2016 Offseason & Draft - BlindSideNZ's Dynasty

BlindSideNZ's Dynasty Blog

2016 Offseason & Draft

Posted on February 7, 2014 at 10:45 AM.

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So here we are again. We gave the guys a pretty relaxed few months so we could take care of our front office business.

First off, player retirements.
We said goodbye to Matt Barnes, retiring at the age of 36 after 14 years. And 2 great ones with us.

Other Retirements:

Jason Richardson SG - Brooklyn Nets
Kevin Garnett PF - Denver Nuggets (Hall Of Fame)
Luis Scola PF - Indiana Pacers
Paul Pierce SF - San Antonio Spurs

Now having an NBA ring on our fingers, a few of the guys who were unsure of their contract situations announced their interest in resigning immediately.

Ashley Walker PG
Kurtis Holden PF
(Both of these guys still with two year team options)
DeMar DeRozan SG
Pierre Jackson PG
Chuck Hayes C

The two free agents we brought in for injury coverage through our playoff run, Ramon Sessions and Tyler Hansbrough said their goodbyes and departed for FA.

While Coach Casey and the team went to attend their White House visit, the draft lottery took place.

1: New York Knicks
2: Boston Celtics
3: Dallas Mavericks
4: Phoenix Suns
5: Denver Nuggets
6: Orlando Magic
7: Los Angeles Lakers
8: Milwaukee Bucks
9: Atlanta Hawks
10: Brooklyn Nets
11: Detroit Pistons
12: Memphis Grizzlies
13: Minnesota Timberwolves
14: Washington Wizards

We also had every single contract expire on our Staff. Coach Casey was offered a 1 year extension. Although Assistant Johnny Davis was let go in favor of Donnie Geiger simply because he was more focused on developing our young talent. We also return with a brand new 3 man prospect scouting team and would like to welcome Trainer Kenneth Owens to the organization.

Next on our agenda dealing with contracts.
Team options were accepted on our 3rd year players Kurtis Holden & Ashley Walker. And our star DeMar elected to accept his player option for $9.5mil with a brand new contract already in the works.

After a fantastic showing from our former D League man Pierre Jackson in that final game with Oklahoma City and a fantastic 2nd pro year we brought him back for 4yrs/17.24mil, and Chucky was more than happy to bring back that vet experience for a further year @ 525k.

And now for the 2016 Draft

We enter with the 30th pick for both rounds.

Not for long though, for anyone still reading this we knew Kyle Lowry was going. He'd had enough, we'd had enough it was time to part ways.

Toronto Trades: Kyle Lowry, Mike Muscala, 2016 2nd round (30th)
Brooklyn Trades: 2016 1st (10th), Marquis Teague

And then James Dolan (Knicks Owner) calls me up and offers their 2017 1st rounder. For our 2016 1st (30th) and our 2017 2nd rounder.
I like to keep this authentic and lets be honest nobody else gives out first rounders like Jimmy does. So i couldn't help myself fleecing him, like the Raptors have done so many times before.

(On the side, serious 2K logic. The Nets offer me back my 2017 1st round pick, and my last pick of the 2016 draft for Draymond Green?? What is up with the Big Apple right now.)

I declined simply for the fact that 3 first round picks with a team almost guaranteed another playoff berth is ridiculous.

Heres the full 1st round recap.

2016 NBA Draft (DC3)
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	New York Knicks	Kyrie Haywood	C	6'11"	240
2	Boston Celtics	Taijuan Conway	PF	6'9"	233
3	Phoenix Suns	Darius Spencer	C	7'0"	248
4	Phoenix Suns	Bill Cheadle	PF/C	7'0"	228
5	Denver Nuggets	Detroit Johnson	PG/SG	6'3"	195
6	Orlando Magic	Jabbar Wilson	PF	6'8"	232
7	Los Angeles Lakers	Jonah Bolden	PF	6'9"	220
8	Milwaukee Bucks	Dee Allen	PG	6'3"	190
9	Atlanta Hawks	Ekpe N'Diaye	C/PF	7'0"	229
10	Toronto Raptors	Dion Tinsley	SF	6'7"	233
11	Detroit Pistons	Alfonzo Black	PG	6'2"	192
12	Phoenix Suns	Vernon Maxiell	SF	6'7"	237
13	Minnesota Timberwolves	DeAndre Sallis	PF/SF	6'8"	264
14	Washington Wizards	Laquille Outlaw	SF	6'7"	215
15	Charlotte Bobcats	Kelenna Davis	SF	6'8"	209
16	Washington Wizards	RJ Rideaux	PG	6'2"	185
17	Cleveland Cavaliers	Fabijian Novoselec	PF/SF	6'10	213
18	Chicago Bulls	Scotty Horace	PF	6'9"	239
19	Sacramento Kings	Rayshaun Smith	PG/SG	6'3"	200
20	Los Angeles Lakers	Vladimir Kratsov	SF	6'9	208
21	Charlotte Bobcats	Jerrit Crosby	SG	6'5"	185
22	Utah Jazz	Che King	SG/SF	6'7"	180
23	Philadelphia 76ers	Trey Tripplett	SG/SF	6'6"	205
24	Houston Rockets	Antonio Ramirez	SG/SF	6'7"	219
25	Portland Trail Blazers	Xavier Rhodes	SG	6'4"	205
26	Atlanta Hawks	Dee Hemingway	SG/PG	6'4"	198
27	New Orleans Pelicans	Sian Strickland	SG/PG	6'3"	195
28	Indiana Pacers	Matyas Csontas	SG/SF	6'9"	194
29	Oklahoma City Thunder	Durand West	SF	6'6"	229
30	New York Knicks	Saran Kolkman	C	7'2"	280

As we entered Free Agency, it became apparent we could have had any player in the list. But all we needed was somebody to back up DeMar. I saw a 34 year old D Wade and thought about it til he still wanted $13mil for one season.

Onto the next one

Austin Rivers or Tony Wroten.

This was an easy decision based on the realism factor. Rivers hasnt lived upto expectations and i honestly don't think New Orleans will be particularly worried about matching any offers, but it does also give me that extra option for the point, should anything go wrong.

For starters we offered a deal of 2yr/9mil, to test the waters.

And what do you know the Pelicans matched...

James Ennis a 6'7" SG, 23 years old. Can throw it down with fury, shoots the long ball.

For 5.5mil over 2 years. We'll take that.

Then to fill that extra forward spot that we lost in the Kyle Lowry trade, i went on an international hunt.

We found Ilkan Karaman a 6'9" PF, solid post defender with a confident outside shot. 4yrs/4.6mil

Leaves us plenty of cap to bring back those important pieces of our future.

FA Highlights league wide

Brandon Jennings - LAL 4yr/46.98mil
Eric Gordon - MIL 3yr/21.85mil
O.J. Mayo - PHX 3yr/20.29mil
Kevin Durant - DEN 4yr/85.87mil
Monta Ellis - MIA 3yr/38.34mil
Nicolas Batum - DAL 4yr/31.20mil
Al Jefferson - IND 3yr/36.58mil
Kevin Love - OKC 3yr/56.24mil

Training Camps

Our 3 years are up (i had this move planned all along)

Dion Tinsley - Untapped Potential
Simple move, new star, the cooldown period is over lets maximise the return on Kyle Lowry

Tremaine Alexander - Big Man Defense
From what i saw of Tremaine last season i got a bit of a Tyson Chandler vibe. Excels on the pick and roll. Sure as hell holds his own downlow. So why not make that his speciality right now while we still have the chance.

James Ennis - Athleticism
Like i said in the Playoff round up, this team is damn fast. Ennis already has the length and the skills to join that party, so lets ensure he is the right kind of athlete to join the Wings we have here in Toronto.

Team - Free Throw Shooting
Like always i personally find this to be one of the most invaluable training camps available. We achieved our aim last year and took the #1 in the league from the Stripe, so let's do it again. With such a busy Free Agency the league is going to be entirely different. This is us putting our best foot forward.

Thats me for the night. It's now 4am over here in New Zealand. More updates sometime during the weekend. We've got a target on our backs now.

Comments

# 1 darkwolf80 @ Feb 8

Dang nice pickup of Tinsley. A SF for the future.

# 2 BlindSideNZ @ Feb 8

That was the plan. I knew going in i needed Tinsley. I have used him before which is a little bit cheap on my part but thats the only reason i held onto Lowry who is now in the running for 6thMoTY. Ridiculous!