Hard to Believe Ainge will Make any Move Soon Trade Thread

[Bill Lumbergh]

Everybody likes Harrison Barnes and thinks he'd be a great fit, but the same reasons that we like him make me wonder why Sac would have any interest in dumping him. My guess is they have no interest at all of getting rid of him.

Because the Kings are 5-9, second to last in their conference. He's signed for 3 years at about $20M/per year which isn't a small chunk of change. Bad teams moving their higher priced players for assets is usually the starting point for a lot of trade talks. It just makes logical sense.

Maybe, but he's only 28, and pretty good. They've been a lottery team forever. They are not over the salary cap, so obviously not close to the luxury tax. To me it does not make sense unless you think they should dump good, not old players in order to get a better draft pick. My guess would be that they've been in the lottery for so long that they don't want to do that. To take him into our TPE, what would we send out that would entice them to do that? Our picks are going to be in the mid twenties for the foreseeable future.

[Ernest]

As a general note I don't get why we get so fired up about who the 15th man is. I'm not a big Carsen guy either, but every team has a couple guys at the end of the bench who aren't very good and rarely play. The 15th man is not going to make a difference no matter who it is.

the point is, if you're going to have a 12-15th man who doesn't play, why not have that be someone with potential? Someone with elite traits who might develop into a great player with some good coaching and work ethic. Guys that have elite size, length, and athleticism.

The 2014, 2016 and 2019, and 2020 drafts are perfect examples of Danny's failure in this regard

In 2014 he took James Young over Jerami Grant and Jokic who both went in the 2nd.
In 2016 he took Yabusele and Zizic over Dejounte Murray, Siakam and Brogdon
In 2016 he took Williams over Bazley and Edwards over Bol and Roby
In 2020 he traded the 30th pick rather than draft Bane, Maledon, Woodard II, Stanley, Mane, Joe or Reed

It's just asinine really to waste these opportunities. And for what? So he can keep guys like Mickey, Hunter, Young, Edwards, and Semi? It's 100% because if he WAS to take any of them he'd be admitting his draft mistakes. It's hubris. I know this word triggers his fans which always makes me chuckle, but it's true.

Danny apologists hand wave away roster spots 12-15 and are okay with guys in those spots that don't have size/athleticsm for their positions instead of guys that do who have higher upside. It makes no sense and is kind of a transparent defense of their boy Danny. Always take the longer better athlete when you're in the late 1st and in the 2nd round. If Danny did that not only would our starting lineup be better because many of the guys he should have taken developed into great starters, but the bench would be incredible and we'd have so much ammunition in trades.

Another post where someone bothers to write down every pick on every year and who we should have got. Why not just make a sticky called nonsense and save yourselves some time. At this point who are you convincing?

[Ernest]

Anyone here watched DMC at all this year? Does his career have another act?

[FlatearthZorro]

Everybody likes Harrison Barnes and thinks he'd be a great fit, but the same reasons that we like him make me wonder why Sac would have any interest in dumping him. My guess is they have no interest at all of getting rid of him.

Because the Kings are 5-9, second to last in their conference. He's signed for 3 years at about $20M/per year which isn't a small chunk of change. Bad teams moving their higher priced players for assets is usually the starting point for a lot of trade talks. It just makes logical sense.

Maybe, but he's only 28, and pretty good. They've been a lottery team forever. They are not over the salary cap, so obviously not close to the luxury tax. To me it does not make sense unless you think they should dump good, not old players in order to get a better draft pick. My guess would be that they've been in the lottery for so long that they don't want to do that. To take him into our TPE, what would we send out that would entice them to do that? Our picks are going to be in the mid twenties for the foreseeable future.

Their owner is kinda cheap and clueless tho. So you can add that to the reasons why they could trade Harrison.

[Jacobkowal]

Aaron Gordon only shooting 6-18 against the Knicks, but is +15 in a seven point loss. Let's get him and ship off Theis or Thompson to still stay under the tax.

Walker / Pritchard / Teague
Brown / Smart
Tatum / Langford
Gordon / Semi / Grant
RWIII / Thompson (Prefers Theis) / Grant

[Triple7]

Aaron Gordon only shooting 6-18 against the Knicks, but is +15 in a seven point loss. Let's get him and ship off Theis or Thompson to still stay under the tax.

Walker / Pritchard / Teague
Brown / Smart
Tatum / Langford
Gordon / Semi / Grant
RWIII / Thompson (Prefers Theis) / Grant

That’s a good starting lineup. Plus Smart is better off the bench.

[La Flame]

Anyone here watched DMC at all this year? Does his career have another act?

Looks cooked. Really sad because on the Kings Pelicans he was the best C in the league

[cl2117]

Got into an argument about Westbrook's value vs. Kemba's. What's the draft pick difference between the two?

Ignore for a second whether the Celtics would actually do it. Just pretend the swap has already been decided and we're just figuring out draft comp to make it square.

Both signed for 3 more years with player options for the third year. Russ on average makes an extra $8m. Kemba is a year and half younger, but more of an injury concern with the knee.

I'd call it two late firsts heading to Boston. RWB offensive efficiency is dying, but he's a way better defender and facilitator.

[Asian Celtic]

Me when I saw KPJ available.

[cl2117]

I was messing around on the trade machine and had complete forgotten that we also have two other trade exceptions outside of the massive one for Hayward. One for Kanter and one for Poirer:

Hayward: $28.5m
Kanter: $4.7m
Poirer: $2.5m

They're relatively small in comparison, but still could fit in a guy without having to move any rotation players. Just looking at Cleveland McGee and Kevin Porter Jr. both would fit in. Neither would be guys I'm incredibly interested in, but nice to know we could land a cheap piece without having to dig into the massive Hayward TPE.

No reason for Orlando to move him, but I really liked what I saw from Khem Birch. Garret Temple and Denzel Valentine from Chicago are decent wing options that are expiring. Also if Sacramento completely falls off the West playoff hunt and doesn't move Bagley, maybe they'll move Whiteside?

[Fencer reregistered]

Aaron Gordon only shooting 6-18 against the Knicks, but is +15 in a seven point loss. Let's get him and ship off Theis or Thompson to still stay under the tax.

Walker / Pritchard / Teague
Brown / Smart
Tatum / Langford
Gordon / Semi / Grant
RWIII / Thompson (Prefers Theis) / Grant

That’s a good starting lineup. Plus Smart is better off the bench.

Can Gordon score in the same few scenarios that Semi can?

[jmr07019]

The question with Gordon, for me anyways, is will he buy in to be a defense first role player. Orlando was trying to play him as an offensive fulcrum which failed. Is Aaron still clinging to that idea? Will he embrace being a 4th option? If the answer is yes I think he would be very good for us even with the crappy shooting.

[FlatearthZorro]

The question with Gordon, for me anyways, is will he buy in to be a defense first role player. Orlando was trying to play him as an offensive fulcrum which failed. Is Aaron still clinging to that idea? Will he embrace being a 4th option? If the answer is yes I think he would be very good for us even with the crappy shooting.

I think he's fully capable of scoring 16-17 pts and getting between 8 and 10 boards a game.

[jmr07019]

We should go after Randle. Miami series exposed how poor our centers. It hasn't been fixed yet. Thompson brings offensive rebounding but that's about it. Theis is still limited and best as a backup. Rob looks good but if Stevens isn't gonna play him 25+ mpg it doesn't matter. Center is the easiest piece of the starting line up to upgrade.

Randle will make our offense significantly better. It is too easy for teams to trap our ball handler and live with the Celtics center trying to beat them. Sure Rob may get a dunk and Theis might hit the occasional 3 but over the course of a series against an elite team it's not good enough. Randle changes things dramatically. Space the floor and run a PnR and Randle would be deadly attacking either a switch or a scrambling defense. He averages 6 apg right now so he can pass the ball if the defense collapses. He's shooting 35% on 3's on 4 attempts per game so he can stretch the D.

Defensively Randle has the same quickness as Theis with a little more size to bang inside. After a little time in our system he would be just as good as Theis defensively if not better.

He just turned 26 so he can be part of our core for the 5+ years and grow with Tatum, Brown, Smart and PP. Signed for next year at 20 million.

Send Nesmith or Langford and our 2021 first to the Knicks. They get 2 assets but more importantly an extra 20 million in cap space next summer.

Spoiler:

I'm not 100% sold on Randle specifically the defensive bit but I do believe the part I wrote about our lack of offense at the center position being a problem. We've discussed Harrison Barnes and the Orlando guys ad nauseum so why not mix it up a bit.

[FlatearthZorro]

To me the 2 most realistic targets who are on good long contracts are:

Vucevic
Barnes

I think Gordon still has more value around the league probably. Randle is fool's gold. Dude is a scoring undersized center and wouldn't help us much.

[jmr07019]

The question with Gordon, for me anyways, is will he buy in to be a defense first role player. Orlando was trying to play him as an offensive fulcrum which failed. Is Aaron still clinging to that idea? Will he embrace being a 4th option? If the answer is yes I think he would be very good for us even with the crappy shooting.

I think he's fully capable of scoring 16-17 pts and getting between 8 and 10 boards a game.

He's been between 15-17 ppg for the last 4 years so he can score some but he has a 53% TS for his career. Never cracked 55% TS on a season. Can he adapt his game to become more efficient playing off of better players? Is he content to let other guys initiate the offense or not?

Worst case scenario is Gordon plays like the chucker version of Marcus Smart or Marcus Morris and I don't want that guy.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

Not that it would happen, and I am not a fan of Westbrook but I would trade him for Walker. Walker is Irving level bad at D and I don't have a ton of confidence in his knee.

[BK_2020]

Harrison Barnes is horrible. If he's making $5 mil. a year he might be good for 10-15 mins off the bench but it's basically cap-suicide to tie up $20mil on someone of Barnes' calibre for three years.

[Ernest]

Wonder what it would take to get Crowder back. I've yet to hear a name that I think would provide what we need more, a tough nosed big 3. Too bad he is on the Suns who should be good. So you have to figure we'd have to give more than fair value as they would not be looking to trade him. So what would an over pay that's not just silly look like? Romeo or Langford plus Carson or Waters( or Tako) plus a late first and 2nd?

[cl2117]

If we're going for Barnes we should see if they'll kick in Whiteside as well. He's on a 1 year min deal with them and was a beast last year in Portland when he was healthy. Would give us a legit 7 footer.