2021 FREE AGENCY: Markkanen wants out of CHI | DAL "definitely interested"

[mvossman]

Not interested in Norman Powell for the simple reason that the Blazers have no other choice than to retain him. That means he´ll get massively overpaid, conservatively they´ll offer him something like 80/4. So we are talking about handing $20M per year to a player, who averages 17/3/2. Those are exactly THJ´s numbers. Even if he´s a slight improvement over THJ due to the defense, Powell immediately becomes a negative asset and he does not move the team needle into championship territory.

You can probably get a package of Terrence Ross & Mo Bamba in some THJ S&T for a combined salary of $20M. Pretty sure Ross can give you 17/3/2. He makes 12.5M in 2021/2022 and 11.5M in 2022/2023. Roughly the same production, but easily moveable next summer and you get a free shot at Mo Bamba.

Kendrick Nunn won´t cost 20M/year either. Jeremy Lamb´s best season in Charlotte was 15/6/2 in just 28 MPG. He´s sitting on a $10.5M expiring contract.

If I put the hammer down ($20M+) it needs to be a proven multi-faceted player that has been a leader like DeRozan, or at least some young veteran that has shown enough that with further growth he can sniff an ASG, All-NBA or All Defense team like Collins or Ball.

The goal is to land one of the "big fish", but you may not be able to get any here.  If they can't get any of the big guys, then Powell is probably the best option in the next tier.  I would have no problem spending 4/80 on him (probably go 4/90 if I had to).  He is a better player than guys like THJ and Fournier, and the fact that you are even comparing him to Nunn and Lamb tells me you are really underrating him.  Even at that contract, you will still have 12-15 mil in cap to go get another legit starter.

People talk about player contract values like they are picking off a menu.  A legit starting NBA player is a very scarce resource.  The price is going to be set by the limited market of what is available and what cap teams have.  More often than not, you are going to have to overpay in free agency.  The alternative is we do nothing and let Luka extension eat up the cap, or we spend it on good contracts for roll players.  We have enough roll players (some of them starting).  We need to upgrade the starting talent on this team, and sometimes the only way to do that is overpay.  As long as its not a crazy albatross contract, it eventually turns into an asset (as expiring) anyways.