Desktop GM Competition

We need to add 5 players - including inactive list - before the season commences. One detractor to optimising through these positions is that there'll be no Summer League this year, which puts the ball and chain on our potential recruiting of young, low salary players.

As far as returning players go, I'd call it a safe assumption to include Shawne Williams, Jefferies, AC and perhaps Big Shelden as likelihoods.

But how will their salaries be divided monetarily?

Bar Shawne Williams, who I think should receive no less than $1.3M after last season's effort, the remainder of these fillers will have to receive between $500K and minimum wage. Which leads me to my next point:

The combination of the CBA's upheaval of salary structures, cap holds, MLE exclusion (potentially), and so on - in addition to a league wide drought of low post playing bigs - make it essential for us to obtain or retain as much braun as we can.

Do we bring back Shelden Williams knowing that he doesn't fit Mike's brand of mind boggling basketball?

And what about Jerome Jordan?

The Melo trade's reality sinks in on this season: we have as much flexibility in our roster as Donnie Walsh does in his hip.

My roster, which will still exceed the cap by my own estimate of $13M+, is as follows:

Starting 5:

Ronny Turiaf - night on/night off - Jihad Jefferies
STAT
Melo
Fields - I have complete faith in his emergence.
Billups

Bench

Walker
Douglas
Shawne Williams
Jerome Jordan - out of sheer necessity.
Rookie - whoever that might be? In dire need of an impact.
Balkman

Patrick Ewing Jr.
AC

And depending on the CBA having a hard cap, even that could be wishful thinking.


CLOSEST MEMBER TO PINPOINTING OUR EXACT ROSTER WINS A REP POINT FROM ME, AND, I HOPE FROM THE OTHERS THAT PARTAKE IN THE THREAD.

I'll go first.

Billups
Fields
Melo
Amare
Jordan

Bench:
TD
Walker
Shawne
AC
Balkman
Jeffries
Rautins
Rookie

AmareForPresident said:

I'll go first.

Billups
Fields
Melo
Amare
Jordan

Bench:
TD
Walker
Shawne
AC
Balkman
Jeffries
Rautins
Rookie

Click to expand...

Ronny?......

And is that the shallowest/most incapable front court of all time?

They'll never do it like this, but this is how I'd construct it for next year:

5 - Dwayne Jones (cheap FA pickup for size & rebounding)
4 - Amar'e
3 - Melo
2 - Fields
1 - Billups
------------------
Marshon Brooks (draft pick at 17)
Nikola Vucevic (2nd later pick we acquire using TD, Rautins &/or cash)
Curtis Jerrells (or Ben Hansbrough with a 2nd rounder we acquire) -- They're both different PGs but I really like both--I'd be OK with either guy
Jeff Adrien (I think GS will waive him on or before 6/20/11, the day $738,872 of his $788,872 unguaranteed contract kicks in)
DeShawn Sims
Matt Bouldin
Ronny Turiaf
IR - Jerome Jordan (possible D-League assignment)
IR - Tim Abromaitis (possible D-League assignment)
IR - Renaldo Balkman

Assumptions:
(1) Douglas & Rautins will be dealt along with cash for a 2nd pick, maybe 2 seperate picks.
(2) Billy Walker's $916,100 option will not be picked up (nor should it, we can do better. A Brooks/Bouldin duo would be a HUGE upgrade).
(3) Shawne Williams, despite what he said recently about coming back for the minimum, will want too much money and won't be asked back (he was pretty good this year, if he came back I'd be OK with it, but I think we can do better -- I consider a Sims/Abromaitis tandem an upgrade).
--------------------
All 100% doable. Significant talent upgrade all done without overspending and with the idea of keeping immediate future salary in check. It would afford us maximum cap flexibility for 2012 FA when many good players could be available. Not to mention if some of these guys turn out to be players, which I wouldn't bet against, we'd suddenly have some very good/cheap assets to use in a trade for a guy like Chris Paul for example, if it ever came to that. Some might be put off by the lack of veterans off the bench in this scenario but we'd still have Ronny around for that and there'd still be plenty of veteran leadership in the starting lineup with STAT, Melo and Chauncey. To me this group, with the increased talent level & depth ALONG WITH the opportunity to gel together right from training camp, wins 60 games next season easily. It has the potential to be so good that a guy like Chris Paul may not even be necessary...Think about this group's potential for a sec. Just the bench guys alone: what if DeShawn Sims turned out to be something close to Al Harrington/Marvin Williams/Wilson Chandler in the NBA? Or a player very similar to Marcus Morris who's projected to be a lottery pick this draft? What if Brooks turned out to be better than Jamal Crawford? What if Curtis Jerrells turned out to be as good or better than Brandon Jennings? Or what if Ben Hansbrough turned out to be something close to Steve Nash? What if Vucevic turned out to be what they thought they'd be getting from Mozgov? Better even -- what if he turned out to be the next Marc Gasol? The next Pau Gasol? What if Dwayne Jones and Jeff Adrien together (along with Vucevic) solved the rebounding issue once and for all? What if Bouldin & Abromaitis finally gave D'Antoni the legit, consistent long-range shooting he so desperately needs for this offense (not to mention increased flexibility and versatility --- Abromaitis is as big and can put it on the floor/rebound as good if not better than Shawne Williams and Bouldin at 6'5" can handle & pass it well enough to play some point in a pinch)? What if Abromaitis gave us a similar option to what Orlando has with Ryan Anderson? I'd like our chances on a lot of these 'what ifs'..

Crazy⑧s;180103 said:

Ronny?......

And is that the shallowest/most incapable front court of all time?

Click to expand...

Sadly, I think that is what we're going to end up with. Hopefully Donnie signs some vets.

A few things:

(1) I put up a Jeff Adrien thread about a week ago over on the Golden State ESPN board just trying to gage Warrior fan interest in this guy. Not many responded and those that did didn't seem to care too much about retaining him -- not many think he's gonna make that team. Seem to feel he's low on the depth chart behind other guys.

link: http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sport=nba&id=gsw&tid=8637387&lid=7

I actually agree with some of these GS fans -- I think he'll be cut on or before 6/20/11 when, as per shamsports.com, the bulk of his unguaranteed contract is set to kick in IF the Warriors decide to keep him (up to that date, GS's only on the hook for $50,000). What I don't agree on with many over there is that he's actually a pretty good player that could thrive in the right role..I hope the Knicks are monitoring this. We probably have no interest otherwise he'd be in a Knick uniform already, but I really feel like he can help us with his rebounding and toughness. 'Imapct Player Of The Year' this past season in the DL where he played like an animal. I still continue to feel that if we secured this guy in the days leading up to the draft, we wouldn't need to target a Ken Faried for the same qualities and instead, we'd be able to target a different need entirely. Adrien's flat out good at what he does and would be a nice backup behind Amar'e (a nice fit next to Amar'e too on those ocassions when STAT slides over to 5). Here's hoping the Warriors cut him in time and we bring him in for a look. Sometimes one guy's trash is another guy's treasure.

(2) Is Walker's $916,100 salary guaranteed for next year? When did this happen? I thought it was a team option? Did we pick that up recently?? Apparently.. Was this really wise? I don't think so..I think we could've done better at backup 2 myself, and for cheaper..

(3) Just wanna get some opinions -- realistically, how far can we move up in this draft using a combination of the following assets: Fields (who I'd like to keep but wouldn't be opposed to dealing in the right scenario), Walker (I guess he'll be returning--I could've swore he was a team option), Jerome Jordan, Douglas, Rautins and/or cash? Just a couple of slots, nothing crazy...Not looking to crack the top 10 or anything. Is that possible, ya think? Not sure about you guys but the last thing I wanna see is for the Knicks to lose out on the guy they really wanted by a pick or two (a-la Steph Curry a couple of years ago)..