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Grizzlies free agent targets

I got into this a bit in my recap of the Spurs series. I wanted to go more in depth with what we should do this offseason. Here's a list of free agents for the next two years: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8589693/nba-free-agents-2013-2014

Austin Daye and Jon Leuer are restricted free agents. They didn't play much. So I wouldn't think they would get a lot of interest from teams. But given a reasonable matching price, I wouldn't mind bringing them back. They are tall and can shoot decently. There can be value in that. Our unrestricted free agents are Tony Allen, Jerryd Bayless and Keyon Dooling. Bayless has a player option and only has 2 years at $3 million left on his deal. So regardless of his production he isn't killing the team's cap situation. He can come or go, just like his streaky shooting. I don't see a reason to play Dooling ahead of Tony Wroten, who we've invested more in. I love Tony Allen and even with his age I'd be up for giving him a significant amount of money for no more than 3 years.

So our free agent situation shouldn't be too complicated. I'm not sure how much Tony is going to want or for how long. But unless it's ridiculous I don't think it will be a problem getting a deal done. Even if we don't sign Tony I think we could play Quincy Pondexter at SG. That would give us a starting 5 of Conley, Pondexter, Prince, ZBo, and Gasol. I think that's pretty solid, though maybe not quite as good as this season. So there's not a ton of moves we absolutely have to make. We either need to try and upgrade the starting positions of SG and/or SF or just try and add some depth. I could get into some trade scenarios, such as this one that would be awesome. But there's no way of knowing whether the front office wants to do anything like that. So I'll just focus on who I think we could be able to sign to help the team.

Most of these guys I'm going to suggest are SFs because I think Tony Allen will be back. But even if he isn't I think we could just sign these guys, move Pondexter to SG, and have Prince come off the bench. Here goes, in alphabetical order by the team they were on last year. Kyle Korver is an unrestricted free agent. He's 32 and is a career 41% 3 point shooter. He can probably play either SG or SF and while he may not be a great defender, he will add a lot to our offense and probably won't be too expensive (made $5 million last year). Marco Belinelli is a career 38% 3 point shooter who is only 27. I'm not sure he can play SF. But if we don't resign Tony Allen he could fill in at SG.

Andre Iguodala is a very good SF, even though doesn't shoot the 3 well. But he is probably going to want a lot of money and I'm not sure he would want to play here. Brandon Rush has a player option. If he doesn't take it he's 27 and shoots 41% from 3. Assuming he is healthy after being hurt all last year I think he would be a nice pickup. Matt Barnes is a good all around player who is 33 and will probably be fairly cheap. Mike Dunleavy is an older SF who would probably also be fairly cheap. He's a career 37% 3 point shooter, but has shot around 40% over the past 3 years. Another Duke alum that I like is JJ Redick. He's strictly a SG and would probably be fairly expensive. But he's a career 39% 3 point shooter and is 28 years old. Andrei Kirilenko is 32 and doesn't shoot the 3 well. But he does basically everything else very well. He made almost $10 million last year. I'm not sure if he'll be asking for a similar amount. If so I doubt we can afford him. But if he asks a reasonable price I would consider it.

Overall I think Kyle Korver would be my number 1 target. He's the best 3 point shooter, which I think is our biggest weakness. I don't think he'll want a ton of money and I don't think many teams will offer him a lot of money. For some reason he has been undervalued for much of his career. So maybe we could get him for good value. The question then would simply be convincing Lionel Hollins to play him enough minutes. My next option would be Mike Dunleavy. He's older than Korver and isn't as good a shooter. But I think we can get him at a good price and he is a good enough shooter to help the offense. If we can add one (or even both) I think we could be a better team next season than we were last year.

Comments

  1. I agree with your top 2 choices in Kyle and Dunleavy Jr. But I also like Carlos Delfino and Dorrell Wright

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