would fit nicely at the SG he hits spot up 3's and just as good driving ability as gordon and also gives us great flexibility when it comes to switching on defense which we like to do. The problem is finding a SF. I also like Tobias I doubt we can get him but would be nice and he hits the SF/PF roles when we want to go small or big.

[HornetGuru]

SINCE THE SALARY CAP IS GOING UP AFTER NEXT YEAR WE MIGHT GET ALL 15 MILLION TO SPEND ON SOMEONE ELSE IF WE JUST LET IT EXPIRE.

no we wouldn't because the year gordon comes off the books is the same year Davis' max contract will take effect, it would be better financially if we could get rid of gordon now and use that money this offseason.

[GuardianAngel25]

Jrue/Cole
Gordon/Reke
Pondexter/Cunningham
AD/Ryno
Asik/Ajinca

The truth is, this is a fairly solid lineup on its own, and with continuity, chemistry and improvement, we may be looking at home court advantage in the first round next year. What pieces do we really have at our disposable to make an improvement? If I were to pursue any players over the offseason, they would be Tobias Harris (SF) or Robin Lopez (C), both of whom will probably be looking for good money.

I think we have a great team if they can stay healthy with Reke of the bench like you have. I would love to add Tobias Harris this offseason to that team and think he would be a great pickup. We would probably have to move Reke to get him but I would be all for it.

Like I said before keep that roster while replacing Gordon and Evans with a healthy Mathews and Batum we are real contenders immediately. This team would be serious title contenders for a long time with this roster if healthy as always. It would be elite defensively from the starting unit to the bench with Anderson as the only weakness on D. Basically every 1-3 on that roster can guard all 3 positions minus a couple doing just 2. We would be insane definsively while being a great 3 point shooting team with high basketball IQ. I wouldn't even mind letting Asik go for someone like MaGee sharing time with Aginca at center and of course the Anderson/Davis lineup playing. Batum would also fit nicely in at the 4 next to Davis when playing small ball like the Warriors did to us.

Jrue/Cole
Mathews/Pondexter
Batum/Cunningham
AD/Ryno
Asik?/Ajinca/Magee?

[new city champ]

There are some rumblings the Raps are looking to blow up the roster after their unceremonious sweep at the hands of the Wiz. They have some nice pieces. I wonder if we could swing anything in the Great White North? Valanciunas is probably too much to hope for...

[carpo]

Keep the team as is unless a serious upgrade presents itself... give the team a chance to gel and end of next season move whoever dsnt fit when we get a better look.

[DefensiveMind]

The best remedy is to trade Ryno even at 65 cents on the dollar for some players who arent complete liabilities on both sides of the ball. I'd do something like

Mike Scott & Sefolosha for Anderson.

Shabazz Napier or Chalmers/Josh McRoberts for Ryno

Theres a Houston trade in there could make sense.

Spencer Hawes/CJ Wilcox

Ajinca/Ryno for Hibbert

Patrick Patterson & filler or James Johnson & filler

I could go on.

[DOMINION]

None of those make us better, they just give us 2 players for one. Why do that!

[MichaelMcNamara]

I guess I just don't understand why something has to be done this summer. There are several guys on this roster that I don't see here long term but I don't necessarily see the summer as the time we get the best value to move them. It's not like there are any addition by subtraction guys on this roster, so just wait for a great opportunity to present itself rather than rushing to just do something for the sake if doing it

[Asteptooslow]

There are some rumblings the Raps are looking to blow up the roster after their unceremonious sweep at the hands of the Wiz. They have some nice pieces. I wonder if we could swing anything in the Great White North? Valanciunas is probably too much to hope for...

He lacks effort on a consistent basis.

[Bongzilla]

In my opinion, Jrue is now the injury prone player, not EG. EG used to get injured because of his play style, which he has changed. Once EG got going this year he had zero setbacks or issues.

Jrue however..... I don't know why no one is listening to me.... we need to trade this guy ASAP. His stress fracture appears to be chronic........................................... ..............

I don't care if we bought high and I am asking to sell low. It is better to sell low (while it is still an unknown), then to get stuck holding when his value drops to zero (let's face it, if he re-injures the stress fracture just one more time he will then be considered damaged goods)