Should we try and get Jalen Smith? He's one of the most efficient centers at the league and arguably good enough to be starting at the five. In fact, he's actually more effective playing as a center. I think if we're planning to start Kuminga and Dray together next season, he's one of the kind of players we need, a mobile stretch big that can stretch the floor and defend the rim. He's also young and doesn't cost us any assets since he will enter free agency.
by twitietwitt
12 Comments
~~He turned down his $5.5M player option~~ [*He’s expected to turn down his $5.5M player option](https://hoopshype.com/lists/aggregate-2024-nba-mock-draft-intel-on-knicks-suns-spurs-76ers-raptors-nuggets-wizards-more/), assume he’s looking for more money and probably more years than the Warriors have to offer.
Maybe if they kicked him the TPMLE (should be out of the 2nd apron), but I doubt they lock up their MLE for 2/3yrs to get Jalen on the multi-year deal he may be looking for
Wiggins + GP2 for Bruce Brown + Olynyk
Steph /
Brown /
Kuminga /
Draymond /
Olynyk
Olynyk being a stretch 5 will allow Kuminga to start and flourish at the 3. Brown can be the defensive perimeter stopper.
Whatever you do, just leave Wiggins in Canada after this summer.
Yes, if Warriors let Looney go Jalen would be an upgrade, if he will sign for an equivalent salary. His per 36 stats were 20 points, 11 rebounds, shooting 42% on 3s! But I worry that OKC will outbid us, they need another Jalen to play center.
I’ve been advocating for getting him for quite a while. I liked him back on the Suns and think he’s underrated and was undervalued due to small ball and shooting being trendy. However, we’d have a hard time with floor spacing and shooting if he, Draymond and JK are all on the court together.
We need JK to keep improving as an outside shooter and Draymond to shoot over 33 percent again. Not really expecting Draymond to knock down threes very efficiently though.
I think we’ll see TJD become a very valuable player who can be the lob threat, rim protector and not get burned on switches defensively. I think he’s gonna be a difference maker if he stays healthy and gets the deserved minutes. That’s our starter. The real question is should Draymond still start? Is Draymond and JK playable together with a non shooting center?
Not a bad idea. With Siakam’s extension, IND has a pretty high payroll — right around the salary cap — and only 12 guys if all Club and Player options are exercised. They also have 3 Centers with Turner, Stewart, and Smith. If Smith exercises his PO, then we’d have to work a trade; if not, he might be gettable with the MLE or maybe even the BAE. Not sure what the market for him will be.
He looks like Mike Brown sometimes. I say we get him
Sounds good to me!
Smith made 42.4% of his 2.4 threes a game (career 33.5% on 2.3 across 207 games) and pulled 5.5 boards in 17.2 minutes per game this season (61 games).
He also defended 4.0 shots taken within 6 feet of the basket and reduced opponents’ FG% on those shots by -6.3.
Smith definitely looks the part of a stretch big in terms of both “stretch” and “big”, but if there’s one thing that concerns me about him, it’s his fouling. 124 fouls in 1,047 minutes played, or lasting 8.44 minutes between each foul.
This is really bad — Smith is in his 4th season. TJD, a rookie, committed 108 fouls in 1130 minutes, or 10.46 minutes per foul, defending 4.6 shots taken within 6 feet of the basket and causing a FG% differential of -8.4.
And the difference isn’t because Smith hunted blocks more than TJD either. The former had a block rate of 2.9%, 6.1% for TJD.
Anyway, Smith declined his player option worth 5.4M. That definitely means he wants a bigger contract and role than what he has at Indiana.
As of now we’re still in the luxury tax so the biggest contract we can give a free agent not already with the team is the taxpayer MLE worth 5.2M.
With TJD and Loon still on the team, Smith also has no guarantee to get, with us, more than his 17.2 minutes with the Pacers this season.
Should we make an offer to Smith if he declines his option? We probably should since it doesn’t hurt to try. It’s not like the other stretch bigs available in free agency will be without similar concerns (Mo Bamba, Mike Muscala, Thomas Bryant). The hope would be that playing next to Dray would mean he’s in disadvantageous positions less often and would foul less.
Stats taken from Basketball Reference and the hyperlinks to their defense dashboards on the nba site.
We are not going to be able to get him on a vet min or mid level. I less we shade enough salary to get well below the cap (unlikely) he is a pipe dream. He is also overrated by his stats which are inflated from Indy’s high powered offence leaving him wide open on practically all his shots
a Jalen for Moody trade doesnt seem too ridiculous. probably have to do something else with salaries but Warriors really just have too many wings if Klay comes back
jalen seems like he’d be an awesome fit next to draymond! u/DictatorshipBest makes a good point about fouling but he’s young and seems like a smart player so i think playing under kerr and next to draymond can help him improve in that regard. He’d also be part of the rotation with TJD and potentially dray which would be good
Warriors isn’t going to match any offer he gets in the open market.