Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Lets start with Detroit’s Greg Monroe:
The Boston Celtics would love to add a big man with the skills of Detroit’s Greg Monroe.
But all indications are that the Pistons are going to do whatever they have to do in order to re-sign the restricted free agent this offseason.
“He’s more important than anyone else on the free agent market to us, to the Detroit Pistons,” Stan Van Gundy told reporters on Tuesday. “He’s extremely important.”
Talented big men are hard to find, and just as hard to keep in the fold.”I’m not going to get into the business side of things, and certainly not help other teams in terms of building their strategy or anything else,” said Van Gundy who doubles as the team’s president of basketball operations and as the Pistons head coach. “Greg Monroe is a very important piece of the puzzle in Detroit and we want him back very, very much. We’ll see what happens over the next weeks, months, whatever it takes.”
CSNNE – Van Gundy: Monroe ‘extremely important’ to Pistons
Not surprised to hear Van Gundy saying he wishes to keep Monroe, tall talent is pretty rare. Still, with Drummond and Smith in the fold, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Van Gundy sign and trade Monroe to a team who can offer some sort of compensation through three-point shooting. Van Gundy’s Magic team was pretty successful building a team off of a seven-foot focal point and then surrounding a ton of shooting around him. If his intention is to recreate that in Detroit, tying up max money in Monroe will cut into the funds he’ll need to add premium scorers around Drummond and Smith.
On to Gordon Hayward:
The Charlotte Hornets and Utah Jazz restricted free agent Gordon Hayward have agreed to a four-year offer sheet at the projected maximum of $63 million that Hayward is expected to sign Thursday at 12:01 a.m., according to sources close to the process.
The Jazz, who have said for months they intend to match any offer Hayward gets, will have three days to match the offer or lose Hayward as soon as the offer sheet is signed.
ESPN – Gordon Hayward OKs Charlotte’s offer
Still don’t understand why Hayward is getting a max contract. He’ll fill up the stat sheet (16/5/5 this past season), but he’s shot has gotten worse as his role has increased. I took a look at his field goal percentage by season and it’s as follows:
- 2010-11: 48.5%
- 2011-12: 45.6%
- 2012-13: 43.5%
- 2013-14: 41.3%
Now there are certianly lots of factors worth considering beyone field goal percentage, but this trend reminds me a bit of Jeff Green in the sense that he’s better off as a 2nd or 3rd option. For example: After Deron Williams, Paul Millsap, and Al Jefferson all left Utah, Hayward became the go to guy. When that happened, his scoring, rebounds, and assists went up — but his efficiency dropped. Not to say he’s been bad in his increased role, but his shooting efficiency seems to suffer when he’s the main option. Again, not a bad player by any stretch, but it’s not a trait I’d be willing to attach $16 million dollars to annually. It’s also reported that Utah fully intends to match Charlotte’s offer sheet.
To sum up: Though Monroe and Hayward leaving the RFA market means less opportunity for the Celtics to improve next year, at this price, Danny may be better off waiting for some fireworks that produce a little more bang.
Page 2: Walk down memory lane: 1996’s wacky offseason
Kelly Dwyer did us all a favor last night and published this piece on Yahoo detailing the events of the 1996 offseason. It was pretty cool to get a snapshot of all the crazy transactions and signings that went down that summer, as I was only five years old when it all went down. One interesting note was seeing all the seven-year contracts teams handed out — did ACL tears not show up ’til Y2K? Anyways. definitely reccomend taking a read, but here are a couple of lines that caught my eye:
5-13-96: Tom Thibodeau and Ron Adams fired as Philadelphia 76ers assistant coaches.
Just two of the more respected basketball minds in modern NBA history, cleaning their lockers …
6-6-96: Danny Ainge hired as Phoenix Suns assistant coach.
Ainge had nearly the same success as Van Gundy when he took over for Cotton Fitzsimmons eight games into the 1996-97 season. Inheriting a winless team, Ainge went ridiculously (as in, “Wesley Person as power forward”) small, finishing 40-34 with one of the more entertaining rosters we can recall.
6-21-96: Dallas deals the sixth pick in the 1996 draft (Antoine Walker) and a 1997 overall pick (Ron Mercer) to Boston for the ninth pick (Samaki Walker) and Eric Montross.
Dallas, working with a new owner in Ross Perot Jr. and new coach in Jim Cleamons, actually dealt down in one of the greatest drafts in NBA history and gave up a first-round pick for 1997 in order to grab Samaki Walker and the next 10 years (!) and $18 million of Eric Montross’ contract.
7-12-96: Chicago Bulls sign Michael Jordan to a one-year, $30.4 million contract
The rest of the links:
Grantland – The Miami Heat and the NBA’s double standard of “sacrifice”
CSNNE – Doc gave Delonte another chance
ESPN Boston – Mailbag: Still sorting out the pieces
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