Illini in the Pros (Basketball)

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#326      
Rap47
Castle and the Spurs are quite familiar with the flop on offense, too. Stars have always gotten the calls. The Spurs get their share.
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#327      
jamarvelous31
BretMyBeachHouse said:
How can I get stuck?
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For real, this is like saying Taylor Rooks is stuck being a beautiful woman

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#328      
DeeIL89
San Antonio's backcourt is set for the future with Castle and Harper. Don't see Fox being there long term since he's the older of the other two. Fox could be a good trade piece for the Spurs. OKC once again showing how deep they are with last night win. 76 bench points from OKC. OKC if they wanted to can nab Ayo this off season simply because they have the resources to do so.
 
#333      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
PasadenaIllini said:
Looking at KJ's stats, he's really focused on improving his care of the basketball this past season. 2.5/1 is a really good assist to TO ratio for a rookie playing on a mediocre team. Looking forward to seeing how he grows from here.
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He's playing off the ball.

At Illinois, he was the primary initiator on every play. It suited Keaton, which is a high bar, but KJ struggled.
 
#339      
Username

Ayo is #1 on the list. $15M is not nothing, but I thought his market value was projected to be higher than that? That said, I do not understand all the inner-workings of the NBA salary cap, aprons, or any of the other finer details.

Ayo Dosunmu​

G | Minnesota Timberwolves
Unrestricted free agent

Dosunmu arrived from the Chicago Bulls at the trade deadline and had an immediate impact, including a 43-point performance in a Game 4 win over the Denver Nuggets that came without injured stars Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo.

After the Timberwolves lost Nickeil Alexander-Walker last summer in free agency -- and after the 27-year-old guard was named 2026 Most Improved Player with the Atlanta Hawks -- Minnesota simply cannot afford to let Dosunmu walk. That's why sources around the league expect he will be back with the Wolves, but for a price slightly above the midlevel exception (roughly $15 million), which is what most rival teams could offer.

Doing so might require Minnesota to move off DiVincenzo, who will miss at least most of next season with a torn right Achilles, to avoid going into the second luxury tax apron.
 
#341      
the juiceman cometh
Username said:

Ayo is #1 on the list. $15M is not nothing, but I thought his market value was projected to be higher than that? That said, I do not understand all the inner-workings of the NBA salary cap, aprons, or any of the other finer details.

Ayo Dosunmu​

G | Minnesota Timberwolves
Unrestricted free agent

Dosunmu arrived from the Chicago Bulls at the trade deadline and had an immediate impact, including a 43-point performance in a Game 4 win over the Denver Nuggets that came without injured stars Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo.

After the Timberwolves lost Nickeil Alexander-Walker last summer in free agency -- and after the 27-year-old guard was named 2026 Most Improved Player with the Atlanta Hawks -- Minnesota simply cannot afford to let Dosunmu walk. That's why sources around the league expect he will be back with the Wolves, but for a price slightly above the midlevel exception (roughly $15 million), which is what most rival teams could offer.

Doing so might require Minnesota to move off DiVincenzo, who will miss at least most of next season with a torn right Achilles, to avoid going into the second luxury tax apron.
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Yeah, I kinda thought he'd get more.

The wrinkle is that almost every team is above the cap, so they can either sign him to the MLE, which limits them to about that $15 million, or they can clear cap space. Clearing cap space isn't as difficult as it may sound though, because teams have all kinds of cap holds they keep on the books for the in order to preserve Bird Rights and use the MLE. The Lakers for example are $95 million over the cap, but they have about $150 million in cap holds, mostly to outgoing FAs for whom they have Bird Rights ($60 million to LeBron alone). If they move on from LeBron and the other free agents and build around Luka, which kinda seems likely, they could very easily afford to pay Ayo $25 million a year, which from a production standpoint seems reasonable.
 
#342      
the juiceman cometh
the juiceman cometh said:
Yeah, I kinda thought he'd get more.

The wrinkle is that almost every team is above the cap, so they can either sign him to the MLE, which limits them to about that $15 million, or they can clear cap space. Clearing cap space isn't as difficult as it may sound though, because teams have all kinds of cap holds they keep on the books for the in order to preserve Bird Rights and use the MLE. The Lakers for example are $95 million over the cap, but they have about $150 million in cap holds, mostly to outgoing FAs for whom they have Bird Rights ($60 million to LeBron alone). If they move on from LeBron and the other free agents and build around Luka, which kinda seems likely, they could very easily afford to pay Ayo $25 million a year, which from a production standpoint seems reasonable.
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Just to add, the Timberwolves themselves can't clear enough cap space to sign Ayo to an extension above the MLE, because their roster exceeds the cap even if they were to renounce all of their cap holds. BUT, if there is no deal and he hits the open market on June 30, the T-Wolves will have full Bird Rights at that point, and can sign him to a better deal than anything he'd get on the open market. They could even sign him to a max deal (over $40 million/yr) without hitting the first apron - all they'd have to do is renounce their Bird Rights on Evan Turner, a dude who retired from the NBA in 2020, to clear his $28 million cap hold.
 
#344      
ChiefGritty
the juiceman cometh said:
Just to add, the Timberwolves themselves can't clear enough cap space to sign Ayo to an extension above the MLE, because their roster exceeds the cap even if they were to renounce all of their cap holds. BUT, if there is no deal and he hits the open market on June 30, the T-Wolves will have full Bird Rights at that point, and can sign him to a better deal than anything he'd get on the open market. They could even sign him to a max deal (over $40 million/yr) without hitting the first apron - all they'd have to do is renounce their Bird Rights on Evan Turner, a dude who retired from the NBA in 2020, to clear his $28 million cap hold.
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The question is, how much leverage can Ayo generate from a team or teams OTHER than the Timberwolves to force them to go above the MLE.

Any contender in the league would want Ayo on the MLE, but to go above that, then you're dealing with teams with cap space, which means teams that are tanking and who aren't actually that enthusiastic about a 27 year old complementary player who is annoyingly prone to actually winning games.

The NBA is in a weird place where the top players make an eye-watering amount of money, but player's control over their career path is way less than it was in decades past.
 
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