06-15-2024, 07:38 PM
(06-15-2024, 05:55 PM)Jason Terry Wrote: My thinking is we treat it as a two year buy. We wait on an extension or possibly let him walk. I think it’s more of a short term luxury fit, but could morph into a long term fit
The roster is kind of interesting after the next couple of seasons. If you put a two year guy in the place of THJ/Hardy, then at the end of two years your roster is basically Luka, Green, Lively and OMax. You've effectively carried THJ's salary over for an extra year and you avoided dealing with Hardy as a RFA.
In addition to those four, Kyrie may have rejected his PO and extended the summer before. You might have signed DJJ the summer before (if you assume he stayed for a 1 + 1 this summer). So, maybe you have six guys (seven if you assume they used EB to keep Exum also).
Other than that you'd have Sexton, PJ, Gafford and Maxi as UFA the summer of 2026. Sexton is the only one who is extension eligible. That kind of expiring flexibility could be exciting in terms of what it might become in a trade package (if you can stay under the second apron and aggregate). It is also scary as that is a lot of mouths to feed.
Hardy and 2025 seems like a high price for a two year rental. I think whatever you do with THJ/2025/+ it needs to have an eye toward the roster for longer than that. Sexton is only 25, so that fits. He's a bit of a poor man's Kyrie should that turn wonky for some reason. I can certainly envision a better player than Sexton being the target for this particular move. But, the path to that better player isn't clear without a step backwards elsewhere on the roster. But here, you still have everyone who has been important to this run and you are directly upgrading the THJ/Hardy role.