Who Goes? Who Stays?

None of those guys you mention go unless it brings us some value. Good luck Pete in your hunt for value.

Last year at this time I wanted Fredette and Thornton gone no matter what. Others wanted Salmons, Outlaw, Hayes and maybe some others gone no matter what. I don't see the fan feeling so negative this year. The exception may be IT where 50% want him gone and the other half really want him to stay. The climate now is let's get a couple of quality players. And I think the FO is right there with us.

IT: starter. SF- Acquisition or Draft. PF - Evans. Backup center - ?

Based on last years cap, which was 58.6 mil and which should go up to around 60 mil, and based on picking up the last year of Acy's salary, we would have around 13.5 mil under the cap to work with. However that doesn't take into account IT's cap hold of $1,148,995.00. It isn't much, but it does count against our cap. If the cap goes up to around 60 mil, then were back to around 14 mil in space. I would think that's enough to sign Deng, but I'm not sure he's worth that much.

Well your guess is as good as any. But were trying to look inside Gay's mind and that's impossible. I don't know Rudy Gay any better than I know Ben McLemore. I would suspect that there are fans from other teams predicting that Cousins will ask for trade soon because of how the team played. But of course we know that's not close to the truth. Cousins is one of those unique players that doesn't want to ride the coattails of others. He wants to be the one that turns a franchise around. So who knows what lurks in Gay's mind. He might be more than willing to deal with another season of rebuilding as long as he's convinced that in the end, the Kings will be at minimum a playoff team, and at best, a contender.

I don't think Gay as reached the desperation period of his career. That usually happens when a good player turns 32 or 33 years old. If his team isn't contending for a title by that age, his patience has probably run its course. But, everyone is different and I have no idea what he'll do. He says he's comfortable here, and he wants to stay in one place for a while. So we have that going for us. Don't know why, but I have a good feeling about this. Let me put it this way. I have a better feeling about us retaining Gay than I do Thomas. I just have this gut feeling that Thomas will end up signing with the Magic. They can then move Oladipo back to SG where he belongs. I hope I'm wrong.....

I think that there is a reason for him to opt out, that's to our benefit. Of course my scenario has nothing to do with the Lakers, and you could be right about that. But if I'm correct, if we were to try and give him an extension after he opts in, that extension would necessarily be very expensive because of his starting salary of 19 million. However, if he were to opt out, with the idea of resigning with us to an already agreed on contract, then we could resign him at a more equitable price. The only other option of course is for him to opt in, and we wait till the end of next season when he becomes a freeagent.

There are some benefits to waiting another year. His benefit is he makes an additional 19 mil, and also gets to see if the team is heading in the right direction. For us, we get another year to make sure Gay is what were looking for before committing a ton of money to him. Personally, if you separate the Lakers from LA and just compare the two teams, and where they are talent wise, I'd take the Kings right now. They might have Kobe on their roster, but he's just a stone's throw away from heading into the pyramid to be mummified. Take away Kobe, and who do they have? Of course you do have the smog and heavy traffic. Hard to compete with that.

Based on last years cap, which was 58.6 mil and which should go up to around 60 mil, and based on picking up the last year of Acy's salary, we would have around 13.5 mil under the cap to work with. However that doesn't take into account IT's cap hold of $1,148,995.00. It isn't much, but it does count against our cap. If the cap goes up to around 60 mil, then were back to around 14 mil in space. I would think that's enough to sign Deng, but I'm not sure he's worth that much.

Larry Coon is reporting he expects a 5M jump in the salary cap and the luxury tax threshold to be at 77M.

The NBA issued new projections for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 salary cap and luxury tax thresholds. The 2014-15 salary cap is now projected to be $63.2 million and the tax level is projected to be $77.0 million. The numbers for 2015-16 are now projected to be $66.5 million and $81.0 million, respectively.

http://cbafaq.com/blog/?p=304

With that info, I'm going hard after Lowry and Bledsoe, possibly Chalmers, then going after Sefolosha or Avery Bradley. Bolster the back court through free agency, use the pick to get a defensive PF or use the pick in a trade to get a PF.

What in our free agent history makes you think that we would be able to sign Kyle Lowry and one of Sefelosha or Bradley? Those players want to play with winning franchises, the only way we get into conversations is by throwing absurd money out there(Iggy last summer), but more likely than not even that gets you nowhere. Our prized signing is Shareef Abdur Rahim with no knees for christ sakes. Its not fair but it is what it is, for us its the draft and trades as the primary way to acquire talent, with free agency being a way to sign a bench contributor or fringe starter at best.

http://fansided.com/2014/04/18/nba-salary-cap-projected-jump-nearly-5-million-2014-2015/

The good news is the cap will be 63mill reported by realgm so that's better than it was projected.

On IT I say just let him go. We can't have Ray/IT at pg definitely not IT starting and expect to be contenders you just can't. With Gay and Cousins we don't need a scorer at pg we can roll a pg that knows his place. If we expect Ben to be a major player than IT can't play with him for obvious reasons (there's 1 basketball). DMC/Gay/Ben should be our scores and fill the PF and pg position with defenders

I think IT and Rudy are both gone by the start of next season. I also think we will sign some vets which will know their roles more so than what we currently have.

We draft Exum or Smart and try to sign a SF in the mold of Trevor Ariza? As for PF maybe try to sign a guy like Varejao or Gortat at C?

If we aren't going to be paying Gay or IT then we should have a decent amount of cap space. Hell, maybe even enough to go after Deng?

I'd take IT over Ben any day of the week. If Ben can get good enough to start for us IT can become an All Star starting PG. Otherwise I agree with you.

NO!!!, small market loser teams like us don't have the luxury of letting talent walk for nothing because all we get in free agency are the Carl Landry's, John Salmons's, Chuck Hayes's of the league. There is no reason for us to be clearing cap space to spend big bucks on a prized free agent, it just isn't going to happen. Gay is the one I could see walking, if he truly wants to be on a winning team.

One thing to keep an eye on is the potential of re-signing IT and drafting a guy like Smart with the eventual goal of having Smart start and IT becoming the 6th man. They would even be very dangerous together(our own version of Dragic/Bledsoe), both are great penetrators(will help Ben a ton for open looks) and Smart has size and length to guard most SG's. That is something that intrigues me going into the draft.

Here is a question. If Isaiah Thomas is retained, who's a better fit on this roster, Rudy Gay or Luol Deng?

PDA went HARD after Iguodala last offseason. Deng is a similar player who's spent years with the best defensive coach in the NBA. Not as offensively gifted as Gay, obviously, but he'd help solve the 'too many people looking for their own offense' thing.

I don't know the right answer. If Thomas is let go, I'm taking Gay, but if he isn't and Gay opts out, Deng would be a nice target to consider. And one that might actually work out better for the team despite what the statistics would say.

Gordan Hayward> both those in terms of fit and he's actually fairly young without many K's on his body. Depending on who we draft here's a list of guys I would like us to go after via trade or whatever other means.

PG: Livingston
SG: Afflalo
SF: Hayward/Ariza
PF: Jordan Hill/anyone who can block shots
C: Doesn't matter

You would hope a basketball wouldn't have accumulated many strike outs in his playing career.

Why would you take IT over Ben. Ben has the potential to be a 2way player and he doesn't dominate the ball.

Larry Coon is reporting he expects a 5M jump in the salary cap and the luxury tax threshold to be at 77M.

The NBA issued new projections for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 salary cap and luxury tax thresholds. The 2014-15 salary cap is now projected to be $63.2 million and the tax level is projected to be $77.0 million. The numbers for 2015-16 are now projected to be $66.5 million and $81.0 million, respectively.

http://cbafaq.com/blog/?p=304

With that info, I'm going hard after Lowry and Bledsoe, possibly Chalmers, then going after Sefolosha or Avery Bradley. Bolster the back court through free agency, use the pick to get a defensive PF or use the pick in a trade to get a PF.

An extension doesn't have to start at the last years salary. That is just the max it can start at plus the % increase. So he could take say a 4 year $60 mil extension this year or next year if he opts in.

Well your guess is as good as any. But were trying to look inside Gay's mind and that's impossible. I don't know Rudy Gay any better than I know Ben McLemore. I would suspect that there are fans from other teams predicting that Cousins will ask for trade soon because of how the team played. But of course we know that's not close to the truth. Cousins is one of those unique players that doesn't want to ride the coattails of others. He wants to be the one that turns a franchise around. So who knows what lurks in Gay's mind. He might be more than willing to deal with another season of rebuilding as long as he's convinced that in the end, the Kings will be at minimum a playoff team, and at best, a contender.

I don't think Gay as reached the desperation period of his career. That usually happens when a good player turns 32 or 33 years old. If his team isn't contending for a title by that age, his patience has probably run its course. But, everyone is different and I have no idea what he'll do. He says he's comfortable here, and he wants to stay in one place for a while. So we have that going for us. Don't know why, but I have a good feeling about this. Let me put it this way. I have a better feeling about us retaining Gay than I do Thomas. I just have this gut feeling that Thomas will end up signing with the Magic. They can then move Oladipo back to SG where he belongs. I hope I'm wrong.....

If the plan is to keep IT and Marcus Smart is gone would you guys trade the pick for Asik or get one of Gordon or Vonleh? I would like Asik in the front court with DMC and Gay.

Yeah, I saw those numbers this morning. Of course if Gay opts in, those numbers don't help because our salaries will be at around 66 mil, which will be over the cap. However, if he opts out and we can't resign him, then we have a lot of money to work with, and like you, Lowry is at the top of my list. I doubt we can get Bledsoe. Another player I'd like to acquire is Afflalo. Broke in as a defensive player, but now has added offense to his bag of tricks. It all depends on what Gay does.

I like Mosgov too but Denver won't trade him. Just take McGee coach Karl got him to play good last year in 39min. People keep dismissing every shot blocker that's brought up if we want one it will be either McGee or Sanders there's not another available we can resonably get.

\ As for PF maybe try to sign a guy like Varejao or Gortat at C?

While a elite shot blocker would be nice we just imo need a big mobile body who moves well and can cover up mistakes but does not have to be a elite shot blocker a guy who averages similar blocks to Cousins but rotates better/contests more (we don't want Cuz contesting all the time) is enough imo. To me Jordan Hill (health permitting) is more than enough as far as defence when combined with Cuz ability to be disruptive.


Gortat and Hawes would be great if Cousins didn't hate them and they didn't hate him.