RealGM

Coach? Free Agency? Draft?

If it was me.....

Coach: Although I am not a huge Paul Westphal fan, I have liked him more and more towards the end of the season. I would probably give him 1 more year to see what he could do with a better roster. This years team was young and they started out with some key injuries (Dally-no training camp, Tyrekes foot) and I am pretty happy with the way he kept the team fighting at the end of the season. With more talent and some roster tweaks he could be a lot better. The players obviously never quit on him and things have began to gel for sure.


Free Agency: First off, I would sign Dally and Thornton to good yet reasonable deals. I would pay these guys what they deserve but I would not overpay for either. Maybe for Thornton. It would be my first priority to get these guys signed.

I would then look into a couple different guys. IMO we need a better SF. Our frontcourt and backcourt rotations are pretty solid and should only get better. DMC, JT, Tyreke, and MT are young and only going to get better. Dally and Beno are solid as well and I really like the way they gel on this team and with their teammates. I love Cisco but he needs to come off the bench. His game is too vanilla to be a big minute starter moving forward. Omri and Donte are also good bench/roll players but would be better off trading IMO. I would look to upgrade the SF position by moderately going after Chandler, Kirlenko, J.Green, or Prince. I wouldn't overspend but I would look to try and get one of these guys. Whoever we get has to be a 2way basketball player that can score when needed but defend. We cant have a starting SF that is 1 dimensional.

Draft: It really depends on where we land in the lottery. I do not like this draft at all, except for a couple guys. My draftboard looks like this: Williams, Irving, Barnes, and maybe Kanter and Walker. If we did not land a top 3 pick, I would possibly trade the pick unless we were able to grab a SF in FA that we liked.

If we drafted Williams/Barnes: I would keep them. A DMC/Dally/Williams or Barnes/Thornton/Evans starting 5 with a JT/Beno/SF FA?/Cisco bench would be pretty awesome next year and for the long term. I would trade Omri or Donte for another PG (Pooh's minutes)

If we drafted Irving: This would actually put us in a pickle. Tyreke and Thornton should be starting and finishing games and with Irving on the team, that would put Tyreke at the SF position. I know the 3 guard lineup has worked in spurts but I dont think it would be effective full time. Tyreke would not be able to cover guys James, Durant, Carmello, and long term I think we would have issues. We would end up being a very small team. I also dont think Thornton should come off the bench. He is not a 6th man, this guy is a legit 20ppg starter. Me personally, I would explore the option to trade Tyreke in a blockbuster deal. Maybe a Evans/2012 first for Horford or Aldridge type deal. But to start next season we would run a DMC/Dally/Evans/Thornton/Irving starting 5 with Beno/JT/SF(FA)/Cisco bench. I would trade Omri or Donte for another PG (Pooh's minutes)

If we pick 4- I would package the pick along with either Omri/Donte, and Hassan and try and grab an elite SF. My targets are Granger, Iggy, Deng, or Gay. A DMC/Dally/SF(trade)/Thornton/Evans starting 5 with a Beno/JT/SF(FA)/Cisco bench. If for some reason we are unable to trade for one of these 4 guys, then I would probably draft Kanter or Walker. They could easily go into the rotation. DMC/Dally/SF(FA)/Thornton/Evans with a Beno/JT/Cisco/Kanter or Walker bench.


I think we could be a playoff team next year if everyone improves this summer and can start next season the way they ended this one. I trust that Petrie will do some good things this summer. That is of course if the Magoofs allow him to spend.


What would you guys do if you were in charge??

At this point in time, I'm thinking I want to trade the pick if Irving isn't there. I'd like to either trade it straight up for some veteran help (Granger is certainly a good idea) or trade down a little and take a Terrence Jones or somebody like that. It's hard to really predict too much here until we know where we are. I also was working on a 3-way trade a while ago with, essentially the Warriors getting our pick, the Hawks getting Ellis and us getting Josh Smith (it was more complicated than that though).

I will say that I don't think Thornton has to start. It doesn't mean he wouldn't still be hugely valuable to this team, but we could also use his scoring punch off the bench.

In terms of FA, I think our first priority should probably be re-signing Sam and Marcus. After we do that and sign our draft pick, I think we should still have somewhere around $10-12million in cap space. What we do with that should obviously depend on what happens at draft time. It's also possible that if we were to trade the pick, we would trade it straight up for a Granger, in which case, we'd really only have the space to re-sign Sam and Marcus--which I'd be okay with.

I don't know. I guess right now, I'm probably thinking too far ahead with this, but I guess that's kinda the point of threads like this. So I'm looking at it like we end up with either Irving or Granger.

So either
Irving\Udrih\Jeter
Evans\Thornton
Garcia\Casspi
Cousins\Greene\Jackson
Dalembert\Thompson\Whiteside

In which case I'd look to trade Beno, since there simply wouldn't be enough minutes for him in that 3-guard rotation. Something simple like trading him to Indiana straight up for James Posey, maybe with Indiana adding some value. And I'd trade one of our SFs for a future 1st or another big maybe.

The other scenario would be
Evans\Udrih
Thornton\Garcia
Granger\Casspi
Cousins\Greene
Dalembert\Thompson

Would still look to trade one of our SFs (at least) for another big or a future pick. I'd also look to maybe trade for a real floor general.

right now we are committed to 29 million next year. If we could get both Dally and Thornton for a combined 15 million, we would be around 45 mill. What is the actual cap?

Let's see how the draft process works out. I'd bet that trading down for T. Jones won't be possible, he's a top 6 or 7 player in this draft and should rise.

I agree we should focus on resigning Dally and Thornton and keep Westphal one more season.

This draft certainly does not have me very excited. However, trading the pick is something that is really hard to predict. Everyone throws Grangers name out there but I'm not sure he will be attainable. Remember we don't like this draft and it is likely other GM's dont like it either; meaning they won't give up real value for a pick in the 6-9 range.

I say we pick the best available player, give him a rookie and continue to save money and let our young guys improve. If we don't draft a 3 that should be our focus in FA.

What could get Whiteside and Cassspi? (Reasonably)

If possible, I would package the Kings 1st pick + Thompson + Omri for Josh Smith + Jeff Teague

PG - Evans/ Teague
SG - Thorton / Cisco
SF - Josh Smith / Donte
PF - DMC / Whiteside
C - Sammy

Josh Smith and Sammy would protect and patrol the Rims at all times! Imagine that!

If you put a guy at sf like smith who cant shoot from deep you have officially prevented ball movement in our starting li eup. Right now we are getti g good spacing because thorton and garcia work to spread the floor which vastly improvez our offensr. With out that spacing we dont have a decent offense at all.

For me its pretty simple this summer.

Fire westphal and bring in either adelmen who might be with the rockets after the season or look to eddie jordan. I think our current roster would be amazing in the princeton.

Step 2 the draft. Draft brandon knight. Our back court can make some room knight wont be forced to develop too quickly. I see him as jrue holiday 2.0. Eventually he backs up both guard positions at the end of benos time with the kings.

Resign thorton and dalembert.
Sign andrei kirilenko. The guy literally does it all. And can help spread the floor. His defense will also help to cover up a lot of mistakes.

Finally trade any of casspi, greene, garcia or beno that may no longer get playing time or that we want to move for financial reasons.

New rotation
Evans/beno
Thorton/knight
Kirilenko/ garcia
Cousins/jackson
Dalembert/thompson