Really sad to see Halliburton go and really sad to see there not being an emphasis on the defensive side of the ball. We’ve basically been in the bottom 3rd of the league on defense 16 years straight.
Sabonis is good and young but difficult to build around. Fox is good and young but difficult to build around. Fox and Sabonis are both not particularly good defenders. McNair has his work cut out for him to say the least.
On a somewhat side note, it’s obvious that we’re willing to sell off youth, assets, etc. to try and win now. But if that’s the case, why is Barnes talked about so much in trade talks? He seems like someone McNair would want to keep to try and help them win now. You have to ask the question…if I’m trading Barnes, who am I getting back at SF/PF? There doesn’t seem to be a lot out there that makes sense.
I think most everyone on this site knows I’d like to see a Holmes for PJ Washington/Ish Smith and that trade makes even more sense with Sabonis at C considering Washington is a solid defender, weak side shot blocker, shooter, and passer. That leaves you with a Mitchell-Fox-Barnes-Washington-Sabonis starting lineup. Not horrible but still too many defensive holes for my liking which got me thinking of a way to move Barnes while trying to…
- Not hurt our win now chances this year
- Improve the defense
- Improve the rim protection
- Improve the future of the team
…and I landed on this trade:
MEM Gets: Harrison Barnes
MEM Gives: Kyle Anderson & Ziaire Williams
Why for MEM? Consolidate some of their rotation pieces for a piece who can help them more with their playoff push.
SAC Gets: Kyle Anderson & Ziaire Williams
SAC Gives: Harrison Barnes
Why for SAC? Anderson gives us a stop gap SF/PF this year to keep our win now chances alive. Also get Ziaire to give us another young asset to add to our long term core.
PG - Mitchell / Smith
SG - Fox / Holiday / Lamb / Ramsey / Davis
SF - Anderson / Williams / Woodard
PF - Washington / Harkless / Bagley / Metu
C - Sabonis / Jones / Len
Anderson and Washington are a significant upgrade defensively over Barnes and Bagley and they’re both much better rim protectors to help cover for Sabonis. The passing and playmaking also sees a huge upgrade. All 5 starters would be able to make somewhat complex reads and find the open man. Shooting could be the biggest question mark among this group as we’d be going from Fox-Haliburton-Barnes-Bagley-Holmes to Mitchell-Fox-Anderson-Washington-Sabonis. Washington is shooting 39% from 3, Anderson 35% from 3 (47% from corner 3), Sabonis 32% from 3, and Mitchell has been shooting 35% from 3 since Dec 1st. It’s not going to be elite but the fact that’d we at least have 5 guys that are capable of knocking down 3s may open up the floor a bit more.
Then going into the 2022 off-season, we’d have the following players under contract:
PG - Mitchell
SG - Fox / Davis / Ramsey
SF - Williams / Holiday / Woodard
PF - Washington / Harkless / Metu
C - Sabonis / Len
2022 Picks - SAC 1st / SAC 2nd / CHI 2nd
If we keep our cap sheet clean, this also leaves us about ~$50 mil in cap space during the 2023 off-season with Fox, Sabonis, Washington (cap hold), Mitchell, Williams, Woodard, 2022 SAC 1st, and 2023 SAC 1st. If that bunch of youngsters looks promising, who knows? Maybe we can bring a substantial free agent to boost us even more.
Moving Hield’s salary was an under the radar move that’s not going to get attention from casual fans but it makes our cap sheet extremely clean and flexible for that 2023 off-season while having all of our major assets still locked up.