Gasol is restricted, Chandler may prefer a contender, Dalembert may prefer Miami and take less money to do it, and Nene can practically name his destination. So let's say we can't get any of them. What then?
How about this for a two-pronged approach, all designed at forcing Philly to make hard choices (sorry, Sixers fans, nothing personal):
First, put in a big offer sheet on Thaddeus Young (and assume for the sake of argument he signs it). We know Philly is afraid that somebody is going to go after Young hard, and for good reason. 82games.com lists Young at +6.7 points per 100 possessions (compare LeBron at +9.9...not shabby!) Young also played better as a PF than as a SF, so he would really help round out the front court. Let's say we throw 3 years and $30M at him (go to 4 years if we really feel 3/30 isn't the best offer out there). Philly is going to have to swallow hard here - they've got $55M out there already for 9 players, and one of those is Nocioni. Can they afford to go to $65M for ten players and move up into the tax to resign Hawes?
If Philly lets him go, we bring back Thornton at about $6M and reach the salary floor, bringing in another cheap vet or two to ride the bench, and we get a 9-man rotation that looks about like this:
Backcourt: Evans/Thornton/Salmons/Fredette/ (Greene or Garcia)
Frontcourt: Cousins/Hickson/Young/Thompson
Here I like our backcourt a lot, given that we missed out on the big centers. Young adds youth, athleticism, and a fair amount of defense. Three of the four guys can slot over to C, so we can play any combo we want, but we do suffer in shotblocking. We make up for it by having three big scorers in the frontcourt. The backcourt is about what we've been expecting - and it will hinge on whether Tyreke comes back from the fasciitis, but then again just about everything does anyway, right?
But there's a back-up plan. Let's say that Philly actually matches the Young offer sheet. This puts them in dire financial straits and we've still got lots of money to spend. That's when we turn around and offer Garcia and Greene to Philly for Iguodala. Whoosh! If they accept, we just magically knocked $6M off of their cap hit this year and about $30M in guaranteed money over the life of the contract. (So note that our total increase in salary overall is about the same for either this or Plan A.) Again resign Thornton at about $6M, and now bring in a vet like Chuck Hayes on a one-year deal to bring us up to the minimum salary, about $4M or so, for a 9-man rotation of:
Backcourt: Evans/Thornton/Iguodala/Fredette/Salmons
Frontcourt: Cousins/Hickson/Thompson/ (Hayes or Whiteside)
Obviously there's no upgrade in the frontcourt here, but given that we missed out on the big-name centers, that's to be expected. One of either Hayes or Whiteside should be able to come in and alter a game defensively when we need it. I like the backcourt because we now have two elite perimeter defenders in Iggy and Salmons, and a ton of scoring, especially if Jimmer pans out. Iggy's contract does get a bit ugly as the years go by ($13.5, $14.7, $15.9) but it's nothing we can't handle if we plan right.
Any thoughts?
How about this for a two-pronged approach, all designed at forcing Philly to make hard choices (sorry, Sixers fans, nothing personal):
First, put in a big offer sheet on Thaddeus Young (and assume for the sake of argument he signs it). We know Philly is afraid that somebody is going to go after Young hard, and for good reason. 82games.com lists Young at +6.7 points per 100 possessions (compare LeBron at +9.9...not shabby!) Young also played better as a PF than as a SF, so he would really help round out the front court. Let's say we throw 3 years and $30M at him (go to 4 years if we really feel 3/30 isn't the best offer out there). Philly is going to have to swallow hard here - they've got $55M out there already for 9 players, and one of those is Nocioni. Can they afford to go to $65M for ten players and move up into the tax to resign Hawes?
If Philly lets him go, we bring back Thornton at about $6M and reach the salary floor, bringing in another cheap vet or two to ride the bench, and we get a 9-man rotation that looks about like this:
Backcourt: Evans/Thornton/Salmons/Fredette/ (Greene or Garcia)
Frontcourt: Cousins/Hickson/Young/Thompson
Here I like our backcourt a lot, given that we missed out on the big centers. Young adds youth, athleticism, and a fair amount of defense. Three of the four guys can slot over to C, so we can play any combo we want, but we do suffer in shotblocking. We make up for it by having three big scorers in the frontcourt. The backcourt is about what we've been expecting - and it will hinge on whether Tyreke comes back from the fasciitis, but then again just about everything does anyway, right?
But there's a back-up plan. Let's say that Philly actually matches the Young offer sheet. This puts them in dire financial straits and we've still got lots of money to spend. That's when we turn around and offer Garcia and Greene to Philly for Iguodala. Whoosh! If they accept, we just magically knocked $6M off of their cap hit this year and about $30M in guaranteed money over the life of the contract. (So note that our total increase in salary overall is about the same for either this or Plan A.) Again resign Thornton at about $6M, and now bring in a vet like Chuck Hayes on a one-year deal to bring us up to the minimum salary, about $4M or so, for a 9-man rotation of:
Backcourt: Evans/Thornton/Iguodala/Fredette/Salmons
Frontcourt: Cousins/Hickson/Thompson/ (Hayes or Whiteside)
Obviously there's no upgrade in the frontcourt here, but given that we missed out on the big-name centers, that's to be expected. One of either Hayes or Whiteside should be able to come in and alter a game defensively when we need it. I like the backcourt because we now have two elite perimeter defenders in Iggy and Salmons, and a ton of scoring, especially if Jimmer pans out. Iggy's contract does get a bit ugly as the years go by ($13.5, $14.7, $15.9) but it's nothing we can't handle if we plan right.
Any thoughts?
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