Conudrum: few of the FAs who would consider us are worth the new market price

[otherdave]

Ok so KD is not coming...

Personally I am Ok with slowing improving thru the draft ( LeBron and Curry are still in our way for a few more years).  My problem with trading for someone good (like a J Butler) is that I don't want to trade away any of our good young core (although I would be interested to see what IT could bring us - whole different thread).  If we want to improve a littler faster than the draft, that leaves me signing a FA.

A lot of you are wary of signing Bismack or H Barnes to BIG contracts, and I get that. How do you all feel about signing E Fournier or N Batum to 18 to 21 million per year(max for 0 -6 yrs)?

Probably most of us would be OK in the 12 to 15 mil/yr range, but some team is going to over pay.

Should we be a team that knowingly and willingly overpays  OR do we draft and development and wait.... (preserving our financial flexibility)?

Where do you stand?

[Smitty77]

Ok so KD is not coming...

Personally I am Ok with slowing improving thru the draft ( LeBron and Curry are still in our way for a few more years).  My problem with trading for someone good (like a J Butler) is that I don't want to trade away any of our good young core (although I would be interested to see what IT could bring us - whole different thread).  If we want to improve a littler faster than the draft, that leaves me signing a FA.

A lot of you are wary of signing Bismack or H Barnes to BIG contracts, and I get that. How do you all feel about signing E Fournier or N Batum to 18 to 21 million per year(max for 0 -6 yrs)?

Probably most of us would be OK in the 12 to 15 mil/yr range, but some team is going to over pay.

Should we be a team that knowingly and willingly overpays  OR do we draft and development and wait.... (preserving our financial flexibility)?

Where do you stand?

Batum should FIRE his agent IF he settles for that.  I am NOT saying he deserves 24 to 25 million starting, but he will LIKELY get it.  To me, Barnes is NOT worth it.  He had a chance to step up due to injuries this year and simply did NOT do so!!  Fournier's D or lack thereof scares me, but he can flat out score the rock.  Biz is worth the 16 million starting it will take.  Get him Danny!!

Smitty77

Smitty

[Who]

Batum is the guy I am most willing to pay from that group.

[greece66]

Batum is the guy I am most willing to pay from that group.

I'd also go with Batum although even with him I would not be enthusiastic about offering a max.

[billysan]

Batum is the guy I am most willing to pay from that group.

Agreed, if Batum is even remotely interested, we need to throw the cash at him.  Rumor is he want to stay put but he may take the big payout we can offer. We should still have enough left to sign a Horford or Pau Gasol. Make no mistake, we will need to overpay for them as well.

This may be the only way to improve the team while we wait for draft picks to develop.

[alldaboston]

Honestly it sucks that the one year we have all the cap space we need, so does every other team in the league, and the selection of players is pretty poor.

[otherdave]

You are right, it does suck.  DA maneuvered very shrewdly the last 3 years to get us in the position and now everyone has some cap space.  Cap is going up to 92 mil, then an estimated 102ish mil, BUT then it goes back down.  I bet several teams over extend themselves over the next 2 years and then are trapped for the following 2 to 4 years.  If we prudently don't make crazy offers to suspect FAs over the next 2 summers and some "good" FAs elect to stay put (Lets face it Hornets can offer Batum the most $ and most years), we may come up with not very much the next 2 summers.  BUT we could then be in a heck of position in the summer of 2018, when most other GMs have tied up their money in a shrinking cap environment.  We could be one of the few organizations in  2018 with significant cap room.