I think I did it guys!
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:35 am
I think that I found a realistic way for us to get out of this hell and build a balanced team without gutting it our losing any young players.
First, a four way trade.
Detroit out: Josh Smith
Detroit in: Dudley, Ilyasova, Green
Sacramento out: Thompson, Williams, Outlaw
Sacramento in: Josh Smith
Sacramento is the one team that really makes the sense for Josh Smith out of any team in the NBA. By some vodoo, the most notorious chucker Rudy Gay has been playing more efficiently than ever in his career. I don't know how, but if he can be reformed, so perhaps can Smith. Even if he doesn't stop shooting jumpers for good, he will hardly have the same opportunity to shoot that he has here. Cuz, Gay, and Thomas will be taking shots away from him, and he will shoot fewer 3's when playing PF. However, on the other end of the court, he provides defense, something sorely needed in Sacramento, and will still be able to stuff the stat-sheet with boards, blocks, steals and assists. This deal turns two backup PFs into a starting caliber one and provides some measure of immediate salary relief so that they have more room to sign Thomas.
LAC out: Jared Dudley, Willie Green
LAC in: Jason Thompson
The Clippers dump a pair of unneeded wings for a solid backup PF/C who they've been searching for all season. Pretty much all of their backup bigs are going to be free agents anyways, so this move provides them great depth where they need it.
Bucks out: Ersan Ilyasova
Bucks in: Derrick Williams, Travis Outlaw
Ersan is a long term contract who the Bucks don't need. They swap him out for expiring contracts.
Now, if some party feels like they need more, we could send our 2nd round pick to someone, or move Jerebko to Milwaukee and take on Terry. Sacramento gets more room, someone gets a second, Bucks get a decent PF to pretend they're going for a playoff berth.
Now, we've moved our big albatross in Smith. We then decline Chauncey's team option, and renounce our hold on free agents Charlie V and Stuckey. Assuming the cap increases to $62,100,000, we would then have $22,323,635 in cap space.
We can spend a good amount of that cap space on other free agents, so long as we get it done before we give Monroe his money. He'll probably get a max offer from somewhere, so we'll have to be quick negotiators if we want to take advantage of Monroe's Bird Rights and go over the cap. I'd like to sign Kyle Lowry since he provides great PG defense and better spacing than Jennings. I don't think that Lance is an option because I suspect we'd have to wildly overpay him to get him to leave Larry Bird, and we should be developing KCP anyways. No point in splurging on Deng or Ariza if we've already got Dudley. He is an inferior player to those two, but he's on a reasonable deal. It should be fine to split the SF minutes between him and Singler.
If we get Lowry the next thing we should do is move Jennings. Bynum is already a serviceable backup PG, and he's getting a quarter of what Jennnings is getting. Plus he'd probably be a pain. The Knicks are the only team desperate enough to take Jennings, as he would be an upgrade over Felton, but I don't know if the Knicks are dumb enough to pair Jennings with Smith. Thus, to move Jennings I suggest that we swap him for JR Smith and Shumpert. We trade one knucklehead for another, but Smith is getting $3million less a year, and Shump is a very good wing defender who could really cause trouble paired with KCP IMO. We could always dump JR using the stretch provision.
Then the only thing left to do is hit the draft. I won't assume that we keep our pick. Let's jump straight to the second round. The guy who I like the most is shooting 60% from the field, grabbing 6.4 boards and blocking 1.3 shots in a major conference. You're looking at that statline and thinking PF or C, but this is a point guard. That's right, a guard who's shooting about as well as Drummond is from the field! An absolute freak! This kid is Delon Wright, a PG from Utah. He's incredibly efficient, one of the smartest shot-takers around. Steals are the best stat to correlate with NBA success, as they indicate BBIQ and/or athleticism, and he's averaging 2.5 per game. He's scoring those point on a high volume of shots, and averaging 5.3 assist to 2.8 TOs. He's an awful 3 point shooter (really ugly looking shooter too), but he's solid from the stripe, so there's hope for his shooting. Outside of his awful shot, his flaws are age (21), and carrying the scoring load for his team rather than being a distributor, but that sort of comes with carrying a garbage team. He shows good vision and should be able to run the point at the next level. He's tall at 6'5" and has a great wingspan, fantastic IQ, excellent athleticism...this guy has all of the tools to be an elite player and is projected as a low 2nd round pick. We could very easily get him!
Our final lineup?
Lowry/Wight/Bynum/Siva
KCP/Shump/Smith/Green
Dudley/Singler
Monroe/Ilyasova/Jerebko/Mitchell
Drumond/Jorts
If we can't rake if a free agent before Monroe, then fine we keep Jennings. We might lose our 2nd rounder next season and Mitchell, and Monroe might not develop. But even in this worse case scenario? We can trade Monroe for whatever and move Ilyasova into the starting lineup. He's a solid rebounder and shooter who can start.
Add a solid coach and that's a playoff team in the East, no problem. It's prettier basketball too, with smarter players and better spacing, not to mention better defense.
I think this could actually happen.
First, a four way trade.
Detroit out: Josh Smith
Detroit in: Dudley, Ilyasova, Green
Sacramento out: Thompson, Williams, Outlaw
Sacramento in: Josh Smith
Sacramento is the one team that really makes the sense for Josh Smith out of any team in the NBA. By some vodoo, the most notorious chucker Rudy Gay has been playing more efficiently than ever in his career. I don't know how, but if he can be reformed, so perhaps can Smith. Even if he doesn't stop shooting jumpers for good, he will hardly have the same opportunity to shoot that he has here. Cuz, Gay, and Thomas will be taking shots away from him, and he will shoot fewer 3's when playing PF. However, on the other end of the court, he provides defense, something sorely needed in Sacramento, and will still be able to stuff the stat-sheet with boards, blocks, steals and assists. This deal turns two backup PFs into a starting caliber one and provides some measure of immediate salary relief so that they have more room to sign Thomas.
LAC out: Jared Dudley, Willie Green
LAC in: Jason Thompson
The Clippers dump a pair of unneeded wings for a solid backup PF/C who they've been searching for all season. Pretty much all of their backup bigs are going to be free agents anyways, so this move provides them great depth where they need it.
Bucks out: Ersan Ilyasova
Bucks in: Derrick Williams, Travis Outlaw
Ersan is a long term contract who the Bucks don't need. They swap him out for expiring contracts.
Now, if some party feels like they need more, we could send our 2nd round pick to someone, or move Jerebko to Milwaukee and take on Terry. Sacramento gets more room, someone gets a second, Bucks get a decent PF to pretend they're going for a playoff berth.
Now, we've moved our big albatross in Smith. We then decline Chauncey's team option, and renounce our hold on free agents Charlie V and Stuckey. Assuming the cap increases to $62,100,000, we would then have $22,323,635 in cap space.
We can spend a good amount of that cap space on other free agents, so long as we get it done before we give Monroe his money. He'll probably get a max offer from somewhere, so we'll have to be quick negotiators if we want to take advantage of Monroe's Bird Rights and go over the cap. I'd like to sign Kyle Lowry since he provides great PG defense and better spacing than Jennings. I don't think that Lance is an option because I suspect we'd have to wildly overpay him to get him to leave Larry Bird, and we should be developing KCP anyways. No point in splurging on Deng or Ariza if we've already got Dudley. He is an inferior player to those two, but he's on a reasonable deal. It should be fine to split the SF minutes between him and Singler.
If we get Lowry the next thing we should do is move Jennings. Bynum is already a serviceable backup PG, and he's getting a quarter of what Jennnings is getting. Plus he'd probably be a pain. The Knicks are the only team desperate enough to take Jennings, as he would be an upgrade over Felton, but I don't know if the Knicks are dumb enough to pair Jennings with Smith. Thus, to move Jennings I suggest that we swap him for JR Smith and Shumpert. We trade one knucklehead for another, but Smith is getting $3million less a year, and Shump is a very good wing defender who could really cause trouble paired with KCP IMO. We could always dump JR using the stretch provision.
Then the only thing left to do is hit the draft. I won't assume that we keep our pick. Let's jump straight to the second round. The guy who I like the most is shooting 60% from the field, grabbing 6.4 boards and blocking 1.3 shots in a major conference. You're looking at that statline and thinking PF or C, but this is a point guard. That's right, a guard who's shooting about as well as Drummond is from the field! An absolute freak! This kid is Delon Wright, a PG from Utah. He's incredibly efficient, one of the smartest shot-takers around. Steals are the best stat to correlate with NBA success, as they indicate BBIQ and/or athleticism, and he's averaging 2.5 per game. He's scoring those point on a high volume of shots, and averaging 5.3 assist to 2.8 TOs. He's an awful 3 point shooter (really ugly looking shooter too), but he's solid from the stripe, so there's hope for his shooting. Outside of his awful shot, his flaws are age (21), and carrying the scoring load for his team rather than being a distributor, but that sort of comes with carrying a garbage team. He shows good vision and should be able to run the point at the next level. He's tall at 6'5" and has a great wingspan, fantastic IQ, excellent athleticism...this guy has all of the tools to be an elite player and is projected as a low 2nd round pick. We could very easily get him!
Our final lineup?
Lowry/Wight/Bynum/Siva
KCP/Shump/Smith/Green
Dudley/Singler
Monroe/Ilyasova/Jerebko/Mitchell
Drumond/Jorts
If we can't rake if a free agent before Monroe, then fine we keep Jennings. We might lose our 2nd rounder next season and Mitchell, and Monroe might not develop. But even in this worse case scenario? We can trade Monroe for whatever and move Ilyasova into the starting lineup. He's a solid rebounder and shooter who can start.
Add a solid coach and that's a playoff team in the East, no problem. It's prettier basketball too, with smarter players and better spacing, not to mention better defense.
I think this could actually happen.