Or, to put it another way, if we are willing to pay Batum, wait till the offseason! The main trade move needs to be unloading Brewer. Second consideration is Dwight, will he walk? If yes, trade for assets.
I agree that the main thing here is to flush Brewer like a turd. Waiting until the offseason for Batum? Depends on what he costs now and how much we're willing to suck this season (and God, I hope we're not crossing our fingers on Kevin Durant). There will be some good pickings this offseason, and a lot of teams with money to spend. I don't know what the best move now would be, but Batum was the name I threw out there because he seems to have some versatility, maybe someone to help offset a Draymond Green a little bit. A little bit.
If you sign Durant, you don't need Batum. Just let him walk. Look, for us to be players in free agency, at least one of Ariza/Brewer needs to go anyways. As it stands now, we're at $52,909,075 in salaries WITHOUT Dwight's cap hold and with Terrence and Lawson gone. So, even if we re-signed Dwight to only a deal starting at $19 million (about $11 million below his max of around $30 million) then we're still pushing up to $20 million remaining in cap space (based on $90 million cap) and a guy like Durant is going to sign a deal starting at around $25 million. So, we really have no choice but to unload at least one of Ariza/Brewer or else waive good bye to DMo. It would be great if we could unload Brewer for an expiring. But I just don't know if that's doable. So, the next best option would be to unload Ariza and other pieces for an expiring like Batum (or others), try to make a run with a revamped unit this season, and then look at free agency this summer. If Durant did opt to sign a 1-year deal like has been speculated in many places, so that he could get to the 35% cap max deal in the summer of 2017 then perhaps we re-sign a player like Batum and Batum becomes trade bait for Durant along with other assets if Durant makes it clear to OKC he's leaving. Frankly, I think it's 50/50 that Durant signs a 1-year deal in OKC and then waits to see what Russ does in 2017. I don't think Durant wants to get stuck there without Russ or some other max superstar sidekick(s). Now.............in my humble opinion......the ideal solution here is to combine assets right now, by the deadline, and see if we can snag a young star/superstar player still playing on his rookie deal. If we could take Ariza's contract and turn it into a future first rounder, and then merge that pick with some combination (or all) of Dekker/Capela/McDaniels/Jones/Harrell and our second rounders and possibly even our 2018 first rounder for a young star/superstar like: Oladipo, Hezonja, Smart, Hood, Winslow, Giannis, and maybe even somebody like TJ Warren or Ben McLemore (less assets) plus expirings contracts that fit to help us make a run this season then that would set us up in the catbirds seat for this summer with: Harden Dwight DMo young star/superstar plus whatever leftover assets (if any) we had left after the trade plus a few role players plus around $30 million of cap space to really go after Durant and/or another free agent. That's what I would like to see us accomplish in moving out Ariza or Brewer and other salaries. So, Batum would fit in part of that scenario provided he didn't cost us any assets beyond Ariza. And then there's always Rubio.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=grzu3z5 this is my wishlist. to me anybody is better than terrance jones. and i b.knight game. he always plays hard
I think we can all agree Morey is working on something to improve team for this season, while creating flexibility for offseason. Can't wait to see what he does. His job is dependent on it.
Corey Brewer to Cleveland D-Mo/Mosgov/Dekker to Detroit Ilyasova/Jennings to Houston Then trade Lawson/Jones to the Knicks for Calderon/D. Williams
Corey Brewer, Donatas Motiejunas, Sam Dekker, Terrence Jones, Ty Lawson for Ilyasova, Jennings, Calderon and Derrick Williams? Naw. Not even for the expirings that Ilyasova and Jennings bring.
You totally ignored the fact that Jennings/Ilyasova would also be coming to Houston... Not saying I'd do it, I just threw it out there to see what people though. That's what this thread is for.. haha
Kyle Lowry would be amazing on this team. Zach Lowe brought this up. Lowry works very well with Harden lite - DeRozan, so no reason why he wouldn't work with Harden. Lawson + anything Rockets ask for for Lowry. I haven't been following Raptors closely lately, but if they're high on always improving DeRozan, Denver's Lawson would make sense for them (if the extra assets we'd add in the deal would be good enough for them).
Yeah, I caught that after the fact and edited it in, but not before you responded to the unedited post. Not worth it, nevertheless.
3 team trade: Suns Trade: Markief Morris, Eric Bledsoe Suns Acquire: Ty Lawson, Trevor Ariza, Terrence Jones, Sam Dekker Clips Trade: Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson Clips Acquire: Markieff Morris, Jason Terry Rocks Trade: Lawson, Ariza, Jones, Dekker, Terry Rocks Acquire: Eric Bledsoe, Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson Rockets then sign SF/Stretch 4 Raphael Putney. Rockets improve their length, scoring, rim protection and add more enforcers to team. Rockets also become more Warriors like in that multiple players from 1-4 are capable of creating for themselves as well as team mates. Ariza's perimeter defense and leadership will be missed, but Rockets also add 3 hard nosed quality defenders who are also threats on offense.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=j56mgsl Houston/Detriot/bucks/Pelican .. this makes sense from all the names in the rumor mill
Red hot special! Any combo of players & coaches for fans to have something to look forward to (aside from Calvin's suits) at the very next game
