SAC + MIN

[funkatron101]

Cousins would start at Center immediately, not Darko...he's not a PF with that girth and wingspan.

The best and most realistic option is draft Cousins and trade Al and whatever it takes to the Kings for Wes Johnson. If Kahn isn't smart enough to figure that out, he is a failure.

4 and 5 are offensively interchangeable in the triangle. It's on the defensive side that the C/PF difference is important. Darko and Cousins' size would match up great vs. the Lakers, and we'd be able to beat teams to a pulp. You can never, ever have too much size.

I would take back Nocioni and trade Al, Love, or Flynn for 5, along with a smaller asset if necessary. I really think Johnson doesn't get past GS at 6, which is why trades of Al or Love for picks in the 7-11 range don't make much sense to me because the value in that range is pretty much all PF's and Aldrich and Aminu (who I don't like at all on the wolves).

Love gets more value than Al because of Al's contract and injury concerns.

Love/23/Gomes for Nocioni/5 (what you proposed on the Kings board) is completely absurd and makes no sense.

That is far FAR worse than Al for Prince + 7.

[revprodeji]

Darko would fit fine with Cousins. Remember, Darko fit well with Al and he fit well with Howard.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Wolves were as suck as they've ever been w/ Darko/BigAl getting the lions share of minutes, I don't give them a "fit well" pass, I demand more than that

[funkatron101]

Wolves were as suck as they've ever been w/ Darko/BigAl getting the lions share of minutes, I don't give them a "fit well" pass, I demand more than that

Yeah, if it actually translated into a few more wins, then I would believe it. Right now they just like each other's game. That's not enough.

[younggunsmn]

Cousins would start at Center immediately, not Darko...he's not a PF with that girth and wingspan.

The best and most realistic option is draft Cousins and trade Al and whatever it takes to the Kings for Wes Johnson. If Kahn isn't smart enough to figure that out, he is a failure.

4 and 5 are offensively interchangeable in the triangle. It's on the defensive side that the C/PF difference is important. Darko and Cousins' size would match up great vs. the Lakers, and we'd be able to beat teams to a pulp. You can never, ever have too much size.

I would take back Nocioni and trade Al, Love, or Flynn for 5, along with a smaller asset if necessary. I really think Johnson doesn't get past GS at 6, which is why trades of Al or Love for picks in the 7-11 range don't make much sense to me because the value in that range is pretty much all PF's and Aldrich and Aminu (who I don't like at all on the wolves).

Love gets more value than Al because of Al's contract and injury concerns.

Love/23/Gomes for Nocioni/5 (what you proposed on the Kings board) is completely absurd and makes no sense.

That is far FAR worse than Al for Prince + 7.

That is probably what it would take to get to 5, take off your homer glasses.

7 does us no good if the player we want is gone and we are left with a bunch of PF's and C's,
if the Pistons don't laugh at us and hang up when considering Al's contract and the plethora of PF/C prospects available at 7.

Love has more value than Al only because of his contract. Being halfway through your rookie deal makes you quite a bit less valuable than the 5th overall pick when considering the same level of talent.

Do you know how hard a 3-way trade is to work on draft day? Ask Kahn how it worked out last year when he tried to manuever to grab james johnson to finish out the flynn/tyreke deal. Having a trade contingent on players falling to a pick you are going to trade is very risky business.

[funkatron101]

Dude. Miller and Foye got us the #5, some expirings and a much smaller 2 year contract that we quickly flipped.

We gave up less talent, and got back less financial burden.

[cpfsf]

Darko would fit fine with Cousins. Remember, Darko fit well with Al and he fit well with Howard.

So can "The Big Ticket" play power forward or would Darko and Cousins just switch roles on offense and defense?

[shangrila]

Darko would fit fine with Cousins. Remember, Darko fit well with Al and he fit well with Howard.

Maybe, but that'd make Darko a PF and he's not the type you want in a running game.

[revprodeji]

Shangrilla,

Could you explain to me what the offensive differences are between the 4 and the 5 in this offense? My understanding was that they are interchangeable.

Defensively it could be great. Tons of size and shot blocking ability.

Offensively, Cousins was in a system based on reaction so I think he could pick up the offense quickly. It is not dribble drive, but the passing and reaction is a similar style of offense. I have no idea about his high post ability or his passing ability, but he has soft hands, looks for the ball and presents himself as a target. He scores quickly and gets to the line with unbelievable EFF. Darko works very well in the high post and is clearly a good passer. I think they would compliment each other very well.

[shangrila]

Shangrilla,

I have to say this, and it's not personal because everyone does it, but my name only has 1 L. Every time I see it with two I think you're talking about a new George Foreman thing.

Could you explain to me what the offensive differences are between the 4 and the 5 in this offense? My understanding was that they are interchangeable.

Defensively it could be great. Tons of size and shot blocking ability.

Offensively, Cousins was in a system based on reaction so I think he could pick up the offense quickly. It is not dribble drive, but the passing and reaction is a similar style of offense. I have no idea about his high post ability or his passing ability, but he has soft hands, looks for the ball and presents himself as a target. He scores quickly and gets to the line with unbelievable EFF. Darko works very well in the high post and is clearly a good passer. I think they would compliment each other very well.

See, this depends on what offence you're talking about. If you're talking about the Triangle then yeah they'd work well since they've got roughly similar skill sets to the two LA bigs who do well over there. But from what I can see the team doesn't run the Triangle enough to build around it and they want to focus on a running game, which means having two slowish guys like Darko and Cousins could hurt them. Someone like Anthony Randolph, Ekpe Udoh, guys like that would be a better option IMO, atleast for a running game.

[C.lupus]

Shangrilla,

I have to say this, and it's not personal because everyone does it, but my name only has 1 L. Every time I see it with two I think you're talking about a new George Foreman thing.

I'm sure nobody means anything by it but I know how you feel. I've seen my user name spelled about 12 different ways on the forums here. Doesn't really bother me though.

[younggunsmn]

Dude. Miller and Foye got us the #5, some expirings and a much smaller 2 year contract that we quickly flipped.

We gave up less talent, and got back less financial burden.

We took back more salary on that deal, we just screwed another team and dumped it on them (Songalia).

That trade was one of the most lopsided in the last 5 years. It was a situation where we had the team by the balls financially and they were deluded into thinking 2 offense-only players in the final year of their deals would make their no-defense team a contender. Everyone knew at the time it was a ripoff and it's only gotten worse. To expect to be able to make that type of trade again is foolish. The stars were completely aligned. 1. Luxury Tax Hell. 2. Deluded GM

Petrie is a smart GM. Sacramento has a better cap situation than we do. None of our assets fits perfectly with what they want to do. We have more incentive to trade for their pick than they do to take what we are offering. We may have to overpay (slightly) to make a deal happen. Which is exactly the reaction I got on their board. They said it would be a very hard deal to turn down, but some would still not do it because they didn't like the fit of Love next to their soft big men.
I think Love/Gomes for Nocioni/5 is as close to fair value as we're going to come.
Sure, Al/23 for Nocioni/5 is better value on our end, but that deal doesn't work until July 1.
Plus they'd be trading us raw cap space, and we all know how valuable that is.
We'd have to take something like nocioni and garcia to make it work on draft day, and that is just horrible.

[funkatron101]

Dude. Miller and Foye got us the #5, some expirings and a much smaller 2 year contract that we quickly flipped.

We gave up less talent, and got back less financial burden.

We took back more salary on that deal, we just screwed another team and dumped it on them (Songalia).

That trade was one of the most lopsided in the last 5 years. It was a situation where we had the team by the balls financially and they were deluded into thinking 2 offense-only players in the final year of their deals would make their no-defense team a contender. Everyone knew at the time it was a ripoff and it's only gotten worse. To expect to be able to make that type of trade again is foolish. The stars were completely aligned. 1. Luxury Tax Hell. 2. Deluded GM

Petrie is a smart GM. Sacramento has a better cap situation than we do. None of our assets fits perfectly with what they want to do. We have more incentive to trade for their pick than they do to take what we are offering. We may have to overpay (slightly) to make a deal happen. Which is exactly the reaction I got on their board. They said it would be a very hard deal to turn down, but some would still not do it because they didn't like the fit of Love next to their soft big men.
I think Love/Gomes for Nocioni/5 is as close to fair value as we're going to come.
Sure, Al/23 for Nocioni/5 is better value on our end, but that deal doesn't work until July 1.
Plus they'd be trading us raw cap space, and we all know how valuable that is.
We'd have to take something like nocioni and garcia to make it work on draft day, and that is just horrible.

What if it is Love/Gomes/Hollins/#23 for Nocioni/5?

Waiving Gomes helps offset the cost of taking Hollins.

Or Love/Hollins/Sessions for Nocioni/Greene/#5?

I just have a real tough time with the idea of moving Love AND taking back undesirable salary just for the #5. Love is a very productive player, proven and still cheap. As much as I like Johnson, he is unproven. Love + #23 for the #5? Sure I'll take that chance, but not if we have to take back salary.

[TRUEwolvesFAN04]

After a few depressing days after the lottery, i am starting to think that with where we are, we are really not in a bad place at all. We are in position to take a very talented, big center in demarcus cousins, not to mention with all the other assets we have. I have no worries about Cousins' "attitude" problems, once some of the vets put him in his place. I say we keep the number 4 pick and do this:

trade AL, #23, Gomes to the Kings for the #5, nocioni, and thompson.

That leaves us with the #4, #5, #16, and a few 2nd rounders. We could posibly package the 2nd rounders and/or another player (hollins,ellingon?) to get us Rudy Fernandez.

I'm also really high on Wes Johnson. I think that he will bring a ton of excitement with his crazy athleticism and good shooting. Also, James anderson is another wing scorer that we desperately need. Pairing those two on the wings would be crazy.

SO, we draft DeMarcus Cousins, Wes Johnson, and James Anderson with our 1st rounders.

Cousins/Darko
Love/Thompson
Johnson/Nocioni
Anderson/Brewer/Fernandez?
Flynn/Sessions/Rubio**

Also, if the Kings are even higher on Kevin Love, then i would almost have no problem swapping Al and Love in the deal, adding a few more pieces of cource. I say this because i think that once his rookie contract is up, Love is going straight back to the west coast anyways, so why not?


So if not Al, then we would look like this:

Cousins/Darko
Jefferson/Thompson
Johnson/Nocioni
Anderson/Brewer/Fernandez?
Flynn/Sessions/Rubio**

i'm completely 100% for one of these deals to happen.

[younggunsmn]

I just have a real tough time with the idea of moving Love AND taking back undesirable salary just for the #5. Love is a very productive player, proven and still cheap. As much as I like Johnson, he is unproven. Love + #23 for the #5? Sure I'll take that chance, but not if we have to take back salary.

I like dumping Hollins better, but the salary matching just falls short of working of love/gomes/hollins for nocioni/5.
We have to salary match somehow, and It's difficult because their smaller deals are all decent assets for them.

We have a glut of PF's, they don't fit Sacto perfectly, so we probably aren't getting perfect value for Al or Love. If we find a team where he fits perfectly (one with a strong defensive C and hole at PF), we may get great value for him. But that team may not have what we want.

My 2 ideal targets in a Love deal are Granger and Wes Johnson, and chances are we will have to overpay for either.