OK after crunching the cap numbers and reading through CBA rules I figured out how to make this happen: Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nuHfVn_cfHU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Realistic: Draft Justin Anderson / Portis , 2nd rnd Upshaw / Andrew Harrison / Christmas Sign Brew 1 yr 5 mil , Terry , Lull, Bev 1 yr 5-7 mil, mcdaniels 3 yr 3 mil per, Josh Smith 1 yr Bev / Lull / Johnson Harden / Brew / Terry Ariza / mcdaniels/ J Anderson Jones / smith / Christmas Howard / Dmo / Capella This would be nice for making another run and maintaining cap flexibility Dream scenario: Trade Howard (knowing J Smith will probably follow ), 2nd rnd pick, rights to Gentile to NY for #4 Why for NY? NY always tries to rebuild over night and they won't be able to sign any1 as good as Dwight. They r stuck with Melo and might be dumb enough to try to win with him. They could use the 2nd rnd pick we send them to unload Calderon and free up enough space to have Carmelo Dwight and another max FA (B Knight, Dragic). Plus smith will prob sign for 2 mil. Melo, Dwight, j smith, dragic, hardaway jr, Galloway, early, thanis. Pretty good team for the East but I doubt they beat cavs or any1 who survives the west, but as part of my dream scenario I need some pretty bad decisions, which luckily is common place in the NBA. Sign Deandre Jordan. If he's as upset with cp3 as it seems, him coming to Houston would be his ideal scenario (we would take the clippers souls twice in as many months) Trade Ariza for disgruntled Butler (hoping butler is pissed about losing thibs as well as D Rose quitting in game 6 and decides to force CHI hand who then accept Ariza as a contract efficient replacement since we know how cheap the Bulls are). If we were able to trade for him, we could sign him after we signed Jordan and Knight to max contracts. Sign Brandon knight to max deal (phx is probably dumb enough to match and start 2 pgs and ultimately be Lottery fodder for the next 4 yrs) Draft #4 Stanley Johnson /Mudiay #18 Portis / trade back for Upshaw Sign Alexis ajinca / Woods or if we select Upshaw we sign Ed Davis / T Robinson Knight / Lull / N Johnson Harden / brew / terry Butler / S Johnson / mcdaniels Dmo / Jones / Portis Jordan / Capella / Ajinca Continuity is being over valued at this point IMO. We added , terry, brew, j smith, Ariza and Capella to our rotation this year (among others) and had the best run since our championships. This line up would allow us to start 4 guys who shot 37%+ from 3 and knight/ butler can both create significantly better than the guys they replace. Knight is underrated IMO bc he has been on **** teams and while his PG skills are solid, he's a good defender (athletic 3 and D PG who has a killer cross over and pretty good vision) . Plus, both he and butler are very dangerous off close outs and I think we would all live healthier lives if we didn't have to watch Ariza attempt to dribble (when he attacks he looks like he's going thru a mine field on ice skates, herky jerky with no idea what might happen next). Butler would be a huge upgrade overall and could take some of the focal point off harden offensively. Jordan would actually do what we all want Howard to do, Protect the paint, rebound, catch viscous alley oops, and NOT post up (they should have guys with stun guns on the baseline for every time Howard steps out of bounds during practice). Jordan's 68%fg would be an upgrade, plus we would finally give Dmo all of our post touches which would also improve our efficiency. Stanley Johnson is my #2 prospect in the draft. I know that sounds extremely dumb since he seems to be falling in all mock drafts. However, he's a perfect fit next to harden bc he's a defense first guy (Bev type motor) who has freakish athleticism (underated at this time). Very few players in the league have that type of strength and slashing ability plus he has a soft touch on floaters around the basket which is very rare for a Linebacker with a basketball. I think by the trade deadline he will be considered top 3 in this class and ultimately be as good as Kawhi Leonard. On top of that, he can play SG or SF as well as small ball PF, meaning we could go knight harden butler Stan Dmo and have 5 guys shooting 37% with very good D. Portis will prob be off the board but his midrange J looks to have potential to expand to nba 3 and his position versatility makes him a great fit to replace T Jones once he's traded. Knight, Lull, butler and Johnson would all have been considered our 2nd best creator this past season, so we could alleviate our biggest problem while improving our 3 pt% and defense. PF would be the only position that would lose talent level, however if we play Dmo Smith and jones then we would simply take Capella out of the rotation (whose value at back up C would be under utilized), plus we would have Portis developing for our inevitable upcoming PF trade, unlike if we kept Smith. Ultimately, if we actually want continuity we can't ride Howard for much longer and this Dream roster would have 9 guys under contract for the next 3 yrs (and prob Dmo as well). IMO we would improve as a team as well as have them together for a pretty good window. Not to mention the contract value of having knight and butler on 16-17 mil deals once the cap explodes. Losing out on the potential for KD would suck, but with his foot injury I like the idea of butler, especially with Johnson and mcdaniels being groomed and the opportunity to keep a team together for a pretty good run. Thoughts?
So your dream scenario is to pretty much dismantle a WC finals team in the hopes that the new guys you bring in will gel and get us maybe as far as the second round next year? Then maybe back to the WC finals again the year after? We nearly got to the finals this year, guys. We had the 3rd best record in the entire freakin' league. This is the time to fine-tune, not make wholesale changes.
I really think we get Llull and retain Brewer, Smith and JET. Brewer is the one I am most concerned about because he is a free agent and Beverley is also someone that will most likely be out of our price range. LLull/JET/Johnson Harden/Brewer Ariza/Brewer DMO/Jones/Smith Howard/Capela
Dream Llull/beverley/jones Harden/brewer Ariza/mcdaniels/brewer Love/dmo/smith howard/capela/dmo Realistic Llull/beverley Harden/booker Ariza/brewer Dmo/smith howard/capela And thr realistic team is good enough
You make a solid and reasonable point. However, making it to the WCF one year doesn't mean you will make it the next year. None of the teams from the conference finals from last season made it to the conference finals this year. I mean we had to play an awful Mavs team and pull off one of the best comebacks against the clips. Lots of variables including a healthy OKC. Dwight will probably not be able to play b2b games next season and maybe 50 games total. Trading him for a chance to draft a superstar and replace him with a DPY candidate who is 4 yrs younger is a scenario that has to be evaluated. Dwights trade value is very high right now for a guy who's knees seem to be degrading. Yes he was amazing in the playoffs, but I bet most ppl will want to trade Dwight by next offseason bc your 2nd best player can't have "bone on bone" for very long. Taking advantage of NY right now might be our best opportunity to replace a rare commodity in at Center bc the deandre Jordan situation is pretty unique (specifically wanting to go home to Houston) . Perhaps we don't trade Ariza for butler to maintain a similar roster, but as I mentioned we had 6 new players that led us to the WCF. On a side note, I thought last offseason was Moreys 2nd best behind aquiring Harden bc he proved he wouldn't over pay, and I immediately thought we would be an improved team (so I like Ariza and our other players).
My dream is getting chemistry between Howard and Harden. Right now, it's all talk how they have to be the ones to carry the team. They haven't had the chance to develop that since Howard got injured. DMO and Harden have better chemistry from playing together. Imagine if these two mind-meld... who needs a point guard!
I agree... Morey has always operated on flexibility and is a master at making deals happen. This out of the box thinking allowed us to make plays on role players at any time... i.e. brewer and smith when opportunities arise. That's where our longevity will arise. There will always be chemistry issues between players and organizations... forced trades etc... We keep the core and build accountability positions around those where we can plug and play players that buy in = championship team now.
Dream Wall\Llull Harden\ Brew KD\Ariza Love\DMo Cousins\Capella Realistic LLull\Lin Harden\Llull\Brew Ariza\Brew Dmo\Smoove Dwight\Capella
Dream scenario, Durant requests to be shipped to Houston and somehow still have enough money to get Conley. Les then realizes that he's been charging too much for season Tickets and decides to sell them for 10 dollars. While he's at it he offers free rubn' tugs from the power dancers. DWIGHT DMO DURANT HARDEN CONLEY With a bench of Josh Smith, Ariza, Terry, Beverly.... nick johnson and capella third strings. Most importantly I'd be able to watch all games live thanks to Les and his $10 season tickets with two power Dancers constantly being attentive to my every needs. Realistically... I'll be forced to pay for league pass again and watch Houston hopefully find a way to keep their core together of Howard, Ariza, Harden, Dmo, Smith, Brewer, beverly. Terry is signed up again as a player/coach and plays sparingly as a third string guard until needed. The starting pg position is upgraded with a pg that can do whatever Beverly does but healthier and better with playmaking skills. Beverly is moved to back up pg. Next year is the year we will see if Les Alexander is truly "willing to spend". We have a team that barring the injuries could have given a real run for the title against Golden State. The Warriors are pretty much winning "by default". The Warriors should have an asterisks on this season because a healthier Memphis and Houston would have done work on them.
Dragic/Llull Harden/Terry Ariza/Brewer DMo/Jones/Smith Dwight/Capela That is a STACKED team. Rivals the Warriors. Extreme depth + a strong big 3.
Sign Llull to the MLE. Bev agrees to sign for around 20-24 million over 4 years (team option naturally on the last). Both fight it out for a starting role. Josh Smith agrees to sign for another 2.5 million, due to already being paid by Detroit and being happy playing for a contending team with his pal Dwight. We go over the cap to retain Brewer at around 7-8 million. Due to us banishing KJ to the bench, nobody offers him a lot and he takes our QO of about a million. Prigioni retires. Terry takes the vet minimum to be on a contending team. Now, I'm torn on what could happen with our PG rotation and Jones and our draft picks. We could have something like this: Bev/Llull/Johnson Harden/Terry/McDaniels Ariza/Brewer/K-Pap Motiejunas/Smith/1st Round DP Howard/Jones/Capela That seems about realistic, assuming we don't make any crazy moves. We sign Llull to the MLE, and Bev agrees to a slight discount to stay with us ( 4 year, 20-24 million?). I don't believe we should gut our team to try and get a star. I believe we can win with H&H and a great cast of role players. If Bev decides to leave (lets say Dallas offers him a better deal), we'd need to make a move for a PG. The Kings have a high pick, and Mudiay could be taken by them, especially if Cauley-Stein is off the board. Sacramento In: Jones, K-Pap, Future Draft Pick Rockets In: Collison, Future Draft Pick The Kings get a PG of the future. Derrick Williams, Casspi, Evans and Hollins are all FAs this offseason. They're shooting for the playoffs and they get a jack-of-all-trades playoff-caliber starting 4 and a high IQ player in Papa. Collison may not be a big name player but he brings defense and he can bring some playmaking to the helm. He averaged 16 and 6 last season, so he's no slouch. He'd need to work on the 3 point shot, however. Llull and Collison could bring two attacking guards to help out Harden and crew.
Its very tough to predict which route we might go this offseason because of the countless possibilities and scenarios this FA class presents and also the number of FAs we have is the most i remember in quite a while MLE: I would use this on resigning both Smith and KJ, Instead o just using it all on Lull. This will give us the flexibility to trade Tjones and give us a replacement for brewer just incase his price is too high. Love KJs upside and think he can give us better production in the defensive end the Corey but a big Downgrade offensively. Draft: I would want to find a taker for the 18th pick +Jones + Kpaps contract? to get an upgrade at the PG position with Ty Lawson leading the possible list of potential suitors. He would take this Offense to an elite place while also making our TOs , which has been a big problem for us, go drastically down. I would also use our 2nd round pick on a PF my pick would be Christmas, since DMO and Smith would probably be on one year deals one of them most likely or probably won't be with us beyond this year so depth here is key if we were to trade Tjones FA: I would also let Beverly walk if he gets an offer of more than 4millper and sign Mo williams to a one year deal to be the backup PG. Keep Terry as the backup SG/PG, he isn't suited to see more than 10-12 min a game anymore. His defense is still atrocious That could potentially end us with a team of Lawson/Williams Harden/Terry Ariza/KJ Dmo/Smith Dwight/Capela Keep in mind while many of you would love Aldridge or love i still prefer Ariza+Dmo+lawson vs just LA, or KL We would be two deep in every position and a very balanced lineup that i can see winning it all. What are your thoughts? and what would be your dream offseason look like
Thaddeus Young? Like thaddeus,dont see how that really jmproves ghe squad. Much lime people clamoring over the 7ft pine rider who was traded go the clippers.
