2022/2023 mock Trade/Draft/Free agency thread

Is there a good rationale for Brook Lopez to give up being the starting center on a team with championship aspirations in order to be the backup center on the worst team in the league over the past three years?

 

$$$

I'm sure we'd have to pay more than any other team. Question is, would he be interested for whatever overpay the Rockets would be willing to make.

Lopez could potentially start for us anyway. I think we can still get Sengun 30 minutes a game even if he does. I'm sure we could work creative lineups to get everyone enough time on the court, especially since Jabari can play the 3 for now.

 

Money.

Milwaukee likely can’t keep Giannis, Middleton, Jrue, and Lopez together without exceeding the second apron if Lopez gets a big number in free agency.

Either Lopez takes a discount, or Middleton takes a discount, or they have to choose between them.

 

The more I think about this offseason the less I see a great plan lol

not the strongest FA class to begin with and that’s our primary advantage . We don’t have a ton of great assets to offer .

I’m in favor of using space to get future assets if the price is high enough .

how do we get out of the cellar ?

we hope our young guys develop but other bad teams also have young guys developing.

 

There's no rationale at all. He would start and especially with a HC like Udoka it would be impossible to convince him to not start his only excellent rim protector.

I think people are worried about Sengun coming off the bench, but he's getting 30+ minutes under Udoka regardless. Not a big deal imo, as long as he's getting 30+ minutes on a structured team with a winning culture, he's going to run a lot of offense and improve fast. I bet he will beat Lopez out of that job within a year.

The reason Lopez would leave is money. The Bucks simply can't (with their financial constraints and frugal ownership) match what we'd offer. Players rarely turn down a significantly bigger offer and Lopez already has a ring (i.e. legacy is set).

 

Gonna have to overpay some guys. Money talks.

Alternatively I guess we can use our cap space to take back bad contracts.

 

thats one reason to go after a max guy I guess

also the cap is going up soon right ? That will make the contracts look less bad

I’d roll the dice on porzingis . Could be a good mentor for sengun and Jabari . You could play big with Jabari / tari at the 3

Distressed asset is an OK idea , but I’m not sure we have the culture in place to do that . Udoka is nice in theory but give him a year before we add a malcontent superstar vet he has to manage + the young guys .

so no morant etc .

the guy id give my left nut for us Desmond bane , but the cost would be prohibitive

perhaps we can trade for one of the Boston trio of guards

Smart
Brogdon
White

all 3 of those guys should be able to keep performing for the whole contract and are solid .

 

Supposedly Porzingis is going to re-sign with Washington. Guess they are determined to stay on the mediocrity treadmill as long as possible.

Vucevic sounds like he might be more available. Says he's going to "test the market". Would be pricey though.

I still prefer Brook Lopez to those guys though.

 

Middleton has a $40M player option that I seriously doubt he is going to walk away from. I guess they could arrange for him not pick it up and extend him at a lower salary to guarantee him additional years. Barring that, Middleton probably pushes Lopez out by simply picking up the option. But I'm not sure that Lopez picks us over some other team with championship aspirations and a need at center.

 

I don't think any of us knows what he's thinking or how much he values competing for another ring versus getting paid. I do agree that all else being equal he would choose a contender. Rockets will have to pay him more to even have a chance.

 

No contender has cap space to offer him more than the MLE.

Sign and trades seem very unlikely because Milwaukee would have to take back comparable money, and the whole point here is that they’re in tax trouble.

Milwaukee or a cap space team are the only realistic paths.

A team with space like Houston would have to offer him much more than Milwaukee for sure. How much more depends on Lopez’s preferences, you’re right. IMO it would have to be >=$25M AAV, probably on a short deal. I think that’s $5-10M more than Milwaukee can reasonably afford.

Or maybe Milwaukee says screw it and goes over the second apron. Who knows.

 

Random thought: What if we help Minny free up enough cap space to pursue Kyrie by absorbing their roleplayer contracts? Keep thinking about how they have to be in desperation mode right now. And if we could help them screw over Mark Cuban, so much the better. Would still love to get Conley on the Rockets, and again, Jaden McDaniels would be a nice fit.

From their perspective, a core of Ant/Kyrie/KAT/Gobert sounds promising on paper. That's probably better than his situation in Dallas or with any of the other teams that have space for him, too.

 

Andrew Wiggins

 

Creative

 

Washington wants Porzingis to take a pay cut so we could sign him. That would be a wild FRONTCOURT with Jabari, Porzingis and Sengun

 

I would go big and trade for KAT and push Jabari to the 3. KAT when healthy and right is a good 3pt shooter and rebounder. Jabari, although limited offensively appears to be a versatile defender and probably will be a good spot shooter. AP is limited athletically, but has a real good feel for the game flow. Run the offense through Sengun and KAT and let everyone else work off that.

 

Not a bad idea, but I am convinced that Smith and his future lies being primarily an interior player. He did pretty well there this year, and one of his best strengths is defensive rebounding.

on the other hand, I thought there were times this year, where he performed worse on the perimeter than I thought he would. It could work, but neither green or porter are able to cover quick perimeter guards effectively and we would be needing them to do that.

 

Offer Lopez 30 million a year for 2 years, 2nd year being team option. Could we then facilitate that in a SnT with us sending Tate and Garuba to MIL.

 

A "realistic" full offseason scenario, if these are the organization's goals:

1. Compete for a play-in or low end playoff berth in 2023-24 with an Udoka-style strong defensive team
2. Choose ~4 of the young core to move forward with as our future, and move on from the rest; set the core 4 up for success via complementary vets on offense and defense
3. Preserve high-end future outcomes by using the #4 pick on a high upside player, keeping some trade powder dry, and not overcommitting to long-term FA contracts

Draft
- Amen at #4
- Lively at #20
- Coulibaly at #29 (draft and stash)

FA's
- Harden for $201M/4, with 4th year non-guaranteed and 3rd year $25M guaranteed
- Brook Lopez for $50M/2
- Joe Ingles for $12M/2 with a player option
- Patrick Beverley for $8.5M/2 with a player option
- Seth Curry for 1 year room exception ($7.2M)

Trade
- Sengun + KPJ + TyTy + Bkn 2024 pick + Bkn 2025 swap for OG Anunoby. Sign OG to his maximum extension, $118M/4 starting in 2024/25. (This is the most unrealistic part of the scenario; trade values are in line with reality IMO, but the Sengun fit with Toronto isn't perfect and OG may not want to sign this extension)
- Jae'Sean Tate + a second round pick to Indiana for #29
- KJ Martin to Golden State for a future heavily protected first
- Garuba to Phoenix for 2 seconds

Rotation
Harden / Green / OG / Jabari / Lopez
Amen / Curry / Ingles / Tari / Lively
PatBev / vet min PF

- Reasonable expectation of winning 40-45 games next year, if healthy. Will definitely make at least the play-in
- Jalen set up with an unselfish facilitator and less competition for shots
- Jabari set up with a real rim protector so he can play the Giannis role defensively
- Amen able to play with elite shooters + 1 dunker's spot big at all times
- Potential to get to max cap space in two years to chase a big fish around this developed young core + OG

 

He's a tweener, but thats ok. He can play to his size. Kinda like young Bob Horry at the 3