interesting article explains why I like Koufos as an option.

written from the NO perspective, with info comparing Asik, Kofos, Biyimbo and Splitter.


http://www.thebirdwrites.com/2015/5/11/8583541/2015-nba-free-agency-trades-alternatives-to-asik-biyombo-koufos-splitter



2015 NBA Free Agency: Alternatives to Omer Asik

By Oleh  @Redhopeful on May 11, 2015, 6:00a 19






Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports














If, for whatever reason, Asik ends up on a different roster, there exist other options that will not cost over 10 million per year, and more importantly, it shouldn't mean the Pelicans might take a step back next season.


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Let me preface this article by stating that I am a fan of Omer Asik. Even though I've made my feelings known I don't think he's worth a paycheck over the 10 million dollar mark per year, I could live with the result. Odds are that his possible new contract, one as lucrative to the one David proposed, should not ruin the Pelicans salary cap at any time in the future.

That said, it is not ideal to settle because just maybe that extra million or two, or an additional season on the books, might have an impact somewhere down the road. One just never knows for sure.

Alternatively, there could come along another team this summer that has him locked within their sights. About a year and a half ago, Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics focused on Asik because:


"The NBA is loaded with quality players, and big guys are much harder to find than small guys. ... Everyone's looking for big guys that can defend."

Well, the Celtics are still missing that defensive stalwart they envy to protect the paint. Thus, don't be surprised if they don't enter serious dialogue with Asik's agent later this summer. Chances are there will be probably be another interested team or two.

At this point, there is no doubt Dell Demps and his staff have considered other options. Whether it's for improving the roster or of the contingency variety.

There has been a lot written about Greg Monroe and a few other highly prized centers, but unless New Orleans moves one of their core pieces, the Pelicans will not go down this road.

Moreover, with Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson on the roster, it appears the team's future starting center will face a minutes cap. For all the talk by Monty about needing a true defensively minded center at the end of the 2013-14 season, he only gave Asik 26.1 minutes a game. The minutes restriction was never more puzzling than when Ryan Anderson missed time to a knee injury.

Thus, let's have a look at several targets that will not be needed (or paid) to play a full accompaniment of minutes. By the way, I specifically focused on players who have the size to play exclusively at center (sorry Brandan Wright). Listed below are my top 3 in descending order.

3. Bismack Biyombo

At 22 years of age, Biyombo still remains a project, but it's largely for a lack of polish in his offensive game (yes he has issues catching the ball too). However, despite the limitations, he is currently a better option than Asik for one reason: he can finish! Biyombo made over 65% of his looks inside of 3 feet and had his shot rejected just 26 times in 2014-15. Conversely, Asik shot a near career low of 55% from the same range and had 89 shots rejected.

It should be mentioned that Biyombo has seen his FT% increase each season whilst in the league. Also, he has learned to accept his role within the offense. He attempted only a little over 3% of his field goals from outside of 10 feet.

However, as with Asik, Bismack is known for his work on the other side of the floor. This past season, he held opponents at the rim to a 49.1 FG%. The prior season, 39.1%. In both campaigns, he had a block percentage of 6.3 percent. For players who played at least 1000 minutes this season, that was the 4th best mark and one spot ahead of all-world Davis.

This coming July, the Hornets can extend Biyombo a qualifying offer of 5.5 million dollars. The general sentiment seems to question whether this is a good price. Well, considering just how comparable his production and skills are to Asik, I think he's an excellent buy in that price range.

2. Tiago Splitter

Tiago isn't a free agent, but rumors have begun to swirl this week that the Spurs may have to move him if they bring in LaMarcus Aldridge or some other impact player. Pounding the Rock, the SBNation site of the San Antonio Spurs, has the scoop regarding this recent news.

Like Biyombo, Splitter operates inside the 10 feet circle from the rim, but unlike him, he is very proficient from all the other areas. 0-3 feet, he had a 60 FG%; 3-10 feet, a sparkling 50.9 FG%. Tiago's footwork is impeccable, he sets solid screens and he makes a good deal of his free throw attempts.

Defensively, Splitter is solid. This past season, opponents shot 50.0% at the rim on his watch and in 2013-14, that figure was 44.7%. He's not the rebounder nor shot blocker as Biyombo, but he's considered fundamentally solid, much like Asik. In the past two years, his defensive real plus minus has finished twice in the top 10.

Splitter has two more years remaining on his contract: 8.5 mil in 2015-16 and 8.25 mil in 2016-17. For a legitimate two-way starting center in the NBA, that represents very good value. The biggest concern is that he has trouble staying healthy. In five seasons, he has surpassed 60 regular season games played just once.

1. Kosta Koufos

For those who follow underrated NBA players, Koufos is well-known. He's been considered underutilized for the last three seasons and it appears he's tired of it.


Koufos, by contrast, is an unrestricted free agent next summer whose camp, sources say, has made it known to Grizzlies management that it has less than pleased with the limited role carved out for the 7-footer over the past two seasons.

Offensively, he's another limited player but he's smart enough to know to stay within his comfort zone and that does include some touch on floaters and such. Perennially, he converts more than 60% of his attempts near the rim. In 1348 minutes, he was rejected a mere 22 times.

The reason why sits atop my list is because of his defensive abilities. He's a mobile 7 footer with the size to guard anyone, but unlike Asik, he will block shots. Opponents have serious issues scoring against him as evidenced by an opponent's field goal percentage of 46.9% and 47.4% the last several years respectively.

Grizzly Bear Blues summed him up well:


We'll keep it succinct and leave it at this: Koufos is big, smart, and good. He's always been one of the more underrated big guys in the NBA, which is partly the result of a subtle playstyle, but he's extremely valuable to whoever has him.

Pelicans are not pigeonholed

For all of Asik's contributions, there exist substitutes in case he is whisked away by another team's offer or if the organization chooses to go in a different direction altogether.



2014-15 Salary

AGE

TRB%

BLK%

TS%

OPP RIM FG%

RPM

DRPM

PER

Omer Asik $8,374,646 28 21.4% 2.1% 54.5% 51.1% -1.15 1.86 15.5
Bismack Biyombo $3,049,920 22 18.0% 6.3% 57.8% 49.1% -0.99 1.59 15.2
Tiago Splitter $9,250,000 30 13.9% 2.7% 60.1% 50.0% 3.26 2.70 18.9
Kosta Koufos $3,000,000 26 18.1% 3.9% 53.0% 46.9% 0.94 3.56 14.2

If the Turkish Hammer is a starter in this league, is there any reason why Kosta Koufos shouldn't be given the same opportunity? Tiago Splitter has certainly put up the numbers to justify he's worthy of more minutes than the 19.8 per game he saw in 2014-15. And if neither of these options are available, Bismack Biyombo is tantalizing enough to take a chance on considering it's fine to have starting defensively minded centers. Especially when a team boasts a Davis-Anderson power forward combination.

I don't expect a 1-year rental of Omer Asik will be the outcome, but when the Pelicans are realistically considering on paying a limited player more than 8 figures a season to average just the 7th most minutes on the team, the investment needs to be thoroughly analyzed

I have only seen Koufos play a couple of times on TV, but just thinking about the cost difference between him and Osik I would have to look harder at Koufos no matter what team I was trying to manage.

For the Cs, their available salary cap money (which according to Ainge is the first time that they have had such money to use since his arrival) will disappear very quickly if not watched very closely.  Paying Osik almost 9 M as opposed to paying Koufos 5 M eats up a good portion of Ainge's 22M that has been reported.  Especially when neither guy is likely to become a star any time soon (especially Osik).  This is just like giving Crowder 8 M as some have suggested rather than the probably 3 to 3.5 M that he should earn after only one half season of breakout play no matter how much we liked him to still be a supporting/bench player in 20115-16.

Just think of over paying Osik and Crowder by over 4 M each per year and Ainge's 22 M is shrunken by quite a bit and that is only for two players.  Even thinking of signing a mid max type guy like Middleton then becomes much more of a problem and that would still only get the team three players and one of them is not even an 'addition' to the team.

I could Koufos coming in along with a top level guy like Love.

in fact Love could opt in on the final year at Cleveland( $16M) and then they trade him to us for lets say Ohio man Sullinger ,our #16 pick this year and Give Cleveland back their first next season.

Cleveland re-signs Thompson to play with Sully at PF and they have Mozgov and Varejeo back next season. SO Cleveland gets something for Love.

danny gets his "fireworks"  and "star" player.

Love gets out of Cleveland and will be a FA when the cap rises big time in 2016.

there would no doubt be some cap finagling needed, but I think it could be done if Koufos stay in the $5M range first year. Also Crowder would have to NOT get an offer over $4M in the first year.

but you could end up with a roster something like this:

Zeller
Koufos
D. Johnson- #28 or 33 pick
Love
Olynyk
Crowder
Wallace
Turner
Bradley
Smart
Thomas
Young
Rashad Vaughn (UNLV)- #28/33 pick
Pressey

If Crowder would get an offer over $4M , Ainge could still stretch Wallace to match it. But we'd only have vet minimum for a 14 player.

another interesting blurb from hoopshype:

Memphis, mind you, signed off on the risk of losing both Gasol and Koufos without compensation when it rebuffed numerous trade proposals for Koufos during the season from the likes of Cleveland and Boston. ESPN.com

Rumors tagsBoston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Memphis Grizzlies, Free Agency, Trade, Kosta Koufos
- See more at: http://hoopshype.com/rumors.htm#sthash.IqdfA2t8.dpuf

I imagine we could keep the forum busy for months if we knew about all the calls Danny has made to little or no avail.

Sam

Great minds think alike.  In this case we're talking about Danny Ainge and kdp.

This is an excerpt from an article by Marc Stein of ESPN about Memphis:


3. What about the wildly underrated Kosta Koufos?

Good things seemed to happen for the Grizzlies every time Koufos hit the hardwood in the Golden State series. He's always been an elite-yet-underpublicized rim protector, but the high visibility of a playoff encounter against the winningest team in the league brought some increased exposure to Koufos' knack for chipping in with some effective offense around the basket.

Even before Koufos' strong series, though, Memphis folks were well aware that keeping the 26-year-old was going to be mighty challenging. It's no secret within team circles that Koufos, while appreciative of the various tricks he's gleaned as the understudy to Gasol and Z-Bo, wants to be an NBA starter. If that opportunity presents itself elsewhere, on top of a healthy raise from Koufos' $3 million salary last season, well, you can do the math.

The Grizzlies' nightmare scenario, of course, is the prospect of Koufos attracting a lucrative offer early in free agency while Gasol is still deliberating. Keeping Koufos to play behind a re-signed Gasol would presumably be too pricey for the Grizz, but losing both in the same summer would naturally be a crusher.

And the reality is that Koufos is bound to draw considerable interest as an unrestricted free agent. Rim protection is his forte, but he also coped very well against Aldridge in the Portland series, and has not only proven very durable over the year but has quietly started nearly 150 games in his career. He's more seasoned than you think.

Memphis, mind you, signed off on the risk of losing both Gasol and Koufos without compensation when it rebuffed numerous trade proposals for Koufos during the season from the likes of Cleveland and Boston.



bob



.

KDP

Too convoluted! Love can op out, sign a 1 year deal with the Celtics to check us out and the Celtics need not trade anything to Cleveland. The Celtics can use their assets more wisely elsewhere with no risk attached if Love walks in a year.

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So I guess we're all assuming that Love won't be damaged goods and would be willing to room with Kelly Olynyk when on the road.  Sounds chummy to me.

Sam

Let me add that Love is a great scorer but he is not a defensive kind of guy.  I think you have to settle your center position first.  If your center is a rim protector you then go and try to get Love.

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