Deadline Madness? (New Orleans, Chicago, Milwaukee, & Boston)

twslam07

twslam07

All-Star
Lately, I've been thinking about ways to bring in talent that fits with Cousins & Rondo because right now, we don't have a lot of it. I have a couple trades I would recommend us executing by the trade deadline as well as another trade I would shoot for in the 2016 offseason. Let's get started.

2015-2016 Trade Deadline
Trade 1
Bulls Get:
Darren Collison
Quincy Acy
2016 1st Round Protection dropped to Top 3

Kings Get:
Nikola Mirotic

We do this trade to avoid the double PG lineups, but we also do this to get a solid stretch 4 who compliments both Cousins and Cauley-Stein very well. The Bulls do this so they can move forward with a Gasol/Gibson/Portis frontcourt next year while getting a very solid & cheap fringe starting PG behind the injury prone Rose.

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Trade 2
Bucks Get:
Marcus Smart
Kosta Koufos
Marco Belinelli

Celtics Get:
Greg Monroe

Kings Get:
David Lee
Jerryd Bayless

We do this to create more cap space next year while still receiving players this year that keep us competitive (mainly Bayless). The Celtics do this trade as they are likely moving forward with Thomas/Bradley/Crowder as the starters for the foreseeable future. Leaving Smart as the odd man out. Instead they get a good center that pairs very nicely with a defensive focused PF (A. Johnson). Thomas/Bradley/Crowder/Johnson/Monroe would be a very solid starting lineup. The Bucks do this trade to bring back a defensive minded center who can protect the paint considering their starting PF's don't help too much in that area (Parker/Giannis). They also get a young guard with a lot of potential. They can have Carter-Williams & Smart battle it out for the starting PG while having a solid defensive lineup (Carter-Williams/Smart, Middleton, Giannis, Parker, & Koufos). Belinelli also gives them a nice option off the bench.

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Kings Roster to Finish Out the Year:
PG - Rondo (37 min)/Bayless (11 min)/Curry
SG - McLemore (25 min)/Bayless (17 min)/Casspi (6 min)/Anderson
SF - Gay (30 min)/Casspi (18 min)/Butler
PF - Cauley-Stein (19 min)/Mirotic (24 min)/Gay (5 min)Lee/Dukan
C - Cousins (37 min)/Cauley-Stein (11 min)/Moreland

Cousins - 37 min
Rondo - 37 min
Gay - 35 min
Cauley-Stein - 30 min
Bayless - 28 min
McLemore - 25 min
Casspi - 24 min
Mirotic - 24 min

2016 Offseason (Trade)
Trade 3
Pelicans Get:
Rudy Gay

Kings Get:
Tyreke Evans

We do this to get an elite sixth man, add a little bit more cap space, and open up a roster spot a SF FA signing. Pelicans do this to solidify their SF position and have a formidable starting lineup (Holiday/Gordon/Gay/Davis/Asik).

2016 Offseason (Free Agency)
As for free agency, we'll have Cousins, Evans, Mirotic, McLemore, Cauley-Stein, Casspi, Anderson, & Curry under contract. I'm assuming Butler will choose to not pick up his player option and leave, and we can waive Moreland & Dukan for some extra cap space. This would leave us with just about $40 mil in cap space. That's $40 mil to resign Rondo & go after another big name. Considering SF would be the only hole we have in the starting lineup, I'd suggest we use the remaining dollars to bring a solid SF aboard. Batum is my first choice, and he would fit perfectly with our current core. He'd be on a very competitive team, have a big role as the second option, play in the best arena in the league 41 times, and receive a massive payday.

I believe I saw somewhere that a max contract will be around $25 mil next year. If we sign Rondo for around $15 mil a year, we still have the ability to offer a max contract. I'm not saying that Batum is necessarily worth a max contract, but I just wanted to overemphasize that we would be able to offer him as much as anyone else.

If we ended up not doing the Gay for Evans trade and if we signed Rondo, we would still have a starting lineup of Rondo/McLemore/Gay/Cauley-Stein/Cousins with Curry/Anderson/Casspi/Mirotic as the bench. However, we'd have around $37 mil in cap to improve upon that lineup. Perhaps we could resign Rondo, sign Bazemore and bring in another solid bench option?

I'd still prefer to go through the whole process and trade Gay for Evans as I think it leaves the team in a better place at the end of the day.

PG - Rondo (37 min)/Evans (11 min)/Curry
SG - McLemore (27 min)/Evans (21 min)/Anderson
SF - Batum (35 min)/Casspi (13 min)
PF - Cauley-Stein (17 min)/Mirotic (24 min)/Casspi (7 min)
C - Cousins (37 min)/Cauley-Stein (11 min)

Cousins - 37 min
Rondo - 37 min
Batum - 37 min
Evans - 32 min
Cauley-Stein - 28 min
McLemore - 27 min
Mirotic - 24 min
Casspi - 20 min
 
I see you put a lot of work into it but you have up quite a bit to get a stretch 4 in Mirotic, and I'm or so sure Bayless is better than Collison. Evans is probably not a good fit with Rondo and hoping we land a Batum or other wanted FA is a risky business for this organization.
 
dude12 said:
I see you put a lot of work into it but you have up quite a bit to get a stretch 4 in Mirotic, and I'm or so sure Bayless is better than Collison. Evans is probably not a good fit with Rondo and hoping we land a Batum or other wanted FA is a risky business for this organization.
Click to expand...
Lightening up the protection on a pick that won't be an early pick isn't much to give up. Collison is a good PG but then again, Mirotic is a good PF who is 24 and on a longer contract.

I'm not so sure Bayless is better either, but his ability to play both PG & SG will be welcomed after seeing the two PG lineup. Bayless, Casspi, & Mirotic as your bench is really not any worse than Collison, Belinelli, Casspi, & Koufos. Especially when our bench players now would compliment our starters (no more two PG lineup, no more Koufos pushing Cousins to PF).

Evans isn't in the starting lineup for a reason. He's there to lead the second unit. Besides, Evans is shooting 39% from three on 3.4 attempts this season. With that shooting, you shouldn't have an issue playing them in the same lineup for stretches.

Batum would be nice to land in FA, but H. Barnes, Bazemore, & Parsons (if he opts out) are also options. Like I mentioned in my post, we don't have to make the third trade. We could possibly holdoff on the trade until after we've started having talks with some of the FAs out there. If Batum is interested in signing, then I would hop all over a Gay for Evans swap and continue as planned. This approach helps us mitigate the risk you speak of.
 
twslam07 said:
Since when are Batum, Evans, & Mirotic not worth a damn?
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but I believe he's referring more to guys like Lee and Bayless. At least that's where you lost me. Those players aren't worth the paper their contracts are printed on.

I'm not so sure what's so special about Mirotic that would necessitate giving up Collison either.
 
KingsFanSince85 said:
I could be wrong, but I believe he's referring more to guys like Lee and Bayless. At least that's where you lost me. Those players aren't worth the paper their contracts are printed on.

I'm not so sure what's so special about Mirotic that would necessitate giving up Collison either.
Click to expand...

Obviously Lee isn't worth his contract, but he is an expiring so it's not going to hurt our cap situation at all. However, what makes you think Bayless isn't worth $3 mil? I'd be really interested to hear your argument here. I don't think he's as good as Collison, but he's close in terms of a bench scoring guard who can shoot the ball and make plays (also a decent defender).

But back to the point, why do these guys matter? A bench of Bayless, Casspi, & Mirotic will continue to keep us competitive this year. We won't have as much depth as we did, but now all of the bench players fit alongside our starters. And then next offseason, we can further build on this team.

As for Mirotic vs. Collison... Mirotic is 4 years younger, under contract for longer, doesn't force us to play 2 small PGs at once, gives us a stretch 4 who has size, rebounding abilty, and scoring ability.
 
I think Monroe doesn't really fit, what the Celtics are trying to do. He is a nice player, but not a good shooter, not a defensive anchor, not good at running the floor and not a strong pick&roll finisher.
I would guess the Celtics will speculate on a Kings (or Clippers) meltdown in the offseason and aim for DMC, who is the complete package, or try to aquire a legitimate defensive anchor like Jordan/Ezeli, who can finish pick&rolls and is a lob threat inside.

But anyway - interesting read and you put in a lot of work.
 
KingsFanGER said:
I think Monroe doesn't really fit, what the Celtics are trying to do. He is a nice player, but not a good shooter, not a defensive anchor, not good at running the floor and not a strong pick&roll finisher.
I would guess the Celtics will speculate on a Kings (or Clippers) meltdown in the offseason and aim for DMC, who is the complete package, or try to aquire a legitimate defensive anchor like Jordan/Ezeli, who can finish pick&rolls and is a lob threat inside.

But anyway - interesting read and you put in a lot of work.
Click to expand...

I could see an argument both ways. Monroe isn't a strong defender, but Boston is one of the best defensive teams with Sullinger & Olynyk as the centers. I don't really see their defense dropping off by swapping out Monroe with Sullinger/Olynyk, but in exchange they get a good, young, offensive center who can score on the block.
 
twslam07 said:
I could see an argument both ways. Monroe isn't a strong defender, but Boston is one of the best defensive teams with Sullinger & Olynyk as the centers. I don't really see their defense dropping off by swapping out Monroe with Sullinger/Olynyk, but in exchange they get a good, young, offensive center who can score on the block.
Click to expand...

Question is, if the Celtics want a post up player. I don't think so.
You rarely see Sully or Kelly on the block and both have some sort of post up game.
 
Just thinking about this a little more...

If we didn't want to trade Gay, but still had a shot at signing Batum with the remaining dollars, we could essentially make Gay our super sixth man. With McLemore, Batum, Gay, Casspi, & now Mirotic taking up the stretch 4 minutes, you really would have quite the log jam on the wing but you could possibly make it work (see below):

PG - Rondo (37 min)/Curry (11 min)
SG - McLemore (24 min)/Batum (24 min)
SF - Batum (10 min)/Gay (21 min)/Casspi (17 min)
PF - Cauley-Stein (15 min)/Mirotic (24 min)/Gay (9 min)
C - Cousins (37 min)/Cauley-Stein (11 min)

Cousins - 37 min
Rondo - 37 min
Batum - 34 min
Gay - 30 min
Cauley-Stein - 26 min
McLemore - 24 min
Mirotic - 24 min
Casspi - 17 min
Curry - 11 min

However, if we could flip McLemore & Casspi to Boston for Bradley, we could really be on to something. I'm not too optimistic Boston would do it, but it would open up some more minutes and possibly a starting job for Smart while also giving them a solid backup SF. Thomas/Bradley/Crowder/Smart/Jerebko vs. Thomas/McLemore/Crowder/Smart/Casspi. Again, not sure they do it, but swapping those 2 players for Bradley would really strengthen the perimeter defense while also freeing up the log jam.

PG - Rondo (37 min)/Curry (11 min)
SG - Bradley (30 min)/Batum (18 min)
SF - Batum (16 min)/Gay (32 min)
PF - Cauley-Stein (21 min)/Mirotic (27 min)
C - Cousins (37 min)/Cauley-Stein (11 min)

Cousins - 37 min
Rondo - 37 min
Batum - 34 min
Gay - 32 min
Cauley-Stein - 32 min
Bradley - 30 min
Mirotic - 27 min
Curry - 11 min

There's not much to hate about that lineup. Great defense in the starting unit with solid 3pt threats in Bradley & Batum. The starting lineup still has a secondary scorer next to Cousins (Batum) as well as a more reliable 3rd option in the starting lineup (Bradley vs. McLemore). Then off the bench you have Gay who would arguably be one of the strongest if not the strongest player to come off the bench in the league and would give us an excellent scorer to anchor the second unit. Then you also have both Mirotic & Curry who are both excellent 3pt shooters who bring much different skillsets than the starters they would be replacing (Rondo & Cauley-Stein).

Give this team to Thibs, and we would be going places.
 
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