Franchise408

Of course hes preventing us from doing something. He has a $17 million contract that we cant offload because he talent doesnt match his contract. His contract is an albatross that nobody will take on, his talent isnt good enough for the spot he holds in the starting lineup, and because of his contract, our hands are tied salary wise from bringing in improvements.

My beef isnt Evan himself, it's his contract. If he had a lesser contract, he could be a good role player off the bench. At $17 mill, he basically has to start, and prevents us from getting an improvement

Totally agree! I am okay with a regression next year because I am optimistic about where this team is headed. For the first time in a long time. I like our BIG core of Bamba, Isaac, and Gordon. I do like Vuc and Ross, but I understand, and agree with, the philosophy behind letting them go. I am SUPER excited for the prospect of Fultz. I hope he is healthy and can play. He's an instant x-factor for this team. I don't like Fournier, but I know that it will take time to get rid of him. And once he, Vuc, Ross, and Mozgov are all off our books, all of a sudden we have a lot of cap space to build around our very strong young core. There is a lot to be hopeful for this year, and if this year isnt successful, that's okay. It's not about this year

Nobody is gonna take Evan on that contract

Idk enough about college ball to know how I feel about this. I do feel like a wasted year isnt so bad, considering that we arent at full strength this year anyways, losing Vuc and maybe Ross, Fultz not healthy, and still waiting out Fournier and Mozgov's contracts. On the other hand, it does seem as tho we possibly could have waited for our 2md round pick to get him. But maybe they had Intel that other teams weren't gonna wait

I have a good feeling Zion will drop to us.

Do we need D'Angelo when we have Fultz who should be coming back at some point this year?

Same here

To be fair tho, you have a history of devaluing any draft pick that isn't top 3. You've been firmly on the "tanking is the ONLY way to build a successful roster", despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. So while Magicpassion may be trying to redefine the debate that has happened, he does have a point regarding your history of devaluing anything other than the top pick.

Because I didn't realize he had a player option.

Not often that I find myself agreeing with you, but this is one of those times.

This is why I hope we just let Mozgov ride out this year. I think just eating his $16 million this year and letting it come off the books is far better for us than stretching him. We aren't gonna be major players this year in FA anyways. Let's spend this off season and next clearing our books of guys like Mozgov, Fournier, and Augustin, and getting some heavy dollars open up to play with in a couple years.

You paying for my flight from California too?? lol

I'm not as in the know about all the contract deets as some of y'all, so I will concede any details I may be off on to others. Far as I know, Vuc and Ross are both in contract years that have now expired. Fournier has 1 season left at $17 mill before he's off the books. He comes off the books the same year as Mozgov. Not sure when Augustin is off the books. I think the same year? And he's about $10 mill I think? Here's what I'd tentatively like to see: C - Bamba PF - Gordon SF - Isaac SG - Fournier* PG - Fultz Bench - Ross, Augustin, Iwundu, Birch, Carter-Williams Let Vuc walk. I am not as anti-Vuc as most of the community here. I like him. But I also know that he is what he is, and keeping him around prohibits us from getting improved players down the line. Let him walk, and start Bamba with Birch coming off the bench at the 5. *Fournier starts at SG by default. Simply because he's here, and his combination of production and contract make him very difficult to offload. It might be best to just keep him and let him, Mozgov, and Augustin all expire at once, clearing out our cap space when we can finally make at move in FA. At that point, we put our FA focus on the 2 guard spot. Try to get a premiere player that can create his own shot and draw the attention from opposing defenses. Isaac, Gordon, Bamba, and Fultz will all be good enough to be able to play supporting roles to our new #1 option. Not sure exactly what Ross' salary situation is. I like Ross, I actually like him a lot. But he's another guy that's kinda like Vuc. He's a solid piece, but he is what he is. I think he's good to have in the rotation, but not if keeping him around would hinder us from improving the roster going forward. So imo, Ross' spot on this roster is dependent entirely on how his salary hit would limit us moving forward. I like our core. I'm excited to see them grow and develop together. I think this core can turn into a strong playoff core. But we gotta do something about that 2 guard spot if we wanna become a Boston / Philadelphia caliber playoff team.

Haven't gone through the rest of this thread yet, but I agree with this. At this point, as happy as I am about the playoff berth and the game 1 win, and as much as I would love to see this team make playoffs next year, as of this moment (and it could change), I am of the mind that playoffs are not our top priority next year. Our top priority is to play our new young core, and see what we have with them and what they are made of. 4 of our starting 5 need to be Bamba, Gordon, Isaac, and Fultz and see how they play together and how they gel. That is our core going forward. It's time to let them develop. How Vuc, Fournier, and Ross will end up playing into that core, we can get that figured out. But we need to be playing our core 4, letting them develop, and playing supporting guys like Vuc, Fournier, Ross, and Augustin around them.