Manolito wrote:Many names have been already discusses during these last weeks. One trade needs to happen because we are not getting our future PF in Free Agency as MLE is not going to be enough. Our "assets" are Wil Barton + Bol Bol and any potential first round pick. Additionally as 2023 has been already committed with Hampton trade, next season we can not trade a FRP until 2025, which might be less valuable. That is why I think a trade needs to happen this season.
Solid defenders names discussed:
Aaron Gordon: prio 1
PJ Tucker: valid for 1-2 years
Kyle Anderson: is his 3P% for real?
Thad Young: valid for 1-2 years
Larry Nance jr: I guess he is simply not for sale
Siakam: wet dream not achievable without sending away Murray or MPJ
Special mention to John Collins if he has a reasonable price.
Right now, I think Tucker is the most realistic one. Definitely not part of Houstons plans anymore after the Harden deal, so I guess he is up for sale. Fills an obvious need for us and shouldn't be quite as expensive. Fits into the TPE (tax could be avoided by a smaller move later if I see that correctly but correct me if I am wrong). I think from Nuggets perspective 2 2nds would be a good price. Houston likely asks for a heavily protected first that if not conveyed turns into 2 2nds. Not sure if there is a common ground to find. I personally think we had enough late firsts and because of that have a solid talent base to develop moving forward. But our FO is clearly a "draft FO" that usually avoids trades until they aren't avoidable anymore and they seem more comfortable drafting. So not sure they would be willing to do something like that.
Aaron Gordon might be the most realistic "bigger" name, if Orlando at some point makes a decision on their future path. But regarding trades they usually tend to be really conservative. So I don't give it a high probability. I guess they would have to go down with the price too. Barton matches the salary perfectly but since Ross and Fournier are way too similar I suspect Barton would have to go to a 3rd team. If you add Bol and a first rounder maybe a 2nd or two you could have a framework to negotiate. But I guess Orlando wants more and that might be a deal breaker.
I like Kyle Anderson too but as long as Memphis is at least semi competitive, I guess they won't change anything with their core guys, except for bigger trades which we can't and shouldn't offer.
Thad might be realistic but I don't like the possible trades since the Bulls would only move him if they get something back and unlike Tucker I don't think he is worth anything that would be enough for the Bulls to bite.
Nance, Siakam and Collins I think you worded pretty well.
I think even a combo of Tucker AND Aaron Gordon might be interesting. I think in our system SF and PF do the same things offensively and defensively both could play some backup SF minutes against the right matchups while Dozier takes the backup minutes against smaller quicker SFs. That would push Hartenstein out of the rotation (which I wouldn't like but with Green, MPJ and Barton all healthy Malone doesn't play him right now either) and Millsap (or Green) to backup center (which would cover his biggest weakness, perimeter defense, a little better). That would give us a lot of good defensive forwards/small ball centers to cover for MPJ and Jokics weaknesses. Although we would have to give up a lot of draft compensation and/or prospects.
And I don't think that Nnaji is a reason to not improve the position right now. First, he is a big question mark (and I am saying that despite really loving that guy and I have high hopes too). Second, Tucker, Gordon or whoever do not have long contracts. So you can take the immediate improvement while developing Nnaji and if he is ready for the next step, guys are either completely washed anyway (Tucker, I guess) or expiring in some kind of way.
In my opinion we are in a situation where we need to stay as competitve as we can, even if we have to give up picks since they have a low chance to become good anyway and if we would hit them they more than likely would take a lot of years to develop and who knows where we will be at that point.
). And is't it rushing thing after 16 games (out of 72 or 20% of the year) when we haven't had a chance for this team to have a full healthy compliment on the court together ?? As I pointed out, Green missed the 1st 4 games, MPJ the next 10 games, does it appear we have gelled yet or even had time to get any chemistry ??