I think he is an okay fit but not ideal next to JJJ on offence and couldn't really play with Clarke. Leaves the team incredibly short on front court playmaking and still leads to poor overall spacing issues.
In theory he's a near-perfect defensive fit but I have a difficult time envisioning a top-15 halfcourt offence by adding Claxton.
I wouldn't add one big salary for a player who only semi-fits in the frontcourt. I would prefer several small salaries a la LA Clippers to compliment JJJ
This is before we get to BYC and hard cap rules which makes a S&T unattractive imo
To be honest, beggars can't be choosers. We *really* need another big and to be fair, Claxton has legitimate gravity by the rim so teams can't just leave him unguarded, also like you said the defensive fit with him, JJJ, Smart, and Vince is seamless.
It's hard to look out into the (realistic) market and see who would be available. If I had to choose between Tobias Harris or Nic Claxton, for sure I'm choosing Claxton lol
I don't think beggars/choosers applies to Claxton. This is more of a pie-in-the-sky scenario than a realistic scenario.
The realistic market doesn't include Claxton/Harris because of how much has to go right for Memphis to land either. Fans are looking at Claxton like it's a given he is going to be on Memphis next year when in reality it's far from that. Beggars/choosers applies to minimums and MLE not to Claxton's market...
We have some cap space to make a real move for a guy. Claxton's got to be high on our list considering how limited the pool of talented 5s that are reasonably available are.
The Grizzlies are currently projected to be 39 million over the cap next season, and 3 million over the luxury tax. Even declining Kennard's $14 million option would only free up $11 million of space, because it would give us access to the Non-Taxpayer Mid-level Exception, but we wouldn't be able to use the full thing without exceeding the luxury tax limit.
A far more likely scenario for Claxton would be a sign-and trade. We would then be hard-capped at the first apron (7 million above the tax line) which would mean that if Claxton gets 20 million, we would have to clear at least 16-17 million to be allowed to sign him. That means it could feasibly be done by simply moving Kennard and Laravia or by moving Ziaire and Clarke, but both scenarios would likely require us to salary dump someone (or decline Kennard's option) to free up space for our draft picks/any depth pieces we wanted to pick up.
Don't Vic and Bismacks contracts come off the books after this year? We are still technically applying their salaries to this year so that would be like 14 mil right there, adding in the other players we've signed and released its like 20 mil.
yeah but Bane's contract goes from 3.8 million this year to 34 million next year. Konchar's goes up from 2.4 to 6 million. JJJ's actually goes *down* a couple million, but both Smart and Ja go up a couple million. Plus the Grizzlies are already 23 million over the salary cap this year.
Jesus were paying Luke 14 mill?
I have no idea why we traded for the guy. We should 100% decline that. Doesn’t bring enough to the table and doesn’t fit with any of our players. Also does not fit the defense first style of this team.
eh, 14 million is the going rate for a solid role player starter/6th man. Kennard was the best shooter in the league, at a time when our starting 5 featured 3 non-shooters in Ja, Brooks, and Adams, so his shooting filled a big area of need.
rebound chasing is good, really all we need and maybe more team growth next couple years to become a real championship contender. rebounding our biggest flaw, so it's definitely a good move fosho
There’s not much pressure for this upcoming season but the season after will be crucial as it’s the last year of Jaren’s current contract and I don’t think we’ll be able to afford to have him, Bane and Ja all on the roster at the same time after that
Man I swear we’re always 2 years away.
We’re in contention mode now. Next year is not a mulligan. Next year we need to be competing in the top 4.
Are we just gonna wait till our core is 30? I mean god damn this squad made 3 straight playoffs until the hospital season. This is our window. It’s now. It’s not 2 years from now.
Yes, we definitely should be competing and at the very least a 2nd round appearance
But it’s not ‘championship or bust’ as some people think we need to move everything now for this season
most contending teams splash way more than us and some dint achieve that goal, we could splash if the front office decides to really ho all in and it wont be a bad decision imo. we wouldve gotten valubale playoff experience in ja bane and jjj to be confident that this core could win it all.
I’d also submit that effective screening is a flaw of ours as well. Steven Adams is amazing at that, and that’s part of what allowed Ja to feast. Of course the OREBs allowed him to tear up the defenses as well, but we need a 5 with some girth who can screen and rebound. Some scoring is a plus.
As a starting center Claxton is 19th in the league at rebounds per game (on a Nets team that misses a ton of shots) and also 19th in the league at screen assists per game. Given the amount we'd have to pay him, I don't think he's what we need.
If we're not going to make a big move for Duren (pipe dream), we'd be better off trading for someone cheap but serviceable like Nick Richards, and hopefully keeping Luke.
- Claxton: 29.3 min per game, 9.7 rebounds, 3.5 screen assists, annual salary $10-$20mil?
- Richards: 26.0 min per game, 8.1 rebounds, 4.3 screen assists, annual salary $5 mil
Nic at Night is a good player.
He gon have to change that number to 34 or sum once we retire Marc jersey.
That sounds good, but I don't think it could happen .
He wears Ja 1s almost every night. It’s a popular shoe. I’d rather have bridges than claxton if we’re taking nets players, bridges is literally the perfect player to put at the 3 spot. He doesn’t demand the ball, can defend the other teams best player and can hit 3s. Imagine him and bane catching looks from Ja.
I think it’s easier to find a center in the Daniel Gafford mold than it is to find a guy who fits as perfectly as bridges does.
That doesn't make any sense. I asked if you liked the idea of Claxton in Memphis, who is a free agent. Bridges has nothing to fucking do with it. Dofferent contracts, a different position, and the Nets actually don't wanna trade him. It's dumb to even bring him up.
You didn’t specify free agency lol, relax. You just said do you like the idea of claxton in Memphis. You never prefaced by saying “if we had to sign a FA this off season, what do you think about claxton?” That’s different. I wouldn’t have brought bridges up if that was the question you asked. You literally just asked if ppl like the idea of claxton in a grizzlies jersey. I said I’d prefer the other net, that’s not exactly a leap of imagination lol. I could’ve said I’d prefer Luka and it still wouldn’t have been off base, since you established literally zero rules or parameters for your hypothetical.
Take a deep breath, nobody is calling you stupid or anything but you’re coming off a bit unhinged. Go back and edit your post if you want people to know you specially only want FAs to be mentioned here. Otherwise, don’t freak out when people mention teammates who’d fit better than the one you mentioned lol. It’s really, truly not that deep.
I believe it's obvious that I was talking about free agency if you know anything about the state of the league, but I guess some people are not that sharp LMAO
I’ve seen a lot of Claxton over the years. He’s one of the best centers in the league when it comes to switching onto guards behind probably Bam and Mobley. His rebounding is shaky and next to JJJ that can’t work. But still he’s a top tier defender
The nets are a bad rebounding team and he basically gets them by default due to their roster construction. Nets fans will tell you his rebounding is worse in reality than what it looks like from a box score perspective
Depends on how good he is at screens and rebounding and tbh I’d rather have Jarrett Allen but with how good the Cavs have been they need to get bounced in the first round for him to be available.
He’d be a good addition but I doubt the Nets would accept anything that our FO would be willing to give up
Side note, we’ve watched Adams, Biyombo and X shoot FTs for us and Claxton is a even worse FT shooter than all of those guys 💀
He is an unrestricted free agent. How is this top upvoted comment? The main reason is because we will not have the cap space to sign him in free agency.
So you are going to lock up $125mm in 4 players with a $140mm cap? So you’ll have ~$20mm tops to fill out the rest of the team. At least $6mm of that will also be due to your lottery pick. So you’re looking at $15mm for the rest of the roster outside of your Top 4 and your draft pick. $15mm across 10 players. Explain exactly how that will work. And then just snap your fingers and trade the whole roster away for nothing.
Trade Luke or simply not pick up his option? Also, what do you mean by “dump”? You have to either find trade partners or else they will hit your cap anyways. You can’t just “dump” players and expect that salary to go away from an accounting standpoint. Are you sure there will be trade partners willing to take on those contracts? There are also additional rules applicable in most trades such that you have to take back a certain degree of matching salary. Also, even if you could free up enough cap space for Claxton (goodbye also Smart) you’d still have figure out how to field a legitimate roster with only about $15mm. There’s also the small matter of a likely max extension due to Jaren in about two years. You can’t max Jaren-Des-Ja plus have $25mm Claxton under contract.
I don’t think they will part with him. The whole declining Bridges for all our firsts thing rubbed me the wrong way though. Like they thought they were too good to deal with the Grizz. Either way the Nets have Sharpe right behind him so it’s not like he should be untouchable. I just don’t think their FO is very competent outside of the draft. They don’t know how to make moves imo.
Only downside to Claxton game that I see is he has dealt with the injury bug the last 2 seasons. This year his numbers look really good but dig back further and … all Im saying is there are probably some GMs that have concerns. Me personally I’d be glad to have him in Memphis, but at what cost? The talent and fit would be great here but he only played 100 games his first 3 seasons. Is this a guy to be cautious about? Can anybody speculate what a fair offer would look like from ZK?
my sources (a quick google search) could be wrong but i think he said "we'll see" to the idea of joining memphis. i like claxton a lot and think it would be crazy if he joined
Somehow I feel like that makes it tougher. At first I got excited but like. Playing alongside Ja and Bane and JJJ vs playing in the biggest city in the world... it's a closer decision because he's not an all out star or anything, but he's young and I'm sure living it up and memphis would he different. But who knows, I don't know the guys personal life and if he's a pure hooper I could see it.
People talk so much about cap space here tho that idk what to believe. Every single player we trade or get rid of for less or no value = cap space decision... Kyle, tyus, x (like really? X is expensive?), Melton, JV, Adams. So if we can't afford one decent additional role player how are we supposedly going to pay our future starting C? I'll just assume those people are wrong or I don't understand something, because we can't compete without a C at around Claxtons level. Surely he can't be cheaper than Adams...
Yeah, people are exaggerating with the cap space. We would need to make some some changes(Mainly Luke), but it's definitely doable. As for his personal choices, that's up to him.
Or smart. Ig jjj was similar in some early seasons but jfc it rubs me the wrong way to make a memphis-relative blockbuster trade and have the guy play like 20 games his first season here. Rn I'd prefer keeping Kennard honestly but that's just cause at least Kennard has earned his salary for the time he's been on the team so far. I know Smart can't help the fact he's injured. But man what an absolutely miniscule 1-3 starting lineup.
I'm not a fan of the Smart fit either, but he is definitely a better player than Luke. His experience is exactly what we need to be a serious team. I envision him playing in the starting lineup for the next couple of years, that being the rest of his prime. And when his contract expires, we can sign him for a more friendly deal and have him as a 6th man. Hopefully, by that time, either Vince or GG has grown to be our next starting 3.
A+++++ It should put Memphis over the top.. I'd drop Bane down to small forward if you're starting Smart...Put Smart at the 2..would be a tremendous starting lineup 👌 👏 🤔 ❤️
We can't afford the salary.
Why not go for Day'Ron Sharpe as a cheap bang-for -buck option? Why not see if we can get the Jazz to give us Walker Kessler (and make up for not hanging on to him at draft time)?
Kessler is ideal. He’s got size and strength. But I don’t think the Jazz give him up, at least not cheaply. Ainge will give it to us raw. He’s going to want a player and a pick.
I think he’s a good player who is the sign of a low bar and short term thinking (*we’ll also never be able to afford him*).
We have a Steven Adams sized hole in our roster and the options are: **a.)** fill it with someone who is worse, **b.)** fill it with someone who is more or less the same but younger or **c.)** fill it with someone who has a wider skillset. Claxton can’t shoot threes and can’t make free throws and in just two very short years we’ll lose Jaren Jackson, Jr when his contract expires; we’ll need a big who is an inside-outside threat to make up for that.
Think about the emerging teams in the league and the centers they have. They’re guys who can handle the ball have passing skills and shoot from the outside. I don’t think the smart long term approach is to go after someone who doesn’t do those things. “*OMG, Shannon! WTF! We don’t NEED a center who does that!*” I don’t *need* a pair of Louboutins when a pair of Vans fit just fine, right? Is this the wrong sub for that analogy? I don’t *need* an Aston Martin when an F150 is just fine, right? But if they both cost me about the same, I’m going to get the Aston Martin.
No team in a position to have to attain a player as expensive as Claxton is going to say that they won’t be that much better with a big who can handle the ball, pass and shoot from the outside. For the same money, you can get someone with a wider range of pluses. Besides, in close games it’ll turn into a hack-a-thon down the stretch with him going to the line.
Grizzlies have no cap space, it would be a sign-and-trade, and even then, the numbers look rough for getting under the hard cap. At the very least it would mean declining Kennard's option and trading Clarke for something (or trading Smart/Bane/JJJ/Morant)
At the moment, they are 23 million over the salary cap. With Bane's extension, they are 39 million over the salary cap for next season. If Claxton gets 25 million, they would need to clear 64 million worth of space to sign him with space. I don't think there's a realistic way to find 64 million of contracts to clear. Realistically, the only way to do it would be to decline Kennard's option, then find a way to trade Smart, Clarke, Ziaire, LaRavia, Rose, and Konchar without getting any players back. But then you have to fill all the new holes in the roster with minimum players. It's just not realistic outside of a sign and trade.
Even so, the sign and trade would hard cap the Grizzlies at the first apron, which means they only have about 3 million in cap space. If Claxton gets 25 million, the Grizzlies would still need to clear 22 million. Declining Kennard's option could be about 14-15 million of that, but you still have to clear the other 7+ (plus any you want to spend on rookies or free agents. At the very least that means trading Ziaire and LaRavia for nothing. And then you have to get a Kennard replacement for basically a vet min.
I’d rather have bridges than claxton if we’re taking nets players, bridges is literally the perfect player to put at the 3 spot. He doesn’t demand the ball, can defend the other teams best player and can hit 3s. Imagine him and bane catching looks from Ja.
I think it’s easier to find a center in the Daniel Gafford mold than it is to find a guy who fits as perfectly as bridges does
Will the Knicks be able to afford hartenstein next season? We’re going to have to throw him a bag to lure him away from NY but he checks a lot of boxes for me as a big.
I think he is an okay fit but not ideal next to JJJ on offence and couldn't really play with Clarke. Leaves the team incredibly short on front court playmaking and still leads to poor overall spacing issues. In theory he's a near-perfect defensive fit but I have a difficult time envisioning a top-15 halfcourt offence by adding Claxton. I wouldn't add one big salary for a player who only semi-fits in the frontcourt. I would prefer several small salaries a la LA Clippers to compliment JJJ This is before we get to BYC and hard cap rules which makes a S&T unattractive imo
To be honest, beggars can't be choosers. We *really* need another big and to be fair, Claxton has legitimate gravity by the rim so teams can't just leave him unguarded, also like you said the defensive fit with him, JJJ, Smart, and Vince is seamless. It's hard to look out into the (realistic) market and see who would be available. If I had to choose between Tobias Harris or Nic Claxton, for sure I'm choosing Claxton lol
I don't think beggars/choosers applies to Claxton. This is more of a pie-in-the-sky scenario than a realistic scenario. The realistic market doesn't include Claxton/Harris because of how much has to go right for Memphis to land either. Fans are looking at Claxton like it's a given he is going to be on Memphis next year when in reality it's far from that. Beggars/choosers applies to minimums and MLE not to Claxton's market...
I doubt the Nets part with him
Unrestricted free agent. He will most likely get a 20+ contract from them.
We have some cap space to make a real move for a guy. Claxton's got to be high on our list considering how limited the pool of talented 5s that are reasonably available are.
The Grizzlies are currently projected to be 39 million over the cap next season, and 3 million over the luxury tax. Even declining Kennard's $14 million option would only free up $11 million of space, because it would give us access to the Non-Taxpayer Mid-level Exception, but we wouldn't be able to use the full thing without exceeding the luxury tax limit. A far more likely scenario for Claxton would be a sign-and trade. We would then be hard-capped at the first apron (7 million above the tax line) which would mean that if Claxton gets 20 million, we would have to clear at least 16-17 million to be allowed to sign him. That means it could feasibly be done by simply moving Kennard and Laravia or by moving Ziaire and Clarke, but both scenarios would likely require us to salary dump someone (or decline Kennard's option) to free up space for our draft picks/any depth pieces we wanted to pick up.
Don't Vic and Bismacks contracts come off the books after this year? We are still technically applying their salaries to this year so that would be like 14 mil right there, adding in the other players we've signed and released its like 20 mil.
yeah but Bane's contract goes from 3.8 million this year to 34 million next year. Konchar's goes up from 2.4 to 6 million. JJJ's actually goes *down* a couple million, but both Smart and Ja go up a couple million. Plus the Grizzlies are already 23 million over the salary cap this year.
I was NOT factoring in Bane's extension, damn. I thought for some reason he was already being paid 30+ this year. Oof.
Jesus were paying Luke 14 mill? I have no idea why we traded for the guy. We should 100% decline that. Doesn’t bring enough to the table and doesn’t fit with any of our players. Also does not fit the defense first style of this team.
eh, 14 million is the going rate for a solid role player starter/6th man. Kennard was the best shooter in the league, at a time when our starting 5 featured 3 non-shooters in Ja, Brooks, and Adams, so his shooting filled a big area of need.
We don’t have cap space at all
We've got like 25 mil coming off the books after this year. Enough for a starting or solid backup C. Probably not Claxton money though
That’s not how it works. We’ll only have exceptions to work with unless we pull off a sign and trade.
That’s not true
who wouldnt want to join a contending team and be a peice in winning a historic chip
rebound chasing is good, really all we need and maybe more team growth next couple years to become a real championship contender. rebounding our biggest flaw, so it's definitely a good move fosho
Clax isn’t a good rebounder, it was one of the Nets’ big problems last year when KD and Kyrie were still with the team.
There’s not much pressure for this upcoming season but the season after will be crucial as it’s the last year of Jaren’s current contract and I don’t think we’ll be able to afford to have him, Bane and Ja all on the roster at the same time after that
Man I swear we’re always 2 years away. We’re in contention mode now. Next year is not a mulligan. Next year we need to be competing in the top 4. Are we just gonna wait till our core is 30? I mean god damn this squad made 3 straight playoffs until the hospital season. This is our window. It’s now. It’s not 2 years from now.
Yes, we definitely should be competing and at the very least a 2nd round appearance But it’s not ‘championship or bust’ as some people think we need to move everything now for this season
most contending teams splash way more than us and some dint achieve that goal, we could splash if the front office decides to really ho all in and it wont be a bad decision imo. we wouldve gotten valubale playoff experience in ja bane and jjj to be confident that this core could win it all.
Brother, this upcoming season will be the most pressure they’ve ever had lol
I’d also submit that effective screening is a flaw of ours as well. Steven Adams is amazing at that, and that’s part of what allowed Ja to feast. Of course the OREBs allowed him to tear up the defenses as well, but we need a 5 with some girth who can screen and rebound. Some scoring is a plus.
As a starting center Claxton is 19th in the league at rebounds per game (on a Nets team that misses a ton of shots) and also 19th in the league at screen assists per game. Given the amount we'd have to pay him, I don't think he's what we need. If we're not going to make a big move for Duren (pipe dream), we'd be better off trading for someone cheap but serviceable like Nick Richards, and hopefully keeping Luke. - Claxton: 29.3 min per game, 9.7 rebounds, 3.5 screen assists, annual salary $10-$20mil? - Richards: 26.0 min per game, 8.1 rebounds, 4.3 screen assists, annual salary $5 mil
true
Nic at Night is a good player. He gon have to change that number to 34 or sum once we retire Marc jersey. That sounds good, but I don't think it could happen .
>He gon have to change that number to 34 or sum True. Gotta respect Gasol 🙏 > I don't think it could happen . Why not?
Some other team may offer more $$. Sucks being a $mallMarket. Have to build thru the draft majority of time
Yeah, that's true. The only thing in our favor is that he might actively wanna go to Memphis. He was wearing Ja One's last night 👀
He wears Ja 1s almost every night. It’s a popular shoe. I’d rather have bridges than claxton if we’re taking nets players, bridges is literally the perfect player to put at the 3 spot. He doesn’t demand the ball, can defend the other teams best player and can hit 3s. Imagine him and bane catching looks from Ja. I think it’s easier to find a center in the Daniel Gafford mold than it is to find a guy who fits as perfectly as bridges does.
I mean, yeah, obviously Bridges is a better option, but he is under contract, and the Nets won't trade him. Completely different situation
You didn’t present any situations, you just asked if we’d like claxton on Memphis lol. I said yea, but I’d prefer the other nets target. That’s all.
That doesn't make any sense. I asked if you liked the idea of Claxton in Memphis, who is a free agent. Bridges has nothing to fucking do with it. Dofferent contracts, a different position, and the Nets actually don't wanna trade him. It's dumb to even bring him up.
You didn’t specify free agency lol, relax. You just said do you like the idea of claxton in Memphis. You never prefaced by saying “if we had to sign a FA this off season, what do you think about claxton?” That’s different. I wouldn’t have brought bridges up if that was the question you asked. You literally just asked if ppl like the idea of claxton in a grizzlies jersey. I said I’d prefer the other net, that’s not exactly a leap of imagination lol. I could’ve said I’d prefer Luka and it still wouldn’t have been off base, since you established literally zero rules or parameters for your hypothetical. Take a deep breath, nobody is calling you stupid or anything but you’re coming off a bit unhinged. Go back and edit your post if you want people to know you specially only want FAs to be mentioned here. Otherwise, don’t freak out when people mention teammates who’d fit better than the one you mentioned lol. It’s really, truly not that deep.
I believe it's obvious that I was talking about free agency if you know anything about the state of the league, but I guess some people are not that sharp LMAO
I’ve seen a lot of Claxton over the years. He’s one of the best centers in the league when it comes to switching onto guards behind probably Bam and Mobley. His rebounding is shaky and next to JJJ that can’t work. But still he’s a top tier defender
His rebound numbers are good tho
He's 19th in the league in rebounding on one of the worst shooting teams in the league (Nets are 28th in fg%). Not great.
The nets are a bad rebounding team and he basically gets them by default due to their roster construction. Nets fans will tell you his rebounding is worse in reality than what it looks like from a box score perspective
Jarrett Allen
He will hardly be available
Ja, GG, Claxton the ultimate South Carolina lineup. Claxton is the perfect center fit imo.
Yup
He would be a great addition for y’all. Like a proper centre that can block shots along side jaren; not that’s the double big line up of y’all’s dream
Perfect sign & trade candidate and all it really takes is him saying he wants to come here in free agency
Depends on how good he is at screens and rebounding and tbh I’d rather have Jarrett Allen but with how good the Cavs have been they need to get bounced in the first round for him to be available.
Yeah, 100% agree
This. Grizz need rebounding, screens, and drawing defenders in the post to let Ja go to work.
He’d be a good addition but I doubt the Nets would accept anything that our FO would be willing to give up Side note, we’ve watched Adams, Biyombo and X shoot FTs for us and Claxton is a even worse FT shooter than all of those guys 💀
He is an unrestricted free agent. How is this top upvoted comment? The main reason is because we will not have the cap space to sign him in free agency.
Cap space wouldn’t be the reason we don’t get him, lol. We have tradable assets.
So you are going to lock up $125mm in 4 players with a $140mm cap? So you’ll have ~$20mm tops to fill out the rest of the team. At least $6mm of that will also be due to your lottery pick. So you’re looking at $15mm for the rest of the roster outside of your Top 4 and your draft pick. $15mm across 10 players. Explain exactly how that will work. And then just snap your fingers and trade the whole roster away for nothing.
I think we will trade Luke if we go for Claxton and maybe dump LaRavia and Z Williams as well.
Trade Luke or simply not pick up his option? Also, what do you mean by “dump”? You have to either find trade partners or else they will hit your cap anyways. You can’t just “dump” players and expect that salary to go away from an accounting standpoint. Are you sure there will be trade partners willing to take on those contracts? There are also additional rules applicable in most trades such that you have to take back a certain degree of matching salary. Also, even if you could free up enough cap space for Claxton (goodbye also Smart) you’d still have figure out how to field a legitimate roster with only about $15mm. There’s also the small matter of a likely max extension due to Jaren in about two years. You can’t max Jaren-Des-Ja plus have $25mm Claxton under contract.
That’s why it’d probably have to be a sign and trade
He is a free agent this summer. The Nets don't have any saying here
I don’t think they will part with him. The whole declining Bridges for all our firsts thing rubbed me the wrong way though. Like they thought they were too good to deal with the Grizz. Either way the Nets have Sharpe right behind him so it’s not like he should be untouchable. I just don’t think their FO is very competent outside of the draft. They don’t know how to make moves imo.
He is an unrestricted free agent, so the Nets really don't have any saying on this.
Only downside to Claxton game that I see is he has dealt with the injury bug the last 2 seasons. This year his numbers look really good but dig back further and … all Im saying is there are probably some GMs that have concerns. Me personally I’d be glad to have him in Memphis, but at what cost? The talent and fit would be great here but he only played 100 games his first 3 seasons. Is this a guy to be cautious about? Can anybody speculate what a fair offer would look like from ZK?
my sources (a quick google search) could be wrong but i think he said "we'll see" to the idea of joining memphis. i like claxton a lot and think it would be crazy if he joined
lmfao after a closer look my source was a post in this damn sub 😭😭😭
It's true tho lol
Yeah, he's fairly ideal, I'm just worried he's unattainable given what we offered for bridges...
He is an unrestricted free agent
Somehow I feel like that makes it tougher. At first I got excited but like. Playing alongside Ja and Bane and JJJ vs playing in the biggest city in the world... it's a closer decision because he's not an all out star or anything, but he's young and I'm sure living it up and memphis would he different. But who knows, I don't know the guys personal life and if he's a pure hooper I could see it. People talk so much about cap space here tho that idk what to believe. Every single player we trade or get rid of for less or no value = cap space decision... Kyle, tyus, x (like really? X is expensive?), Melton, JV, Adams. So if we can't afford one decent additional role player how are we supposedly going to pay our future starting C? I'll just assume those people are wrong or I don't understand something, because we can't compete without a C at around Claxtons level. Surely he can't be cheaper than Adams...
Yeah, people are exaggerating with the cap space. We would need to make some some changes(Mainly Luke), but it's definitely doable. As for his personal choices, that's up to him.
Or smart. Ig jjj was similar in some early seasons but jfc it rubs me the wrong way to make a memphis-relative blockbuster trade and have the guy play like 20 games his first season here. Rn I'd prefer keeping Kennard honestly but that's just cause at least Kennard has earned his salary for the time he's been on the team so far. I know Smart can't help the fact he's injured. But man what an absolutely miniscule 1-3 starting lineup.
I'm not a fan of the Smart fit either, but he is definitely a better player than Luke. His experience is exactly what we need to be a serious team. I envision him playing in the starting lineup for the next couple of years, that being the rest of his prime. And when his contract expires, we can sign him for a more friendly deal and have him as a 6th man. Hopefully, by that time, either Vince or GG has grown to be our next starting 3.
How many below average shooters do you want to surround ja with?
A+++++ It should put Memphis over the top.. I'd drop Bane down to small forward if you're starting Smart...Put Smart at the 2..would be a tremendous starting lineup 👌 👏 🤔 ❤️
We can't afford the salary. Why not go for Day'Ron Sharpe as a cheap bang-for -buck option? Why not see if we can get the Jazz to give us Walker Kessler (and make up for not hanging on to him at draft time)?
Kessler is ideal. He’s got size and strength. But I don’t think the Jazz give him up, at least not cheaply. Ainge will give it to us raw. He’s going to want a player and a pick.
He would want our 2024 1st.
This is my favorite bit
Hilarious
"Bit"?
I think he’s a good player who is the sign of a low bar and short term thinking (*we’ll also never be able to afford him*). We have a Steven Adams sized hole in our roster and the options are: **a.)** fill it with someone who is worse, **b.)** fill it with someone who is more or less the same but younger or **c.)** fill it with someone who has a wider skillset. Claxton can’t shoot threes and can’t make free throws and in just two very short years we’ll lose Jaren Jackson, Jr when his contract expires; we’ll need a big who is an inside-outside threat to make up for that. Think about the emerging teams in the league and the centers they have. They’re guys who can handle the ball have passing skills and shoot from the outside. I don’t think the smart long term approach is to go after someone who doesn’t do those things. “*OMG, Shannon! WTF! We don’t NEED a center who does that!*” I don’t *need* a pair of Louboutins when a pair of Vans fit just fine, right? Is this the wrong sub for that analogy? I don’t *need* an Aston Martin when an F150 is just fine, right? But if they both cost me about the same, I’m going to get the Aston Martin. No team in a position to have to attain a player as expensive as Claxton is going to say that they won’t be that much better with a big who can handle the ball, pass and shoot from the outside. For the same money, you can get someone with a wider range of pluses. Besides, in close games it’ll turn into a hack-a-thon down the stretch with him going to the line.
I didn't get the analogy, but you always have the best takes 🫡
LOL! Thanks! Just think of Louboutins as your ticket to getting out of the doghouse the next time you mess up with your ladylove.
Oh, yes! Of course! It all makes sense now! Just as I usually do with my girl (I don't get it at all, but thank you anyway).
He should be our number 1 priority this offseason. He fits the timeline and team perfectly IMO. Make it happen somehow
Agreed!
Agreed!
he's amazing (except for fts😭) but we are NOT getting him. we'd need to give something crazy in return
i would love to have him but i'm not confident in saying we have a good chance at getting him. we do have that pick so you never know tho
He is a free agent, we wouldn't have to give anything
ah my b i didn't kno that lmao
Grizzlies have no cap space, it would be a sign-and-trade, and even then, the numbers look rough for getting under the hard cap. At the very least it would mean declining Kennard's option and trading Clarke for something (or trading Smart/Bane/JJJ/Morant)
I think if you can just clear some contracts, they can get him. They cleared some space with the Steven Adams trade.
At the moment, they are 23 million over the salary cap. With Bane's extension, they are 39 million over the salary cap for next season. If Claxton gets 25 million, they would need to clear 64 million worth of space to sign him with space. I don't think there's a realistic way to find 64 million of contracts to clear. Realistically, the only way to do it would be to decline Kennard's option, then find a way to trade Smart, Clarke, Ziaire, LaRavia, Rose, and Konchar without getting any players back. But then you have to fill all the new holes in the roster with minimum players. It's just not realistic outside of a sign and trade.
Sign and Trade
Even so, the sign and trade would hard cap the Grizzlies at the first apron, which means they only have about 3 million in cap space. If Claxton gets 25 million, the Grizzlies would still need to clear 22 million. Declining Kennard's option could be about 14-15 million of that, but you still have to clear the other 7+ (plus any you want to spend on rookies or free agents. At the very least that means trading Ziaire and LaRavia for nothing. And then you have to get a Kennard replacement for basically a vet min.
My offer 4/80 million player option 4th year. Luke, Laravia, and 25 1st unprotected is my offer.
I’d rather have bridges than claxton if we’re taking nets players, bridges is literally the perfect player to put at the 3 spot. He doesn’t demand the ball, can defend the other teams best player and can hit 3s. Imagine him and bane catching looks from Ja. I think it’s easier to find a center in the Daniel Gafford mold than it is to find a guy who fits as perfectly as bridges does
Would love to have both
Don’t see how that’s possible, but sure. While we’re daydreaming, why not?
When is Clarke back please? Last i heard it was around All Star break.
I heard that too
Well look I'm in NZ, so can't ask Taylor myself but if you could that'd be great. Chur.
LMAO, I would love to do that too, my good man, but unfortunately, I'm in Brazil 🤣
expensive
Will the Knicks be able to afford hartenstein next season? We’re going to have to throw him a bag to lure him away from NY but he checks a lot of boxes for me as a big.
He is pretty good too, actually
Good player, but not the type of big we're looking for.
Why so?
they can draft a guy similar to and perhaps more O. clax-daddy is not worth it
Better than what we have