Free Agency Thread

[SonOfNOLA]

There are 3 players I think we could trade some combination of Asik/Qpon/Cooks/2Panes straight up for:

Alan Crabbe
Evan Turner
Brandon Knight

I'd take any of the above if we can offload that poopoo platter of non guaranteed 2017 contracts, buyout candidates, and Asik's $3m guarantee in 2019 while keeping our picks.

For a team that wants to cut bait on salary, we could make something happen that benefits them financially.

For this team to make an unexpected leap next year, they're going to need players to play beyond what people expect. That could be Moore, Hill, or Jrue having breakout years, or that could be a guy like Knight, Crabbe, or Turner playing up to the expectations people had for them when they were given those contracts. Now isn't the time to play it safe, IMO. Or the time to roll into training camp with guys who are borderline NBA talents in key roles. Go get the obviously talented (but overpaid) castoffs from other teams and hope your coaches can get the best out of them in new roles.

Crabbe's salary is expensive as hell just for a 3 point specialist

Brandon Knight is the more reasonable trade that makes a lot of sense for so many reasons. Phoenix is desperate to move his salary after Bledsoe had a career year and Tyler Ulis going from a 2nd round pick into a legit starting PG or 6th man at the very least. Just before last year BK averaged 17/5 for 3 straight seasons. We're desperate for that and he's still 25. I wish we can get Bledsoe, but it'd require more in a trade for him compared to Knight. I think Knight can still make us a contender with our roster because his drop in numbers was more about the rest of the Suns' backcourt emerging than his actual ability

[SonOfNOLA]

Afflalo and Lawson would almost assuredly be an upgrade on all those guys except Moore.

And healthy Pondexter isn't a thing until proven otherwise.

Afflalo at the 3 is a better option. It just depends on his asking price and contract length

[luckyman]

Did anybody else know Rudy Gay signed with the Spurs?

Yes. And the Spurs are a huge ? for next year. Aldridge is disgruntled. Parker is an old 35, Gasol is 37, Gay will be 31, and Ginobilli should be retiring.

They are primed for a down year next year.

[SonOfNOLA]

Suns was supposedly willing to trade Knight for a 2nd rounder at the deadline this past February. It isn't hard to get him at all, but it's a matter of making cap room

[Tinman]

Crabbe's salary is expensive as hell just for a 3 point specialist

Brandon Knight is the more reasonable trade that makes a lot of sense for so many reasons. Phoenix is desperate to move his salary after Bledsoe had a career year and Tyler Ulis going from a 2nd round pick into a legit starting PG or 6th man at the very least. Just before last year BK averaged 17/5 for 3 straight seasons. We're desperate for that and he's still 25. I wish we can get Bledsoe, but it'd require more in a trade for him compared to Knight. I think Knight can still make us a contender with our roster because his drop in numbers was more about the rest of the Suns' backcourt emerging than his actual ability

How is Knights contract better than Crabbes? Both 3 years, Crabbes 3+ mill xtra per year, but 3rd yr player option on his contract. More flexibility possible. Really not much of a difference.

[Mythrol]

You can choose to believe what you want. Even GS thought he was coming to the Pelicans. However, you are just throwing contract numbers against the wall. We would not have offered Young the full MLE because we were always going to use part on Jackson. That is a fact. Young accepted a 2 year deal (w/ 2nd year an option). It is clear Dell has chosen to sit the first phase of free agency out. Hopefully it works in his favor. It sounds as if he wants to do a trade but is having trouble getting anyone to bite on the terrible contract we have to offer. As such, he does not want to take a chance of going into the tax by using too much space signing FAs. Hopefully a favorable trade works out and then we can fill in with league minimum bargain deals for veterans.

We got a free agent on day 2. Jrue. Dell didn't sit out any phase.

[Tinman]

You can choose to believe what you want. Even GS thought he was coming to the Pelicans. However, you are just throwing contract numbers against the wall. We would not have offered Young the full MLE because we were always going to use part on Jackson. That is a fact. Young accepted a 2 year deal (w/ 2nd year an option). It is clear Dell has chosen to sit the first phase of free agency out. Hopefully it works in his favor. It sounds as if he wants to do a trade but is having trouble getting anyone to bite on the terrible contract we have to offer. As such, he does not want to take a chance of going into the tax by using too much space signing FAs. Hopefully a favorable trade works out and then we can fill in with league minimum bargain deals for veterans.

Scuttlebutt is Jrue is penciled in at the starting #2. If that is the case, w/ Moore & Grits, then a #2 is NOT priority. Dell is looking for a starting #1 and a Back-up #3 (3 and D) guy. MLE on Amo, Dunleavy et al. Preferrably Bledsoe, Lin & if we have to dumpster dive, I ay D Rose.

[SonOfNOLA]

How is Knights contract better than Crabbes? Both 3 years, Crabbes 3+ mill xtra per year, but 3rd yr player option on his contract. More flexibility possible. Really not much of a difference.

It's more of how they fit and what their teams would be asking for in return.

Knight can still be a starting PG with a lot of scoring. I don't think Crabbe can improve much on what's he already done. That's another Morris Peterson waiting to happen

[NMThreeMVP]

Crabbe has some skills, but is too terribly overpaid to even consider. The other two are not only overpaid, but trash. I would not want either.

I mean I'm not sure I'd say they're trash. Both are talented and can help a team if used correctly. Knight being overpaid is funny. When this free agent period is over he won't even be a top 30 player at his position in salary. The idea that he's overpaid is just something people have repeated so many times until they believe it. Is Jordan Crawford trash? Because he wasn't even in the league, and now people seem to value him. Is Dante Cunningham trash? Because no one wanted him when we picked him up. Is Diallo trash? Everyone passed on him in the draft. We could all have agreed that Eric Gordon was overpaid trash, and now he's the 6th man of the year. Everyone loved Ryan Anderson, and now he's trash. We dumped Ariza once because he sucked, not he's a valuable contributor on a contender. Everyone clowned Memphis and called Conley overpaid, now he's a legit asset and star. Nick Young was trash, now he's a player we're disappointed we didn't sign. People would have built Dell a statue if he could have gotten DeMarre Carroll and Kent Bazemore for the money and years remaining on Brandon Knight's contract... and both players are now untradeable trash and Brandon Knight has a higher PER than both of them.

I could literally do this all night...

[SonOfNOLA]

Knight went from averaging 17.9 ppg in '13, 17 ppg in '14, and 19.6 ppg in '15, on 32+ mpg in all 3 seasons, to 11 ppg on 21 mpg in 16-17. Anybody's numbers would drop and look like trash when they're minutes are cut nearly in half due to sharing the court with 2 other premier talents. When he was getting starter minutes, he looked like Jrue or the expectation of what Jrue is suppose to be. He could play on that level here if he sees the floor a lot. Two Jrue's with AD & Boogie is a top 5 seed. We can get another Jrue for pennies mane

[P_B_&_G]

Obligitory...

From Last November, the guy can still ball and he's young. But the emergence of Booker made him redundant. It would be like having two servings of instant grits!



Edited to add: This was in an actual NBA game.

[SonOfNOLA]

Pelicans are (unofficially but should be) trying to get rid of a player that the team can't utilize on the floor anymore and holding up the team's cap preventing any moves being made. Suns are trying to get rid of a player that's holding up their cap and getting in the way of their rising 2nd year 2nd round draft pick.

Both teams have dead weight. Suns' dead weight fills a need for the Pelicans and makes Pelicans a lot better on the court. Pelicans' dead weight's contract is less than Knight's, becomes a one year deal in 2018, can be early terminated in 2019, and would make their cap better than Knight's contract behind Bledsoe and Ulis

At worst he's another Crawford with instant offense or he can play like a AS level PG. Either way he'd make the Pelicans very competitive in the West. At the same time he can be flipped again in a trade down the road

Asik for Knight straight up
or
Asik and a 2019 1st rounder to make them feel good about immediately waiving/stretching Asik or holding onto his contract for a year
for Knight and '18 & '19 second round picks

Easy easy straight up player trade that should've been happened

[SonOfNOLA]

Better yet we might can get a first round pick with Knight's contract if we traded them 3 cheap expiring's and a cheap 2 year Ajinca contract

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yd7pm8nt

Pels: B. Knight, 2018 Suns first rounder
Suns: Ajinca, Pondexter, Cook, Toupane

Knight/Moore/Jackson
Holiday/Crawford
Hill/Miller
Davis/Cunningham
Cousins/Diallo

We gain a first rounder and a big scorer with a big contract. We give up 3 players at the very end of the bench. Phoenix gets out of Knight's contract and free up cap space. If Phoenix is desperate to get out his contract and if we're desperate for backcourt help with upside, then it's a no-brainer. Moore remains on the roster and can flip him and Knight later on. Asik didn't have to be included and complicate things. The trade full of W's

[PELICANSFAN]

I mean I'm not sure I'd say they're trash. Both are talented and can help a team if used correctly. Knight being overpaid is funny. When this free agent period is over he won't even be a top 30 player at his position in salary. The idea that he's overpaid is just something people have repeated so many times until they believe it. Is Jordan Crawford trash? Because he wasn't even in the league, and now people seem to value him. Is Dante Cunningham trash? Because no one wanted him when we picked him up. Is Diallo trash? Everyone passed on him in the draft. We could all have agreed that Eric Gordon was overpaid trash, and now he's the 6th man of the year. Everyone loved Ryan Anderson, and now he's trash. We dumped Ariza once because he sucked, not he's a valuable contributor on a contender. Everyone clowned Memphis and called Conley overpaid, now he's a legit asset and star. Nick Young was trash, now he's a player we're disappointed we didn't sign. People would have built Dell a statue if he could have gotten DeMarre Carroll and Kent Bazemore for the money and years remaining on Brandon Knight's contract... and both players are now untradeable trash and Brandon Knight has a higher PER than both of them.

I could literally do this all night...

You have to take those players into context. For instance, Crawford makes near league minimum. Knight does not bring much more for over $14 million a year. The contract and role comes into play when determining a player's value. If Knight were making what Crawford does and filled that bench spark plug role, I am sure many would be excited about him.

[PELICANSFAN]

Knight went from averaging 17.9 ppg in '13, 17 ppg in '14, and 19.6 ppg in '15, on 32+ mpg in all 3 seasons, to 11 ppg on 21 mpg in 16-17. Anybody's numbers would drop and look like trash when they're minutes are cut nearly in half due to sharing the court with 2 other premier talents. When he was getting starter minutes, he looked like Jrue or the expectation of what Jrue is suppose to be. He could play on that level here if he sees the floor a lot. Two Jrue's with AD & Boogie is a top 5 seed. We can get another Jrue for pennies mane

If he didn't have $44 million remaining on his contract, I would be more interested in him. Maybe if he could be had for say, Asik and Pondexter (and no picks), he would be worth a shot, but I doubt anyone wants Asik,

[Lee2000]

Asik will gone down as one of the worst acquisitions this team has made while in New Orleans. He probably would not make a roster at this moment. I forgot his nickname (it may have been the "Hammer"), and I have heard "Turkish Delight", but it has been more like a nightmare. I keep seeing threads where folks essentially add all the unworthy roster guys to unload on someone (I get the expiring contract thing). But I don't see a team taking Pelican leftover fish. Not happening.

[MistaWhoDat]

Why is everybody assuming he doesn't know just because nothing happened. The information we do have on Nick Young suggests the Pels did have something in place. The Warriors thought they had lost Nick Young to the Pels according to Zach Lowe. Were the Warriors speculating, or were they basing their thinking off of what others were telling them at the time in a fluid situation?

With the stuff Kushner has said about the cap and the tax and the fact that we still haven't signed anyone, I think Demps had a deal lined up to dump salary that fell apart. What information are you guys looking for? Do you only want a scoop on moves that actually happen by a few hours or do you want to know what the team is working on? Because a real insider is going to have a snapshot of the constantly changing situation that made the Warriors think they had lost Swaggy P. McNamara certainly could deliver the information in a way that made people more appreciative than suspicious, but I don't think you can assume he's just making stuff up because deals fell apart. And with the lack of moves, deals falling apart seems to be the most logical explanation for why Jrue and Darius Miller are the only acquisitions of the offseason so far.

Seems like your speculating a lot in this post but I'm ok with people giving their opinions but don't say it like you know something is eminent and acting like you know something when in all actuality your just throwing darts going on hearsay .


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[stormcenter]

Yeah I know what you mean about Asik, I've been singing that song on this board for ages. The thing that gets me is that he wasn't even all that in Houston and I cannot figure what in the
world the Pels saw in him to even trade for him except that he was 7 feet tall. He is slow, not athletic at all, no jump shot and couldn't make a free throw if his life depended on it.

Asik will gone down as one of the worst acquisitions this team has made while in New Orleans. He probably would not make a roster at this moment. I forgot his nickname (it may have been the "Hammer"), and I have heard "Turkish Delight", but it has been more like a nightmare. I keep seeing threads where folks essentially add all the unworthy roster guys to unload on someone (I get the expiring contract thing). But I don't see a team taking Pelican leftover fish. Not happening.

[Mythrol]

I've said this before but, My issue with the Asik resigning isn't the contract. He was coming off of the arguably the best season of his career. The problem was the timing. It came after Gentry was hired.

So the question has to be asked, What happened? Did Gentry lie and say he was going to use Asik? Did Dell tell him that he was keeping Asik and Gentry had to make it work? How much of AD behind the scenes (at the time) refusing to play center affect resigning Asik?

That's the stuff I want to know.

[tthier2]

I've said this before but, My issue with the Asik resigning isn't the contract. He was coming off of the arguably the best season of his career. The problem was the timing. It came after Gentry was hired.

So the question has to be asked, What happened? Did Gentry lie and say he was going to use Asik? Did Dell tell him that he was keeping Asik and Gentry had to make it work? How much of AD behind the scenes (at the time) refusing to play center affect resigning Asik?

That's the stuff I want to know.

He did play well for the first half of that season but when the playoffs arrived, it showed he was pretty much worthless. He got abused against golden state. Right there I wanted no parts of him or at worst case give him a very small offer. When I saw that contract I IMMEDIATELY knew we were screwed. It is what it is now we have to try and move on from it.

[luckyman]

Well firstly, I think they genuinely thought Asik could play in a faster paced system because the best season of his career came in a similar system in Houston. The only problem was that this team has no James Harden to set him up with easy looks.

Next, if you recall, Asik got hurt in preseason of Gentry's first year. Asik was never fully recovered even when he did make it back. On top of that Gentry was a little impatient that year given all of the other injuries. So the entire thing got off on the wrong foot.

After that, Asik's injury problems only got worse between hardly any playing time. There still might be the possibility of his career being over. Someone posted on here he still hasn't been cleared to play.

[Mythrol]

He did play well for the first half of that season but when the playoffs arrived, it showed he was pretty much worthless. He got abused against golden state. Right there I wanted no parts of him or at worst case give him a very small offer. When I saw that contract I IMMEDIATELY knew we were screwed. It is what it is now we have to try and move on from it.

I don't count much from that playoff series, our entire team was on injury reserve.

I think everyone was expecting Asik to be used more against other big bruising centers and Ryno to close out games. His contract would be alright in a role like that, however Gentry immediately did not use him, which makes me question why sign him at all?

[msw2024]

I've said this before but, My issue with the Asik resigning isn't the contract. He was coming off of the arguably the best season of his career. The problem was the timing. It came after Gentry was hired.

So the question has to be asked, What happened? Did Gentry lie and say he was going to use Asik? Did Dell tell him that he was keeping Asik and Gentry had to make it work? How much of AD behind the scenes (at the time) refusing to play center affect resigning Asik?

That's the stuff I want to know.

This is exactly my thought and the contract has just made it worse since no one will take him now...

[Silverfoxx]

I normally try to express optimism, but honestly after CJ Miles being off the market to Toronto, im officially deflated. This free agency has been one of the most bizarre, and painful ones I can imagine. Not because we are "sitting on our hands" but the fact that even with two of the most talented bigs in the game we are STILL not attracting players to come here. It shows a reflection of our organization, what NBA players think of us, and most importantly the front office lack to sell players on this young and promising team (hopefully).


Maybe something soon will happen and this pessimistic post I have right now will make me look like a idiot, which I'll be perfectly fine with, but at this point realism is showing that even with a trade, we STILL will lack high I Q shooters, which be tough to make this whole thing work.

Anyone who has any knowledge of shooters left on the market or we can trade for please share.. because I honestly thought Miles was our last chance to get a decent rotational player in free agency. I'm honestly not feeling this team so far on paper , because what's around boogie and AD won't help them much. Btw so much fail on social media rumors. Just embarrassing.

[PELICANSFAN]

I normally try to express optimism, but honestly after CJ Miles being off the market to Toronto, im officially deflated. This free agency has been one of the most bizarre, and painful ones I can imagine. Not because we are "sitting on our hands" but the fact that even with two of the most talented bigs in the game we are STILL not attracting players to come here. It shows a reflection of our organization, what NBA players think of us, and most importantly the front office lack to sell players on this young and promising team (hopefully).


Maybe something soon will happen and this pessimistic post I have right now will make me look like a idiot, which I'll be perfectly fine with, but at this point realism is showing that even with a trade, we STILL will lack high I Q shooters, which be tough to make this whole thing work.

Anyone who has any knowledge of shooters left on the market or we can trade for please share.. because I honestly thought Miles was our last chance to get a decent rotational player in free agency. I'm honestly not feeling this team so far on paper , because what's around boogie and AD won't help them much. Btw so much fail on social media rumors. Just embarrassing.

Sounds like Demps is all-in for Lin.