Dream Pacers offseason

[Cubs231721]

What is your Pacers dream offseason? I'm putting the following rules on it. You can't sign KD, Kyrie, Kawhi, or Klay. Everybody else is available, but you have to sign them at the high end of their projected market value. You also can't make Holiday the starting point guard this offseason. If the Pacers don't trust him to get consistent minutes now, they aren't going to trust him to be the starter on a contending team next year.

Here's my best shot at it. Sign Kemba for 4 years at max. That should leave just enough money to re-sign Bogdanovic since his early Bird rights allow the Pacers to go up to 18.375 million as a starting salary. Re-sign O'Quinn to the room exception once again. There is no money for Thad, Collison, or Joseph, so they all have to go in this scenario. That would leave:

Kemba/Holiday
Oladipo/Sumner
Bogdanovic/McDermott
Sabonis/Leaf
Turner/O'Quinn

That's a thin lineup, but chasing an upgrade is going to force the team to make some tough choices. Is this team better than just staying over the cap and bringing the same team back? My sense is in the long-term yes, but maybe not next year.

[owl]

Please elaborate on what you mean by your last statement. I do not understand what you are implying. I think you have to bring back Bodie and Thad. Then allow the youngsters to fill in
where needed.

I think the Pacers need defensive help to back up Thad. Leaf probably is not the answer there and I think he best use is as a emergency center and let Oquinn go.
Bring in a Vonely, or Diallo or Faried or two of the three. This team has enough offensive weapons with Victor healthy. Depending on how Matthews works out and how much maybe bring him back.

[hoosierguy]

Thad and Bojan must stay.

[owl]

Thad and Bojan must stay.

I am with you on this thought. Add some players as suggested above that help with defense and rebounding
and see what happens

[Cubs231721]

If Thad and Bojan have to stay, you probably have approximately 20 million left to spend on the market, and still would have to find the team's starting point guard. If that point guard is Collison or Joseph, it probably makes sense just to stay over the cap, sign everybody you want back, and then use the mid-level exception to bring in somebody. That point guard could be somebody else, but who?

I don't see how Thad and Bogdanovic both come back unless they basically are just running with the same team.

My last comment was meant to say that the way the NBA exceptions are set up, next year's team might be thin going the Kemba route but the team has ways to slowly add decent players over the next two years to fill those holes in the rotation. If you re-sign everyone, that is basically the team you are going with the next couple years and you just hope for internal improvement. There won't be those holes to fill with exception guys because they will all be filled with mid-salary types of players.

[Drew46229]

Kemba/Holiday
Oladipo/Sumner
Bogdanovic/McDermott
Sabonis/Leaf
Turner/O'Quinn
.

I'm mostly with this, other than a preference to solidify another position of need by trading Sabonis. I'd say something like the above with Kemba at max, Bojan at 3/$45 or so and Thad at 3/$36 with a team option on year 3 would be ideal. Not sure what kind of package you can create surrounding Domas' $3.5M plus what to allow the Pacers to take in a player with more guaranteed money for a longer period. Kemba, Dipo, Bojan, Thad, Turner backed with Holiday, Matthews, McDermott, ? and O'Quinn. Maybe Leaf, but I'm not sold there. Have Sumner as bench depth, maybe make another minimum signing or two to fill out the roster.

[jrwannabe]

I don't see Kemba being enough to push the team over the top. We can probably sign DC, CoJo and another solid role player for what Kemba would cost. The Bulls will probably go after DC. If we can keep CoJo for back-up money, we should. Should keep BB and Thad unless they get offers that are too rich. Shoot for Matthews or Lance for around $5mil. Draft the best player available that can play the 2/3. Sign a 4 that can rebound and be a break glass 5.

So pretty much the same team with DC, Evans and O'Quinn being replaced with our draft pick and back-up 4. We'd still have one roster spot left to use.

I'm not a fan of destroying depth in favor of a max player. Injuries happen and your max player goes down, your season is trashed.

[owl]

Kemba/Holiday
Oladipo/Sumner
Bogdanovic/McDermott
Sabonis/Leaf
Turner/O'Quinn

That's a thin lineup, but chasing an upgrade is going to force the team to make some tough choices. Is this team better than just staying over the cap and bringing the same team back? My sense is in the long-term yes, but maybe not next year.

That leaves no one to guard the better pf's like Giannis or others like him in the east. I think OQuinn is almost pointless and the few times he plays I think Leaf is good enough to fill that role
in a pinch and you save that money for something else. I think Domas has very little chance of stopping Giannis. The Pacers really need to address this issue if they want to have any chance
of getting to a finals

Now if the Pacers can get a Vonleh or Faried or Diallo or two of those three in your scenario I would be more accepting of it. Do you think a mid level would get one of these players

[Infinite MAN_force]

I’m going the “trade under the cap method”

Not 100% sure we have the assets to pull this off without trading Sabonis, but who knows. Instant cap relief is pretty valuable to other teams.

Renounce all free agents except Bogdonovich.

Trade Leaf, First Round Pick and Edmund Sumner for Aaron Gordon.

Trade Aaron Holiday, McDermott and Second Round Pick for Jrue Holiday.

Resign Bogie. Sign Lance with the room exception. Pick up Shelvin Mack for the minimum.

Jrue Holiday/Mack
Oladipo/Lance
Bojan/Lance/Johnson
Aaron Gordon/Sabonis/Johnson
Turner/Sabonis

I feel like when the Pacers are linked to a player don’t be surprised if we revisit that player. I’d expect Jrue Holiday and Aaron Gordon to still be on the radar.

[Jon Theodore]

I’m going the “trade under the cap method”

Not 100% sure we have the assets to pull this off without trading Sabonis, but who knows. Instant cap relief is pretty valuable to other teams.

Renounce all free agents except Bogdonovich.

Trade Leaf, First Round Pick and Edmund Sumner for Aaron Gordon.

Trade Aaron Holiday, McDermott and Second Round Pick for Jrue Holiday.

Resign Bogie. Sign Lance with the room exception. Pick up Shelvin Mack for the minimum.

Jrue Holiday/Mack
Oladipo/Lance
Bojan/Lance/Johnson
Aaron Gordon/Sabonis/Johnson
Turner/Sabonis

I feel like when the Pacers are linked to a player don’t be surprised if we revisit that player. I’d expect Jrue Holiday and Aaron Gordon to still be on the radar.

And why would Orlando or the Pelicans accept either one of those trash offers?

[Jon Theodore]

Thad and Bogie will both be back, unless some team offers Bogie some absurd money that we don't want to match.

[Infinite MAN_force]

And why would Orlando or the Pelicans accept either one of those trash offers?

Not 100% sure we have the assets to pull this off without trading Sabonis, but who knows. Instant cap relief is pretty valuable to other teams.

Ahem, it’s called -dream- offseason thread.

[Infinite MAN_force]

I’m gonna second the notion that anyone who thinks Thad and Bogie are both coming back needs to realize that means we are likely just rolling back with the same group next season. If that floats your boat.

[Jon Theodore]

It's not my dream offseason, but it's what is going to happen.

I bet you they resign Matthews as well.

[Nuntius]

And why would Orlando or the Pelicans accept either one of those trash offers?

Besides the fact that it's about a dream off-season which means that we're posting about the best possible scenario, there are some other reasons why. NOLA could want to shift towards tanking after they trade away AD. As for Orlando, they have Jonathan Isaac that they love but is more natural at PF than he is at SF. So, that could give them the reason to move on from Gordon. We're obviously talking about best case scenarios but I can see his reasoning.