Ell Curry wrote:I think there are 3 obvious routes to us being a genuine contender this year:
1. One of Siakam or OG makes a huge leap. Powell or Fred or Boucher could too but seems less likely.
2. One of Flynn, Davis, Watson or Thomas establishes himself as a guy who should play 25 minutes a night, allowing us to trade Norm, McCaw and/or Stanley and a sweetener for a front court starter, either a huge upgrade at centre (Miles Turner for example) or a guy who can play there as we go pace and space (Aaron Gordon, John Collins). This would kill our 2021 cap space and having the max to offer Giannis would necessitate trading Van Vleet before free agency or maybe it can be squeezed in (Gordon not Turner) if we trade sign and trade OG for a pick and shave a couple il elsewhere but there's not really an easy way to do that, even trading Davis or Thomas and getting only a future pick back saves like 0.5-1M per move. A move like Powell and a 1st for Wendell Carter Jr and Felicio's expiring contract gets us a centre and we keep 2021 max cap space for a Giannis or Kawhi offer, and the Bulls get an upgrade on the wing they can resign.
3. We trade for Harden or another disgruntled star.
2 seems the likeliest and is the have it all option in that we can compete and still go after Giannis/Kawhi have space for a decent plan B low 20s million signing of like an Oladipo or Gobert or say 20M for one year or two more of Lowry. Let's say Flynn and one of Watson/Davis are solid rotation guys and we flip Norm for Gordon(Norm to some team going for it out west like Denver and they send an expiring and a late first to Orlando) and add in a protected first, competing this year with a lineup of Gordon-Siakam-OG-VanVleet-Lowry with a bench of Boucher/Baynes/Watson/Davis/Thomas/Flynn and about 23M in cap space and if Giannis want to sign it means we can do it it just means flipping Van Vleet or Gordon and only take a pick or a guy making under 5M back in cap space to still have money for him, and I imagine that won't be too difficult, just might not bring us much value back if we've got the market knowing we're in a spot but hey, Van Vleet or Gordon to the Knicks or some team coming off a playoffs loss because they didn't have a guard or a strong enough starting 4 will be around and ready to offer something.
Great points. My thoughts on them.
1. I don’t think Siakam needs to make a huge leap, if he can consistently play like he did for 75% of the year (pre covid) we would have won Boston series. OG and FVV just need to add a little IMO (OG build on ball handling and staying consistent as a shooter, fvv has to be able to finish better, which will be tougher) Powell and Boucher can hopefully just add some more consistency don’t need to revolutionize their game I don’t think in anyway.
2. The trading powell topic is interesting. As it’s probably one of our best chances to improve (due to depth at sg and potentially sf if Watson can deliver (which is stretching Powell a bit thin at sr anyway )
I don’t think it’s going to happen though and I would hate to see playoff powell leave. Hopefully thomas, Davis, Watson, Flynn just show enough to give us great depth and/ or trade assets down the line.
3. Nice to dream. But I’m pretty skeptical. And I don’t want to tie everything to someone like harden anyway.
I think 1 is by far more likely. Like you stated 2 requires either getting someone that either ruins cap for 2021 or we are just renting them. Unless we can grab an expiring and what would probably be a rookie contract (which seems unlikely to me as powell is not locked up )
