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Feel free to merge this into the Trade thread. But this topic feels a bit different.

These days, the best way to add talent outside of hitting the lotto is to convince a disgruntled star under contract to essentially work in cahoots with you, and engineer a lopsided trade to your team.

Let's say Beal is satisfied with the team's direction, and is willing to work with Russ to slide into the DMs of disaffected stars in awkward situations in the hopes of convincing them to pout their way to DC. What would that list of potentially eligible stars look like?

I assume that stars on contender teams are content and unlikely to leave, and stars on rookie deals can't pout their way off, seeing as their franchise still has their RFA rights. We could always pay FMV for a solid talent like Denver did for Gordon, but it's clearly better to find a star who's willing to pressure things on their end as well.

So, who would you have Beal and Russ call first?

Ingram? Sabonis? KAT? Siakam? Anyone?

I think KAT would probably be the best fit. He could play PF alongside Gafford and slide over to center in crunch time. We just don't have the pieces. It would have to be something like Bertans, Bryant and Hachimura plus a zillion future picks.

If the Clippers flame out, I wonder how available Paul George would be?

I'm not too interested in guys like Ingram and Sabonis. If we're going to pay another max contract, it must be for a guy who is a good defender.

Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

Dat2U wrote:Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

I think Deni is going to be good. His feet move well, he has a nice shooting motion.

Why trade deni when he has the size and the skill to maybe be Christian wood down the line. And you already have him locked up. Wood can't stay healthy and there is something off about him I'm passing.

Dat2U wrote:Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

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nate33 wrote:I think KAT would probably be the best fit. He could play PF alongside Gafford and slide over to center in crunch time. We just don't have the pieces. It would have to be something like Bertans and Hachimura plus a zillion future picks.

If the Clippers flame out, I wonder how available Paul George would be?

I'm not too interested in guys like Ingram and Sabonis. If we're going to pay another max contract, it must be for a guy who is a good defender.

I like KAT as a basketball fit. But to pull this off, there has to be a relationship, too. It's my understanding that KAT is close to D'Angelo Russell, who he helped court to come to MIN. Of course, relationships can be fickle, as evidenced by the breakdown of the Russ+Harden partnership.

The problem is that Beal and Russ' natural peers/draft classmates have paired off for the most part.

I'd love to get Beal's "little brother" Tatum to force his way out of Boston. I think we're at least a year or two away from that happening. If Ainge gets fired this offseason, we have a chance.

Dat2U wrote:Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

Hmm. That could work. Wood signed in HOU, and was presumably fine with -- or even excited about -- playing with Westbrook. Houston's new regime has no interest in competing in the short term, and may be open to collecting future assets.

Any word whether Beal or Russ are social with Wood?

(note: I'll leave the merits of the actual trade package to the trade thread)

keynote wrote:Feel free to merge this into the Trade thread. But this topic feels a bit different.

I like this thread - it should be sticky for a while. They have proven they are a formidable tandem - if they can get somewhere during the playoffs I think they might have some success getting a vet to come here.

I'd like to see Kawhi Leonard who is in his final year at LAC, I believe. I dont know if we can use out bi-annual on him, or how best to acquire him.
Between Bryant, Gafford, Lopez and Len, we should be good at C. Of course, that means we re-sign Lopez and Len.
With Hachimura, Avdija, Gil, Bertans, and a newly signed Leonard, we should be set at SF and PF.
Neto deserves to be re-signed and back up Westbrook as the PG.
Re-sign Mathews as a backup to Beal for the SG spot.
We may have to trade/drop Winston, Hutchison, and Bonga, and get upgrades. I dont know if I want Ish Smith back either.

Dat2U wrote:Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

That is less of a woo and more of a flatout trade - then again, I guess if they could get him to request a trade.

Isn't the question, which FAs could Brad and Russ woo? Or who they could get to want to move to the Wiz. I guess both are interesting...

Could they get Kelly Olynyk to come here on the MLE?

dckingsfan wrote:

Dat2U wrote:Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

That is less of a woo and more of a flatout trade

Isn't the question, which FAs could Brad and Russ woo?

Or, rather, which stars *under contract* could our backcourt woo?

I don't care as much about FAs; we won't have max cap room during the Beal/Russ window. I want a guy to Harden/PG his way off his current team into our open arms.

I want Tatum to put on a fat suit. I want KAT to post passive aggressive subtweets until Minnesota gives up and trades him. I want Ingram to offer monosyllabic press conferences, while his cousin/barber/momager unfollows the Pels on IG and follows the Wiz and Ted.

But to get there, Beal and Russ need to start whispering sweet nothings in these guys' ears.
Etc.

keynote wrote:

dckingsfan wrote:

Dat2U wrote:Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

That is less of a woo and more of a flatout trade

Isn't the question, which FAs could Brad and Russ woo?

Or, rather, which stars *under contract* could our backcourt woo?

I don't care as much about FAs; we won't have max cap room during the Beal/Russ window. I want a guy to Harden/PG his way off his current team into our open arms.

I want Tatum to put on a fat suit. I want KAT to post passive aggressive subtests until Minnesota gives up and trades him. I want Ingram to offer monosyllabic press conferences, while his cousin/barber/momager unfollows the Pels on IG and follows the Wiz and Ted.

But to get there, Beal and Russ' need to start whispering sweet nothings in these guys' ears.
Etc.

Gotcha - I was just editing my post on that... but now I get your gist.

Christian Wood is not worth that much lol

So right now rui has 3ed guy potential but he's still growing deni if a rookie but still lots of potential. Right now Bertans and Thomas are our 3ed best players I'm gonna say it's a tie. They arnt good defenders. We need someone above those two. We have mid level money or trade. I don't see us as players for anyone better than those guys in the trade market only because we don't have any expendable contracts.

Otto porter could be that guy. But, he hasn't played more than 40 games since 2017. Also I don't know if he would wanna come back here. Now if he wants a prove it 2 year bi anuel type deal I'd go after him for sure cuz I can't see him getting more than mid level or min anywhere else.

We've talked about oladipo and I see someone wasting money on him cuz of what he use to be. Al la Chandler Parsons.

I don't see a way to derozen other than a sign and trade and we don't have the money to make it work with out getting the team.

Hardaway isn't a fit for us

The. You get into the olynyk, oubre, Zeller level guys.

I don't see many ways for use to get that third guy other than hoping Rui is it. I think we need to focus on adding depth good depth.

smoothSeph wrote:Christian Wood is not worth that much lol

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keynote wrote:

nate33 wrote:I think KAT would probably be the best fit. He could play PF alongside Gafford and slide over to center in crunch time. We just don't have the pieces. It would have to be something like Bertans and Hachimura plus a zillion future picks.

If the Clippers flame out, I wonder how available Paul George would be?

I'm not too interested in guys like Ingram and Sabonis. If we're going to pay another max contract, it must be for a guy who is a good defender.

I like KAT as a basketball fit. But to pull this off, there has to be a relationship, too. It's my understanding that KAT is close to D'Angelo Russell, who he helped court to come to MIN. Of course, relationships can be fickle, as evidenced by the breakdown of the Russ+Harden partnership.

The problem is that Beal and Russ' natural peers/draft classmates have paired off for the most part.

I'd love to get Beal's "little brother" Tatum to force his way out of Boston. I think we're at least a year or two away from that happening. If Ainge gets fired this offseason, we have a chance.

Good call on Tatum. Positional fit, solid defender. Excellent scorer who isn’t ball dominant. And besties with Beal.

But, how could we pull it off?

Russ and Beal already got Caleb MF'in Homesley to come here.

I don't think the C's are trading Tatum, under pretty much any circumstance.

What would Toronto want for Siakam? They are rebuilding, so some collection of Rui/Deni/picks might work. I think the first round pick owed to HOuston complicates any trade of first rounders, though.

Any chance Bryant could woo OG Anunoby? They went to Indiana together, and I noticed this photo of them together in Aug. 2018: . Are they friends?

It seems very unlikely, but might Toronto take a package of Deni + this year's pick + filler? Presumably they could get more than that for OG. I don't see them wanting Bertans. That just leaves Gafford and Rui as trade pieces. I don't think I would include Gafford in a deal, but I'd maybe consider it. Rui+Deni+Hutchison (filler) but no pick seems like a lot, but I'd probably do it. Though I don't think Toronto would. Still, that would be:

Westbrook/Neto/Winston
Beal/Matthews
Anunoby/???/Homesley
Bertans/Gill
Gafford/Bryant/Len

Plus 2021 FRP

JAR69 wrote:Any chance Bryant could woo OG Anunoby? They went to Indiana together, and I noticed this photo of them together in Aug. 2018:

Read on Twitter

. Are they friends?

It seems very unlikely, but might Toronto take a package of Deni + this year's pick + filler? Presumably they could get more than that for OG. I don't see them wanting Bertans. That just leaves Gafford and Rui as trade pieces. I don't think I would include Gafford in a deal, but I'd maybe consider it. Rui+Deni+Hutchison (filler) but no pick seems like a lot, but I'd probably do it. Though I don't think Toronto would. Still, that would be:

Westbrook/Neto/Winston
Beal/Matthews
Anunoby/???/Homesley
Bertans/Gill
Gafford/Bryant/Len

Plus 2021 FRP

Intriguing.

Basketball-wise, I think OG would bring some toughness, with the ability to defend multiple positions. I'd love to find a way to keep him and Rui -- although we'd need both of them to improve their J.

Leverage-wise, though, this one might be tough. OG just signed a 4-year extension last December. I'm not sure it's possible for him to make himself enough of a nuisance to get Toronto to trade him for pennies on the dollar.

Siakam, OTOH, while better, is making a lot more $. And, he becomes a UFA a year earlier. I don't know of any existing connection between Pascal and any of our guys, but it might be easier for him to take a proverbial dump on Ujiri's desk and bogart his way out of town.

gambitx777 wrote:Why trade deni when he has the size and the skill to maybe be Christian wood down the line. And you already have him locked up. Wood can't stay healthy and there is something off about him I'm passing.

Dat2U wrote:Deni, TB & our 1st for Christian Wood.

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.. because you need to move assets if you want to land a big fish, but that said, I wouldn't break the bank for Woods either.

There's also the matter of the conditional pick(s) Washington owes to Houston.

Unless Washington removes the protection it's going to be hard to send future draft picks to make up value.