2020-2021 ROSTER TALK: Archived

[Branduil]

Keep him to always have two playmakers on the floor.  Whatever system we run will be centered around taking advantage of Luka/Conley together.  If it is good to have that starting combo attacking from all over the floor, I would think you'd want to run the same two playmaker scheme against backups.   If VP has this right, I see:

Three scoring playmakers:  Luka, Conley and Brunson
Three wing defenders:  DFS, Oubre, Green
Three bigs:  KP, Maxi, Powell

That's nine and you haven't spent the rMLE yet.  I'm not a believer in all of this talk of trading Kleber to Utah for a guy you can sign outright.  He's needed in this arrangement and there isn't a good way to replace him if you send him out. You have your Big 3 in Luka, Conley and KP.  I assume DFS will start at either the three or the four.  From there you can add Maxi for one kind of look or Oubre for another.  It will be interesting how they mix and match the lineups when Luka sits or when KP sits.

The improvement comes from Conley vs. THJ.  He is your Chris Paul.  He has the same shooting off the ball that THJ has but adds better playmaking and D.  The marginal difference is huge (and stealing him cripples a competitor).  Oubre, if it happens, is the Crowder move.  I think it will cost more than the MLE as Crowder has never averaged 18 a night.

How are you adding both Conley and Oubre while keeping Maxi? Losing THJ, JRich, and WCS only adds up to about 36 million, no?


Anyway, with THJ, if he's leaving, wouldn't it be possible to do a 3-team trade? THJ traded to the team with cap space he's chosen, Conley traded to the Mavs, big TPE to Utah. A small piece like Burke can be added somewhere is the money needs to add up. That lets you still work over the cap so you'd get MLE+BAE.

Personally I'm completely out on Oubre, he just seems like a more athletic JRich with a worse attitude.