Yesterday, 07:13 AM
After sleeping a bit on the Watson deal. Watson signed a deal that was in a range of what Cam Johnson is getting. Teams didn't have problems trading useful players on expiring deals for air to reduce their salaries this summer. OKC got a bunch of second rounders for three of their rotation players in separate deals. Cleveland got a SRP for Strus in this deal, although it was obvious to everyone that Cleveland needs to dump salary. Cleveland also traded a lesser player in Schroeder for half the money without paying any assets. If we neglect the gazillion of possible options and narrow it down a bit, Denvers choice was:
- Cam Johnson + draft assets (FRP and SRP) from Watson deal or
- Watson (assuming they would send Cam somewhere for air with no assets involved in this scenario). One could even think that they could get some at least minor draft assets for Cam Johnson based on OKC and Cleveland transactions
I guess the deal gives them more flexibility, but not that much, really. Unless they strike with great follow up deals, their direction doesn't look great at all. They lost Val, THJ and now Watson and their only reinforcement is a vet min Bagley. And they are still over the second apron a bit.
- Cam Johnson + draft assets (FRP and SRP) from Watson deal or
- Watson (assuming they would send Cam somewhere for air with no assets involved in this scenario). One could even think that they could get some at least minor draft assets for Cam Johnson based on OKC and Cleveland transactions
I guess the deal gives them more flexibility, but not that much, really. Unless they strike with great follow up deals, their direction doesn't look great at all. They lost Val, THJ and now Watson and their only reinforcement is a vet min Bagley. And they are still over the second apron a bit.