FA Kenyon Martin Considering 5 Teams, LAC Included
Martin has spoken with executives from LAC, MIA, ATL, SA, and NY.
He could return to the NBA as soon as February 16th.
4 months ago
LJ Hann
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Bench
Mo, Bled, Foye, Reggie and Kenyon looks good to me. Just need a minor upgrade at the backup 3 spot and we are good to go (hopefully we can find a deal using some combo of Foye/Gomes/Cook/2nd rounder)
I would imagine either Mo or Bled is going to be traded.
I think Bledsoe is the person to trade. Mo has proven that he is easily one of the best scorers on the team. I would imagine Bledsoe has a decent trading value; if we could get JR AND Martin, wow, we would dominate.
Re: Bledsoe, its hard to tell
He might prove to be a much more effective guard than Foye playing with Mo off the bench, and while i agree that Bled seems like the guy to trade, i have read that Olshey wants to keep him in case CP bolts next year. I think Olshey will wait and see what we’ve got in Bled-
Is he still a project better suited for a rebuilding team? Or could he be a great, low cost energy PG off the bench driving and dishing to an open Mo? Stay tuned.
by cassellmania on Jan 28, 2012 8:09 PM PST up reply actions
Agreed.
Although I think this mindset is one of our issues. We seem to enjoy being out sized; no matter how you put it, Bledsoe + Mo would be destroyed on the defensive end of the game, and our 2nd unit NEEDS defense.
You are probably right, but Bled does have long arms for a PG, has tools to be good defender.
And we could mask them if we get a long defensive backup SF.
by cassellmania on Jan 28, 2012 8:14 PM PST up reply actions
trading Mo/Bled
I actually think a backcourt of Bled @ PG and Mo @ SG is a good tandem off the bench
so the odd man out…Foye
will we get as good a player back? probably not….but we are looking at the bench here so we only need a decent backup really. possibly flip Foye for a decent SF…this assuming we get Kenyon….Kenyon/Evans/Thompkins can hold down the backup big minutes and Mo/Bled should be more than enough at the guards….so with a decent SF and Gomes…it shouldn’t be too bad
i’m thinking a defender type that is big enough to defend both SG’s and SF’s…and not a liability on offense…
haha, damn as i write this i keep thinking of who this ideal player is…Gomes is the type of player we need…but Gomes is sucking so much as a Clipper. why, oh why?
Ralph, "Last year so often with Blake Griffin you would see these things coming, with Paul, he's so crafty, all of a sudden boom there it is."
You know who would be better than Gomes and is currently available as a FA?
Jamario Moon.
by cassellmania on Jan 29, 2012 2:04 AM PST up reply actions
I know, he’s really not that much better, but he looked good for us at the end of last season in limited mins.
by cassellmania on Jan 29, 2012 2:08 AM PST up reply actions
yea, but if we are trading Foye
we can get someone better
Keep Moon would not be smart financially since Gomes is still on the books
Ralph, "Last year so often with Blake Griffin you would see these things coming, with Paul, he's so crafty, all of a sudden boom there it is."
just a thought but Blake or Kenyon could get some minutes at the 3
Blake was guarding Rudy Gay the last game and did a good job,
1. Get Kenyon
2. Get better bench players either by free agents(JR Smith???) or trade away Foye/Gomes/Cook or all 3 for decent bench
3. ????
4. Championship!
Good idea
Although we are a long ways to go and possibly a coach away from a Championship. Over the off season, I would like to see Foye coming off the books, same with Cook, and then just amnestying Gomes. We would have some money to move around, possibly to try to resign Billups, Evans and if Kenyon/Smith don’t sign long contracts. We can then just look for a REAL 2 and extend Blake and CP3. Also, I would love to see Sloan. At that point, we can possibly be contenders.
CP3/ Billups
?/ Smith
Butler/ ?
Griffin/ Evans
DeAndre/ Martin
JR+ Kenyon on the bench= extreme winning.
At that point, I could imagine Billups possibly coming off the bench and us shopping around Mo or Bledsoe for a better 2 or even a 3 (so we can push Caron to 2).
Can't afford both
Kenyon is more likely because we have more to offer than other contenders and a former vet team mate in Billups. With JR, the Knicks can offer him the starting spot, but if i had to choose, id rather have JR and then make a trade for a big. Mo and JR would wreak havoc in the second unit.
by cassellmania on Jan 28, 2012 8:18 PM PST up reply actions
That is true.
But what can we offer? I know we have 2.5 for Kenyon, do we have anything for JR? Also, this is why I wish we amnestied Cook/Gomes. Having both would put our bench over the top
according the the 2nd article above (the LA Times article) we have the 2 trade exceptions we could offer
plus the mini-mid level. If that is true not sure why we can’t get both as long as we drop one more player?
From LA Times
“They have two trade exceptions they can use to sign a player, one for $3.8 million and another for $2.7 million that were acquired in their deal for Chris Paul.”
Awesome.
I think that could fetch us Smith AND Martin
we need to waive someone though since we have 14 people on the roster
I think Solomon Jones has an unguaranteed contract
I'm not quite sure how trade exceptions work.
I always thought they meant that you can absorb a bigger contract via a trade, but at the same time, they can’t be mixed in with players. Take the Lakers’ exception for example; if they somehow pulled off a Bynum + Sweetners (which in this case would have to be their first round draft pick for the next 20 years) for Dwight and Hedo, the Sweetners wouldn’t completely cover Hedo, so they would have to use the exception so they could complete the deal.
what if we do a S&T
We give a second rounder to the team we S&T with.
Hmm... I am pretty sure a trade exception can only be used for a player in a trade. Not a free agent.
Kenyon Martin is a free agent. So the Clips can use their mini-midlevel 2.5M exception or sign him for minimum, that’s it.
they can denounce an exeption
for cap space. But if they are 5mil over, changing to 3 mil over doesn’t help. IDK the numbers.
What do you mean denounce an exception?
Do you mean they can translate it so they technically have more cap room? I’m not 100% clear on your post, so sorry for that. But does it basically mean: If the Clippers were lets say right at the salary cap, and then they denounced their 3 and 2 million trade exceptions, they would clear up 5 million in cap space, therefore allowing them to spend that 5 million on FAs?
Yes
I am not sure, but I believe that that is the case.
I am unsure if doing so creates a 3 million bubble where the Clips have an exception to use that $$$$, no matter what the cap space, or, if it just lowers the overall figure.
I don't think it works that way
Your capslock is stuck, please buy a new keyboard
"But can't the refs blow the whistle and stop play in certain situations?" Boltsfan21
by BelgianClipper on Jan 29, 2012 12:11 AM PST up reply actions
I have no idea what you're talking about LJ...
I you talking about “renouncing” a player?
I double posted above, but according to Larry Coon’s blog, a trade exception can only be used in a trade. Both Kenyon Martin and JR Smith are free agents, so unless you go back to Denver and engage them in some kind of sign-and-trade you can’t use either trade exception.
Personally, with all the front office talk about acquiring players of “good character” the likelihood of signing Kenyon Martin AND JR Smith seems… farfetched.
And with the current payroll already over the cap I think maybe you guys are confusing Donald Sterling with Santa Claus. Not that that would be a bad thing, just never a role he’s played before.
I'm wrong...
From Larry Coon’s FAQ: “Teams have the option of renouncing their exceptions in order to claim the cap room. So in the example above, if the team renounced their Traded Player and Mid-Level exceptions, then the $10.5 million is taken off their team salary, which then totals $43 million, leaving them with $6.5 million of cap room which can then be used to sign free agent(s).”
The problem, as LJ correctly pointed out, is that the Clips are at around 64.9M payroll, if they have two exceptions at 3.8 and 2.7 that gets them to uh… 6.5 which nets them out at 58.4. (I did that in my head, so…). It doesn’t help to renounce the exceptions. They have the mini-mid at $2.5 and that’s it.
the other option is
a combination of renouncing the exceptions and releasing our non guaranteed players or trade waste of space to get both.
Where did you get February 12?
Did his team not make the playoffs?
I think Kenyon was able to get a buy out from the team
however the terms of the buyout stated he couldn’t return to the NBA until after the CBA season ended. Also from some tweets I have seen JR Smith’s team is not at the moment going to make the playoffs.
"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"unknown
I know of his buyout, but I also believe I read somewhere that
He only has to stay in China for as long as his team is still in contention. Come to think of it, I think the CBA was said to be over in March, and that’s why that was the latest time he would be coming back (assuming that his team made the finals).
follow the link
The CBA’s rules, however, prohibit him from joining an NBA team until Xinjiang’s season ends, whether after the regular season or the playoffs. Xinjiang is currently out of the playoffs, which means Martin could potentially sign with an NBA club when the CBA season ends Feb. 16
I got the exact date wrong. Changed it now.
Oh alright.
Is JR’s team also out just as someone else stated? So best case scenario, JR and Martin don’t make playoffs so they can both be free agents on Feb. 16?
yes
I cannot for my life find CBA standings, but the article at least says that Kenyon will probably miss the playoffs.
JR, can’t say. If he gets eliminated early, it could only be another week. If he goes far, it could be into March.
So we know for sure that JR wants to join the Clippers but Kenyon is
still up in the air, sort of speak.
by lovinglosangeles on Jan 28, 2012 9:45 PM PST reply actions
I think both would love to play for the Clippers.
JR would love the stardom of playing in the new up and coming team, while Martin seems to be close to Billups and he would get a solid amount of playing time. The only question is, would they be willing enough to take lesser contracts to play for the clippers?
I think it would also show Blake and CP3 that the Clippers are serious about contending
by lovinglosangeles on Jan 28, 2012 10:40 PM PST up reply actions
That's very important.
At the same time, I think Cp3 needs to show that he is serious about contending. Don’t get me wrong, he is doing a fine job, but I haven’t seen the leadership/tenacity often enough, which he had in New Orleans on a daily basis. Of course, you can’t be on top of your game every night, but sometimes, it seems as though he is very casual and he doesn’t attack enough. I don’t remember the exact stats, but Prime Ticket showed his stats when they won and when they lost, and there was a pretty big difference.
I agree with you. No question. I think as the season progresses, we will see
an improvement. It is taking a while for him and the team to gel. They are facing the same issue Miami faced last season when they had so many new guys playing together. Now if the reports floating are true about CP3 suggesting our FO who to get, then it seems the dude wants to truly compete.
VDNN seems to have an issue with CP3: He wants him to be more aggressive and shoot the ball more, rather than passing the ball all the time.
by lovinglosangeles on Jan 28, 2012 10:55 PM PST up reply actions
Honestly, we are doing better than Miami did at the start of their season.
We have lost 2 games which we should have won, the Wolves and the Lakers. The Wolves we should have won merely because we had several nice leads, but the fact is, we had no CP3 OR BUTLER, two of our stronger players. Our loss to the Lakers was caused by a bad game from us and strong game from them. Miami last far more games they should have won. Also, if VDN and CP3 can’t fit, we know which piece should be thrown out.
If we have the $ to get both JR and Kenyon?
Incredible bench. Mo, Bledsoe, JR, Kenyon, Reggie? Wow. Unreal.
Now we are talking contender.
by cassellmania on Jan 28, 2012 11:39 PM PST up reply actions
Also. . .
Dunno if this was already mentioned, but JR tweeted at the beginning of the season something like ‘i could see me in a Clips uni’
If we have the $, by all means Olshey, get JR and Kmart
by cassellmania on Jan 28, 2012 11:42 PM PST up reply actions
He also tweeted to Clipper fans that he "WILL MAKE THIS HAPPEN"
Or something along those lines. that’s why I agree that Olshey should attempt to go for both of them depending on the $$$ situation. Also, I don’t exactly like the idea of having Williams + Bledsoe as a duo as I mentioned before, we would have an undersized front and back court at that point. I know this is a tad crazy, but I thought that putting Billups to work with his past team mates on the 2nd unit would be great, while we look to trade Bledsoe + Foye + Picks for a SG (I really like the sound of OJ Mayo). Williams + Billups would be fine by me, because Billups seems to perform adequately as a SG.
This is from JR's twitter this past Friday:
TheRealJRSmith JR
“I wonder what it’s like to play on broadway? #hmmmmm!”
The Knicks may not even make the playoffs at the rate they are playing but i expect them to turn it around enough to get there. Plus JR would start on that team. They may have the advantage on that one…
i probably would too
I think Chauncey is fine this year, but we need a SG to play with this team for the future and seeing as JR is a free agent he kind of fits perfectly with his deadly 3P shooting and he’s a lot younger than Chauncey and more of a true SG.
Also, I know I have said this in the past, but here is one idea.
It seems that the Grizzlies want a pick for OJ Mayo, well, what if we offered Bledsoe + Foye + one of the 2nd rounders we got for him. At that point, we would have 2 spots open on the roster and we can try to sign Martin and Smith. I know this is somewhat far fetched to all of a sudden get 3 new players, especially 2 of which can play the same position, but just think about it. If we pushed Billups to the bench (which I think is a possibility if we do get 2 of his past teammates and his age becomes more apparent as the season progresses) then we would have a roster like this:
CP3/Billups
Mayo/Williams
Butler/Smith
Griffin/Evans
DeAndre/Martin
I completely agree to that.
Heck, I would be fine with Mo starting too. But a Billups/Williams/Smith trio on the backup is just too good to pass up!
I have a question
I’ve seen a couple people here list Kenyon as the 2nd unit C with Evans as the PF. Is Kenyon tall enough to play the 5?
With Reggie at 6'8" that's a pretty small 2nd unit front court.
But to be honest I’d like Kenyon on the team as long as his attitude is more like what Chauncey says than what his reputation is. I still think JR Smith is the bigger need of the 2, but his team has a chance to make the CBA playoffs so it may take longer to get him.
Coming across a tall backup center who is decent is tough.
In a league deprived of centers, any decent one has already been gobbled up by teams. At least with Martin, you get a big guy who you know put in quality minutes. I would rather have Martin than some random 7 footer, or in our case, some random 6’11 guy.
We would be conceding height in the 2nd unit
But Kenyon can D up most Cs if need be (unless we face Bynum or Howard, i see no issue)
by cassellmania on Jan 28, 2012 11:34 PM PST up reply actions
And who are Bynum and Howard you speak of? :-)
by lovinglosangeles on Jan 28, 2012 11:39 PM PST up reply actions
And let's be honest, there aren't many Bynums or Howards in this league.
I don’t believe there are ANY on any 2nd units. So I would give up some size if that meant we got a more skilled player.
I still say Jason Thompson of SAC can be had
Great athletic backup C.
by cassellmania on Jan 28, 2012 11:35 PM PST up reply actions
If he can be had for anyone not on our starting 5 or named Mo Williams, sure.
But I don’t think anyone else on our roster holds much value, except Bledsoe.
Also, if size is what you want, we might as well sign JR Smith.
Because then we get his sister too.
via his twitter friday:
TheRealJRSmith JR Smith
I wonder what it’s like to play on broadway? #hmmmmm!
Haha
Knicks are not a contender and i doubt JR would change that. If JR and his agent are smart, they would push for a deal with Clips.
by cassellmania on Jan 29, 2012 1:31 AM PST up reply actions
JR Smith and K-Mart coming off the bench would be CRAZY!
Clippers // Chargers // Rays // Boise State
"The Lakers do win games. But things can change." - Blake Griffin
Why do people want JR Smith?
The Clippers have created a pretty good culture here, our players are high-class, respectable people. I dont put JR smith in that category, what he brings in skill also comes with the baggage of his personality. The guys confrontational, and hard too coach. I never liked this guy in denver and personally i wouldn’t be too thrilled about seeing him in a Clippers Uni.
If we have to sacrifice some character for a solid chance of winning, I'm in.
This is all based around the idea that we would give him a short contract. And if we signed him in March, it would be around a 1 year contract at most, right? If that is the case, it is a high reward with a relatively low risk. If not, then I think we should wait it out a little bit.
Agree
I would not like JR long term, but as extra firepower for this year’s playoff run? Sign me up. He may be a knucklehead but our vets would keep him in check. Mo and JR would scare the hell out of every other 2nd unit in the league.
by cassellmania on Jan 29, 2012 12:43 PM PST up reply actions
rather have Kenyon Martin
if I had to choose
Your capslock is stuck, please buy a new keyboard
"But can't the refs blow the whistle and stop play in certain situations?" Boltsfan21
by BelgianClipper on Jan 29, 2012 1:13 PM PST up reply actions
We could sign Kenyon Martin, trade Randy Foye for nothing but relief (expiring deal anyways), and sign JR Smith.
In the famous words of those old school McDonalds ads .. Hey, it could happen!
Aren't Cook/Foye coming off the books anyways?
Then we can possibly amnesty Gomes and trade Bledsoe? (Amnesty after the season ends btw). I think we can have a solid team, but not many people would want our undesirables either than Bledsoe.
forget about DTS
Olshey runs this team. And he has tried and succeeded in acquiring high character players.
Was it just me or
Did you initially think of Reggie Evans to not fit this “high character player” title. I thought so, and it worked out.
I didn't know alot about reggie
but I never said he wasn’t high character. And I was on board after seeing his hard work and team play.
He is the best option to improve our bench scoring.
An eight/nine man rotation that included Smith and Martin would vault us to the top.
He's not
the A’s would never be able to afford the baseball equivalent of Paul or even Blake because of MLBs rookie setup.
If there’s a Billy Beane in the NBA its Daryl Morey.
Help us Altered Beast you're our only hope.
by ClipperChuck on Jan 29, 2012 11:16 PM PST up reply actions
either him or the Nuggets GM
instead of “guys that get on base”
its “guys that are athletic, play defense, and pass the ball”
Ralph, "Last year so often with Blake Griffin you would see these things coming, with Paul, he's so crafty, all of a sudden boom there it is."
and play at a high altitude
Your capslock is stuck, please buy a new keyboard
"But can't the refs blow the whistle and stop play in certain situations?" Boltsfan21
by BelgianClipper on Jan 30, 2012 6:28 AM PST up reply actions
I am sure KMart saw Blake blow up on twitter last night
coupled with the latest win over the Thunder. What I understand is we have the greatest $$ to offer him of the current interested teams. Plus, being Chauncey’s friend is only icing on the cake. I say we are the front runner for him if it is true Olshey is pursuing him.
"Great Balls Of Fire, Reggie's Back!"
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