2015 NBA 'OFFS

grantland had a lengthy piece on the Spurs that focuses on Green:

The 2016 Spurs could open up about $22 million in cap room, but to do it, they’d have to renounce every outgoing free agent other than Leonard — including Green. Green is perhaps the most divisive free agent of the summer in league circles. Lots of execs would scoff at giving him a deal in the $10 million range; the phrase “product of the Spurs system” is thrown around a lot. It’s an accidental bonus of San Antonio’s selfless motion offense: People have never seen some Spurs exist outside that paradise, and that knowledge gap might depress those players’ value in free agency. The freaking Spurs win both ways.

But Green is no longer just a system player who mooches wide-open 3s. He takes hard 3s, with defenders right in his jersey, and he takes them from all areas of the floor. He has mastered little pump-fake/sidestep combinations that come in handy when defenders rush out at him. Green can’t cover ground as fast as Leonard or Tony Allen, but he has built himself into an elite defender who can hound multiple positions. He’s always well balanced, he’s long, and he just gets the game — how opposing plays unfold, when and where to shift around the floor, and how to use his size to bother smaller players who can out-quick him. He happens to be one of the most fearsome transition defenders alive. Some “3-and-D” guys barely meet half of the 3-and-D equation. Green is legit.

It’s popular to suggest he can’t dribble, but that’s not really true. Green can do just enough to keep the offense moving when he catches it against a rotating defense. He just can’t do much more than that, and at 27, he’s unlikely to add off-the-bounce oomph. He’s not explosive enough to get to the rim, and he has to settle for awkward midrange shots that often miss badly. He’s not a great passer, and he can’t get deep enough inside defenses to open up the most productive passes; Green has dished just 2.5 assists per 36 minutes, the lowest figure among the seven Spurs players who have logged at least 1,400 minutes this season.

There might be some truth to the notion that Green is a “system” player. He’d be lost without teammates to create shots for him. He’s lucky that everyone on his team is a willing passer, and that with Leonard around, he never absolutely has to defend the best opposing perimeter player. But any functional system should produce good jumpers; Green could spot up for open 3s in Detroit around Reggie Jackson–Andre Drummond pick-and-rolls, or in Charlotte around Al Jefferson post-ups. If you pay Green $10 million per season to score 18 points per game and dribble a lot, you’ll be disappointed. If you value his skills properly, you’ll be content. I’d pay him $10 million per season now, especially with the cap set to jump into the $100 million–plus range in two years. Ten percent of the cap for Danny Green? Sign me up.

Everyone likes to say that you can find functional wing players anywhere, but you can’t find a lot of wings who play All-NBA-level defense, crack 40 percent from deep every year, and continue to do both in the hothouse of the playoffs — where guys with glaring holes in their games suddenly can’t even get on the floor. (Just ask the 2011-12 version of Danny Green.) It would be classic Spurs to replace Green now, just as they dealt away George Hill when Hill became expensive. Green should be done taking discounts for the cause. But there are nights — and this sounds crazy, but I swear it’s true — when the Green/Leonard combination feels almost like the foundation of the Spurs. Leonard is the star, as he was when the two combined for 44 points in the Spurs’ shellacking of Golden State earlier this month, but their singular powers combine into something greater — an NBA wing Voltron. All that shooting and defense at positions (especially in Green’s case) where talent is scarce — you don’t trifle with that.

“Danny and Kawhi have played well together,” Buford says, “and the results that they have been a part of speak for themselves.”

if every power forward could play center they'd be a lot more valuable

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, April 28, 2015 12:00 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

many of them can!

Jason Lloyd ‏@JasonLloydABJ 3m3 minutes ago
#Cavs GM David Griffin says he doesn't believe Kevin Love will play again this postseason, surgery is an option

life comes at you fast

perfectly capping off loves nightmare season

offseason trade is prob the best course of action for both parties

im mad that this prevents my love prophecy -- that he would be run out of town as the scapegoat of a playoff loss -- from coming true

specifically because of bad defense

ya that had abt 99% chance of coming true before he got injured

http://i.imgur.com/e5UiAyj.png

i was gonna say kelly O's murder of his arm would prevent that but obv a trade would make sense

yeah and it makes a lot more sense for love to demand a trade rather than opt out cause then his new team retains his bird rights just in time for the salary cap hike

hed prob come around to playing w kelly if nessisary tho he was just upset

do we think cleve's dumb enough to take turner tho? they just saw him go back to looking like 2014 pacers turner as opposed to significantly improved brad-coached turner

who knows imo hed be a fine backup for a team lacking depth

throw in a draft pick u know

its not quite andrew wiggins lol but circumstances are a lil diff now

true

kelly O is young and can get better so he's def valuable, wallace is what he is but for one year w/ the cap going up thats a suitable cost-of-doing-business expiring

and he honestly might be a more valuable bench vet than perk, marion or miller

oh yeah hes easily better than those guys which is only to say he is better than totally useless

i mean i really have no idea what the market for love is, one year left on his deal, injured, coming off a truly terrible season

xp exactly!

trade also works with phil pressey if danny decided in this scenario that turner was worth one more shot

that's not a serious trade

i assume

it wld be p hilarious if both kelly and turner went to cleve as kelly effectively ended cleves title chase and bron made such a point of humiliating turner

that's not a serious trade

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, April 28, 2015 12:26 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

naw

i mean it cld be with a couple draft picks thrown in and i guess a third team as cleve prob doesnt want any draft picks

any trade would have to be a three team deal because i don't see what the lakers have that would entice the cavs

how much of a reach/longshot is boston taking a run at LMA if he were to leave? that said as i type this, i'm aware it's potentially almost as ridiculous as the #futurelaker stuff...

why do you guys think people want to play for the celtics

i kinda doubt cleve will be seeing any really game changing players coming in a love trade but they shd prob be just looking to add as many solid players as they can around bron and kyrie anyway

just love because its his destiny xp

wow slander

also think brad is developing a rep for a guy who knows how to get the most out of players, cld be enticing to love after what went down this year

but who knows maybe he just wants to go to la and shoot a bunch of threes for a shitty team

i still feel like the rockets are a fit for love and maybe there's a deal with terence jones and some other pieces that works

love has a weird white destiny with boston but he's unique, shoutout to brad stevens but i don't think he's a free agent draw just yet

the celtics have a legitimately top 5 coach and a potentially high ceiling for the future considering the conference they're in, they're not gonna attract kevin durant but neither are a lot of teams whose fans seem to think they might

depends if love has his heart set on being the 1st option or not re houston, def some similarities w cleve in that line up

dream celtics offseason wld be imo trading for love and singing hibbert or lopez

shoutout to brad stevens but i don't think he's a free agent draw just yet

and sock fisher/doddering phil is? and byron scott is?

xp which lopez

the good one of course

prokhorov sez he willing to break records for luxury tax excess, i think bropez might just take the cash but who knows

prokhorov shd just sell that team idk whats wrong w him

I don't see why Love would opt out and not wait it out for the new cap and if that I don't know why teams wouldn't wait a year to avoid losing him for nothing.

Cleveland for another year still feels most likely.

xp reading a forbes article rn that implies he tried real hard to do so and failed in spectacular fashion

he wldnt opt out he wld demand a trade meaning his new team wld retain his bird rights allowing them to sign him to bigger contract when the salary cap goes up than if he left cleveland as a free agent, this is the path to the most possible money if he doesnt want to stay in cleveland xp

xp to self er, not implies, just says:

The main problem is that Prokhorov has not committed to selling a majority of the Nets and no one is apparently crazy enough to pay big money for a minority stake in a money-losing team. Such a deal would mean the new investor would have no say in how the Nets are run but would likely have to make cash payments to make up for the team’s red ink. As one banker who traded candor for anonymity put it, “No one knew what the deal was.” Apparently Evercore grew frustrated spending time and effort dealing with Prokhorov’s fishing expedition for a minority investor.

one wld suspect the new team wld demand certain assurance re loves desire to stay, either that or they get such a good deal they cant pass it up, either way they have an advantage in resigning him via being able to pay more