Anthony Davis not resigning: Can we take advantage of this?

[DetroitPistons]

Getting AD is not going to happen for us. I just don't think that is a realistic option unless we were willing to go full HOU and offer 4 firsts lol. The people inquiring about Holiday have the right idea. He is averaging 21ppg and 8ast on 48% shooting and good defense and his age, contract, and position match perfectly with Griffin. I think we should definitely go after him hard but it will cost us.

The best I can come up with is Kennard, Smith, Johnson, Leuer, 2019 FRP for Holiday, Frank Jackson, Diallo

NOP gets a FRP that has a good chance of being in the lottery, a good SG prospect on a rookie deal, a good vet PG who is expiring, and they take a flyer on an expiring Johnson. Leuer is there to make salary match but is only making 10mil and he will be an asset next season as an expiring. Also, this allows NOP to bottom out and still have a great chance at tanking hard. Frank Jackson and Diallo look like scrubs but I assume they don't want to take back 3 additional players in this trade, especially if they are trading Davis and will already probably be taking back more players than they send out in that trade too. NOP has already said that they want Ball, Kuzma, Zubac, and a FRP back in return for Davis and I think that is an EASY yes from the Lakers. Assuming they do that trade, NOP would roughly look like:

Ball/Payton/Smith/Frazier
Moore/Kennard/W. Johnson
Kuzma/Miller/S. Johnson/Hill
Randle/Mirotic/Leuer
Okafor/Zubac

Some very minor roster moves would need to be made (cuts and throw-ins with the Davis deal) but they would be absolutely loaded from top to bottom with very good prospects on rookie contracts and expiring contracts in addition to NOP FRP, DET FRP, and LAL FRP. They could easily package them to move up high in the draft or just add more prospects depending on where they land. This would create an environment for one of the quickest rebuilds in NBA history imo.

We would look like:

Jackson/Holiday/Calderon/Thomas
Holiday/Galloway/Brown
Bullock/Robinson/Ellenson
Griffin/Robinson/Diallo
Drummond/Pachulia

We could make a late push for the playoffs and give this team a chance to gel and build confidence for next season. Next year we can resign Bullock for around 6-8mil per year and then package Jackson's expiring, Galloway's expiring, FRP, and whatever else for a significant upgrade on the perimeter. With Holiday being able to play either PG or SG and Bullock being able to play either SG or SF we would have more trade targets as options to upgrade to for any of the 3 perimeter positions.

[Invictus88]

I'm sure we could help facilitate a 3-way by taking on another bad contract.

Would we actually get young assets or picks as well? Because that would be a first for us

[MotownMadness]

Should try to take Lonzo, he’s young and maybe immature but he looked like he had great floor general potential in college so he could still develop.

This boring franchise could probably use the Ball family drama as well as weird as that sounds.

[Billl]

Not sure what you do with Ball unless Blake is on the way out. I think he's still got potential, but playing alongside blake seems like it would just emphasize his weaknesses and minimize his strengths. He's definitely the type of guy to look at if we are blowing it all up though.

[Drwho17]

Well, that's right I think we need shooters, otherwise Ball would be a good match, he just doesn't shoot well enough, but he's a good defender and a good playmaker, but I can't ever see him being a seriously good shooter. Right now the pistons guards are killing them, Reggie Jackson barely does anything anymore, Bullock is off and on by the quarter, Bruce Brown doesn't really play offense, it's a bad situation, I'm not sure how they improve it, Baron Davis is still looking for a job.

[Crymson]

Not sure what you do with Ball unless Blake is on the way out. I think he's still got potential, but playing alongside blake seems like it would just emphasize his weaknesses and minimize his strengths. He's definitely the type of guy to look at if we are blowing it all up though.

Exaaaaactly. Goodness knows the Van Gundy regime practically specialized in emphasizing weaknesses and minimizing strengths. No thanks to more of that.

[SamFlow]

we can trade everyone and everything except for dre and blake. I don't get about draft picks as we never seem to do much with them. Fun, but not really good. That said, I'd rather keep this years pick. Screw the ones after if we can get a PG, a SF, and a sg. I'd rather have a SF over a PG and then a SG. --- What can we get for picks and all our other crap?

[Invictus88]

we can trade everyone and everything except for dre and blake. I don't get about draft picks as we never seem to do much with them. Fun, but not really good. That said, I'd rather keep this years pick. Screw the ones after if we can get a PG, a SF, and a sg. I'd rather have a SF over a PG and then a SG. --- What can we get for picks and all our other crap?

Cap space alone is valuable. Remember that we've traded a 1st away to rid ourselves of bad contracts.

And while we've undeniably done poorly with our draft selections / developing young talent, that's more an indictment against the awful management and coaching that we've had. Other teams do better.

The reality is we are just as bad at getting good value out of our FA signings; likely much worse. We have to overpay because we are at a competitive disadvantage as a destination. And teams try to retain players they value. So a lot of times the players are free agents for a reason.

[Snakebites]

I've often heard people say that cap space and salary flexibility are useless to a team that can't sign players, and this simply isn't true.

Our lack of salary flexibility is at present impacting our options on the trade market too. Salary flexibility is valuable to everyone.

[bstein14]

There is some thought that perhaps the Pelicans would have interest in bringing in Drummond to replace Davis, because he's a younger all-star big but in reality if they're looking to blow things up, as reported if they are forced to trade away Davis, Dre makes zero sense for them. I agree Holiday would be a good pull for us, even though he's overpaid, if it mean that we got to ship out Jackson. Holiday is one of the better perimeter defenders in the NBA.

Dre + Jackson + Johnson for Holiday + Mirotic + Moore could be just the shake up we need. We might need to throw in Ellenson as well to avoid the luxury tax this season. Not sure how much compensation in picks we'd need to get NO to pull the trigger on a deal like this.

[dVs33]

100%

We can use cap space in trades and that is our best route for getting anyone useful

I've often heard people say that cap space and salary flexibility are useless to a team that can't sign players, and this simply isn't true.

Our lack of salary flexibility is at present impacting our options on the trade market too. Salary flexibility is valuable to everyone.

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[Snakebites]

100%

We can use cap space in trades and that is our best route for getting anyone useful

I've often heard people say that cap space and salary flexibility are useless to a team that can't sign players, and this simply isn't true.

Our lack of salary flexibility is at present impacting our options on the trade market too. Salary flexibility is valuable to everyone.

Sent from my CPH1707 using RealGM mobile app

And it's not just about cap space.

Specifically right now it's luxury tax wiggle room that's impacting us. You can take on a certain level of increased salary in a trade even if you're over the cap, but we're right up against the LT threshold (which Gores doesn't want to pay and I don't blame him), meaning we essentially can't make any trades in which there's even a small amount more salary coming in than going out.

It makes even win-now moves (which most of us don't want) almost impossible. We're hamstrung by all of these contracts and we need to get out from under it, whether folks think we're going to sign anybody good or not.

[vege]

I think we can very easily facilitate a trade between Boston and NOP during the draft.

NOP had interest in Jackson last season and this season. At the draft Jackson will be an expiring.

Hayward has a massive contract, Boston should want cap relief for him and I doubt NOP would want him. We will have a ton of expirings and I can't see a lot of teams wanting Hayward and his 15% trade kicker.

The deal could be

Detroit Out: Reggie Jackson and Jon Leuer
Detroit In: Gordon Hayward

We add a lot of salary next season and the season after that as well. Hayward salary would be 37,605,793 in 2019/2020 and 39,315,147 in 2020/2021.

We turn our garbage into a borderline all star (If Hayward recover 100%, he would be a good fit for us, unlike in Boston I think)

We would still have Galloway's expiring and our picks to try to add more talent.

Boston Out: Gordon Hayward / Jayson Tatum / Memphis and Sacramento picks and whatever other pick it takes for them to land AD
Boston In: Jon Leuer expiring / Anthony Davis

Their LT bill would be a lot lower without Hayward and they could use Leuer expiring to acquire another player who would fit better than Hayward.

Horford
AD
Brown
Smart
Kyrie

NOP Out: Anthony Davis
NOP In: Reggie Jackson expiring. Jayson Tatum the 2 lotto picks from Boston and whatever other picks Boston have to add to get it done.

Randle / Okafor
Mirotic
Tatum
Jrue / Moore
Reggie

plus 3 lotto picks (NOP/MEMPHIS and SACRAMENTO).

[Jcrawfordcross]

I think we can very easily facilitate a trade between Boston and NOP during the draft.

NOP had interest in Jackson last season and this season. At the draft Jackson will be an expiring.

Hayward has a massive contract, Boston should want cap relief for him and I doubt NOP would want him. We will have a ton of expirings and I can't see a lot of teams wanting Hayward and his 15% trade kicker.

The deal could be

Detroit Out: Reggie Jackson and Jon Leuer
Detroit In: Gordon Hayward

We add a lot of salary next season and the season after that as well. Hayward salary would be 37,605,793 in 2019/2020 and 39,315,147 in 2020/2021.

We turn our garbage into a borderline all star (If Hayward recover 100%, he would be a good fit for us, unlike in Boston I think)

We would still have Galloway's expiring and our picks to try to add more talent.

Boston Out: Gordon Hayward / Jayson Tatum / Memphis and Sacramento picks and whatever other pick it takes for them to land AD
Boston In: Jon Leuer expiring / Anthony Davis

Their LT bill would be a lot lower without Hayward and they could use Leuer expiring to acquire another player who would fit better than Hayward.

Horford
AD
Brown
Smart
Kyrie

NOP Out: Anthony Davis
NOP In: Reggie Jackson expiring. Jayson Tatum the 2 lotto picks from Boston and whatever other picks Boston have to add to get it done.

Randle / Okafor
Mirotic
Tatum
Jrue / Moore
Reggie

plus 3 lotto picks (NOP/MEMPHIS and SACRAMENTO).

Surprised to hear anybody has any remote interest in Reggie. The thought of having a broken Gordon Hayward, Blake, Drummond take up $100M of cap space for the next 3 years is scary, granted we probably couldn't get any other big name player in FA. Chances Boston throws us a pick? I'd definitely be interested then.

[SamFlow]

I'd love to think in the future getting DeMarcus Cousins. However if Durant leaves, I can see both going to knicks as well. - ---- If we start rebuilding now, it's not like we will lose much more than we are already. So a rebuild makes sense. Collect as many future picks as we can. Take peoples over paid stuff looking for a single year to get cap. Sign only one year deals until we can sign a few good players to add to rookies.