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Let's assume that the draft has Sacramento drafting 2, 3, or 4. (Something that could get revisited once the draft actually happens....)

Is there a player that's currently in the league that it would make sense for the Kings to trade basically straight across for the pick? Not to say that there might not be other pieces involved but the majority of the value in the deal would be the Kings Lotto pick for Player X.

The player would have to be fairly young, and the team currently having him would have to be willing to give him up. (Brook Lopez has been mentioned by some before but I don't see the Nets letting go of him unless he told them he wouldn't resign, which is a possibility)

I would be inclined to say it would have to be a post player, although others might disagree.

Which player(s) do you think it might make sense for Sacramento to offer their lotto pick for?

I can understand the Brook Lopez hype to a degree but I'd take Wall, Turner, Cousins, Johnson, or Aldrich over him without a second thought. Lotto picks in a trade is tough, whatever team has a proven young talent would have no reason to trade them for another unproven young talent. Out of the potentially available players out there I'd consider trading that pick for Danny Granger, Andre Iguodala, Hasheem Thabeet, or Al Jefferson.

^^
Granger, Iggy & Jefferson I can all see arguments for.
Thabeet has bust written all over him in my mind, would much rather keep the pick than even consider him.

SacKingZZZ wrote:I can understand the Brook Lopez hype to a degree but I'd take Wall, Turner, Cousins, Johnson, or Aldrich over him without a second thought. Lotto picks in a trade is tough, whatever team has a proven young talent would have no reason to trade them for another unproven young talent. Out of the potentially available players out there I'd consider trading that pick for Danny Granger, Andre Iguodala, Hasheem Thabeet, or Al Jefferson.

Well, that's insane.

SacKingZZZ wrote:I can understand the Brook Lopez hype to a degree but I'd take Wall, Turner, Cousins, Johnson, or Aldrich over him without a second thought. Lotto picks in a trade is tough, whatever team has a proven young talent would have no reason to trade them for another unproven young talent. Out of the potentially available players out there I'd consider trading that pick for Danny Granger, Andre Iguodala, Hasheem Thabeet, or Al Jefferson.

Danny Granger, Iguodala, Bynum (hurts to say), Bogut, Lopez

Because of Iguodala's contract, he's definitely not worth a top 5 pick. Also, no way I trade our pick for Bynum, either. His injury concerns are too much to ignore.

mitchweber wrote:

SacKingZZZ wrote:I can understand the Brook Lopez hype to a degree but I'd take Wall, Turner, Cousins, Johnson, or Aldrich over him without a second thought. Lotto picks in a trade is tough, whatever team has a proven young talent would have no reason to trade them for another unproven young talent. Out of the potentially available players out there I'd consider trading that pick for Danny Granger, Andre Iguodala, Hasheem Thabeet, or Al Jefferson.

Well, that's insane.

No, not really. Ever heard of the term "overinflated". I think there's a strong argument that Lopez' numbers are in fact slightly overinflated. I'd put him on par with a Chris Kaman type, not bad, but I wouldn't trade the potential involved with those others. Lopez is a decent all around player but isn't really great in one particular area and is less mobile and athletic than any of the bigs at the top of this draft. The one area he might be the best in is his post offense which I don't think is of the utmost greatest importance for this team with some of the other pieces we have available at the moment.

I would trade the pick for Bynum in a millisecond... he might have had a few injuries but all the Kings-Lakers **** aside, Andrew Bynum is a BEAST and I would easily trade for him, but I'd also try to get Shannon Brown and mix some pieces here and there.

Draino wrote:I would trade the pick for Bynum in a millisecond... he might have had a few injuries but all the Kings-Lakers **** aside, Andrew Bynum is a BEAST and I would easily trade for him, but I'd also try to get Shannon Brown and mix some pieces here and there.

Bynum hasn't played more than 65 games in the last 3 years and you want to trade a top 5 pick for him? No thanks. He clearly has knee problems, and it's only going to get worse. Plus, there's the whole motivation issue, and the fact that he's played with All-Stars his entire NBA career.

Heck I'd trade the #1 pick if the offer was good enough, like a superstar type player.

IF we get Wall or Turner I wouldn't trade the pick, but if we get the 3rd... I'd MUCH rather have a Bynum for 65 games than either Favors or Cousins....

I agree with those that say that Bynum's red flags are just too large too trade the pick for him.

Draino wrote:IF we get Wall or Turner I wouldn't trade the pick, but if we get the 3rd... I'd MUCH rather have a Bynum for 65 games than either Favors or Cousins....

Disagreed. Favors or Cousins could be the next KG or Howard for all we know. Bynum has never been anything but an injured player who plays behind Kobe and Gasol. Great player, but not worth our pick.

SacKingZZZ wrote:I can understand the Brook Lopez hype to a degree but I'd take Wall, Turner, Cousins, Johnson, or Aldrich over him without a second thought. Lotto picks in a trade is tough, whatever team has a proven young talent would have no reason to trade them for another unproven young talent. Out of the potentially available players out there I'd consider trading that pick for Danny Granger, Andre Iguodala, Hasheem Thabeet, or Al Jefferson.

The only two players I would not trade for Brook Lopez are Wall and Turner. While Cousins, Johnson, and Aldrich, to a point, all have potential I would rather have the much greater potential in Lopez.

SacKingZZZ wrote:
No, not really. Ever heard of the term "overinflated". I think there's a strong argument that Lopez' numbers are in fact slightly overinflated. I'd put him on par with a Chris Kaman type, not bad, but I wouldn't trade the potential involved with those others. Lopez is a decent all around player but isn't really great in one particular area and is less mobile and athletic than any of the bigs at the top of this draft. The one area he might be the best in is his post offense which I don't think is of the utmost greatest importance for this team with some of the other pieces we have available at the moment.

I don't even know what his numbers are. I'm basing it off of watching the guy play. I would say he's like a Chris Kaman, but with a considerably higher basketball IQ--which is really a perennial all-star.

You can argue about Wall and Turner (although I'd definitely rather have Lopez for this team), but looking into the others, I just don't really see the debate.

Cousins is certainly arguably more talented and arguably has a higher ceiling. But you know what Lopez is? A proven rock solid, damn good Center in the NBA without character problems, AND unlike a couple of the leagues other young centers, he doesn't have any injury problems as of right now.

At the risk of applying denIED-esque logic to this, on a scale of 1-10 as an over all player at his given position, IMO Lopez is a clear 9 for a long time. I also think he can adequately anchor both ends of the floor. Cousins has potential to be a 10, but with his concerns and the simple fact that most players just don't reach their potential, that's probably not happening. He probably won't be as good as Lopez, and on top of that, will likely have his own character concerns.

Favors - Even more so a guy who is mostly potential at this point. And again, Lopez is proven to be a very solid full-sized center in this league. Most teams would be thrilled to have their guy turn out to be as good as Lopez is. You can argue that post offense isn't as important with Tyreke. I would in turn argue that unless you have an all-time elite defense, post offense is always important. Fortunately, Tyreke is working on his jumper, and Lopez already has a very nice mid-range jumper to spread the floor when Tyreke is the main option on a given play.

Aldrich - Okay, this is getting ridiculous. If Aldrich reaches his potential, he'll be a bit better than Lopez defensively. We're comparing, in that sense a very strong defensive anchor to a strong defensive anchor. The issue is still of course that Lopez will very clearly be miles better offensively than Aldrich.

Johnson - I like Johnson too. But we're talking about a future role player at SF here against one of the league's best centers for a long time. This really shouldn't be a debate.

I'm tired of everyonetalking about how limited aldrich will be on offense. If you look back at lopez in college for lopez they are so similar as far as their offensive games go. In fact looking at then scouting reports the same language is uses to describe both players. They were both described as a little akward with a lack of a smooth offensive game. They both were described as having a couple nice moves but mostly relying on easy baskets and put backs to obtain their scoring opportunities. Ifully expect aldrich to be very similar to lopez offensively and to potentially be better defensively.

His footwork in the post is superb and his post game is starting to become highly efficient ... He employs an effective hook shot as well as the ability to step out and hit shots facing the basket ... But to his credit he is not overly enamored with drifting away from the basket and focuses on using his size, strength and touch to score easy baskets in the paint ... Though the mechanics on his shot aren't pretty, they are effective ... A bigman who runs the floor well and can finish on the break ... Shows excellent coordination with the ability to convert plays in both the half court and on the break.

That's a discription of aldrich. Sounds a lot like lopez although lopez is much more polished now and has more total skill than when he 1st came into the league. Aldrich i fullynexpect to be an average offensive player and a devestating force on defense. If we fall outmof the top 4 he is clearynthe best possible guy for us.

I'm expecting him to come into the league and average 8pts 9rbs 1.6blk his 1st season and expect bynthe time he hits his prime to be a 16pt 11rbs 2.5blk kind of guy. He is perfect for us if we don't get a shot at favors or cousins.

My best comparison would be a bigger better version of Joakim Noah with better offense.

Well, no. First off, Lopez was very much heralded for his offense coming into the league, and rightfully so--he was a main option on Stanford while Aldrich was merely an opportunistic scorer at Kansas. Just because they are criticized for the same thing doesn't mean they're comparable in terms of actual ability offensively. Shaq and Ben Wallace could both be criticized for their poor outside shooting abilities. Now that's a more extreme example, but the principle of it totally still applies. He was known as a very skilled offensive player in the post. Aldrich just isn't.

I mean you can look no further than their comparisons - Chris Kaman and a rich man's Joel Przybilla. Now the accuracy of those comparisons is certainly debatable, but the fact remains that this is how they were/are seen.

And aside from all of this, lest we forget, Lopez is a proven player, and Aldrich is not.

My point is that aldrich is going to be much better on offense than people are giving him credit for. He may not be the offensive force that lopez but he is far from the guy with zero offensive ability that some paint him as.

chriswebb86 wrote:The only two players I would not trade for Brook Lopez are Wall and Turner. While Cousins, Johnson, and Aldrich, to a point, all have potential I would rather have the much greater potential in Lopez.

Depends on what you want or need. For instance while Lopez has more potential in an overall sense, he doesn't have the defensive and rebounding potential that Aldrich does. Johnson has a ton of intriguing assets at the SF spot and I think Cousins could potentially be just as good if not better than Lopez at just about everything Lopez does plus do things Lopez can't.