Another interesting idea is to trade for Jamal Murray...
DEN Gets: De'Aaron Fox, Harrison Barnes, & Damian Jones
DEN Gives: Jamal Murray, JaMychal Green, PJ Dozier, & Rodney McGruder
PG - Fox / Morris / Campazzo
SG - Barton / Hyland / Rivers
SF - Barnes / Cancar / Porter (Injured)
PF - Gordon / Green
C - Jokic / Jones / Nnaji
SAC Gets: Jamal Murray, JaMychal Green, PJ Dozier, & Rodney McGruder
SAC Gives: De'Aaron Fox, Harrison Barnes, & Damian Jones
PG - Haliburton / Mitchell
SG - Hield / Davis / Ramsey / Murray (Injured)
SF - Harkless / McGruder / Woodard
PF - Green / Bagley / Metu
C - Holmes / Len / Thompson
McNair would likely need Vivek's blessing to give up on the playoffs this year to pursue such a trade, but this trade has many advantages for us:
- First off, I think it's an overall talent upgrade going from Fox to Murray
- Murray is 24 years old so would be on the same timeline as Haliburton, Mitchell, and our future 1st round picks
- Murray is an elite off-ball player and a great shooter while Haliburton is a great distributor of the ball. They'd be an excellent young backcourt that complements each others games very well
- Since Murray is likely out for the rest of the year, this trade basically removes two significant starters from our team this year which will likely result in the losses to pile up which means we'd have a great shot at landing a Top 5 pick in the upcoming draft.
- When you do a "typical" tank where you'd sell off Fox, Barnes, etc. for young players (younger than Murray) and picks. you're likely accepting the fact that you're not going to be in place to make the playoffs for a few years. However, this allows the Kings to not only tank this year to get a top pick, but allows them to keep a star/fringe-star talent on their roster for next season. Considering Vivek's appetite for making the playoffs, this type of approach could be more appealing to him
If we make the Buddy Hield/Mo Harkless/SAC 2022 2nd/SAC 2023 2nd for Al Horford/Kenrich Williams trade and the Richaun Holmes for Ish Smith/PJ Washington, we'd have the following players under contract going into the 2022-23 season:
PG - Haliburton / Mitchell
SG - Murray / Davis / Ramsey
SF - Williams / Woodard
PF - Washington / Green / Metu
C - Horford / Len
Picks - 2022 Top 5 Pick
If we hit on the Top 5 pick, we'd have a very solid, young foundation of Haliburton, Murray, Washington, Mitchell, & 2022 Top 5 Pick to build on.