RealGM

first thing's first, we need a new GM. plain and simple. dumars is too stubborn to admit failure. moving on...

we have to decide who's the odd man out in the smith-monroe pairing. we seem to be committed to monroe, and that's probably a good thing. that being said, who's gonna take on smith? it's been mentioned on these boards before, and more recently jared zwerling from bleacherreport (it's BR i know) suggested that the knicks should offer stoudemire's expiring deal to the pistons for jennings and smith in an effort to surround melo with talent regardless of price similarly to the way the nets did with d-will by bringing in joe johnson.

a straight salary dump should absolutely be considered, but we shouldn't settle that alone and should definitely target shumpert/hardaway jr. in that particular deal. given's haraway jr.'s emergence and contract, it's unlikely that they'd willingly part with him, but they probably wouldn't mind giving up shump seeing as how his deal is expiring and they already have a good chunk of change committed to jr. smith.
shumpert would give us an athletic combo guard on the cheap to replace stuckey (assuming he walks after this deal). he can guard up to 3 positions, and when motivated, is a lockdown defender. he has a reliable outside shot as well.

moving onto the draft. this might be wishful thinking, but i really believe we have a better chance of keeping our pick than people think we do. if new york and cleveland pass us up, and i believe they will, we'll have the 8th worst record with the jazz, kings, lakers, and celtics right behind us. new orleans, the team right ahead of us in the standings, should start winning more games when holiday comes back.

so, let's just say we end up picking around 7 or 8, missing out on parker/wiggins/exum/smart. that leaves us picking from a group that includes vonleh, gordon, ennis, and harris, not a bad 2nd tier. i really like gordon's game. he's the kind of guy who will make all the plays that help you win games (boxes outs, GREAT team/man defender, makes the extra pass) and very little of the plays that lose you games. he'd serve as a perfect replacement for smith in the rotation since he too would allow monroe to move to center and cover up for his shortcomings. also, wouldn't need major minutes right away, so there'd be no reason to play him at SF. eventually (as in a few seasons), i could envision him earning major minutes, thus warranting a monroe trade similarly to the way taj gibson has emerged in chicago.

in the 2nd round, it would makes sense to target a PG given jennings departure. keith appling would be a good option. he's a very good defender at the point, can knock down the long ball, and he'll have played 4 years under one of college basketball's best coaches. aaron craft could also be a good option.

lastly, there's free agency. stoudemire should be bought out at this point as there's no reason to pay him that to play a minimal role on a young team.

next, with holes in the lineup at PG and SF, it'd make sense to target both trevor ariza and kyle lowry. realistically, we probably can't come away with both seeing as how lowry will be in high demand and toronto seems like they will try to keep him. ariza, on the other hand, will most likely be let go by washington having just drafted porter 3rd overall and webster signed long term. we would likely have to overpay a little to get him to sign here, but we'll have the extra money to spend anyways. 3 years for 6-8 million/year seems reasonable.

after missing out on lowry, however, i wouldn't mind targeting sessions. he would likely come cheap, and would serve as a stopgap starter at the PG who actually knows when to create for others and when to get his own. honestly, all things considered, he wouldn't be that much worse than jennings and would come at a fraction of the price.

after all of that, this is what our lineup looks like:

PG: sessions, bynum, appling/craft, siva
SG: KCP, shumpert
SF: ariza, singler
PF: monroe, gordon, jerebko, mitchell
C: drummond, harrellson

that's a MUCH more balanced roster than what we have, and it's far more financially appealing.

Not much interest in Sessions.... I do think a two way PG is the priority.
Would love to acquire Bledsoe but that's likely out of reach.
Of the FA's that may be in our range Lowry, Darren Collison & Ariza seem obtainable.
Accept any offer for Jennings that won't be a long term financial burden... even a buyout would be fine... although I'd prefer giving him short backup minutes for a year and then deal his expiring.
Between Smith & Monroe I'm leaning towards Smith... more versatile... if Monroe decides to hold off on any offers this year he can net a tier one talent in return (Smith can't).
For the draft (if we're lucky enough to participate) this is a good year for SFs but I only see Wiggins as a sure bet to earn starter minutes right away.
We would need to add players that would have an immediate impact so we're not handing over a top pick to MJ next year.
As you said Shumpert would be a nice addition (anyone that can defend) but I wouldn't pay much for him.
Yes to Ariza if we can't land Lowry first.

mercury wrote:Not much interest in Sessions.... I do think a two way PG is the priority.
Would love to acquire Bledsoe but that's likely out of reach.
Of the FA's that may be in our range Lowry, Darren Collison & Ariza seem obtainable.
Accept any offer for Jennings that won't be a long term financial burden... even a buyout would be fine... although I'd prefer giving him short backup minutes for a year and then deal his expiring.
Between Smith & Monroe I'm leaning towards Smith... more versatile... if Monroe decides to hold off on any offers this year he can net a tier one talent in return (Smith can't).
For the draft (if we're lucky enough to participate) this is a good year for SFs but I only see Wiggins as a sure bet to earn starter minutes right away.
We would need to add players that would have an immediate impact so we're not handing over a top pick to MJ next year.
As you said Shumpert would be a nice addition (anyone that can defend) but I wouldn't pay much for him.
Yes to Ariza if we can't land Lowry first.

believe me, if bledsoe is a legitimate option, we should go all out for him, but phoenix is likely to match any offer for him similarly to us with monroe.

as for any other 2-way point guard, i would love to draft smart, but he'll likely be just out of our reach. there's not many other PG's in FA that fit the script besides lowry.

aaron gordon is the next guy available in the draft that fits a psuedo-need. he's already a lockdown defender at the collegiate level with elite athleticism. we would be able to target a defensive PG in the 2nd round of the draft.

i agree that smith is more versatile, buy we're unlikely to get much of value for him at this point. we need to win games and gain financial stability as soon as possible. unfortunately, taking one of smith/monroe out of the equation is addition by subtraction, and monroe is endeared by the franchise and smith is more or less wearing out his welcome, so gores is likely to want to make a more business related decision.

besides, unless we're getting kawhi leonard or a bevy of perimeter players, (afflalo, harkless, harris) then i don't really see a reasonable deal for moose out there.

Nice looking lottery team you built there.

It might be a long shot but I'd try to do Monroe for Bledsoe trade in the offseason. I like Monroe and wouldn't mind finding away to trade Smith instead but I think if we get a good GM, we could find away to pull off Monroe for Bledsoe. They can use an upgrade at Center and we need a PG. Try to sign Steve Blake and trade Jennings and Siva to NY for Tim Hardaway Jr./ J.R Smith(then waive Smith). Then finally do a Bynum and Datome for Otto Porter
Bledsoe/Blake
KCP/Hardaway Jr
Singler/Porter
Smith/Mitchell
Drummond/Harrellson

The Knicks are believed to be avoiding taking on long term salary so that they'll have a clear salary sheet to build a team around Melo however he wants them to. Chances are that they don't go for this deal. Can't rule anything out with the Knicks, but I don't think they do it. Shump would be nice to have since he can guard both wing positions and provide some semblance of spacing, although he really doesn't have much offensive game.

Gordon is a train wreak on offense. He's about as good of a shooter as Drummond is from the FT line and about as good as Josh Smith from the field. He doesn't have good handles either, but he seems to hold some delusions about what he can do. His passing, defense and athleticism are all nice, but he could very well end up being a poor man's MKG at power forward. I don't know if I'd draft him, although he might stay at Arizona another year anyways.

Appling fits and PG, but there are prospects who have better upside than him IMO. Craft is going to struggle to make it in the NBA; he's basically a Peyton Siva clone anyways.

Not bad, nothing wrong with trying, but managing to get rid of Smith and Jennings in one offseason seems like a bit of a pipe-dream to me.

Notanoob wrote:The Knicks are believed to be avoiding taking on long term salary so that they'll have a clear salary sheet to build a team around Melo however he wants them to. Chances are that they don't go for this deal. Can't rule anything out with the Knicks, but I don't think they do it. Shump would be nice to have since he can guard both wing positions and provide some semblance of spacing, although he really doesn't have much offensive game.

Gordon is a train wreak on offense. He's about as good of a shooter as Drummond is from the FT line and about as good as Josh Smith from the field. He doesn't have good handles either, but he seems to hold some delusions about what he can do. His passing, defense and athleticism are all nice, but he could very well end up being a poor man's MKG at power forward. I don't know if I'd draft him, although he might stay at Arizona another year anyways.

Appling fits and PG, but there are prospects who have better upside than him IMO. Craft is going to struggle to make it in the NBA; he's basically a Peyton Siva clone anyways.

Not bad, nothing wrong with trying, but managing to get rid of Smith and Jennings in one offseason seems like a bit of a pipe-dream to me.

i agree that gordon is extremely raw on offense, but that's why i suggested he be our 1st big off the bench to flank moose on the frontline. that way, there wouldn't be much pressure for him to produce on offense immediately and allow him to work on his post moves for a season or two. he seems like the type of kid that will work his ass off to improve his game every year. i'd be shocked if he didn't develop some kind of offense, especially with his tremendous athleticism and versatility.

however, if we're trying to target a big that could better compliment dre, i'm all for going after payne. i honestly don't understand why he's projected to go as late as he is. he can play above the rim, but also has a very nice shooting stroke for a big. imagine him and dre running a staggered screen with dre rolling to the basket and payne popping out for a mid-range shot. that play was virtually unguardable when dre and CV ran it together, there's no reason to think payne can't fill the same roll.

plus, payne has an upside on defense. his length and athleticism should allow him to become at least an adequate defender, but he has the potential to be so much more. he and drummond could really devastate the league and rival griffin and jordan as the most athletic front court in the nba.

I think that the only reasons Payne is projected to go so low are his small lungs (he can't stay on the floor as long as some people apparently) and his age. Plus, he's missed time with injuries. Payne really is an ideal fit next to Andre though.

I'm almost hoping that if we end up with the 8th pick that we just trade back. I'd rather have the depth if we aren't getting a top 3 pick.

Aaron Craft? Really? He's not even in the top 3 PGs in the B1G....

i'm of the opinion that we should surround dre with shooters and let him beast down low. that being said, here's another fun route i came up with:

sign & trade moose in the offseason to NO for anderson, morrow (assuming he accepts his player option,) withey, and a future 1st.

new orleans jumps at the opportunity to add the hometown monroe to flank davis as their frontcourt for the next decade. we get the perfect compliment to dre as anderson has become absolutely lethal from the 3 point line as well as the free throw line, two major areas of weakness for this team. morrow could give us 20 to 25 minutes of valuable floor spacing. withey's just a guy i feel can contribute at this level and would make an excellent backup center.

here's the fun one: trade josh smith and brandon jennings to the lakers for steve nash and their 2014 lotto pick.

nash is obviously past his prime and unable to contribute at the high level the lakers are paying for. they would be wise to find a way to get out from under his contract if they're serious about adding talent around kobe to potentially make another run. jennings would give them a young and healthy starting PG while smith gives them a high end talent for the next few seasons. they would still have about 12 million to pursue another big name FA like melo or deng to be kobe's 2nd banana. ALSO, and this is huge, they would be able to go over the cap to resign pau as they would hold his bird rights. a smith-gasol frontcourt would be killer.

from our perspective, we get a year of nash who would be an amazing PG for drummond's development. i would target ennis, another true floor general, in the draft, have him play under nash for a season and groom him for an eventual starting gig. if we had our pick as well, we could go after the best talent available regardless of position.