The woulda coulda shoulda offseason. What I would have done.

[nate33]

We've got a week to kill until training camp so I figured a thread of alternate offseason scenarios would be interesting.

Here's what I would have done, based on what we know in the draft and free agency.

#9 pick: Halliburton
#37 pick: pay Philly a bunch of cash to swap Tyler Bey (just drafted at #36) for our #37

Free agency:
- Mo Harkless for 1 year $4.6M (should have been enough to outbid Miami's $3.6M offer)
- Nerlens Noel for 1 year $5M (what NY offered)
- Anthony Gill for the vet minimum (I actually wouldn't have thought of it. But it seems like a good idea.)
- Mathews on a 2-way
- Childs on a 2-way

Our lineup:
PG Wall/Halliburton/Ish
SG Beal/Brown/Robinson
SF Bonga/Harkless/Bey
PF Hachimura/Bertans/Gill
C Bryant/Noel/Wagner

That's a balanced lineup, 3-deep at every position, and there are several good defenders including Halliburton, Robinson, Bonga, Harkless and Noel. Even the 3rd string unit is competent enough to play NBA minutes, which is important in a condensed season. It wouldn't be hard at all to load manage Wall and Beal - particularly because the extra minutes would be used to develop Halliburton. Also, the presence of Halliburton gives us more flexibility to trade Wall if a deal should arise. Ish, Robinson, Harkless and Noel are all on expiring contracts, which gives us trade flexibility.

I'd start Bonga and Hachimura at forward to continue to develop them, but I'd finish with Harkless and Bertans in crunch time. Our crunch time lineup of Wall, Beal, Harkless, Bertans, and Bryant (or Noel) should be very balanced and effective with shooting, defense and experience. Noel plays is we need switchy defense. Bryant plays if we need offense or post defense.

Another advantage of the presence of Harkless is that it keeps Bonga's minutes down which would probably make him cheaper to resign next year.

If I couldn't land Noel at $5M, it works pretty well with Lopez too.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Sign me up for the Nate plan.

I might have added a young defensive big as an UFDA, however. Diakite?

[payitforward]

Another good thread! I like your run-down, nate, but mine would be somewhat different:

Draft:
I'm fine with picking Avdija.
Buy both the #34 & #36 picks from Philly (they did sell them both) & take Tillman & Tyler Bey.
Make the OKC trade -- #37 for #53 & a R2 pick down the road.
Take Winston at #53, as we did.
Acquire 2 more picks in the '50s & take Nate Hinton & Paul Reed. If possible a trade of Wagner &/or Robinson would be part of the acquisition.

Free agency:
Sign Noel for 1 year or (better) 1 plus a 2d year with team option.
Retain Mathews (either on regular roster or as a 2way player -- depending on what happened w/ Robinson & Wagner)
Hinton &/or Reed on a 2-way, again depending on the above)
Childs on a 2-way (again depending on the fates of Robinson/Wagner)

PG Wall/Ish/Winston
SG Beal/Brown/one of Mathews/Hinton
SF Bonga/Avdija/Bey
PF Hachimura/Bertans/Tillman/Reed
C Bryant/Noel

If both Robinson & Wagner have departed, our 2-way players are Childs & one of Mathews/Hinton. If only 1 of them is gone, I waive the other & eat the cost of his salary. If neither is gone, I waive one of them & we don't pick up Childs (or sign him to an Exhibit 10.)

Main differences from nate are

a) I'm betting on Tillman to be as good as Gill pretty quickly & better than him long term.
b) I'm betting on (at least) one of Hinton/Reed to be a better player than Harkless pretty soon.
c) I'm devaluing the importance of 2020-21 results as opposed to potential additions to our long-term core.

[WallToWall]

Good thread.
1. I would have tried to trade a future top 10 protected 1st round pick for a pick somewhere between 21-27. I would have drafted Azubuike with that pick.
2. I like our 2nd rnd trade and subsequent pick at #53 in Winston. I'd keep that.
3. I am warming up to our #9 pick now. If this thread started 1 week ago, I'd have said to trade down a couple slots to get Haliburton or pick him at #9. I have since read up on Avdija, and watched what I can of his videos, and that has changed my mind.
4. Sign Noel.
5. I'm ok with all the other moves (so far) that the front office made.

[NatP4]

Jerome Robinson is a good defender? Did I miss something?

[dckingsfan]

Sadly, both Nate and PIFs plans are superior to what happened. Just saying...

[DCZards]

Jerome Robinson is a good defender? Did I miss something?

Robinson plays good man-on-man D. Saw some of it late last season.

[payitforward]

That's his best skill, it's true.

OTOH, before we start convincing ourselves of anything positive overall about Jerome Robinson based on his defense during the bubble, we should recall that just a few months earlier the Los Angeles Clippers, who had drafted him in the lottery @18 months earlier, traded him for a guy who was altogether incapable of playing in the league. Someone they waived moments after the trade.

That would be the best objective measure of Jerome Robinson's standing in the league at that time: a guy who can't play. Get rid of him; it doesn't matter what you get back.

Now... when that actually changes, if it does, because Jerome Robinson plays better, maybe even actually plays well by some definition, great! Especially if that definition is based on the ability to help his team win (what was our record in the bubble again...?).

& if so, no doubt his man defense will be part of whatever overall improvement he shows. & if he becomes a player with some value -- someone we could trade for a high R2 pick, for example -- then that will be a good thing. It hasn't happened yet, which means that it isn't very likely.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

I would have drafted different players and signed different free agents.

[Dat2U]

Nothing too original here lol.

Draft at Tyrese Haliburton at 9
Trade up via either cash or a future 2nd to draft Xavier Tillman
Sign Josh Hall to a Two-Way deal

Sign Garrett Temple on a 1 year deal
Sign Josh Jackson on a 3 year deal
Sign Kyle O'Quinn for minimum

PG J. Wall, T. Haliburton, I. Smith
SG B. Beal, G. Temple, J. Robinson, G. Mathews (TW)
SF J. Jackson, T. Brown Jr., J. Hall (TW)
PF R. Hachimura, R. Bertans, I. Bonga
C T. Bryant, X. Tillman, K. O'Quinn, M. Wagner

Seeing whats happened the past few weeks has me finding the best vets I can put into the locker room at a fairly cheap price. Garrett Temple was the best guy I could think of to help balance the locker room and give it a solid voice. O'Quinn is known as a non-sense type and can guide the young bigs.

Josh Jackson is the sneaky under-the-radar acquisition who fits a clear need on the wing. He flashed some significant growth in his game since being cast out of Phoenix and is still young enough to develop into a solid starter in time.

[Ruzious]

Draft Haliburton at 9 (the perfect 3rd guard to play with Wall and Beal).
Trade Troy Brown Jr for a pick no lower than 19 in order to get Saddiq Bey - who went 19th. Not that I don't want TBJ (actually, I'd rather trade Rui - but we know that's not going to happen), but you have to give up value to get value, and SBey is a better fit. TBJ would not play if the Wiz think he's a guard and they drafted Haliburton.
Pick Jordan Nwora at 37.
Sign Noel to a 2 year deal (guessing 12 million total) plus a player option for a 3rd year at 6 million - to give him both security and incentive.
Sign UDFA Nate Hinton to an NBA contract.
Sign UDFA Diakite to a 2-way deal (good call by lsbf).
Sign Mathews to a 2-way contract.
Sign Bertans

PG J. Wall, T. Haliburton, I. Smith
SG B. Beal, J. Robinson, N. Hinton, G. Mathews (TW)
SF I. Bonga, S. Bey, J. Nwora
PF R. Hachimura, D. Bertans, Diakate (TW)
C T. Bryant, N. Noel, M. Wagner

1 roster spot is intentionally left open. I chickened out on not picking Poku over S. Bey.

[nate33]

Trade Troy Brown Jr for a pick no lower than 19 in order to get Saddiq Bey - who went 19th.

This is an interesting idea. It's not that Troy Brown isn't a good player, it's just that he's not such a great fit on this roster.

I don't know if Brown would get this kind of return in a trade though. Would teams sacrifice a mid first round pick for a guy with just 2 years left on his deal who hasn't shown that he is anything more than a 6th man caliber player?

[payitforward]

Quite strong support for Haliburton over Avdija -- let's make sure to revisit that when the 2 guys have shown themselves.

Troy Brown Jr. essentially straight up for Saddiq Bey -- that'll be another one to follow.

Dat wants to start Josh Jackson over Brown, which I find completely incomprehensible.

[nate33]

Troy Brown Jr. essentially straight up for Saddiq Bey -- that'll be another one to follow.

Agreed.

For the record, I would be against this. I'm really expecting Brown to make the leap this year and in retrospect, trading him for a mid 1st in a lousy draft will seem like a bad idea.

[dckingsfan]

2 year $5M dollar with partially guaranteed 3rd year for Noel. This is the biggest mistake (IMO) that Tommy made, so of course I start with that

To me, I wouldn't have drafted Halliburton unless I made the Wall mistake, but this is 2020 and I get Bey and Childs so I take Halliburton and don't sign Neto (I liked the Neto signing, that is stability at PG before the Wall mistake). This hindsight thing is great! I start Halliburton in the back to backs (I liked PIFs idea of buying both the #34 & #36 picks from Philly & taking Tillman & Tyler Bey).

I figure out a way to move Jerome Robinson for a future 2nd round pick. I want to see how Brown does at his natural position, don't want to move him unless it would have been for an established rim protector (but I would be good with Noel behind Bryant). And I think Mathews is going to work out...

I want to see how the Bonga thing works out and I think that Childs ends up as a SF. I thought the Gill signing was pretty good.

Two ways would have still been Mathews and Childs. Kind of leaves me weak at the SF but I think Brown and Bertans get minutes there.

Wall, Ish, Halliburton
Beal, Brown, Mathews
Bonga, Bey, Childs
Rui, Bertans, Gill, Tillman
Bryant, Noel, Wagner

[Ruzious]

Troy Brown Jr. essentially straight up for Saddiq Bey -- that'll be another one to follow.

Agreed.

For the record, I would be against this. I'm really expecting Brown to make the leap this year and in retrospect, trading him for a mid 1st in a lousy draft will seem like a bad idea.

That's fine, but didn't you just say the opposite in your previous post - that no team should give up a mid 1st in this draft for someone like Brown?

[Ruzious]

I call shenanigans on buying Philly's 34th and 36th picks. They did not sell their picks. They included their picks in trades. One was to off-load Horford's contract - which is a very different thing than selling a pick - for various reasons. The other was to trade Richardson for Curry - also very different from selling a pick. I think it's a huge leap to assume Philly would have been willing to sell their picks to Washington. Just sayin.

[payitforward]

You are right -- I'd forgotten how those deals went down.

Then again, if those were draft-day deals, maybe it'd have been possible to buy them (or at least one of them) a week or so earlier.

But, that's speculation. So... you are right.

[nate33]

Troy Brown Jr. essentially straight up for Saddiq Bey -- that'll be another one to follow.

Agreed.

For the record, I would be against this. I'm really expecting Brown to make the leap this year and in retrospect, trading him for a mid 1st in a lousy draft will seem like a bad idea.

That's fine, but didn't you just say the opposite in your previous post - that no team should give up a mid 1st in this draft for someone like Brown?

I value Brown more than what I expect the league values him. So I'm saying it is unlikely you would find a suitor for your deal, even though I personally think Brown is about to break out. If I was running another team, maybe we could make a deal work.

[payitforward]

Then again, the Grizzlies acquired Xavier Tillman, the No. 35 pick, in exchange for Robert Woodard, #No. 40, and a 2022 second round pick.

We had #37, so there might have been a trade available. Perhaps even as part of one of the trades Philly made that moved #34 & 36.