Who cares if he's fine with the "rest of it" or not? He's not the kind of player to dictate anything. Anybody offers him the max, which I highly doubt, let him walk.
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This is true, but in reality one mistake now doesn't justify another mistake later.
If Lonzo gets an offer sheet more than you think he's worth, let him walk. Don't ruin your cap sheet and flexibility for the next 4 or 5 years just so that you can do some faux tough-guy ''We Didn't Lose Him'' nonsense.
Pels need to leak some of the trades we turned down.
I can tell you that if we wanted Duncan Robinson on this team, we could have had him. Thats the one that pisses me off.
As for Chicago, we were engaged for days, but didn't want Markkenen and the reason that Lonzo isnt a Bull right now is because Chicago couldnt fetch anything we wanted to him. I dont know much about NY or what the Clips offered
Oofah.
If someone signs lonzo to an offer sheet in the off season, can they do a sign and trade and give us a huge tpe? Kinda like what boston got for hayward
Repeat what I said a few days ago--not moving Lonzo at the deadline cannot lock you in to matching whatever he gets in free agency later. That is bad GMing.
Maybe you are rolling the dice that he won't get the offer Klutch thinks he will. You may lose that gamble. But the far greater sin is saying "Welp, I guess we have to pay up." Saying "I have to do 'X' now because I did 'Y' earlier" is the worst kind of management. Place a value on the player and stick to that value. If he ends up walking for nothing, that sucks. But covering your ****** by overpaying and wrecking your cap for years to come is worse...
It is a loss what you say, but you better be prepared to stretch your budget and overpay to an extent because you didn't take assets when you could've. Letting him go for the cap relief is not a win compared to getting anything of value before the just passed trade deadline. If he goes because he was offered $25m a year or whatever and we don't match then Griff needs to take a lot of blame because he should've seen it coming.
I don't see anyone except maybe Charlotte offering Zo $25M, in which case everyone loses except Klutch and Zo.
Don’t fall into the sink cost fallacy. It’s a trap. Cut bait before you lose your entire fishing pole to the deep.
Yes, it would be a loss. And Griffin would deserve blame. But you still can't be locked into paying whatever kind of offer he gets from a team that may have massive cap room or front load the contract to punish you for matching. You gambled by not dealing Lonzo at the deadline. Don't compound that gamble by doubling down if he get's a massive offer. That would be the worst outcome. If it comes to that, take your medicine, accept you lost your gamble and move on. You'll take heat, but you should accept that possibility right now and not buckle to pressure to over pay later because you decided not to trade him when you had the chance.
The narrative that needs to die, and the one I need you guys to educate people on is that there is no scenario in which the Pelicans can "lose Lonzo for nothing"
Even if they let him walk and dont get anything DIRECTLY for him, I still have them at a little over at 20 mil in cap room, with the ability to get to 35 if they stretch Bledsoe or 40 if they dump him. But regardless, they then take that same money they would use for Lonzo if they keep him and use it on X player or X and Y player - thereby getting something in the place of Ball.
People think too simply and linearly with moves. Long story short, there is NO scenario in which Lonzo leaves for nothing and people need to understand that
Exactly!!
To the extreme, if they did free up 40MM, by doing as you suggest, would being able to sign Kawhi Leonard this summer appeal to anybody? I wonder how long 'letting Lonzo walk' would sting? I use this example only to illustrate that all is not lost as you say.
Kawhi is an extreme example that wont happen. But correct. Even if it is Norman Powell or Dinwiddie or Duncan Robinson -- you would have traded Lonzo for that guy. Not lost him for nothing. Because if you kept Lonzo, you couldnt have afforded that guy. So, although it isnt a direct trade, you still got that guy "for Lonzo"
Lonzo still has a lot to prove before we match a big contract offer. We already have Zion and Ingram and we have decent role players. Lonzo has improved but he would have to be critical in getting us to the playoffs for me to justify paying him 20mil or more. Also, if Kira and NAW continue to impress then it makes me more comfortable letting go of Lonzo.
If we miss the playoffs, which is likely, then we probably get a decent player in the lottery. We can focus on developing our young team and let the right players compliment Zion.
If we focus on getting tough defenders that play hard every minute then we can beat anyone. As long as we play a little better defense and play at a fast pace we will beat any team. They can hit 3s against us but if it takes 18 seconds to get 3 points and us, Zion, only 18 seconds to get 4 points then we win. Just slowing teams down and giving it to Zion is enough.
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No wait is Lonzo a restricted free agent? Can the Pelicans match an offer this summer? Mixed signals.
This is what I’m talking about
Perk just said Lonzo is an unrestricted free agent.
— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) March 25, 2021
I mean this dude is paid a lot of money to be on TV during the trade deadline.
I think we'll be happy we didn't trade him. His Dad is going to say random stuff to try and up his pay day (like 'Oh Lonzo can do so much more its the Pels making him look bad') but thats all just LeVar being LaVar. I think NBA front offices will know Lonzo's limits are pretty evident now and not overspend on a guy whos best case scenario is 3rd option.
20mil a year is likely the offer we'll match, IMO.
Quality reporting from NBA.comQuote:
Ball is in the midst of a career-best season (14.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 5.6 apg, 1.3 spg) and had his name bandied about in trade talks. However, he will not be dealt, per Wojnarowski, and is an unrestricted free agent this summer.
What is Griff's plan?
A. Does he think we're the front runner to sign him for about 20 mil
B. Prepared to meet any offer sheet for him
C. Prepared to not meet any offer sheet and let him walk for nothing
D. Not trade him as some sort of signal to the rest of the league before the deadline
E. Sign and trade post season
Am I missing one?
Do we have any control over Lonzo now that trade period is over, outside of RFA matching rights?
At this point he knows we were shopping him hard, if he's anything like Lavar, he's gonna be spiteful and sign an outrageous offer sheet that we ain't matching then we'll have to try our luck in FA. Which I'm not too depressed about honestly. Let the Knicks or whoever offer him 25M to be average. Or being generous, above average.
Griff says Lonzo has "made it clear he wants to be here."
— Christian Clark (@cclark3000) March 26, 2021
We'll see.
If it?s a case of ?I?ll sign a reasonablish offer? (aka not the 28 mil the Knicks could offer), then okay. I at least can appreciate that Lonzo was upfront with us. I do think Lonzo likes being out of the spotlight and away from his father, so I can see that being true to an extent. I think the best case scenario will be a heavily frontloaded contract that decreases by the time Zion is reaching his next contract year. I don?t think we let him walk for better or worse.
I'm not convinced that Ingram is a long term piece.
He just doesn't understand that this is Zions team.
1 thing about Ball is that he understands this and maybe he is the better long term fit.
Maybe Griff matches Ball and then flips one of Bi or Ball before Zions extension.
That’s an interesting take.