Deron Williams negotiating release to play with Dallas, consequences for Celtics' picks [Merged]

[JumpingJudkins]

I don't see the playoffs as even remotely possible for them. They are (possibly significantly) worse than last year. Its not just DWill (who is far superior than any PG they have), but also Mirza and Plumlee who are gone. Johnson is another year older. They have zero depth, which is a huge problem being that their key players are old or fragile. They barely made the playoffs last year, and I would say 3-4 teams below them will easily leapfrog them. The only team in the East that I'd say is definitely worse than them is Philly. Everyone else is possibly/probably better.

I agree completely with this, with the caveat that the Knicks should also be terrible, right there at the bottom with the Sixers and Nets. Pacers, Heat, Pistons, Magic, Hornets -- who were chasing the Nets last year -- all have clearly superior rosters right now. Nets are old and brittle. Their backcourt could be the worst in the league and their defense will be terrible. Lopez has missed, essentially, two of the last four seasons with injuries. If he goes down again who fills in? Thomas Robinson?

The Nets are doing the rarely seen Tank-For-Cash (not draft pick) and the Celtics are the beneficiary. I think Brooklyn is bottom five right now, and could drop all the way to the bottom.

[celticsfan8591]

I also don't get the talk of the Nets keeping Johnson now. They're going to be bad, no matter what. Yes, they have no incentive to tank, since we get the pick, but this is not a playoff team by a long shot, unless an insane number of things happen to everyone else. If they can cut more costs this year (ie the Johnson-Haywood trade), why on earth wouldn't they do it? What's it matter if they have the 6th worst or worst record in the NBA in 2016? I can't imagine Johnson stays on that roster if they can get a taker who sends back non-guaranteed contracts. Hell, we should facilitate that if we can.

Now that the Nets are below the luxury tax line there is no reason for them to trade Johnson.  They'll put together the best team possible and try to make the playoffs.  If Lopez stays reasonably healthy, I expect their pick to fall in the 10 to 15 range.

I don't see the playoffs as even remotely possible for them. They are (possibly significantly) worse than last year. Its not just DWill (who is far superior than any PG they have), but also Mirza and Plumlee who are gone. Johnson is another year older. They have zero depth, which is a huge problem being that their key players are old or fragile. They barely made the playoffs last year, and I would say 3-4 teams below them will easily leapfrog them. The only team in the East that I'd say is definitely worse than them is Philly. Everyone else is possibly/probably better. If you have no real chance at the postseason, why pay Johnson when you can dump him and save some more money?

Because they can make the playoffs.  They resigned Lopez and Young because they want to compete for the playoffs.  Dwill, Mirza and Plumlee are not a big loss.  There's no reason for Johnson's game to decline much.  I expect he'll play another 5 years around the same productivity.  Miami is the only team below them that should definitely leapfrog them. 

Finally even if they wanted to dump Johnson, it would be very difficult because he's making nearly 25mil.  No team has close to that in non-guaranteed salary or cap space.  So even if they could find a trading partner, the most they'd save is 10mil or so.

The Nets are going to try to win games simply because there's no incentive not to, but they didn't re-sign Lopez and Young to make a run at the playoffs.  They re-signed them because they're clearly their two best assets and didn't want to lose them for nothing.  They also represent their only hope of luring free agents; with those guys in place, free agents could talk themselves into the Nets being a few pieces away from being good.  With a totally barren roster, they have zero appeal to free agents, which is a tough spot to be in when they also don't have any draft picks.

Also, the Nets are absolutely awful.  They made the playoffs last year, but they won 38 games and only made it because Chris Bosh and Paul George got hurt.  They also stayed remarkably healthy considering how old/fragile their key guys are.  Take away their starting PG and the and their best backup big/Lopez injury insurance, replace them with scrubs, and you have their current roster.  They're probably a lottery team even if they get as lucky as last year.  If other teams stay healthy or they themselves have worse injury luck, they're a no doubt lottery team.  If both happen, they could be giving us a Top 5 pick.

[tazzmaniac]

I also don't get the talk of the Nets keeping Johnson now. They're going to be bad, no matter what. Yes, they have no incentive to tank, since we get the pick, but this is not a playoff team by a long shot, unless an insane number of things happen to everyone else. If they can cut more costs this year (ie the Johnson-Haywood trade), why on earth wouldn't they do it? What's it matter if they have the 6th worst or worst record in the NBA in 2016? I can't imagine Johnson stays on that roster if they can get a taker who sends back non-guaranteed contracts. Hell, we should facilitate that if we can.

Now that the Nets are below the luxury tax line there is no reason for them to trade Johnson.  They'll put together the best team possible and try to make the playoffs.  If Lopez stays reasonably healthy, I expect their pick to fall in the 10 to 15 range.

I don't see the playoffs as even remotely possible for them. They are (possibly significantly) worse than last year. Its not just DWill (who is far superior than any PG they have), but also Mirza and Plumlee who are gone. Johnson is another year older. They have zero depth, which is a huge problem being that their key players are old or fragile. They barely made the playoffs last year, and I would say 3-4 teams below them will easily leapfrog them. The only team in the East that I'd say is definitely worse than them is Philly. Everyone else is possibly/probably better. If you have no real chance at the postseason, why pay Johnson when you can dump him and save some more money?

Because they can make the playoffs.  They resigned Lopez and Young because they want to compete for the playoffs.  Dwill, Mirza and Plumlee are not a big loss.  There's no reason for Johnson's game to decline much.  I expect he'll play another 5 years around the same productivity.  Miami is the only team below them that should definitely leapfrog them. 

Finally even if they wanted to dump Johnson, it would be very difficult because he's making nearly 25mil.  No team has close to that in non-guaranteed salary or cap space.  So even if they could find a trading partner, the most they'd save is 10mil or so.

The Nets are going to try to win games simply because there's no incentive not to, but they didn't re-sign Lopez and Young to make a run at the playoffs.  They re-signed them because they're clearly their two best assets and didn't want to lose them for nothing.  They also represent their only hope of luring free agents; with those guys in place, free agents could talk themselves into the Nets being a few pieces away from being good.  With a totally barren roster, they have zero appeal to free agents, which is a tough spot to be in when they also don't have any draft picks.

Also, the Nets are absolutely awful.  They made the playoffs last year, but they won 38 games and only made it because Chris Bosh and Paul George got hurt.  They also stayed remarkably healthy considering how old/fragile their key guys are.  Take away their starting PG and the and their best backup big/Lopez injury insurance, replace them with scrubs, and you have their current roster.  They're probably a lottery team even if they get as lucky as last year.  If other teams stay healthy or they themselves have worse injury luck, they're a no doubt lottery team.  If both happen, they could be giving us a Top 5 pick.

We only won 40 games so does that make us slightly less than absolutely awful?  The Nets did make the playoffs last season and they can contend for the 8th spot again this season.  The Nets have lost a few lesser players but they benefit from having Young for the full season.  RHJ is a nice addition.  Obviously they need to stay reasonably healthy but the same can be said about most teams especially the Heat.   There is no reason for the Nets to trade Johnson in salary dump now that they are under the luxury tax.  They have no incentive not to try to make a playoff run with Johnson/Lopez/Young. 

[Evantime34]

I also don't get the talk of the Nets keeping Johnson now. They're going to be bad, no matter what. Yes, they have no incentive to tank, since we get the pick, but this is not a playoff team by a long shot, unless an insane number of things happen to everyone else. If they can cut more costs this year (ie the Johnson-Haywood trade), why on earth wouldn't they do it? What's it matter if they have the 6th worst or worst record in the NBA in 2016? I can't imagine Johnson stays on that roster if they can get a taker who sends back non-guaranteed contracts. Hell, we should facilitate that if we can.

Now that the Nets are below the luxury tax line there is no reason for them to trade Johnson.  They'll put together the best team possible and try to make the playoffs.  If Lopez stays reasonably healthy, I expect their pick to fall in the 10 to 15 range.

I don't see the playoffs as even remotely possible for them. They are (possibly significantly) worse than last year. Its not just DWill (who is far superior than any PG they have), but also Mirza and Plumlee who are gone. Johnson is another year older. They have zero depth, which is a huge problem being that their key players are old or fragile. They barely made the playoffs last year, and I would say 3-4 teams below them will easily leapfrog them. The only team in the East that I'd say is definitely worse than them is Philly. Everyone else is possibly/probably better. If you have no real chance at the postseason, why pay Johnson when you can dump him and save some more money?

Because they can make the playoffs.  They resigned Lopez and Young because they want to compete for the playoffs.  Dwill, Mirza and Plumlee are not a big loss.  There's no reason for Johnson's game to decline much.  I expect he'll play another 5 years around the same productivity.  Miami is the only team below them that should definitely leapfrog them. 

Finally even if they wanted to dump Johnson, it would be very difficult because he's making nearly 25mil.  No team has close to that in non-guaranteed salary or cap space.  So even if they could find a trading partner, the most they'd save is 10mil or so.

The Nets are going to try to win games simply because there's no incentive not to, but they didn't re-sign Lopez and Young to make a run at the playoffs.  They re-signed them because they're clearly their two best assets and didn't want to lose them for nothing.  They also represent their only hope of luring free agents; with those guys in place, free agents could talk themselves into the Nets being a few pieces away from being good.  With a totally barren roster, they have zero appeal to free agents, which is a tough spot to be in when they also don't have any draft picks.

Also, the Nets are absolutely awful.  They made the playoffs last year, but they won 38 games and only made it because Chris Bosh and Paul George got hurt.  They also stayed remarkably healthy considering how old/fragile their key guys are.  Take away their starting PG and the and their best backup big/Lopez injury insurance, replace them with scrubs, and you have their current roster.  They're probably a lottery team even if they get as lucky as last year.  If other teams stay healthy or they themselves have worse injury luck, they're a no doubt lottery team.  If both happen, they could be giving us a Top 5 pick.

We only won 40 games so does that make us slightly less than absolutely awful?  The Nets did make the playoffs last season and they can contend for the 8th spot again this season.  The Nets have lost a few lesser players but they benefit from having Young for the full season.  RHJ is a nice addition.  Obviously they need to stay reasonably healthy but the same can be said about most teams especially the Heat.  There is no reason for the Nets to trade Johnson in salary dump now that they are under the luxury tax.  They have no incentive not to try to make a playoff run with Johnson/Lopez/Young.

Their owner lost over $100 MM last year in Russia. The reason to dump Joe Johnson is he doesn't want to pay his $24 MM salary.

[hpantazo]

I think it is fairly obvious the Nets don't plan on competing for much this season. They dumped Dwill to save money and let Teletovic go to avoid paying the luxury tax. They have resigned themselves to being a poor team, but decided they don't want to pay large amounts of money for a roster that will suck , so they may as well save ownership some major money and cut expenses. They stated that they view McCullough as their 2016 1st round pick. They have basically decided they are sucking this year as is, so lets at least save money. This pick is going to be in the lottery. It's just a question of where the ping pong balls end up now.

[tazzmaniac]

I also don't get the talk of the Nets keeping Johnson now. They're going to be bad, no matter what. Yes, they have no incentive to tank, since we get the pick, but this is not a playoff team by a long shot, unless an insane number of things happen to everyone else. If they can cut more costs this year (ie the Johnson-Haywood trade), why on earth wouldn't they do it? What's it matter if they have the 6th worst or worst record in the NBA in 2016? I can't imagine Johnson stays on that roster if they can get a taker who sends back non-guaranteed contracts. Hell, we should facilitate that if we can.

Now that the Nets are below the luxury tax line there is no reason for them to trade Johnson.  They'll put together the best team possible and try to make the playoffs.  If Lopez stays reasonably healthy, I expect their pick to fall in the 10 to 15 range.

I don't see the playoffs as even remotely possible for them. They are (possibly significantly) worse than last year. Its not just DWill (who is far superior than any PG they have), but also Mirza and Plumlee who are gone. Johnson is another year older. They have zero depth, which is a huge problem being that their key players are old or fragile. They barely made the playoffs last year, and I would say 3-4 teams below them will easily leapfrog them. The only team in the East that I'd say is definitely worse than them is Philly. Everyone else is possibly/probably better. If you have no real chance at the postseason, why pay Johnson when you can dump him and save some more money?

Because they can make the playoffs.  They resigned Lopez and Young because they want to compete for the playoffs.  Dwill, Mirza and Plumlee are not a big loss.  There's no reason for Johnson's game to decline much.  I expect he'll play another 5 years around the same productivity.  Miami is the only team below them that should definitely leapfrog them. 

Finally even if they wanted to dump Johnson, it would be very difficult because he's making nearly 25mil.  No team has close to that in non-guaranteed salary or cap space.  So even if they could find a trading partner, the most they'd save is 10mil or so.

The Nets are going to try to win games simply because there's no incentive not to, but they didn't re-sign Lopez and Young to make a run at the playoffs.  They re-signed them because they're clearly their two best assets and didn't want to lose them for nothing.  They also represent their only hope of luring free agents; with those guys in place, free agents could talk themselves into the Nets being a few pieces away from being good.  With a totally barren roster, they have zero appeal to free agents, which is a tough spot to be in when they also don't have any draft picks.

Also, the Nets are absolutely awful.  They made the playoffs last year, but they won 38 games and only made it because Chris Bosh and Paul George got hurt.  They also stayed remarkably healthy considering how old/fragile their key guys are.  Take away their starting PG and the and their best backup big/Lopez injury insurance, replace them with scrubs, and you have their current roster.  They're probably a lottery team even if they get as lucky as last year.  If other teams stay healthy or they themselves have worse injury luck, they're a no doubt lottery team.  If both happen, they could be giving us a Top 5 pick.

We only won 40 games so does that make us slightly less than absolutely awful?  The Nets did make the playoffs last season and they can contend for the 8th spot again this season.  The Nets have lost a few lesser players but they benefit from having Young for the full season.  RHJ is a nice addition.  Obviously they need to stay reasonably healthy but the same can be said about most teams especially the Heat.  There is no reason for the Nets to trade Johnson in salary dump now that they are under the luxury tax.  They have no incentive not to try to make a playoff run with Johnson/Lopez/Young.

Their owner lost over $100 MM last year in Russia. The reason to dump Joe Johnson is he doesn't want to pay his $24 MM salary.

By getting below the luxury tax line, he's already saved 40mil.  Maybe they'd still trade Johnson if there was a team that could take on Johnson's salary without sending any guaranteed salary back.  However there isn't such a team.  The Cavs have Haywood's unguaranteed 10.5mil but who else would they include in the trade.  The Sixers don't have enough cap space so they'd have to send back Thompson and/or Landry and the Sixers would want a good 1st rounder in return which the Nets do not have. 

[MBunge]

I also don't get the talk of the Nets keeping Johnson now. They're going to be bad, no matter what. Yes, they have no incentive to tank, since we get the pick, but this is not a playoff team by a long shot, unless an insane number of things happen to everyone else. If they can cut more costs this year (ie the Johnson-Haywood trade), why on earth wouldn't they do it? What's it matter if they have the 6th worst or worst record in the NBA in 2016? I can't imagine Johnson stays on that roster if they can get a taker who sends back non-guaranteed contracts. Hell, we should facilitate that if we can.

Now that the Nets are below the luxury tax line there is no reason for them to trade Johnson.  They'll put together the best team possible and try to make the playoffs.  If Lopez stays reasonably healthy, I expect their pick to fall in the 10 to 15 range.

I don't see the playoffs as even remotely possible for them. They are (possibly significantly) worse than last year. Its not just DWill (who is far superior than any PG they have), but also Mirza and Plumlee who are gone. Johnson is another year older. They have zero depth, which is a huge problem being that their key players are old or fragile. They barely made the playoffs last year, and I would say 3-4 teams below them will easily leapfrog them. The only team in the East that I'd say is definitely worse than them is Philly. Everyone else is possibly/probably better. If you have no real chance at the postseason, why pay Johnson when you can dump him and save some more money?

Because they can make the playoffs.  They resigned Lopez and Young because they want to compete for the playoffs.  Dwill, Mirza and Plumlee are not a big loss.  There's no reason for Johnson's game to decline much.  I expect he'll play another 5 years around the same productivity.

While I agree that Nets ownership would have to be ultra desperate for cash to cut Johnson now, they could still be a lot worse without unloading him.  Losing those three players will hurt.  Johnson also turns 34 this year and his scoring average dropped for a third straight season to 14 points a game last year.  In comparison, Pierce averaged about 18 points a game at 33 and Johnson is going to carry far more of a burden at 34 than Pierce did.

Mike

[cman88]

this is great. this further weakens the nets. and also makes the mavs good enough to not be one of the 7 worst teams, but still bad enough that they wont make the playoffs in the west imo.

right now you have to think we are looking at 2 lottery picks for essentially 1 year rentals of rondo/pierce/garnett who didnt do anything to help the teams they were traded to.

danny wins again

[gpap]

this is great. this further weakens the nets. and also makes the mavs good enough to not be one of the 7 worst teams, but still bad enough that they wont make the playoffs in the west imo.

right now you have to think we are looking at 2 lottery picks for essentially 1 year rentals of rondo/pierce/garnett who didnt do anything to help the teams they were traded to.

danny wins again

Well, not yet.

But, if the Brooklyn, Minnesota and Dallas picks end up in the lottery (I understand Dallas is top 7 protected and Minny is top 12 protected) my prediction (or perhaps hope) is Danny packages all 3 of them and sends them off to Sacramento for Demarcus Cousins.

Then, this would make Ainge look brilliant!

I feel guilty saying this but we have to hope for Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson to have a couple extended trips to the DL.

This happens and we could be looking good.

[Big333223]

I think it is fairly obvious the Nets don't plan on competing for much this season. They dumped Dwill to save money and let Teletovic go to avoid paying the luxury tax. They have resigned themselves to being a poor team, but decided they don't want to pay large amounts of money for a roster that will suck , so they may as well save ownership some major money and cut expenses. They stated that they view McCullough as their 2016 1st round pick. They have basically decided they are sucking this year as is, so lets at least save money. This pick is going to be in the lottery. It's just a question of where the ping pong balls end up now.

It seems that way. Everyone says they'll be trying to win because they have no insentive to lose but they also don't have any avenues to really compete this season. The management knows that since free agency is their only avenue to getting players, they have to drop as much salary as possible this season. They might not be tanking per se but they might not be actively trying to win, either. It seems like a reasonable strategy to take a bath this year in order to compete for good players next season.

Maybe that's wishful thinking.

[Tr1boy]

Dallas gm is retarded.   Rondo was not a good fit for the Mavs.  The organization found out the hard way.   And now you get another sour apple in Williams

Carlise might quit after this season

[BornReady]

Brooklyn gets worse depending on who they replace him with

Als Dallas don't get worse
They improve slightly as the depth on their roster is terrible
I think they were thinking about starting jj Barra as most of the good free agents are already signed

[Denis998]

Brooklyn gets worse depending on who they replace him with

Als Dallas don't get worse
They improve slightly as the depth on their roster is terrible
I think they were thinking about starting jj Barra as most of the good free agents are already signed

don't think they have the cap to replace him

[RJ87]

Dallas gm is retarded.   Rondo was not a good fit for the Mavs.  The organization found out the hard way.   And now you get another sour apple in Williams

Carlise might quit after this season

Of all the words you could use, "retarded"? Come on, man...

[JSD]

Edit - Bumped my question.