rsavaj wrote:Just looking at the cap sheet again, clearing 15-17 mill(without trading Bledsoe) becomes difficult, but not impossible, if you don't move Markieff
Tucker: 5.5
Marcus: 5
Granger: 2.17
Goodwin: 1.16
Bullock: 1.17
puts you at 15. Releasing McNeal puts you at 16. Trading Leuer gives you 17.
SAC just got pilfered by PHI in exchange for a salary dump; if we go that route, Hinikie is gonna demand Warren, Goodwin, future picks, etc. Haywood's contract in CLE is a possibility, but they're going to be cautious about who they use it on.
Still...ASSUMING you can move those 5-7 guys, then you have a very interesting group:
Knight/?
Bledsoe/Booker?
Warren?/?
LMA/Markieff/Leuer(maybe?)
Len/Len
But then you have potentially 8 guys on the roster, and you need to add 5 more using the Dragic trade exception(which goes away if we don't operate as an above the cap team, AKA if we don't do a s/t with Dallas and another with Portland) plus the MLE(which also goes away if we're not an "over the cap" team. You can get two nice rotation guys for those exceptions.
Then you just need 3 end of the bench dudes for the vet min. Maybe bring Alec Brown up as a body to fill a roster spot, sign Ish Smith, get Amare...+your two exception guys, and you're okay.
So sign and trades, not salary dumps, are the way to go.
Gosh, too many moving parts.
I think the Suns will be dealing Markieff. I understand why it makes basketball sense to keep him, but I'm pretty sure that the Twins are a package deal. He'd be a great bench PF, but with LMA's stated desire to play mostly (if not all) at the 4, and he's averaged 35mpg for his career, that leaves maybe 20mpg for Markieff, which I doubt he'd be happy with.
