deNIEd wrote:*The new quote is annoying, it keeps all of the old quotes and gets too long/messy*
Mitch - Like Cruel just said, it takes a raping deal to get something done. They may come around once a year, or once every 2-3 years, but I really don't think its worth banking on getting a deal like that. You can't expect to be able to pull of a Gasol for Kwame deal as part of your franchises' rebuilding plan. It just doesn't work out like that, otherwise every team would be amazing.
Because being under the cap is extremely helpful. (About Brad). Look at Seattle and what being under the cap did for them with the Kurt Thomas deal. They were still under the cap, and netted 4 picks. Perhaps if we were under the cap this year, we could make a run at a player like Josh Smith or Jose Calderon. You never know. Its extremely unlikely any team will give a lopsided trade for Miller. Keeping Miller does nothing at all. We have three young bigs, Hawes, Sheldon, Thompson, all who require minutes. Miller will most likely be a little shy of 1/3 of the total minutes for our PF/C rotations. Throw in Moore and you are looking at near 60% of our total rotational minutes. Like you've said, a player like Miller/Artest isn't going to take sitting on the bench very well at all.
I think, it also comes down to the priorities of the team. Currently, its not to win. Currently its to develop our young players, Garcia/Martin/Hawes/Sheldon/Thompson/Singletary/Quincy/Ewing as much as we can, in the shortest time possible.
Say 2 years from now comes along, and a big name FA may possibly look at Sacramento, unless he sees a team that he believes he can win with, he won't be coming unless our young players are developed.
I agree that you can't really rely on an awesome trade--just like you can't rely on finding a franchise player through the draft. Both are total crapshoots. But at least if you look to acquire talent via trade, you won't suck so much afterwards.
But being under the cap isn't really worth it unless you are significantly under the cap. Like we could possibly get a decent amount of capspace for next summer if we dump Brad, but will that really be worth using when we could otherwise have a ton of capspace the year after? Yeah there are deals like the Kurt Thomas ones, but those aren't exactly common.
And the rest of your argument goes to an argument I've had with SKZZZ a million times--that giving a player a ton of playing time does not necessarily help him that all that much. There's a reason that players don't improve that much throughout a season usually--true player improvement and development happens over the summer. If the player is ready to contribute, then he should get time. But if the guy hasn't put in the work to improve his game, he shouldn't get entitlement minutes just because he's young. That can hurt his work ethic.
Kevin Martin is a perfect example of a guy that didn't get "development minutes" when he first came into the league. But he took that as a sign that he needed to improve. So he worked his butt off, and eventually, his opportunity came. And with Spencer last year--he didn't get minutes because "oh he's our lottery pick, so we have to give him minutes!" He got minutes because he was our 3rd best big off the bench.
It's not like these guys are trying to get minutes over Tim Duncan here. Mikki isn't all that great of a player. And I'd say the starting PF spot is up for grabs right now. The point is though that I think working for a players' playing time is what separates the men from the boys. Some guys take the challenge and work their butts off (Kevin), and become contributors in this league, and some don't. But I can name a bunch of players in this league that got all of the "development" minutes in the world, and failed because they never had to develop any kind of work ethic.