jmmagicfan

Thankfully you have no power for personnel decisions for this team - with moves like that we would be the Knicks.

No. There, I said it. I like Tobias Harris in a vacuum, and I like Thybulle; but I don't like the combination better than I like the Gordon/Fournier combination. I think Harris is way over-paid, and you would be under that contract for 5 seasons. I'm not sure he is a true, first option player who can consistently close for you either.

Okay, I have to say we have done this well this year. First, we get Mozgov removed, so his salary that we were stretching ends up not counting at all; now we manage to get a disabled player exception for Aminu. It doesn't give us a roster space, but between to two, we have some funds to work with and (probably) not go into the luxury tax. I'm assuming we are going to sign Clark to a second, 10-day soon, and possibly for the rest of the season, unless we see someone else come up we like better. Also of interest, no word yet on a DPE for Jonathan Isaac - so maybe the NBA doctor(s) project him as coming back this season?

Don't think Denver would do it, but you could flip Birch and the Lakers 2nd rounder for Beasley. The numbers work, and they don't really have a backup center.

I don't have Insider, and was wondering who they had written about, so thanks for the list!

https://tradenba.com/trades/w7OHHL3Qr Vuc/Augustin/Jefferson/2nd round pick for Dedmon/Hield/Bjelica/Yogi Ferrell - we would probably have to waive Frazier or Clark, and look for another trade to move Fournier, but this trade does work.

Yep, I didn't see the trade link to make sense of it. Disregard. Thanks Soul Bro!

Okay, you've got me on this one - what do you mean by "hold trade"?

Just realized that Ariza is already going to Portland in that trade, so much for my Vuc/Birch/Frazier for Dedmon/Bjelica/Ariza trade. I'll have to something else to make the numbers work.

So with the two trades I detailed (here it is all combined) https://tradenba.com/trades/2cQ8d0r4S Our Rotation would probably be something like this: Fultz/Dunn/Carter-Williams/Arcidiacono Ross/Satoransky/Ariza Isaac/Young/Iwundu Gordon/Bjelica/Clark Dedman/Bamba

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=rtph6w6 https://tradenba.com/trades/muvSE84eI Potential trade with Chicago: Fournier/Augustin/Aminu/Jefferson for Young/Dunn/Satoransky/Arcidiacono

https://tradenba.com/trades/Upd7GX1C7 http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=wpmty8p Possible trade with Sacramento - any thoughts? TradeNBA comes up with us -1, Sacramento +1, ESPN says us +3, Sacramento +4 Vuc/Birch/Frazier for Dedman/Ariza/Bjelica

I've been looking, but haven't seen any updates on the injury exceptions that we applied for on JI or Aminu. I know it has only been about a week, but that seems like it should be long enough for the NBA's doctor(s) to examine and evaluate. Anyone have any idea how long those usually take? You gotta figure we are hurting for bodies right now. The B2B had to be especially tough.

I like AG, and I think he still has a lot of untapped talent. We see it almost every time that he is tasked with being the primary head-to-head defender of an elite player. The way he generally plays against Lebron, Giannis, Kawhi, and Blake Griffin is truly inspiring; and I bet every one of them has respect for AG. I only wish that he brought that level of FOCUS every night. If he could bring that focus on a consistent basis, he would be an all-star. Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking his normal, nightly energy; I don't ever really see him playing lazy, low-energy; but when he knows he's going up against a top PF/SF, he gets really dialed-in and you can see the difference. I bet he plays well again tonight with Kawhi on the schedule.

Mostly I like Evan for the first 40-42 minutes of each game; it is crunch-time Evan who tries (is asked?) to do too much and doesn't play within himself that I don't like. The occasional proliferation of "buddy ball" with Vuc, and the over-reliance on dribbling are issues at times; but it is the fact that he isn't the closer/one-on-one/get-us-a-basket player we need; and yet he ends up in that position too much of the time. How much of that is that we lack a true go-to player, how much is the coaching, and how much is Evan, is something I have never been able to truly ascertain; but we always seem to go away from our motion-based, team offense at the end of games. Is he paid too much to be a 3rd option player, possibly; is he paid too much to be a 1st/2nd option player, probably not. Is he truly capable of being a 1st/2nd option player - that is the true question, and so far I have to say no.