Ruzious wrote:payitforward wrote:Ruzious wrote:I'd definitely make that trade - Zach's become quite a player, and he's signed reasonably for 3 more seasons.
I'd then trade the 2nd pick to Boston for 3 of their 4 1st rounders - figuring they'd want Barrett. Right now, their picks would be 9, 13, 21, and 22, so I'd take 9,13, and their last 1st. We'd also have the 6th pick - yes, 6th. There's only one team in the West with a worse record than the Wiz.
With our pick, I take Rui Hachimura. With the 9th pick, I take Darius Garland. At 13, I take one of 4 centers: Bruno Fernando, Jaxson Hayes, Bol Bol, or Jontay Porter. At 22, I take Brandon Clarke.
Leaving aside the trade itself, I am totally in favor of this strategy. Totally -- I would give one of my best bleeps for this to be the Wizards strategy!
But, I don't like Zach Lavine much. I'd be much happier to take Parker instead -- & let his option go this off-season. But, that's an unlikely move for Chicago, as they'd have both Lavine & Beal on their roster. Hutchison doesn't do much for me either. I'd probably prefer to have their R2 pick instead (or maybe 2 R2 picks...?).
Conceivably, we could have Porter, Wall, Mahinmi, Sato, Dekker, Brown & Bryant for @$100m (off top of my head). Add Hachimura, Garland, Bol, Clarke, & whoever we pick at #32 (Ponds?) for another $15m (?). Green for @$2m. That's $117m for 13 guys. Use the exception to add a solid player.
Of course, this would make us an altogether different kind of team -- Wall would be the representative of a prior generation of the Wizards. If he played well enough to become tradable, we'd be well set up for the following off season.
It's a fantasy, obviously, & it's impractical given the Bulls are unlikely to want both Beal & Lavine (though they might trade Lavine to someone else). & for this strategy to succeed, we would need a different GM. Still, wow... it's kind of "the process" at warp speed!
Sounds good, but I'm curious as to why you'd rather have an expiring contract than Lavine. He's a high usage player with a .566 TS%. Granted, he's got more to's than I'd like, but he's still got more assists than to's. Lifetime, his to's per 36 is 2.8 - so it's abnormally high for him this season. He makes 49.5% of his 2's, 35.8% of his 3's (lifetime 37.1%), 86.7% of his FTs, and gets 6.2 FT's per 36 minutes while averaging 24.9 points per 36. He's not Bradley Beal, but he's a good and improving 23 year old 2 guard on a reasonable contract.
Zach hasn't had a genuinely good season overall in his career yet. Plus they've been inconsistent -- up & down in various categories. Yet, because he scores a lot of points, he is already making almost $20m/year guaranteed through '21-22.
Yes, he's "high usage," so lets look at everything besides scoring. To make a long story short, overall he's way below average for a wing in that stuff. Pretty far below.
Brad is also a high usage player, but in that other stuff overall he's significantly above average for a wing.
The two guys score virtually the same # of points per 40 minutes this year. Brad's more efficient, but the difference isn't real big. But...
Thing is... this is Zach Lavine's 5th year in the league. Brad's 5th year was 2016-17. That was a breakout year for him. They are the equivalent age.
Of course, Zach could still make it happen -- I don't have a crystal ball! But... it's not a bet I'd like to make.
Plus, I think we need to start over -- or as close to that as practical -- which is what I liked about your awesome 4-rookie fantasy (to which I hoped to add a 5th rookie via the high R2 pick). IMO, Zach's salary puts too much weight in the boat for a restart.
