02-06-2026, 10:18 AM
Another issue regarding the fit of the players in question:
Gafford and especially PJW are both paid too much to be bench players. Gafford's contract is probably what scared people away at the deadline, but it's not horrible if the plan is to go back to a platoon with Lively (which I assume it is), at least until Lively hopefully proves worthy of a bigger than 50% role and you have to pay him. Still, to give the other end of that argument some fairness, there's a chance Lively never does that, isn't here past his rookie deal and Gafford will play a LOT next year. I'm not sure he's the ideal center with Flagg in any scenario, but the Tyus Jones trade is the first concrete indication I've seen that Kidd wants to play pick and roll basketball, so with Davis gone now I'm open minded to see how it goes with Gafford.
PJW does NOT fit on court with Flagg, and he makes WAY too much money, not for what he offers as a player, but for the role he'd be right for here. I worry that with him, the contract extension we were so excited about might be tough to move pretty soon.
Right now, Marshall's contract is part of the draw with him. I hope Dan is right and he stays at the MLE, because if he gets some kind of more lucrative extension he's very quickly going to join the other two on the "uh oh" list.
Gafford and especially PJW are both paid too much to be bench players. Gafford's contract is probably what scared people away at the deadline, but it's not horrible if the plan is to go back to a platoon with Lively (which I assume it is), at least until Lively hopefully proves worthy of a bigger than 50% role and you have to pay him. Still, to give the other end of that argument some fairness, there's a chance Lively never does that, isn't here past his rookie deal and Gafford will play a LOT next year. I'm not sure he's the ideal center with Flagg in any scenario, but the Tyus Jones trade is the first concrete indication I've seen that Kidd wants to play pick and roll basketball, so with Davis gone now I'm open minded to see how it goes with Gafford.
PJW does NOT fit on court with Flagg, and he makes WAY too much money, not for what he offers as a player, but for the role he'd be right for here. I worry that with him, the contract extension we were so excited about might be tough to move pretty soon.
Right now, Marshall's contract is part of the draw with him. I hope Dan is right and he stays at the MLE, because if he gets some kind of more lucrative extension he's very quickly going to join the other two on the "uh oh" list.
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