With Russell Westbrook in place, elite off-ball offense players were at a premium for them. The Nets didn't need Patty Mills, but the Lakers did. The reported contract: Two Years, $12 million (taxpayer mid-level exception) The Jazz don't have to sit idly by and watch Terance Mann shoot their season away from the corner. Small-ball is a tool for their back pocket and likely something they'll only use for shorter stretches in the postseason. Gobert is really the only thing holding their defense together most of the time.
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They'll experiment, but they won't ditch the core concept that built their team. That's a major luxury in postseason bench lineups, and something few opposing benches have a counter for with a big man on the floor.Īt best, the Jazz will treat small-ball the same way the Bucks treated switching. Gay has never had Batum's instincts, but he's far more comfortable closing out on shooters than Gobert is, and in a pinch, he can generate individual buckets in a half-court setting. While Batum's improved shooting got most of the publicity, it was his superb help defense that ultimately got the Clippers to the Western Conference finals. That Nicolas Batum was another example of this theory ultimately proved fatal to the Jazz. Doing so mitigates his declining mobility. Like many aging wings, Gay is well-suited for moving up the positional spectrum. That number fell to 4.5 with him at power forward and 4.0 at small forward. In 250 possessions at center last season, San Antonio outscored opponents by 6.5 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass. Rudy Gay was about as promising an option as they were going to find for the taxpayer mid-level exception. But they needed an alternative somewhere on their roster, if only for the minutes that Gobert sits out. It would be a waste of Rudy Gobert's transcendent rim protection. The Jazz are never going to switch as a base.
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When the playoffs arrived, that schematic versatility was critical against Brooklyn and Phoenix. Tucker at the deadline in part because of his comfort in that scheme. The Bucks dipped their toes into the switching pool on defense during the regular season after years of overreliance on dropping. Nobody is suggesting a complete overhaul, but Milwaukee laid the blueprint last season for a more modest adjustment. The Jazz play the way that they play and lacked alternatives when the Clippers solved their drop-coverage and 3-point barrage. Utah's fatal flaw last season was rigidity. The reported contract: Two years, $12.1 million (taxpayer mid-level exception): So let's look at some under-the-radar signings that will impact the championship picture either now, or, in one prominent case, potentially in the future. Last season's contenders largely did a good job of that. This, essentially, is the path traditional contenders need to take to develop depth. The Lakers carved out max cap space, but when Kawhi Leonard didn't take it, they had to use that space to build a worthwhile supporting cast around their stars. Milwaukee was hard-capped and needed players like Portis and Bryn Forbes to leave money on the table for an opportunity to win in order to build a remotely palatable bench. The two most recent champions had several.
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The 2019 Raptors are the only recent champion not to keep a below-market-value free agent in their rotation. Championship teams are star-driven, but the often exorbitant price of those stars makes these teams extremely reliant upon the bargain bin. Miami's nabbed Shane Battier and Ray Allen with back-to-back mid-level exceptions. Golden State's dynasty lived off of minimum-salary role players. The 2020 Lakers had Dwight Howard and Markieff Morris.